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Los Angeles (AP) - Elijah Wood wears the role of his life on the hip.
The tattoo in Elvish means “nine” - alluding to the nine companions in the spectacular “Lord of the Rings” film, in which he played the main role of the hobbit Frodo from 2001.
The other actors have the same time on their skin.
The shooting back then "means family, community," said the still boyish-looking Wood in a video podcast with the actors from back then in the summer.
Hardly any other actor is as closely connected to his character as Elijah is to Frodo - the role shaped him as much as he shaped it.
This Thursday (January 28th) Wood turns 40.
Wood, who is 1.68 meters tall, was born in 1981 in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, but he and his family moved to Los Angeles at an early age to advance his career as a child star.
He made his cinema debut in 1989 with a brief appearance in "Back to the Future II".
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Smaller roles followed, for example in "Internal Affairs" with Richard Gere and a leading role in the Disney production "The Adventures of Huck Finn" and later in the animal film "Flipper".
In “The Second Face” Wood stood with “Kevin - Home Alone” star Macaulay Culkin in front of the camera.
In contrast to many other underage stars, Elijah Wood never rose - and fell -, never made the headlines with drug problems or excesses of violence.
The reason for this is his mother, Wood once said on the "Late Show" with comedian Stephen Colbert.
“She was obsessed with keeping me on the ground.
She drilled humility into me. "
That earned Wood a reputation for being one of the nicest guys in Hollywood.
And next to Wood's acting achievements, at least one small reason for the (so far) biggest role in his life.
That of the curly-headed hobbit Frodo Baggins was a perfect match for Wood, who in the film has to wear the "one ring" to enemy territory to Mordor.
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When you think of Frodo, you mostly think of Elijah - even if after “Lord of the Rings” he made numerous other films such as “Grand Piano”.
Wood was really built for the slender "halfling" from Middle-earth.
With the expression of his large eyes, which were unnaturally blue in the film, he summed up Frodo's burden.
He combined the pain and deprivation with the imperturbability of the little hobbit shouldering a huge - actually too huge - task.
Serenity is one of the qualities that defines Wood in real life: When "Lord of the Rings" colleague Dominic Monaghan (the Hobbit Merry) pretended to be a German reporter in a telephone interview and poked Wood with all sorts of stupid and presumptuous questions The only thing that could be got out of the movie star was an incredulous laugh - no tantrum, no annoyance, no arrogance.
It has been shown time and again that Wood will probably never get rid of his hobbit film ego completely.
Together with his friend Zach Cowie, he founded the DJ duo “Wooden Wisdom” - but the name didn't catch on with all fans: The American late-night talker Seth Meyers picked up on rumors on the Internet that his DJ name was «DJ Frodo».
"So wrong" and "crazy," said Wood.
Whoever went to a party at «DJ Frodo» would have eaten too many mushrooms from Middle-earth.
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© dpa-infocom, dpa: 210122-99-127030 / 3
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Wooden Wisdom