Brian Miller writes: “Frodo, your mother and I are very concerned about your smoking.” Elijah Wood looks so young, cigarette dangling from his mouth during a recent Seattle visit, that I had to restrain myself from tossing the pack out the window. Our favorite hobbit was here to discuss Everything Is Illuminated, which was actually shot in the Czech Republic, not Ukraine, where Jonathan Safran Foer’s source novel is set. So did Wood view the land with the same fresh eyes as Foer, his tourist character? “Very fresh. I’d never been to Eastern Europe. [Prague] is a city that’s in flux. You’ve got these people from the old Communist regime that almost wish that it was still there, and you’ve got the young people that are glad it’s gone. There’s this interesting, strange identity issue at play. For me, that was the most fascinating element of being there.” [More]