Elijah Wood

The Evening Bulletin
Page 14
Friday, 30 September, 2005
CULTURE
Q&A
Illuminating Fans And Followers
Elijah Wood Seeks To Change Filmgoers’ Perceptions Of Him In The Wake Of ‘Lord Of The Rings’
By JOHN CARROLL
THE EVENING BULLETIN
Philadelphia — Film fans
became accustomed to Elijah
Wood’s annual visits to theaters
as Frodo in the Lord of the Rings
trilogy. Wood, however, has capitalized on the success of Rings by
taking on riskier, edgier projects
that he wasn’t being pitched
before donning his furry hobbit
feet.
This weekend, another one of
these projects comes to theaters
as Wood plays Jonathan Safran
Foer in Everything Is Illuminated.
The film was adpated from
Jonathan Safran Foer’s novel of
the same name by actor Liev
Schrieber, who also made his
directorial debut on the film.
Wood made his first trip to
Philadelphia as a part of the film’s
promotional tour, sitting outside
the Four Seasons with The
Evening Bulletin.
Had you read the book
before receiving the script?
No. I read the screenplay, fell
in love with that. Met with Liev.
Sat with him for two hours as he
described the story he wanted to
tell and how he wanted to tell
it…I’m a huge fan of his as an
actor, and as a person.
Did you to have a different
director-actor
relationship
given that you’re both actors?
I think that to a certain degree
the comfort level of our meeting
was defined by the fact that we
were two actors sitting and talking. There was a connection that
we could share since we came
from a similar world.
Was the project more exciting because it was Liev’s directorial debut?
It was. And at the same time,
as much as I could relate to him as
an actor, I still always saw him as
the one in charge and recognized
that he was the director and I had
a responsibility to fulfill his
vision. So as much as it created a
sense of excitement, there was
also a sense of “I have a role to fill
and he’s the person at the helm of
that.”
Have you read the book yet?
I haven’t read it yet, I didn’t
read it while we were making it,
mainly because I knew how different it was. I just wanted to go
with Liev’s vision as much as possible.
One of the interesting parts
of the book is that the collector
character who travels to
Ukraine is named after the
author, Jonathan Safran Foer,
but isn’t truly based on
Jonathan. Was that difficult for
you, to play someone who’s teetering on the line between fiction and autobiography?
I never saw it as being autobiographical. In fact, I didn’t
actually meet Jonathan until we
had been filming for about a
month and a half. The character
was very much conceived in the
early stages in conversations
with Liev and an interpretation
based on what Liev had written
in the context of the script. I
never really felt it necessary to
contact Jonathan because I saw
the character I was playing as
very fictional…and largely
because that was Liev’s perspec-
Elijah Wood stars as Jonathan Safran Foer, a collector who trav- The Pennsylvania Ballet opened its 42nd season with a Swan Lake-themed gala at the Academy of
els to the Ukraine in search of a woman who saved his grandfa- Music and the Park Hyatt at the Bellevue last night.
ther’s life, in Liev Schreiber’s Everything Is Illuminated.
tive as well.
What initially appealed to
you about the character of
Jonathan?
I think the thing I connected
to most is his sense of wanting to
connect to memories and the
idea that he is a collector. I am a
collector — not on the level that
Jonathan is by any means, but I’m
a bit of a pack rat. I’ve always
horded things and connected
sentimental values. I really
understood that part of the character. That’s a huge part of who I
am. Everything else was relatively different from who I am. I’m
not nearly as introverted, not
nearly as awkward or neurotic.
And those are the things I like
about the character the most,
because they’re so different.
Eugene Hutz gives an
incredible debut performance
in this film, but he came into it
without any roles to his name.
Was that worrisome?
I had heard from Liev before I
met Eugene that he had cast this
guy and he said, “This guy is
amazing and he is the character.
It’s going to be relatively challenging because he’s never been
in a film before.” I think it was
important for Liev to cast people
who were authentic in their roles.
In most of these scenes,
you’re speaking only English
while many other characters
speak Russian. Is that a difficult situation for an actor?
As an actor you’re always looking for the next line in order to
cue you in to your next line. A lot
of these scenes had to be wellchoreographed and rehearsed for
the rhythms. A lot of these scenes
are comedy based, especially the
early scenes, and so there is a
rhythm to these scenes. So we
had to sit down and figure that
out. That was a relatively intricate process. It was very interesting to work with another language. It added such a color to
the experience.
You’ve really been mixing it
up after Lord of the Rings,
appearing in films like Sin City
and Eternal Sunshine of the
Spotless Mind. Is this a calculated move on your part?
I think so. As an actor, I want
to continue to establish myself, to
continue to challenge myself, to
try to be as versatile as possible,to
change the perception of who I
am, and to continue to grow.
Putting myself into roles and
films that are very different help
me to do that. I’m very much
attracted to different kinds of
movies, it’s a very organic
process.
Has Lord of the Rings made it
easier for you to take chances?
It certainly opened up opportunities that I wouldn’t have had
before, just simply for the fact that
it made me more familiar to people than they would have been
before. I think that Lord of the
Rings to a certain degree has continued that theme of innocence
because the character is relatively
innocent, even though as I saw it
the character became quite dark, I
think the larger perception is that
he’s very innocent. So it hasn’t
necessarily propelled me into a
new phase right away, but it’s
helped to pave the road, definitely.
You mentioned that you
wanted to change the perception that people have of you.
What do you think that perception is?
I think I’m perceived as
younger than I am and maybe
more innocent than I am. I’m
24-years-old, but I do look
younger than I am. When I reference perception, it’s in reference
to that. I’m still trying to move
into more adult roles, into roles
that people may not anticipate
me being a part of. You’re always
looking for someone to take a
chance on you to make those
leaps.
How much will you have to
prepare for that role?
It’s going to be a lot of preparation, probably more than I’ve
ever had in my life. Physically,
I’m going to have to redefine my
body. Learn how to play drums,
learn how to play guitar.
Movement training to be as
agile and to move like he moves.
I imagine there would be a lot of
vocal training as well. His voice
is a lot deeper than mine and his
singing voice is very distinct.
Are you a big fan? Is that a
daunting task, to play someone
you admire?
It’s something I’m excited
about. It’s something I’m very
scared about. Being a huge fan of
somebody and then being asked
to portray them, especially someone iconic as he is, is a difficult
task.
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DANCE
Dancing The Night Away
Pennsylvania Ballet Rings In New Season With Elegant Gala
By JULIA YUE ZHOU
THE EVENING BULLETIN
Philadelphia
— The
Pennsylvania Ballet's swan has
landed back in Philadelphia. Last
night, a Swan Lake-themed gala
celebrated the opening of the
Pennsylvania Ballet's 42nd season.
The evening began at the
Academy of Music, where guests
were teased with Acts I and II of
Christopher Wheeldon's Swan
Lake, a new version of the old
classic which premiered in June
2004. Tonight at 8 p.m., the
opening performance of the season will showcase all four acts,
including, as Kathy Anderson,
chair of the Pennsylvania Ballet's
Board of Trustees, told her gala
patrons, an ending that's “different from anything you can imagine.”
JULIA YUE ZHOU/The Evening Bulletin
Felecia Weiss, chair of the Gala Committee, and Howard
Silverman dance together on the ballroom floor of the Park Hyatt
at the Bellevue.
and of those, 60 were members Otherwise, the evening would
of the Young Friends group. New have been $300.
this year, the Pennsylvania Ballet
offered a Young Friends ticket to
“Arts should be open to
everyone. It is imperative that it be open to
everyone.”
Charles Keats
Young Friends Committee
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JULIA YUE ZHOU/The Evening Bulletin
Christine Cox, a dancer with the Pennsylvania Ballet, and Dito
van Reigersberg show off their moves on the ballroom floor of
the Park Hyatt at the Bellevue.
This Swan Lake is set in the
19-century Paris Opera Ballet of
Edgar Degas's paintings. It
toured to the Edinburgh
International
Festival
in
Scotland this August as the
Pennsylvania Ballet's international debut, and according to
Anderson, sold more tickets
than any other dance performance in the history of the
Edinburgh
International
Festival. Swan Lake will play at
the Academy of Music until
October 8th.
After the performance, guests
crossed the street to the Park
Hyatt at the Bellevue for cocktails, dinner, and dancing to the
Eddie Bruce Orchestra. The
evening's cast also joined the
party, and guests had the opportunity to meet and mingle with
artists.
Three hundred and sixty people were in attendance, according to Charles Keates, Young
Friends Committee co-chair,
the gala for those under age 35 at
a reduced price of $125.
“Arts should be open to everyone. It is imperative that it be
open to everyone,” said Keates. A
lifelong attendee of the ballet
and only a year past the age
bracket himself at 36, Keates had
the idea offering a Young Friends
ticket to the Gala as a way of
bringing his peers — or those
even younger — into the arts.
Gregory Montanaro, cochair of the Young Friends
group, noted that several other
arts
organizations
in
Philadelphia are also making
efforts to create a new generation
of patrons. “Thirty percent of
JULIA YUE ZHOU/The Evening Bulletin
An ice sculpture of a swan overlooks the ballroom floor at the
Swan Lake-themed gala at the Academy of Music and the Park
Hyatt at the Bellevue last night.
Philadelphia is under 30,” he
said, as opposed to a mere 10%
of the surrounding suburbs. The
Opera Company of Philadelphia
and The Museum of Art are two
examples of other cultural venues with their own Young
Friends groups. In addition, the
Ballet is also offering a
“Thursday Night Jumps!” series
at World Cafe Live, specially
geared towards those ages 21-35.
The Pennsylvania Ballet
Season Gala was chaired by
Felecia and Jeffrey Weiss of
Villanova, and co-chaired by
Karen and Carl Buchholz of
Flourtown.
This
year's
Philadelphia season includes
Swan Lake through Oct. 8, The
JULIA YUE ZHOU/The Evening Bulletin Nutcracker Dec. 2-31, Western
From left to right: Gregory P. Montanaro, co-chair of the Young Symphony Feb. 1-5, The Firebird
Friends Committee, André Vytlptoc, a dancer with the Ballet, March 3-11, A Midsummer Night's
Megan Dickinson, a dancer with the ballet, and Charles P. Dream April 13-23, and 11:11 June
7-11.
Keates, Esq., co-chair of the Young Friends Committee.