Question: Your character in Illuminated is a very family driven character, how much of a role does family play in your life?

Elijah: Huge, huge... Massive, I mean my family is the most important thing in my life. It's what I come home to; it's my base; it's my strength; it's everything, and I think family becomes even more important the more you are away from home because they are your greatest connection.

I happen to be extremely close with my family; my mother, my brother, my sister as well, we are all very close and stay in contact very frequently and we are each other's own solid base. I wouldn't be the person I am without that and I don't think I would be able to deal with what I deal with in my life and travel as much, and work as much, and be comfortable if I didn't have that.

Question: Looking into the future, what is coming up for you?

Elijah: There's a couple of things kinda on the horizon, nothing's properly set up yet.

Question: Anything you can talk about?

There may be a music biography coming up, something that scares the shit out of me. It's someone I am extremely passionate about, and yeah... That's coming up, but that's way in the future.

There's actually a movie that I am pretty sure will happen called Bobby, it's kind of just starting. Emilio Estevez wrote a script based on the day that Bobby Kennedy was shot at the Ambassador Hotel and it's basically this really fantastic ensemble cross-section of people from all walks of life at the Ambassador Hotel on the day that he comes to give his speech and was shot, just a fantastic script. Great homage to the hotel, to that time and obviously to that man and kind of what happens to these characters as a result of that happening, and it ends with his speech, it's really extraordinary.

Question: Did Emilio approach you for this role specifically?

Elijah: Yeah.

Question: What will your role in the film be?

Elijah: Well, it's a man who is marrying a woman who is actually in love with his brother, but he is marrying this woman just so that he can avoid the draft during Vietnam and he ends up falling in love with her, and they end up falling in love with each other.

It's like a tiny little snippet of life, I mean all of these stories don't really relate to a greater picture, it's just these snippets of life at that time in America, in the Ambassador Hotel.

Question: And the script is just phenomenal?

Elijah: It's really, really excellent. It's an ambitious script, I mean it's a huge cross-section, it goes down to the wait staff and what's going on with them, and he gets it from all sort of classes, it's really interesting. The people that manage the hotel and what they're going through leading up to this speech, and then he gives the speech and was shot and then the aftermath and it ends with the speech kind of trailing off.

And it's really interesting because the speech is incredibly poignant for today's world, extremely relevant, I mean it was relevant than, there was obviously social and political strife then too. It was during Vietnam, coming out of the Civil Rights Movement and it was like two or three days previous that Martin Luther King had been shot, but the speech definitely echoes a lot of that, and it is all about us as Americans and as people across the world who need to stand together and to unite our visions and we can overcome this stage.

I mean, I was reading that speech and I was like... Fuck, we need to hear this kinda shit now! So, I actually think it could be a really important film to illuminate an American perspective and an American ideal that doesn't really exist anymore... very interesting.

Question: Would you ever like to get into directing or writing at all?

Elijah: Producing and directing I would love to get into. The idea of taking something from a concept and building it from the ground up and creating a movie out of that, and putting all the right pieces together I think would be really gratifying, that creative process over a long period of time.

So, I would love to produce and I would love to direct at some point. I feel like, in some ways, like I have been going to film school for 16 years, which has been amazing. I've had the good fortune of working with some incredibly talented directors and some amazing actors, and I have learned so much about the industry and the filmmaking process that I would love to, at some point, put that into practice.

Question: How important is it for you now to have people recognize you as Elijah Wood now and disconnect you from the fame Lord of the Rings brought and people seeing you as only Frodo?

Elijah: It is interesting to be a part of something so massive, especially over three years, because more often than not you are recognized for that one thing, but it never scared me. Going into it and then, consequently, as the movies were released the notion that I would become forever connected to that film never scared me, because the concept for me was as long as I continue to work and as long as I didn't rest on that film and constantly try to portray roles that were very different that people would see me in a different light and obviously if people went and saw these movies that were different that would help, but I never conceived of it being a problem as long as I continued to work.

Question: Speaking of Frodo, is it true that when you met Jack Nicholson he asked you how the Lord of the Rings trilogy ended?

Elijah: Yeah, yeah, he wanted to know how it ended because he walked out before the end. It was the most surreal thing.

I'm standing backstage at the Golden Globes because I had to present and Jack Nicholson is back there and Dustin Hoffman is back there. So I am standing in this room already with these two amazing people and I am standing there and then all of a sudden I hear this question come from Jack and I'm like, "Yeah? Jack?" [laughing]

And he said, "So what was the ending?" and I was like, "Well what do you mean?" and I went into my theory on the end and I was like, "Well, you know I think it is sort of a metaphor for death and I think he, in some way, he's kind of going to heaven when he goes off in the boat."

Then he was like, "The boat?!? What are you talking about?" and I was like, "You didn't see the ending?!?!?" He goes, "No man, I was out in the car waiting for the kids!"

I asked, "Why didn't you stay?"

"There were too many endings!" and Dustin Hoffman is listening in, laughing his ass off, and there is me trying to explain, oh god, it was fucking weird.

Now you tell me, is there any better story to end an interview on?

Everything is Illuminated comes out in theaters on September 16th. To check out the trailer click here, and to check out our gallery of 27 stills click here.