Kicking the Hobbit

ONLY after Elijah Wood has left the room do we realise that the words The Lord Of The Rings haven't been uttered during our chat. This can mean one of two things: that we, the assembled round table of international journalists, have failed to ask an obvious question or (and I like to think this one is true) Wood has far too many other new things to talk rather than rake over past successes.

He has no need to dwell on the blockbuster screen trilogy, in which he played leading Hobbit Frodo, and the success of which propelled him to global fame. He's managed to kick the Hobbit, so to speak, and move forward with a screen career that shows he's capable of more than playing a little chap with big feet on a quest for a ring.

And how does he choose to escape the shackles of Frodo this time? By playing a penguin in computer animated hit Happy Feet - and a tap-dancing penguin who can't sing at that. He voices the role of Mumble, whose lack of singing ability makes him an outsider in the vocally tuneful world of Emperor Penguins in Antarctica. Mumble compensates for his bad voice with his amazing tap-dancing.

Even more surprising than Happy Feet beating the new Bond movie, Casino Royale, at the US box-office is, perhaps, the fact that Mumble actually looks like Wood. "I've seen the film twice and I guess I see the eyes are mine, but people seem to think it really looks like me," he says.

The voice artists were filmed while recording their lines, so the animators can be excused for making Mumble resemble the young actor. "When I'm watching the movie, I'm not paying so much attention to that. I feel like I'm watching everything. When you spend three years in a studio recording the voice, the spectacle takes over. Maybe I need to take a greater look at it," he says.

Wood has been acting long enough to be gracious when asked if he looks like a penguin. He took his first screen role when he was eight and now, still only in his mid-20s, has accrued an enviable CV that includes, not just The Lord Of The Rings trilogy, but such films as Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind, Everything Is Illuminated, Sin City, The Ice Storm, Deep Impact and Flipper.

One of the appeals of Happy Feet was Mumble's emotional journey - "his innocence and purity but more importantly his sense of himself," says Wood, obviously taking his penguin performance as seriously as doing Hamlet.

"You have a character who's essentially an outcast, yet he's not bothered by that, it doesn't break his spirit. In fact, it ultimately defuses who he is, which is very admirable."

He thinks everyone can relate to feeling different from others in society. For him, it happened in his early teens when he felt older than he was, older than his peers and separated from them.

"I was working as an adult and had been since I was eight years old," he explains. "Ultimately, I grew into myself and that ceased to be an issue and I didn't feel separated from anyone any more. At that time of growth where you look to your peers, I couldn't really relate to them. It wasn't a problem at the time, but there was definitely a feeling of being different."

But he doesn't feel he missed out on childhood because he was working. He credits his mother for that. "She really made sure there was a healthy separation of what I was doing as an actor and what my home life was," he says.

"Childhood is relative as I think most experiences are. I don't think the word 'normal' makes any sense because normal is a relative thing. So it was normal to me, and enjoyable to me. I was travelling around the world and getting to work with and to meet so many interesting people.

"At a young age I was exposed to all sorts of music which I was intrigued by. I was having very enriching life experiences and then I'd go home, ride my bike and have a - quote, unquote - normal childhood at home.

"I never felt I missed out on anything. In fact, in many ways I feel like I gained much more than I would have had I not been an actor."

Filming the three parts of The Lord Of The Rings back-to-back in New Zealand occupied several years of his life. Since then, he's taken on a series of not-necessarily-star roles in interesting projects, feeling excited about the different opportunities coming his way.

He reels off the names of "really interesting film-makers" with whom he'd like to work and actors he admires. He cites Eternal Sunshine as being "so awesome", saying that "to be part of that creativity, even on a small level, was really exciting".

He'd like to get more involved in production, developing projects that he may not necessarily act in. Passionate about music, he's started his own record label as part of his aim to follow some of the things beyond acting in which he's interested.

He found it fun to have to sing badly as Mumble. "We played around with all sorts of different things and different ways of breaking my voice. I had a blast doing that, it was great," he says. And just how difficult was it for him to sing badly? "It's pretty easy," he admits.

As for his musical tastes, he's a huge Prince fan, and a fan of the Beach Boys and likes Queen a lot. "The music in the film did take an evolutionary turn. It was always going to be music in the dance sequences but over time developed a life of its own, constantly changing and evolving," says Wood.

"I was always curious what songs would be used. I'm a huge fan of music and wanted to make sure there was some really good music in the movie, so I would often chime in about this and that. I don't know if that had any great influence.

"George Miller (the director) keeps telling the story about one particular song they were going to use. I can't remember what it was but it was awful and I said, in a polite way, 'maybe you shouldn't use that song, George'. They talked about it and it didn't go in the movie."

Happy Feet, for him, isn't just another computer animated movie. He sees the themes of individuality and community as important. "Children have to deal with conforming regularly at school. It's nice to be inspired to see your differences ultimately make you what you are," he says. "And if kids can walk out thinking about some of the environmental issues in the film, that's great."

* There are preview screenings of Happy Feet (U) in cinemas today and tomorrow, and the film goes on general release on Friday.