Geekscape Talks “9” With Elijah Wood!

Geekscape recently took part in a round table discussion with 9 star Elijah Wood. The actor was pretty candid in his responses about everything from the difficulties and differences of voice acting to the themes he found fascinating within the film. Here’s that conversation for you, the Geekscapists:

Geekscape: How much did you get to see in terms of the animation while you were doing the voice work?

Elijah: A fair amount. When things were even in their rough stages we got to see them. But that didn’t really happen until a year and a half or two years in. Largely what we were seeing initially was previs and also animated storyboards so we didn’t get to see semi-finished stuff until a year and a half probably. But it’s such a gratifying thing because you do spend this time, even though you have a connection with the character and you have a sense of what the character is going to do and look like, it’s another thing entirely when you begin to see it moving with your voice. It’s such an amazing- it’s a wonderful part of the process. It’s extremely rewarding. Because it’s also very solitary. A lot of the times you’re in this booth embuing this character with a sense of life in a stationary position. And then those words get shipped to these animators. And sometimes there’s up to 30 people working on your movements and face and stuff. It’s a whole other process. It’s totally fascinating. And then it all kind of comes together. It’s pretty amazing.

Geekscape: So you’ve been involved with this project for four years?

Elijah: Three years.

Geekscape: And you’re like “I’m not going to get tattoos with these nine people! I don’t even know who they are!” (Big Laughs… Wood and the rest of the 8 Lord of the Rings fellowship actors all got matching tattoos.)

Geekscape: What’s Shane like as a director and what’s the difference between working with an animation person and a live action director?

Elijah: Shane’s great as a director. I think we all realized that we were in the hands of the person that created these characters. I was a real fan of his short which is largely why I wanted to do the film. And I understood that he came from an animation background. He actually worked at Weta Digital on the last Lord of the Rings movie as an animator. So working with him, he was able to describe things in a really detailed way. I think he was able to articulate what he wanted from the character both physically and emotionally in the arc really well. But I think also, a huge strong point, just being that he has the whole world in his mind that he wants to describe. He was very good in being able to describe what that was and in setting up the environment. Because I think that’s one of the more challenging aspects in doing voice is that you are in a room, you have the script, you have a notion of what’s supposed to happen but it helps when you’ve got some descriptive words that can describe what’s going on in the scene, for sure… if you don’t have any images.

Geekscape: What was it about the character that resonated with you?

Elijah: Well I liked the journey that he takes. You know, he comes into this world extremely naive because he doesn’t have any perspective as to what had transpired and who 1 through 8 are. They’ve already established a sort of hierarchy. They’ve established a community that is built on keeping them away from what they fear. And he comes in like “well, wait. Why have you set this up and who are we?” and “Where have all these machines come from?” He comes in with all these questions. And so I really responded to his fearlessness and his questioning and ultimately, I think, taking on board the fact that he has to bring these people together to see what they are and ultimately how to combat the machines. And so I like that about him and I think his journey is sort of a heroic journey. He ultimately becomes kind of heroic and courageous throughout the course of that journey with these characters. But it’s also a very cerebral one. He’s the one getting them to all answer questions and think outside of the fear that they’ve established.

Geekscape: I was curious which one was more difficult, because I keep thinking Sin City, where in the making of they show that you don’t even go in the same room as Mickey Rourke. Which was more difficult?

Elijah: They are definitely different challenges. The thing I’ll say about Sin City is that despite the fact that I didn’t work with Mickey Rourke, it wasn’t as if there was dialogue. That would have been different. Jessica Alba did scenes without him where they talked to each other. Like, I can’t even imagine that. Well, I can because I did some of that in Lord of the Rings, but that’s harder because you’re having to carry on a scene with someone that’s not there or isn’t the right actor and they get fused together. Where I was being physical I didn’t necessarily have to talk. At least I got to be physical with someone who was Mickey’s stunt double. So that wasn’t super challenging and I didn’t necessarily need the environment around me to do what I was doing. Whereas with voice work there is a lot that you have to kind of create and I think the most challenging aspect of it is making your voice sound like its experiencing something that it isn’t. You’re not running. You’re not jumping. You’re not falling. You’re not, you know, being ripped from one place to another. So you have to kind of figure out how you do that vocally and that it’s convincing. But I love that. I think it’s a lot of fun.

Geekscape: Are you running in place?

Elijah: Some of that. And I think physically you can’t help it! You can’t help but move. You kind of have to. It’s almost not even a choice. It’s almost like a reflex ‘cuz you know what your characters doing so you do something similar to that just naturally because that’s what your voice wants to do. But yeah, you run in place and you try to get a sense of breathlessness and- it’s interesting.

Geekscape: Who wins… the penguin in Happy Feet or your character in 9?

Elijah: What!?! They’re both pacifists! There would be no fight! (laughs)

Geekscape: There are so many themes in this film. The apocalypse, life after death, what it means to be a pacifist or not. What were the ones that really resounded with you?

Elijah: Well, I think that the notion of- people are really connecting it to the theme of technology being our downfall and I think that’s certainly in there. But it’s also technology at the hands of greed and it’s at the hands of power hungry people. It’s ultimately humanity that corrupts the machinery to turn on humanity. And I thought that was interesting because the scientist creates this machine for peace. The chancellor announces this machine that will lead us into 100 years of piece. But then that machine gets circumvented and turned into a war machine. And then the war machine turns on man. I just love that. I thought that was very interesting. And I think it’s something that we can commonly relate to common themes of greed and lust for power but also technology and what our relationship with technology is and could it eventually turn on us. But I don’t necessarily think that’s what the movie’s about.

Elijah: I also think that at the heart of this movie, it’s ultimately about rebuilding. And I think that it’s about humanity because humanity is in these characters. We’re talking about, people have used the word “stitch punk” which I think is funny, these mechanized ragdolls. But they do represent humanity. I think the movie is really about the aftermath of something horrible that had happened and these characters rebuilding after that has happened and ultimately putting to rest the machines or the creations that have caused that problem. So I sort of feel like this movie is more about hope and discovery and sort of rebuilding life than it is about the end of life, per se.

Geekscape: Was there anything that surprised you in the finished product?

Elijah: I’m surprised how scary it was. I thought the movie really- some of those action sequences were really scary. And also the machines- like The Seamstress was so creepy. The Cat Beast is really scary… You know, those action sequences I found to be more visceral and intense than I’d expected.

Geekscape: Was the darkness something that interested you in the project?

Elijah: I think that we have, and we’ve established this over many, many years, but the United States and their relationship with animation seems more geared towards families and children. And I think that there are exceptions certainly to that rule. Pixar does a beautiful job of teetering on the edge of both. I think they appeal to families and children but they also appeal to adults. But there are so many animated movies that are just for families, it seems. But if you go to Japan, there are movies like Akira and Ghost in the Shell that are like adult movies in the animation medium. So that’s definitely something that appealed to me about this particular film. It felt like it was separating itself from some of the typical animation that we’re used to. And opening it up to a wider audience, an audience that might go see this kind of thing if it weren’t animated. So the darkness or maybe some of the more intense or adult themes I think interested me as well. There’s also just the world, you know. Shane definitely created something that is familiar but is also quite different. We haven’t seen these characters before and the fact that he made that short film over the course of four years and it was his college thesis is fascinating. He did it all by himself.