A BIG thank you to Lisa for sending this in!
John Stewart: My guest tonight – an actor starring in the third instalment of the mega Lord of the Rings trilogy, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King.
Clip shown of Sam, Frodo and Gollum on the cliffs above the Dead City (secret stairs), when Gollum tries to frame Sam for taking the lembas bread. Ends when Gollum says “He took it!”, and the frame freezes on Frodo looking wide-eyed at Sam.
JS: Somebody took it! (audience laughs) Please welcome Elijah Wood! Come on!
Audience claps and the band plays as Elijah comes out and waves. Jon and Elijah shake hands and embrace.
JS: Good to see you.
Elijah Wood: Good to see you as well.
JS: How are ya?
EW: I’m good. Frodo looks pretty ragged that clip.
JS: Oh, he was hungry, he’s tired, he’s with Chris Katan and uh, the other guy… (Elijah laughs and audience laughs) That’s it. Um, now, you’re coming on actually to promote the movie, and we’re hoping to give it a little bump. I know things have been rough with it… (audience starts laughing)
EW: It needs a little help
JS: A little push.
EW: They put… they put us into second high gear, you know… just go out there and rally the troops… get the people into the theatre…
JS: That’s what I’m hoping to do because I think it’s a little film that really can. I think people should see it. (audience laughs)
EW: It’s like… it’s like the little engine that could.
JS: That’s exactly it.
EW: I think that we believe in it, it’s got a lot of love and heart and soul behind it, so…
JS: I agree. I’m looking forward to the fourth one. (audience laughs)
EW: So am I.
JS: What if they… I guarantee you somewhere in Hollywood, someone’s going to go be going “we gotta find a fourth one”… (audience laughs)
EW: Right.
JS: Get me Tolkien on the phone! (audience laughs). Uh…
EW: Exhume the body! Get it out!
JS: There’s gotta be another manuscript (Elijah laughs). With all this… you’ve accomplished all this… tell me the next thing that you would love to do. Is…to be acting, to be anything… what’s the thing you’d love to do the most?
EW: Uh… start a record label.
JS: Seriously?
EW: Yeah, (laughing) I really wanna start a record label. (audience laughs). I’m…
JS: Can I tell you what’s so weird about that?
EW: What?
JS: I happen to play French Horn (audience laughs).
EW: We could… we could release…
JS: You could produce my…
EW: There you go.
JS: Uh, would you… you mean you want to go to clubs and sign bands and that sort of thing or…
EW: Yeah. I mean, I’m a huge, huge music fan and I’ve always wanted to do something in music, but I never wanted to be in a band because I love music too much to mess it up, so… (he laughs, audience and Jon laugh) I thought, you know, I’ll start a label and support acts that I care about and try and get them exposed…
JS: Now, what kind of music do you think you would uh… like what’s the type of music that you enjoy?
EW: It would be pretty varied. My taste is all over the place, so rock, and jazz, and pop…
JS: I enjoy the uh… [not sure of what Jon said here – Mrs. Roxy?] (audience laughs)
EW:I grew… I grew up with rapping…
JS: He taught me to spell. (audience laughs)
EW: Did he? I… he taught me to spell.
JS: You… so you go to clubs and…. do you have somebody in mind right now that you like? Is uh… I don’t want to put you on the spot in terms of a band, but is there… is there someone out there that you’re thinking…
EW: There’s a couple of things… there’s a few things that I’ve got my eye on. Nothing I can really say…
JS: You can’t tell us because then other people dive in there… it’s the whole business.
EW: Well, it’s not necessarily the business… I just don’t know if he would appreciate me mentioning…
JS: Can I say this?…
EW: Yeah?
JS: Keep your eye on this Led Zepplin… I think they’re going places (audience laughs)
EW: You think? I think there’s a bidding war at the moment though…
JS: You think?
EW: Yeah. I don’t….
JS: Is that a dirty business… is that the kind of business you think you could… you could get involved in… I hear everything about the music business, as much as entertainment, is dirty..
EW: It’s worse… the music industry.
JS: The music industry is worse… that’s what I’m suggesting.
EW: Yeah, but I would… I would do it on my own time and not get involved in the politics.
JS: Or, the other way to do it is become a vicious [word beeped out!] (audience laughs)
EW: Well there you go.
JS: Either do it on your…
EW: I have yet to learn those skills, so… (Jon laughs) Exactly!
JS: Why not? That’s my point.
EW: Exactly. Twenty…. I’m about to be 23 and now’s the time.
JS: You’re only going to be… that’s crazy.
EW: Yeah, generally….
JS: You really should get moving. You need to start accomplishing things. Because clearly… (Elijah laughs and audience laughs). When I was 23, uh… I believe I was found laundering naked with my ass cheeks taped together. (audience and Elijah laugh, audience whoops a bit). And that was, if I may say so… one of my better days. (Elijah laughs). Do you have another, uh, movie plan? I mean, this thing went for so long in terms of filming…
EW: Four years…
JS: Do you get back to New Zealand at all?
EW: I do. I do. I’ve been back this year… and last year
JS: A pretty place?
EW: Amazing. Such an amazing place. I mean it…
JS: How many people you’d say are in New Zealand?
EW: Uh… I think it’s… [unsure] three million… in all?
JS: Let me ask you this…
EW: The population’s pretty small.
JS: What are their names? (audience laughs) Is it a place… is there a huge tourist industry? I imagine, there’s… there’s films…
EW: There’s a lot of duncans [not sure of this word] out there, for some reason.
JS: Big on the duncans?
EW: Duncans.
JS: What would be the… the livestock, the animal life.. is there yaks, cattle, what…
EW: Sheep.
JS: Really?
EW: In fact, there are I think 30 or 40 sheep per every New Zealander.
JS: I’m glad they were able to look because I know class size is important for them. (audience laughs)
EW: (laughing) Right.
JS: I don’t even know what the means (Elijah laughs). Uh… do you spend… is it… are the seasons the same as ours, is it….
EW: They’re the same, they’re in reverse, so… it’s in the southern hemisphere, so it would be summer now.
JS: Right, I knew that. (audience laughs)
EW: It’s warm there, yeah… and the water, when you flush the toilets… the water spins in the opposite direction.
JS: Really?
EW: Yeah, and people love that about it.
JS: And this is true… in comedy movies, when you flush the water, it comes up right in your face. (audience laughs)
EW: It does, it does… and you get little… (imitates getting sprayed in the face)
JS: Right, and you do this (imitates getting sprayed)..
EW: Yeah…
JS: And then you turn and look at the camera and go… (simultaneously, Elijah and Jon go “woo!”, putting both hands up and making a goofy face toward the audience) (audience laughs).
EW: Yeah.
JS: Uh, well, I’m so pleased. You’re… you’re one of the nicest people in the business that I’ve known,
EW: Thank you.
JS: and truly a talented guy, I’m just so pleased that everything’s working out for you so well.
EW: Thank you so much.
JS: Good luck with the record label. When you want to hear some real French Horn, you come and let me know.
EW: You know it!
JS: I’ll lay down some beats, that we….
EW: Some fat beats.
JS: Thank you very much.
EW: Rockin’….
JS: Lord of the Rings, Return of the King, in theatres now! Go see it! Elijah Wood! (audience cheers as Elijah shakes hands with Jon)
