Elijah Wood on Working with Two Russians and a Dog: “Fantastic. It was great. I remember when we started Liev [Schreiber] was like, 'Dude, I feel bad for you being stuck in car for over a month. That's going to stuck. It's going to get hot. It's going to be cramped. There's going to be a dog in there. What a nightmare!' I was like, 'Yeah. It'll be fine.' And it was great.
The car was awesome. The car was almost like a character itself and it was so cramped and tight in there that it just lent itself to these scenes. When Eugene [Hutz] turns around and looks at me, it's right in my face. So it really helped me because my character is relatively awkward and neurotic and doesn't kind of feel comfortable in any social setting much less in a f**king tiny little car in the middle of the Ukraine. So that being my character's nature, it really lent itself to the feeling of being even more uncomfortable because it was so tight, those quarters. That was a blast and just lent such an interesting element to those scenes that we didn't have to act out. It was just kind of natural in terms of the space. But the cast was wonderful. I loved working with them.
It was wonderful. Eugene is absolutely fantastic and constantly brought a freshness and an innocence to the process because he was so new to it. His perspective, as a result, was so pure which was awesome. He always brought such a great energy to the set.
Boris [Leskin] was wonderful. He's a consummate professional albeit sometimes a bit of a method actor. Sometimes he could be somewhat curmudgeonly, but always delightful. Always delightful and wonderful and gave a great performance. It was really fun."
On Language Differences on the Set of “Everything is Illuminated:” “One of the elements of the film that was really interesting was that we're dealing with two languages most of the time. The approach to these scenes was different because you can't just sort of memorize your lines and read the scene through because the cues, sometimes the cue for my line or a reaction would be in Russian. So it was really interesting, the process, of kind of working those scenes through and getting the rhythms down. They had been written for a very specific type of rhythm. Some of it comedic and some of it in terms of timing for the language, for the different languages to play out. And the dynamic between the three of us and trying to figure those things out was always really fun.”
Elijah Wood on Liev Schreiber: “What was it like? It was wonderful. It's wonderful to work with a director who had never directed before and is an actor first. This movie really relies on the characters and it relies on the performance of these characters because it is a character driven film. So to have an actor at that heart of that, at the helm, was really helpful.
It was also fascinating for me to watch someone who is an actor go through that first experience of directing. He was so incredible and had a very, very clear vision of what he wanted. He was very, very confident and it gave me great insight of what it could possibly be for me if I were to ever direct. It was a really educational process. He was wonderful. If anything, I think that he might've been too hard on himself and worked himself too hard. He was exhausted by the end.”
On Relating to His Character: “Well, I'm not nearly as socially awkward or inept as he is or as neurotic as he is. At least I don't think that I am. But I certainly relate to his sense of wanting to grasp onto these objects and these memories. I'm a collector that's not nearly as organized as he is. It's rubbish how poorly organized I am. I keep the tiniest pieces of paper that have some kind of relevance to an experience. I sort of attach sentimental value to absolutely everything. So, in that sense, wanting to grasp hold of memories, not keeping a journal is sort of my way of doing that in a way except that they're not in scrap books. They're kind of all over the place and if I pull one up, I'll know what it is and I'll know what it means. One of these days I'll have to put it together. But I certainly relate to that.
I attach so much meaning to everything - to experiences, to interactions, to moments, to things that remind me of moments. I think that's one of the reasons that I love music so much and film, because it does make you remember experiences. It brings you back. So that's definitely something that I can relate to.”
Page 2: Elijah Wood on Visiting New Zealand, "King Kong," and Career Choices
