Ho trovato un pò di interviste di eli, sono in inglese ma si capisce più o meno
Intervista su bobby...Tavis: My first thought, Elijah, when I saw this project at my house was that I must be the only person in Hollywood not in this film. (Laugh)
Elijah Wood: (Laugh) I thought it was gonna get really serious then.
Tavis: No, no, no, not at all. (Laugh) It really is an all-star cast.
Wood: It’s massive.
Tavis: We use that phrase all the time, but who is not in this project? It’s, like, amazing.
Wood: I know, it’s crazy. And it’s funny, when we started filming the movie, there were literally cast members that were added, like, the night before. Heather Graham, I believe, was cast the night before I started working, and just immediately jumped in. It’s pretty amazing.
Tavis: No, it is an amazing cast. What do you think about the life of Bobby Kennedy has not been exhausted? 'Cause that was my second thought. That when I popped the film in to check it out, I'm thinking okay, what am I gonna learn here? What am I gonna see here about an iconic figure that I think at this point I know just about everything about? But yet, it’s not exhausted, as evidenced by the film.
Wood: It isn't, and I feel like – 'cause I'm coming at it from a completely different perspective.
Tavis: You weren’t even born then.
Wood: That’s the thing. And I, in school, I learned more about John F. Kennedy than I did about Robert F. Kennedy. So I had no idea of his impact. I knew he was assassinated, but that was pretty much it. I didn’t know the kind of impact that he had on our country, and the hope that our country put onto this man. So for me, jumping onto this project was important, because I was essentially learning about this man for the first time, and getting an opportunity to bring information about him to a generation that had never heard about him.
Tavis: And what did you – I know you learned a great deal about Bobby Kennedy, but what sticks in your mind now, having immersed yourself in the subject matter?
Wood: Eloquence, grace, humanity. I think one of the things that struck me most about Bobby Kennedy, one of my favorite stories, was when he personally asked at the last minute to speak in front of a large crowd of African Americans. Because he had heard that Martin Luther King, Jr. had passed away, (unintelligible).
Tavis: In my hometown of Indianapolis, Indiana, where this takes place. Yeah.
Wood: Wow. So he rerouted, and went to these people to speak, to essentially tell them, for the first time, many of them, that Martin Luther King, Jr. had passed away. And he didn’t have a speech written. He wasn’t prepared. All he knew is that he had to go and tell them, so that he could quell any violence that may come out after that reaction. And it’s an extraordinary speech.
It’s totally off the cuff. I think he actually quotes some literature in that speech. It’s extraordinary. We don't have politicians like that anymore, and that story really sticks out in my memory as special, because we don't have people that just wanna connect, and just wanna do their part, and can do that in a way that is so eloquent and so unprepared.
Tavis: Share more about the character that you play. We mentioned earlier that everybody’s in it, but so is Elijah Wood, so let’s talk about Elijah’s role.
Wood: (Laugh) I play a character named William, who is marrying Lindsay Lohan’s character, Diane, to avoid going to the front lines.
Tavis: Not a bad person to marry, Lindsay Lohan.
Wood: Not so bad.
Tavis: Yeah. (Laugh)
Wood: And it’s basically an echo to the young people of America at that time, the draft, and various ways to get around that draft. There were certainly a lot of people that didn’t believe in the war. And there were – and this was completely unbeknownst to me – there were people, women like Diane, that would marry young men to allow it so that they wouldn’t necessarily have to go into the front lines of war, which is pretty extraordinary. So it starts out being about that, but we ultimately kind of fall in love, and it’s a sort of love story based on innocence and purity that we don't really have anymore.
Tavis: As I listen to you talk about this now, and I kind of had this thought watching it, it’s interesting, the parallels, between then and now. A country at war, as we are, in a couple different places, for that matter.
Wood: Yup. We’ve got our hands in a few different pots, unfortunately.
Tavis: Precisely. A country that is trying to find itself in some interesting sorts of ways, as the country was trying to find itself then, around these assassinations and around these particular issues. Did the parallels kind of strike you while making the film?
Wood: Absolutely. And I think that was one of the things that struck me about the script, as well, is that it was so relevant to our time. It is kind of extraordinary that we are experiencing a lot of the same things, yet we don't have that kind of hope, or we don't have someone that we can attach that kind of hope to?
Tavis: Tell me how you go about choosing projects these days. And I ask that because every time I get a chance to see you, the projects are so disparate. (Laugh) The current is very different from the latter, from the last project. So I get the sense that you're, like, sitting in a room somewhere, trying to find these projects that are very different from one another.
Wood: Yeah. I think that I've always got a mind to that. You are, to a certain degree, at mercy to whatever lands on your table, in regards to scripts.
Tavis: Even Elijah Wood?
Wood: Sure, sure. I'm not necessarily actively searching things out, so I'm reading a variety of different things. And the films that I choose are just the ones that I happen to be very passionate about. And I like the fact that they are different. I'm attracted to different kinds of roles. As an actor, it’s important to continue to challenge yourself. And I'm intrigued by many different kinds of characters and stories. So that’s primarily where it comes out of.
Tavis: Before I talk about “Happy Feet,” and some music that I wanna talk to you about, as many times as we’ve talked, I've never asked you about your first name. I can make assumptions about how you got it, but tell me the story about it.
Wood: Elijah, my mother named all of her children, I have a brother and a sister, biblical names. Hannah, Zachariah, and Elijah.
Tavis: Wow.
Wood: So, after the Prophet Elijah.
Tavis: That’s amazing.
Wood: Yeah.
Tavis: And Elijah is quite a character in the bible.
Wood: Yes, yes.
Tavis: (Laugh) But a good character.
Wood: Yes. Very much so.
Tavis: I didn’t mean character in, like, crazy character, but anyway.
Wood: I was actually at a – this is a good story. I was at a Seder once, for Passover, and I’d never been to a Seder before. And I was really excited, because I was able to make the prophecy come true, 'cause I was Elijah there, at their table, drinking their wine. (Laugh) So I was, like, see? Here I am, right? Bring it on. (Laugh)
Tavis: That’s a great…
Wood: Open the Manischewitz, let’s go. (Laugh)
Tavis: (Laugh) That’s a great story. But all of you have biblical names; that’s cool. That’s very cool.
Wood: Yeah. Zachariah, Nathanial, Hannah Blessing, and Elijah Jordan.
Tavis: Wow. That is really very, very cool. “Happy Feet,” speaking of cool. (Laugh) I have not seen – it’s a nice segue.
Wood: It’s very beautiful.
Tavis: I have not seen “Happy Feet” yet, but the trailers, I'm like a big kid now. The trailers have me so excited to see this film.
Wood: It’s really fun. It’s really fun. It’s not often you get a chance to do animation, and it’s something that I really enjoy. So, the opportunity to work on something like this, that includes music and dance, specifically with my character, Savion Glover did the motion capture, which is amazing.
Tavis: Great tap dancing.
Wood: Well, he’s the best.
Tavis: Did you get a chance to see “Bring In Da Noise, Bring In Da Funk” when he was doing it on Broadway?
Wood: I missed it.
Tavis: One of the most amazing Broadway musicals I've ever seen.
Wood: I heard it was amazing.
Tavis: Absolutely amazing. Tell me about the character you play, though. The voice.
Wood: I play a character called Mumble. He’s a…(laugh)
Tavis: (Laugh) And you should explain…
Wood: Aptly named.
Tavis: Exactly, explain why he’s called Mumble.
Wood: He’s an emperor penguin who’s born without the ability to sing. Our emperor penguin community that we represent in this film, their identity is based on the ability to sing, (unintelligible) heart song. Well, he can't sing at all, but he dances. He has this amazing ability to dance. But for that, he’s kicked out of the community, because they're seeing, he’s seen as different. They don't accept him. But yet in the midst of all that, he has this amazing confidence and sense of himself, and that spins him off on this journey that he takes.
Tavis: So what’s cool about doing animation amongst all the other stuff that you’ve done?
Wood: It’s a completely different kind of work. The time that it takes is less, which is attractive, sometimes. The opportunity to simply work on the voice. It’s very freeing. You don't have to worry about yourself physically, how you move, necessarily, what you're wearing. It’s all about the character. And in this case, I got a chance to work with Robin Williams. He’s sort of the king of that, which was incredibly inspiring and hilarious. (Laugh) And kind of overwhelming and amazing.
Tavis: I don't know how you got anything done on a sound stage with him.
Wood: I don't know either.
Tavis: He’s out of control all the time.
Wood: Yeah, completely. (Laugh) And off-mic, as well. And we would start a scene as scripted, and he would take it somewhere else, as definitely inspired by the director, to kind of see where the scene would go, but man. (Laugh) Ridiculous.
Tavis: Just the thought of it makes you laugh.
Wood: Oh, so wonderful.
Tavis: Speaking of music, we were just talking about music in terms of “Happy Feet,” how’s the record company coming along?
Wood: It’s good. Did we talk about this last time?
Tavis: We started to talk about it in the last 30 seconds of our conversation, so I wanna come back to that.
Wood: Well, I've been working on it, and it’s finally kind of gotten its feet. In fact, I'm co-releasing a record with Yep Roc Records, it’s called Simian Records, is the name of my label. A band called The Apples in Stereo, and it comes out in February, so.
Tavis: The Apples in Stereo.
Wood: The Apples in Stereo.
Tavis: And how did they come up with this name?
Wood: That’s a good question. They’ve been around for about seven years. They're an incredible, like, 1960s, seventies bass-pop band, absolutely amazing. And this is their first record in about four or five years, so. I've been a fan of theirs, so to start my label essentially with a band that I love is really exciting.
Tavis: Where’d the love for music come from, come for?
Wood: I can remember being in love with music when I was six, seven. I had a tape of the Monkees that I’d play incessantly. But when I fully grasped music, and the wide variety that it is, was probably around 11 or 12. And I became obsessed. I was lucky enough to travel at a very young age, and I was constantly meeting different kinds of people, and thusly exposed to all sorts of music at a young age, and I ate it up. And I've been passionate about it, and searching ever since.
Tavis: Is that what Simian is going to put out? A variety of stuff?
Wood: Absolutely.
Tavis: Eclectic stuff, or just a certain genre?
Wood: No, it’ll be, it’ll be a variety. My music taste is so varied; I listen to all kinds of music. So it’s essentially whatever I find that I really love and wanna put out there.
Tavis: Isn't that cool, to just say, “You know what? I wanna have a record company, and I can, 'cause I'm Elijah Wood, and I'm gonna put out whatever I like.”
Wood: It’s just a hobby.
Tavis: And hopefully, ya’ll will like it. (Laugh)
Wood: Hopefully. I hope so. I hope so.
Tavis: This guy, he came on the stage, he was teasing me about how busy I am, and I shot right back, I don't have two movies out at one time, (laugh) and a record, and a record company. Oh, God, you’re doing well.
Wood: Same to you.
Tavis: Always happy to have you.
Wood: Thank you so much.
Tavis: Thanks, Elijah. That’s our show for tonight. Don't forget, “Happy Feet,” “Bobby,” you can see the guy in just about everything. (Laugh) Public Radio International, check your local listings, and we’ll talk this weekend on the radio. See you back here next time on PBS. Until then, good night from L.A., thanks for watching, and as always, keep the faith.
Intervista su happy feetQ: How did you get the role of Mumble and why did you decide to take it?
A: I read the script and liked it. But, with an animated film you can only imagine what it is going to be like, so I met with George Miller, who has directed it. I was a fan of his work, and it was meeting George and seeing what his perspective of the film was -his idea of animating in a realistic style and incorporating a lot of music, with his belief and enthusiasm for the project, his love of the story, and understanding key elements of the film, like the importance of a Heartsong- that convinced me.
Q: Can you describe the role that Heartsongs play in penguin culture?
A: The Heartsong is actually kind of a real thing. It comes from the idea that Emperor penguins in the wild recognize their mates by their voice. This way they can recognize them vocally and be able to pick them out in a crowd of thousands of penguins, which plays a major role in their society.
Q: What is Mumble born with instead of a Heartsong, and how does that color his life?
A: In the film every penguin has his own song except mine, Mumble, who is born without the ability to sing and does not have a Heartsong, but has an incredible ability to dance. A large part of the film deals with his identity in reference to the other penguins and his individuality.
Q: Do you think there is an equivalent to a Heartsong in humans?
A: I think that our individual personalities are sort of like Heartsongs. We have our own ways of communicating and connecting with each other. In the film, there is a great scene where Mumble attempts to fake his singing, as one of the penguins he befriends with stands behind him and sings for him. That is actually something that kind of happens in society as well, when we put on a different kind of personality to impress others, which ultimately most often doesn’t work. There are certainly things we can relate from this film to humans and to our own society.
Q. How does Mumble cope with not having a Heart Song?
A. It’s interesting, because he has a naïve confidence and doesn’t see that there is anything wrong with him. He is born without the ability to sing, but can express himself with his feet, so he thinks that it’s perfectly fine and kind of interesting, and is unaware to why that would be a problem. Largely I think that his confidence comes from a sort of naiveté, but develops into a surer sense of who he is.
Q: What are your thoughts on the themes of the story, like individuality and being true to oneself?
A: That individuality in a society that tries to conform to old standards is an important message in the story. Mumble kind of stamps his foot down to not conform, and I think it is a strong message to children and to adults, because we have all experienced something similar in our lives. I believe kids have to face that issue more than adults do, as they are forced into these concentrated environments where it is all about belonging. In school, kids are already forced to fit into a certain group, and if they are different they are outcast into another group. Seeing the character of Mumble not care that he is different and not really mind about being an outcast, because he is confident about who he is, could be a very positive message for those who have to deal with this on a regular basis. School is tough; there is a very concentrated social environment that is not easy for anybody, so it is always nice to have something to inspire you to recognize the importance of individuality.
Q: When Mumble doesn’t fit in, what a kind of quest does he go on to find out and develop who he is?
A: Mumble is initially outcast, and along the way he discovers, not only who he is and how to fit into the world, but also that there is a food shortage problem in his community. And he takes it upon himself to find out what is going on, which ultimately becomes his quest, because he is blamed for this food problem due to his sacrilegious foot behavior. I think we have all felt at some time in our lives that we don’t belong.
Q: Have you ever had a quest like that?
A: When I was in my early teens I didn’t have a lot of friends my age and I felt older than I was because I was working in films and had responsibilities that most kids my age didn’t have. I didn’t relate to the people my age that I did know and it was a problem initially; but as I became a teenager it didn’t bother me anymore, I had friends that were a little bit older and I kind of grew into who I was, and a sense of confidence was born out of that. I think everyone certainly goes through that, but it is the individuality that makes us special, and conforming isn’t necessarily the best thing for us or anybody else to do.
Q: So, can you sing, or are you more of a dancer, like Mumble?
A: Well, I think I am a little bit of both. I can carry a tune and I can mildly dance. So, I am sort of somewhere in-between.
Q: What is involved in voicing an animated character?
A: The process is different and it depends on the characters. Someone lke Robin Williams will actually develop a number of voices for a number of characters, each with their own accents and distinctions. In my case, once we decided to go along with my own voice, the only thing that I ever changed was my age, because at a certain point earlier in the film Mumble is young, so I used a higher voice to lower the register later, as he got older.
Q: What was it like voicing Mumble?
A: I had a blast! And the other thing too about voice work is that you don’t have to worry about being on camera or wearing a costume. In a set you have to rely on your physicality and on how you are meant to move. Here you are very free standing there in front of a mike, and it’s all about your voice, which I enjoy. And being able to work with other actors in the same room, specifically Robin Williams, makes the experience so much more fun because you can bounce off them.
Q: Happy Feet has a fantastically talented cast with Robin Williams, Brittany Murphy, Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman, as well as yourself. What was it like working with them?
A: I only got a chance to work with Robin Williams and Brittany Murphy. In the case of Hugh Jackman, he was ending the session as I was entering, so we kind of overlapped each other, but I got to see how he worked, which was great. The schedule of the voice recording in animation is a nebulous thing, because it depends on the schedules of the actors, so it is not always a community effort. But I was lucky because I did get to work with Brittany and Robin.
Q: Robin Williams is famous for his talent with voices. What is he like?
A: He is amazing. There seems to be a million voices in that man’s head, and they come out a lot. He is a force of nature. I grew up watching him in films, and also watching animated films that he voiced. I always marveled at his ability to create characters and to inhabit them with these different voices in this very almost schizophrenic way. To be able to work with him was an honor, and often hilarious.
Q: Did you see yourself animated as Mumble before you started voicing his part?
A: Not really. There were drawings, sketches and rough animation that gave me a sense of how the scene would play out. But it wasn’t until later, when they had already been animating for a number of months and actually a couple of years, that I got to see what the character would look like with my voice. To a certain degree you are kind of blind beyond conceptual drawing and this kind of rough animation.
Q: What is the funniest thing Mumble does in Happy Feet?
A: Probably attempt to sing. Every time he tries is quite hilarious. In fact, it’s much funnier than I had imagined, because on the day that I attempt to sing it’s my own voice sort of squawking and singing very out of key, which sounded bad in itself, but then they also digitally affected those moments to make it sound even worse, which is funny.
Q: What’s your favorite thing about Mumble?
A: My favorite thing about the character is his confidence in himself, his curiosity and determination.
Q: And which is your favorite scene in Happy Feet?
A: One of my favorite scenes is with Mumble as a child –E. G. Daily does the voice- when he is in school and everybody is singing their own different song and discovering their voice. Mumble has to sing and he can’t, so he ends up tap dancing. That scene, and any of the others with baby Mumble, is among my favorites.
Q: Do you have a favorite character, other than Mumble?
A: Probably the penguin Ramón, voiced by Robin Williams. He is hilarious and has some of the funniest dialogue in the film.
Q: What did you think of the film when you finally saw it completed?
A: It is pretty amazing. One of the things about working on an animated film is that in a way you are kept kind of in the dark of what it will ultimately look like, because you are voicing it so far in advance of the animation being completed, and often before it even starts, that it is a surprise when you see the whole film put together. When I finally saw the movie finished I was seeing a lot of those scenes for the first time, which is an amazing experience, and that is a luxury you don’t get with a normal film.
Q: Is Happy Feet for all ages?
A: I see it as a family film, entertaining for everyone. I personally love going to see animated films and this one is for the whole family.
Q: It seems that lately penguins have become very popular in movies. Why is that?
A: We started recording the voices a little over three years ago, and then March of the Penguins came out and there suddenly was a newfound love for these animals. I remember coming in to record, talking to the director and the producers about it, and we were all excited. Penguins are cute, but they also have something kind of human about them, like their social structure or their sense of love. I think they are really adorable and it is probably that simple.
Q: What makes Happy Feet unique?
A: What makes this film in particular unique -in the mass of these movies- is that it has its own style, which is actually very photo realistic. That was problematic in regards to the animating process, as it took longer and was much more difficult to make the characters distinguishable, because obviously penguins look alike so much. But it is a very realistic experience and the landscapes are almost exact photographs of Antarctica.
Q: What are your next projects?
A: Bobby is coming out in November, and it is about the day at the Ambassador Hotel that Robert Kennedy was shot. It follows various people’s lives on that day leading up to him being killed and the impact that it ultimately has on them and on America. I also finished a movie earlier this year called Day Zero, about three friends that are all drafted on the same day, which follows them for 30 days until they are meant to serve.
Q: And, what if an opportunity arrives to work in animation again?
A: I have actually just finished another one. It is a movie produced by Tim Burton called 9: a fascinating story about a post-apocalyptic world that should be coming out in 2008. I have just recorded the voice for it.
Q: How do you see your career?
A: I don’t have and never have had any kind of plan. I am always interested in trying different things, and there are a variety of reasons for why I would want to do any given thing at any given time. I like to keep the perspective relatively clear. It’s kind of nice to see what comes up and which path my life takes me on.
che ne dici di fare un attentato alla sua vita? 
