In the excellent sequel Ready or Not 2: Here I Come (March 20), the original film’s horror-comedy world gets a major expansion — including Elijah Wood‘s arrival as the Lawyer, who oversees a blood-soaked game among the world’s most powerful families. Wood sat down at the Rolling Stone Studio, live at SXSW, to discuss the film, his long career, and — in his most detailed comments yet on the subject — his “potential” (but seemingly likely) return as Frodo in The Hunt for Gollum, Andy Serkis‘ upcoming Lord of the Rings prequel. Wood made it clear that Frodo’s (potential) role would be small, reflected on the idea of CGI turning him back into his teenage self, and elaborated on why he wouldn’t want anyone else to play the character as long as he’s alive and able.
The Lawyer (whose client is, more or less, Satan) is only the latest in a long series of the very un-Frodo roles Wood has taken on, from a serial killer in Sin City to a conspiracy-obsessed oddball on Yellowjackets. “As an actor, you’re always looking to move on from the last thing you did,” he says. “To continue to explore and find new colors and new creative outputs.”
Were you a fan of Ready or Not before?
Very much, yeah. I saw it in the cinema, loved it. Was very surprised by it. The tone of it is such a fun balance of a horror film with sort of action elements. It’s very funny as well. It’s also like a real kind of game that you’re engaged in watching. And it feels like a real ride. So I just loved it. I thought Samara Weaving was a total revelation. She’s incredible in the film. So yeah, just a genuine fan of that first film.
Did you share the question that a lot of fans of that movie had when they heard there’s a sequel, which is, like, how the hell do you make a sequel to that?
I have come to know [directors] Matt [Bettinelli-Olpin] and Tyler [Gillett], who made the first film and have made so many incredible films. They sent me the script with an email that set the stage for what the expectation would be and this character of the Lawyer. I was immediately interested, then read the script and was delighted by it. So I didn’t have any sort of skepticism. I was just instantly really excited.
There’s a lot of integrity with those dudes. Everything they do, it feels like they do because they really believe in the material. I don’t feel like they would ever make something just to cash in. And clearly it’s been, what, six years or whatever since the first film, so this was never going to be a cash-in sort of thing. The script does the thing you want a sequel to do, which is it deepens the narrative of the first film. It expands upon it so the world becomes much bigger. And then also gives you so much of the enjoyment of the game from the first film in a new context and with new characters.
The movie also does something that very few sequels do, which is it starts where the first one ended.
Yeah! The opening footage is a blend of the first movie. And there’s a seamless transition on camera where there’s no cuts into new footage, which is so awesome. So it literally starts with footage from the first movie.
How many movies even do that? One is Back to the Future Part II, which you’re in.
That’s true. I just showed my son that film. He’d never seen any of the Back to the Future films. He’s six.
Did he catch you in there?
It’s funny, he knew I was in the film. And I think he even knew what to expect contextually, that I was in the Cafe Eighties, that I was a kid trying to work a video game. So the stage was set, but then the scene played, and I expected him to point at me, and he didn’t. I paused it and I was like, “Did you recognize that dude?” And he’s like, “Oh, yeah, it’s you.” I don’t think he would’ve recognized me. He was just invested in the storytelling.
I saw somewhere that you actually have no memory of that movie. Is that true?
No, I definitely remember it. It’s spotty. I don’t think I remember being directed by [Robert] Zemeckis. I remember Michael J. Fox, definitely. I remember the town square of Hill Valley and the clock tower and it all being dressed for the future. That was a thrill, because seeing that kind of set design and production design, especially for the future, for a kid of eight years old, was just such a thrill. I remembered the first movie, so I remember being able to look at it and go, “Oh, this is that, but dressed for the future.” I have quite vivid memories, actually, of working on it.
Weird preparation for your life as it turns out, just being part of these iconic things.
Just pure luck. That was the first feature film I was ever in.
In this movie, you play the Lawyer and you are literally the devil’s advocate.
Yeah, that’s right.
Shout-out to Keanu Reeves.
Yeah, indeed. That was a great movie, by the way. Iconic.
But this is such a fanciful part. And mysterious.
Very mysterious. Not much is known about who the Lawyer is and potentially how long he’s been around.
Yeah, I got immortal vibes.
Yeah. Matt and Tyler reminded me that David Cronenberg’s character Chester Danforth — by the way, incredible to get a chance to work with David Cronenberg as an actor in this; absolute thrill — he says, “It’s been a long time since I’ve seen you,” which is the only nugget of information we get about the Lawyer from the past. And it’s not much to go on beyond, how long could that be? Quite a long time. And he is a relatively young guy, right? So yeah. Is he immortal? This is something that we talked about a lot.
How do you prep for that kind of role?
[Laughs.] There isn’t a whole lot of prep. The character’s a relatively blank surface in the sense that we don’t know a lot about him. There isn’t a backstory, there isn’t information. So it’s the interpretation of the words and the script and the context, and how he’s meant to be in front of these people. There’s a sense that they all know who he is, have probably all met him many times before, so it’s not a new person. I think [it’s about] just finding a balance of the gravity of what he’s articulating and the fun of it, too. ’Cause it is fun, the game and the rules, and finding a way to make that not feel like just exposition.
There’s a lot of you reading the rulebook. It does rely on your charm and ability to make it not dull, because you are basically Basil Exposition.
A little bit of that, yeah. But I was really stoked about that opportunity, ’cause I thought it was fun. I liked the challenge of it, and finding ways to see glimpses of his personality and the joy that he’s taking in some of the events that are taking place. So you do get moments where there’s a little glee behind his eyes. ’Cause the same stakes don’t necessarily apply to him that apply to everybody else.
Elijah Wood at the Rolling Stone Studio at SXSW.
Pooneh Ghana for Rolling Stone
It was a bit of a return to a movie with a bunch of effects, which you haven’t done in a while.
Effects-wise, there’s a lot of SFX. There’s not a ton of VFX. A ton of practical blood — 325 gallons of blood were used in this film.
The blood was not computer generated?
Not computer-generated blood in the film, no. It’s fantastic. I mean, certainly as a horror fan and as a fan of the first film, that device of these bodies exploding…
Were you thinking of a particular Hollywood lawyer?
[Laughs.] No, not based on anyone in particular.
You were also just in I Love LA, playing “Elijah Wood” as a very disturbing version of yourself.
I don’t know if disturbing, but certainly absurd.
I was slightly disturbed.
He’s just a bit of a germophobe. And women apparently keep getting the wrong idea.
That was the best part.
Yeah.
How did they approach you to play yourself, under your own name, in your supposed house, as a total weirdo?
[Creator] Rachel [Sennott] reached out to me. The ask was just, “We would love to have a Zoom with Elijah to pitch this idea.” So going into it, I had no idea what the pitch was, but I really love her work as an actress. She’s so great. And I was thrilled at the idea that she was developing something for television and that she would both be in and provide this platform for other actors. So we had a Zoom and she described the show and then pitched the character, and it sounded really funny, but I was really honest with her. I said, “In the few times people have brought me projects where there’s an opportunity to play myself, I’ve always been against it. It’s always made me really uncomfortable. And it has happened a couple of times. But I really wanna read it, ’cause this sounds great.” Then she sent me the pages and they were just undeniably funny and so alternate-reality-me that it felt like it wasn’t me.
And no one would think that it’s really you.
Exactly. And I loved that. And the scenes are hilarious. It was also just really fun to get to work with her and play in something that is so absurd and so funny. I really love comedy. So all of it was just a real gift to be asked.
What were the other projects where you were approached to play yourself?
I don’t remember now what they were. But it was like, it adhered too close. Or it was like a whole film where I’m playing myself.
Someone pitched you a whole film where you played yourself?
Yeah. But there’s only certain people I think that can really do that, like Nic Cage in the film where he plays himself. That’s so perfect. You know what I mean? Nic can do that in such a beautiful way, but I’m not — it makes me way too uncomfortable.
You’ve done a lot in the past 25 years or so. A lot of times you’ve leaned into finding some creepy side of yourself, some kind of darkness. It seems so contrary to your actual personality, but it is something you’re very good at. Where do you think that comes from? Even Yellowjackets, your character is…
Certainly a weirdo, and it started to skew dark at the end of the first season and a little bit in the second. There’s something untrustworthy about Walter. Perhaps. But the opportunity there was like, come play this weirdo that’s a counterpart to Misty. And the chance to work with Christina [Ricci] was such an incredible ask, and on that show with such an extraordinary cast that I love as a fan. Getting a chance to come and play a weirdo is really fun.
I think that’s what it is.
Yeah. I like characters that are very different from myself. I think most actors would say the same. It’s joyful to put yourself into a character that is unique and different and has elements that are not like yourself that you can explore. Those tend to be the more interesting, fun opportunities. But that can be many colors. It doesn’t have to be dark, specifically.
Someone asked you if all this has been like trying to get away from Frodo, and you said absolutely not.
We’re 25 years down the road. Certainly after Lord of the Rings, I remember feeling that I just wanted to work on something really small. I had been in New Zealand for the better part of 16 months working on one thing that was three films, that was exhausting and a lot and incredible. But I really wanted to pare it all down to its simplest form. And then, certainly playing Kevin in Sin City, I recognized that was a subversive move. Despite the fact that that wasn’t the intent, but I could recognize culturally that was a subversive idea. But not a whole lot of effort was necessarily put towards distancing myself. If anything, as an actor, you’re always looking to move on from the last thing you did. To continue to explore and find new colors and new creative outputs. That is inherently part of the endeavor.
Someone on Reddit had a theory about why you don’t age, and the theory was you kept the ring. But the thing is you did keep the ring.
[Laughs.] I do have the ring. That is technically true. Yeah.
But that’s not your explanation.
That’s not my explanation. No.
Just good skincare.
I guess so. Or just genes. I don’t know.
Where is the ring now?
The ring is in a pouch, in a box, in another box. It’s a Russian doll.
I don’t know if one can partially let a cat out of the bag, but it’s like you peeked the cat’s head out of the bag…
Technically Ian McKellen did.
Yes.
You’re referring to The Hunt for Gollum.
You are apparently returning to this part.
Potentially, yeah.
Potentially returning to this part.
Yeah.
You said that as long as you’re alive and well, you wouldn’t want anyone else to play it.
It’s funny, there’s more nuance, I think, to that answer or to that quote. ’Cause that quote really did the rounds. Obviously, we’re all getting older, right? And there’s a point in time in which [playing the role] just won’t make sense anymore.
Current Harrison Ford managed to play 30-year-old Indy.
Totally. Again, I think insofar as that makes sense for the actors who created these characters to continue to play them, that would be amazing. Like I said, if I’m alive and able and it contextually makes sense — again, all aging aside or including the notion of aging — then absolutely. But I also know that these are beloved characters that probably will be explored past our time, and they should be.
It’s been said that they’re gonna use digital makeup on that movie.
They will. And that’s being employed a lot these days.
Imagine seeing yourself recreated as an 18- or 19-year-old.
Yeah. I have gone back once — I came back to play a tiny bit of Frodo in The Hobbit, which was 10 years later. And there was probably some softening that was happening there. I’d lost all of my teenage baby fat. So I’ve experienced a little bit of it already. Now, we’re in a new paradigm where that kind of technology is being used in really interesting ways to establish the ability to go back and revisit characters that we’ve not seen for a very long time, which is interesting.
Do you have big emotions about potentially returning to this character? Harrison Ford put on the Han outfit again and stood in the Millennium Falcon.
That had to have been — we’re talking about one of the most iconic characters in cinema. That’s a different thing. Putting on the fedora and grabbing the whip — like, Jesus, that had to feel crazy.
It felt crazy for us watching it. For him, he said, “Eh, it’s another day.” But for you, how much emotion is gonna be there, especially getting back with Ian and all that?
If there’s any part to play in that, I think it’ll be very small.
Oh, really? That’s notable. So it wouldn’t be like one of the leads?
No. Nope. Definitely not.
I think people should probably know that.
Yeah, I think so. I’m not really at liberty to say much of anything.
But it’s not like you’d be running around dominating the movie.
I don’t think so.
Good to know.
The movie is about Gollum.
Yes. And he looks great still.
Andy?
No, Gollum.
Oh yeah, Gollum. Gollum’s ageless.
Yeah. He works out. He looks good.
Of course.
But yeah, Andy coming on as director is perfect. He’s such a great guy.
He’s one of the greatest. It’s beautiful that he gets to direct that film. He really is the architect of that character in so many ways. And a pioneer in regard to motion capture or performance capture. For him to be at the helm of that story is just such a lovely thing. It’s a real getting-the-band-back-together, creatively. So many of the creative team of Lord of the Rings are involved in the making of this film. From the production design to makeup to physical effects. Obviously all of the Weta effects will be handling that as well. So it’ll be amazing to return to Wellington and all these folks coming back together again. It’s beautiful.
Insane.
Yeah, it is insane. It’s pretty wild after all this time.
You have an Elvish tattoo on your pelvic bone, and Ian [Mckellen] said that he held your hand while you got it.
He did. Yeah, that’s right. We all got it at the same time.
That’s a real sign of how you can never really escape this. Every day it’s there. Take a shower, you got Elvish there.
Absolutely. And wouldn’t want to. I think we all knew when we got that tattoo that this was signifying a really incredible moment in our lives, this adventure that we’d all just been on. And this is before the movies came out. We got that tattoo right before the end of principal photography. So really, that for us was about marking the experience. And then the movies came out and became what they became. But that tattoo is about our experience as a fellowship of people working together and the friendships that we forged. So incredibly special to us, that time. And then the way that [the films have] connected with people and continue to connect with people is really lovely.
In your 2002 Rolling Stone story, you were thinking about getting another tattoo of Frodo’s wound. Did you ever get it?
I did not. Definitely thought about it, though. The stab from the Morgul blade, which never technically heals — it’s with Frodo for the rest of his life. So I thought that would be an amazing thing.
Not too late.
It isn’t too late. You’re right.
And finally, you’re a huge record collector. What are your biggest prizes in your collection?
A big one is a promo-only copy of Prince’s The Black Album that’s actually a white sleeve.
That’s super rare.
Yeah. Warner Bros. pressed the record. They did promo copies of the record. So I have one where the sleeve is white and the record is peach. And it’s really awesome. And I’m a huge fan of Prince, but that record is a favorite of mine.
