Elijah Wood went to great lengths in order to land the role of Frodo Baggins in Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy. This included making an over-the-top audition tape that no one even asked for.
Wood made this intriguing reveal in a recent chat with GQ that saw him breaking down his most iconic characters for the magazine’s YouTube channel.
According to Wood, his original read for Frodo took place in the casting office, which was the requirement for all actors that wanted to be part of Fellowship of the Ring, the first Lord of the Rings movie. After wrapping up the audition, he was driving home and realized he needed to do something special if he wanted to separate himself from other candidates.
Wood ended up hiring a vocal coach and then recruited some of his friends to help him put together an elaborate audition tape.
“We went out to the woods in Griffith Park and shot two of the audition sequences there and one at my house,” Wood revealed.
He gave the tape he made to the casting office, hoping they would forward it to director Peter Jackson. They did, and it turned out that Jackson liked it very much.
Wood landed the part of Frodo as a result, and it became the one that defined his acting career.
You can check out the whole story in the video below.
