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DISCLAIMER: This transcript is provided on an "as is" best efforts basis and is based on a MiniDisc recording made where speech was not always legible because of noise in the room and placement of the microphone at the back of a large room. Any errors made in transcribing what was actually said are mine, and not those of the speakers quoted, and may include spelling mistakes, incorrect names and other minor typo's. Readers should also bear in mind that statements read in cold print can often convey a completely different meaning from that intended by the speaker and perceived by the original audience. WARNING: CONTAINS STRONG LANGUAGE!
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Question: My question is for Elijah. I hear that you like to read. Reading is one of your hobbies? Elijah Woood: I do like to read, yes! Question: What I want to ask is, because you read, do you ever write? Elijah: I used to. I used to write sort of short stories and creative writing. I was better at writing essays than writing original ideas and fiction. But I haven't written in so long. And I think I get out in my writing style in my emails and things. But I haven't actually sat down to write something in a while. I should! It's something I've been meaning to do, but I'm too afraid that I'll be bad and it's just going to suck. I know I should. Question: I'm from Colorado. (FX: indecipherable. Sean replies about it not sounding like that if you were from there?!)) If you could play another character in Lord of the Rings, who would it be? Elijah: Yeah! I'd probably say... Gollum was one of my favourite characters, especially way back from 'The Hobbit', so I probably would have chosen Gollum.
Question: I'm from (indecipherable)... Sean: Is there anybody from England in this audience? Just checking! Question: Elijah, what do you like to read? Elijah: What do I like to read? Oh... here it goes!! Anything! There's not any specific genre that I'm totally into. One of my favourite books in the last like five years is this book called 'House of Leaves'. Has anyone here heard of that? It's a book by Mark Danielewski. It's this intense like thousand page opus that I freaked out over. But there is no specific genre. I... yeah, character studies, small little ... Sean: (FX: pointing to audience member) She really wants to ask you a question. Question: I'm from Biggleswade. You won't know that. It's off the A1. Is it alright if I ask three questions? First of all, how are you? Elijah: I'm well, thanks. A little tired! Question: Second question is Sean, are you wearing a scarf? It's not that cold. It might be England, but.... Sean: I was in like Evanston, Baltimore a couple of days ago. I was freezing! And also my baby gave me a cold , my (FX: reacts to sympathetic noises from audience) yeah, it was worth it! Question: Elijah, these two films are two of my most films favourite ever. But which of these is your favourite: 'North' or 'The Adventures of Huck Finn'? Elijah: Between the two? I'd have to say 'North'. Because I like... I think the story's brilliant. I don't know if it's the best movie, but I love the story. Question: Was it Bruce Willis in the bunny outfit? Elijah: Probably. Yeah, I'd have to say... I love that movie. It's a great story. Very sweet! Sean: There's someone in the very top row... Question: I'm from Wellington, New Zealand... Elijah: Where in Wellington do you live? Question: Out by Johnsonville. Going home at Christmas. Elijah: What are your favourite restaurants in town? Do you ever go to Fidel's, Dixon's? Question: No. I think you guys went to all of them. What was your favourite location in New Zealand? Sean: Yes! Elijah: I'd have to say, probably Queenstown. It's so beautiful in the South Island. South Island's my favourit out of all the places we went to as a whole, the South Island's my favourite. But I'd say Queenstown specifically because it was some of the most beautiful pieces of location that we ever filmed at and we spent quite a lot of time down there. It's stunning. Sean: I think it's an impossible question to be honest about answering because... Elijah: …and also Milford Sound as well... Sean: Yeah, except that dark tunnel! Elijah: Ah! The dark tunnel was brilliant! Sean: I know it was scary! We took helicopters to the top of this one mountain range, near Nelson I think. It was the Dimril Dale I think that we filmed it. Was that it? Question: Yes Elijah: That would be right, Sean. After Gandalf...If all else fails, ask the fans! Sean: Yeah. That was pretty. To think that... I don't think very many human beings had ever really been anywhere near where we were, so it was pretty special to be to have a kind of 360 degree panoramic view of these mountain ranges. It was beautiful. Elijah: : You never flew up to that snowy mountain top did you? Where we had to film that thing where The Ring fell to the ground and Sean Bean picked it up. Sean: We all were on a kind of plateau there. But you guys went up even higher. Elijah: Yeah. That was fucking unbelievable! We would occasionally film on tops of mountains and then we would have to take helicopters up to these mountain tops, which was just incredibly beautiful and I'd never been in a helicopter before this. So it was amazing. But there was that one specific place where we had to actually climb above the clouds on this snowy mountain-top and it was just stunning. So beautiful. And that was the... you know... a day for us. Question: I was just wondering (indecipherable - out of the four hobbits?) ... who is the least talented? Sean: Me! FX: Audience protesting 'No' Sean: That's what I said, right before we walked out here. We were walking through the catacombs of the ..of city life, right? And we're thinking, this is the walk of kind of rock stars and presidents. I looked at Elijah and Dom and just said, 'You know if we had any talent, hey just imagine what we could accomplish! Imagine how fun it would be if we could just walk out and actually sing something!' Billy is clearly the most talented. There's a woman here, right here, what were you going to ask? Yeah, you look stunning. FX: display of costume Sean: Are you Legolas? Question: I want to ask Elijah a question... When I first saw Fellowship of The Ring , I hadn't seen any of your other movies. And I actually thought you were English! Elijah: (gasps) I convinced you? Wow! Question: (indecipherable) What I have noticed is that your voice, as Frodo, is a lot lower than your normal one. Is that deliberate or did that just come with the training? Elijah: Um, it's actually deliberate. It was quite deliberate. We would go back and re-record a lot of the dialogue in ADR because we shot the movie with a guide track. So we knew that we'd have to go back and re-record everything. So, in that process ermm... we actually, you know... we intentionally, made the voice a little bit lower. It gives him just a little bit more of a wiser resonance, which is important. Thanks. That's wicked! Question: Hi I'm Suzie. This one is for Elijah. (indecipherable chatter). We know you showed your Fellowship tattoo on the Jay Leno show... Elijah: You want to see it now? FX: Audience scream out 'Yes'. Elijah spends several minutes pulling his t-short up to show his tattoo to different parts of the room. Everyone except your idiot transcriber ignores the 'You will be thrown out if you take flash photo's after the first five minutes' rule and takes pictures as flash and shrieking mayhem ensues. Sean: That's where he had his appendix out. That's the scar. Just a few weeks ago. Question: I just recently (indecipherable) and was blown away... If there was one Hollywood director, or I guess worldwide director, who you could work with.. Who would it be, and why? Elijah: Mr Astin? Sean: : I've been rattling off a list lately. You know, sort of Martin Scorsese, Francis Ford Coppola, David Lynch, Woody Allen, you know... Basically any filmmaker who's got a real vision or an aesthetic that... The idea of giving yourself over to them for a little while, and experiencing their kind of take on the universe, or way of telling a story or something like that. It's pretty fun when there's somebody with real vision so... any filmmaker really. Elijah: I'd say probably David Lynch actually. Specifically after 'Mulholland Drive'. Brilliant! Question: We all know you'd like to do a play with Billy and Dom and all that. And since 'Goonies' and 'North' you've had this amazing career but where do you both see yourselves in five or ten years time? Elijah: I... erm... Sean: Homeless! Elijah: There's a lot of things I'd like to do. In five years time I'd like to have directed my first movies, hopefully. I have set up a production company so that I can help facilitate other movies. I don't know... a record label? I love music, so I'd love to facilitate music as well. So those kind of things. I kind of want to accomplish other things beyond simply acting. And you know, with acting as well. That would be brilliant if I could do all those things.. Sean: You will! Question: Sean, are you ambitious as well? Sean: Yeah, I'm pretty ambitious. There's a lot of things I want to accomplish. Elijah: I tell you what... he's really ambitious! Sean: This audience... Most of the people in this audience can't vote, so I wont talk about being President of the United States! Question: There are posters that have 'Sean for President!' Sean: Are there really?! Where were you when I was in the 8th grade and I was running for President and I didn't even make the run off? Question: I wasn't alive then! Sean: Awww. You weren't alive then? That's right! Stay healthy and stay strong because we need you on the campaign I'm sure! You know my wife and I were making decisions about what house we want to live in, and where to put our children in school and what jobs to take that will take me around the world. I'm gonna go to South Africa at the end of October for four weeks... so I was really thinking when you asked 'OK, where will I REALLY be in five years?', you know. Question: Where would you like to be? Sean: Well I dunno. I dunno. I know that I want to use my life to create as much value as possible and I want to continue to enjoy this unbelievable ride and you know... so I don't know. I'd like to be continuing to make movies probably still at that point. There's also... I want to go to Graduate School. There's a couple of different things that I'd like to do in Graduate School. The Kennedy School of Government at... no, I'm not kidding! I was asked to give a speech there by a couple of Ringers and.. not at the Kennedy School... at Harvard. A student organisation asked me to come and give a talk, and I became friends with them and when I was at Harvard I walked around and saw... and you know.. like there's so much. That Elton John song from the Lion King is always in my ear, you know. Yeah! Not the one about the two little... (FX: turns to Elijah). You start picking on people. I'm starting to feel bad because I don't know how long it's going to last and people won't get chosen so...
Elijah: Oh, you want me to pick people. Sean: Hopefully someone really good. Elijah: (responding to caller in audience) Yup. Go, go, go. Question: It's not a question, but can I tell you.. You look fantastic in the Tan Jacket of Godliness! Elijah: The Tan Jacket of Godliness??!!! Wow! I'm never going to take it off! Sean: Is that a Gap item? Elijah: No, this is vintage. Thank you. Thank you so much. That's very sweet. Sean: (FX: looking at his jacket) The Gap! I got this at The Gap! Elijah: OK, I'll start picking someone. So many lovely people... What was the most demanding scene you had to film? Elijah: Well, Sean... I think we probably had the same demanding scene if I'm not mistaken? I don't wanna speak for... Question: Well warn us if it's about 'Return of The King' because I haven't read it! Elijah: What's that? Sean: No spoilers! No spoilers! Elijah: It's about 'Return of the King'. There's this scene where... Question: Noooo!!!! Stop. Elijah: But I won't... I won't like... it's not going to tell you anything! Question: It had better not!
Elijah: It's a moment on the side of the mountain where Frodo collapses and Sam holds Frodo in his arms. It's just a really emotional scene for both Sam, as he is sort of seeing his friend essentially die in his arms, and for Frodo in the sense that he can't remember the things that Sam is trying to make him remember about home and The Shire. It was a really difficult scene and the day that we both felt like we'd actually done everything that there was to do with our roles, I think. We felt like we'd gone to the peak as actors on the film. Sean: We were filming on an actual volcano on Mount Ruapehu. It felt like kind of a sacred. I mean I've talked about it a lot already. So I don't know how many... Elijah: I have as well. Sean: So it was a pretty sacred experience. Pretty emotional! Elijah: (turning to Sean) And to have gone through that with you... And for both of us to have gone through the same thing together was pretty significant. Question: I'm from Belgium! Elijah: There's good beer in Belgium. Question: And chocolate! Elijah: And chocolate! Question: Is there any book that you've read that you would like to turn into a movie? Elijah: Yeah. There's a film, I mean a book, by Douglas Copeland called 'Girlfriend in a Coma' that I really want to make into a film. I wouldn't want to act in it necessarily. I just think it's an incredible story. It would be logistically interesting in terms of the apocalypse at the end. But I would love to turn that into a film and I've actually spoken to Douglas about it himself and he was like 'Yeah. I'm not real interested in that!' so we'll see what happens. I'd like to do that. Question: What's it about? Elijah: What's it about? Oh, it's too much to go into. It's essentially an apocalyptic sort of version of 'It's A Wonderful Life'. It's kind of about... I mean, that's over-simplifying it... It's about a woman that, in her teens, falls into a coma and her boyfriend, and her friends... like her circle of friends... grow up and have their lives. And then she comes out of her coma and she's in her 30s. She's had a child whilst in a coma, comes out and it's this whole sort of... everybody kinda coming back together... reassessing their lives: What they've done, the mistakes they've made, what they could have done with their lives. It's pretty amazing. Sean: It's like 'The Wizard of Oz' meets 'The Big Chill'! Elijah: There you go! Sean: And you were there. And you were there.... Elijah: There's some serious people back there. Sean: I'm trying to guage by the people whose arms seem the most tired! Question: I'm from Baltimore. I've got a question for each of you. My question for Elijah is.. What was it like working with Barry Levinson? Elijah: Wonderful! I was 8 years old. But it was wonderful. He was very kind. It's weird because I have this strange... You know... It was so long ago and I was a different human being then, you know? I don't have a connection to that any more. But it was... In my memory it feels like I was as I am now, working with any other director. And he was wonderful. He was very kind and very gentle with us in terms of his direction. Question: My question for Sean is... You are involved in a lot of volunteer and charity organisations. I'd just like to know what your current projects are. Sean: : You mean in the philanthropic realm? Verizon spends $20 million a year doing a literacy campaign, so I've agreed to be their front Person for a 'Champion of Literacy' is what they call it. I was appointed at the end... or at the beginning of the year to the President's Council on Service and Civic Participation and we just had a meeting in DC a few days ago, on Monday morning in fact, or Monday afternoon. So in my role as someone who's trying to help promote the idea of volunteering and being civicly engaged and trying to communicate that... I don't think my generation, or the generations that follow should be apathetic about being involved. I've chosen to sort of focus on literacy so the Verizon piece and then... I told them I just didn't want to be sort of a face in front of it - I really wanted to understand the literacy movement in America. They introduced me to a woman named Sharon Darling who's been friends with a lot of the administrations over the generations. She founded an organisation called the National Center for Family Literacy. So I'm going to sit on her Board now. So there's that. There's a lot of other little things. They are going to establish a grant. There's a lot of different elements to it. You know I've served since 1995 as a Civilian Aide to the Secretary of the Army! So I've been able to go to a lot of US Army installations and learn from the Army what it is they are trying to do. Not from a political perspective, but just... you know. As a liberal, as a person who was raised very liberally, my father was shocked to see that I would agree to do that. But I felt like it was my responsibility. So yeah,a lot of work... OK, your arm's tired!.... Elijah: It'd better be good! I'm sorry. Are you just 18, by the way? Wicked! Happy birthday early! What day's your birthday? Like what's the date? The eleventh? My sister's is the seventh. Question: So for Sean... Apparently you directed an episode of Angel? Sean: I did! Question: How did that happen? Sean: What? How did it happen? Well when I got back, when we finished filming Lord of the Rings, I really wanted to be directing some episodic television. I feel like television, hour drama television, has gotten so good lately: 'West Wing' and 'Six Feet Under', 'The Sopranos', '24' - yeah, great shows out there! So I was observing, which was basically using the fact that I had just been in this big film, and that people were intrigued about it, to kind of talk my way into different sets and try to get into the culture of the different shows and working with my agents and stuff. So, I actually had one of my mentors... I've been in the business of collecting mentors and people who looked after me, my whole life really... and one of them...I was having a card game at his house and I was playing cards with him and some of his friends and one of them was one of the writer-producers of the show. I said 'Oh, I'd love to direct an episode of that' and he said 'Well we wouldn't just let you direct it. You'd have to come and see what we were doing.' And I said 'Well, alright. I'll observe. I'd love to observe'. So I spent three weeks just following the directors around on that show and getting to meet the cast. I think as a way to sort of get rid of me they gave me an episode because then it would be a time that that was over and I'd have to leave! Way at the back, at the very back.... Question: I'm a really big fan of 'Memphis Belle'. I thought you were really great as 'Rascal'. The crew of Memphis seemed to be like a Fellowship of their own because of what they had to go through together. I just wondered if you formed close friendships with them like you did with The Lord of the Rings stars? Sean: Yeah, we all... it was a similar dynamic actually. We drifted apart a little further apart than maybe would have been ideal but Eric Stoltz and I always email each other and we... Elijah: Eric Stoltz was in that? I haven't actually seen that movie anyway. It's embarrassing but... Sean: Yeah. There was a period of time right afterwards when if Harry Connick was in a city that you happened to be in and he was playing, you'd try to go and he'd see you afterwards. So, we all... I know I walked into a house... my wife and I were looking at houses in Malibu, California... and we walked in and the realtor recognised me and he said 'You know, whose house this is?' because it was like empty you know. And I said 'No'. And he said 'it's D B Sweeney's'. I said 'You're kidding?!' So we called DB and said 'Hi' to him on the phone, you know. So yeah, we all... there's this thing... nobody can ever take away the two weeks we spent together in the South of England with the SAS guys sort of keeping us up all night long and throwing bottle rockets at us! And our experience at Pinewood. Yeah we formed a very close bond. If I pick up the phone and hear any one of their voices on the other end, all they have to say is one word and I'll know exactly who it is. And it's the same way with them.... We are told that we have five minutes left. So I feel that what we should do is go round... Elijah: .. and have a big hugging session? What? Sean: And have everybody ask questions and like whatever question, from a group of questions that comes out... errrm that's too much? Elijah: But that would be like choosing the best question, and someone's going to go that's bad because... Sean: .. but feeling not so bad that we're not going to be able to ask everybody… Elijah: (noticing someone holding up a frying pan)Lets ask the pan. Because that's very significant of Sean's character Question: It was my birthday yesterday. But also... (garbled) dressed as hobbits. How do you like Frodo, actually Afro-Frodo? Elijah: It's an honour. It's lovely to see you guys dressed up like that. Actually, the Pippin at the moment is certainly the most convincing. Sean: Samwise is way prettier than me. Elijah: Yeah, well done. That's like 'blaxploitation Frodo'. It's like 'Shaft' as Frodo... which would be REALLY cool! And that's like a Harry Potter scarf you are wearing?! Sean: Question here first, and then... Question: (garbled) I want to say to Elijah....(something about liking his Mohican hair?) Elijah: Oh thanks. Thank you. It's very new. Question: I'd like to say Thanks very much for coming! Elijah: We're going to be here all day tomorrow. And Dom is here as well. Question: (garbled: something about Elijah's appendix scars?). I'm very annoyed! Elijah: Well I've got .. I had laproscopic, so it's three incisions. And then there's one below there.... Question: Will you sing the Hobbit song? Elijah: Does everyone know the words? (FX: leads crowd in chorus of The Hobbit Song.). Thank you so much for coming along. You guys get to watch the movie!.... Transcript ends with loud applause and general mayhem
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