While he was embarrassed to admit it, Elijah Wood confessed during his Tuesday night appearance on “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” that he still has not finished reading the “Lord of the Rings” books.
Wood, who played Frodo in director Peter Jackson’s “LOTR” trilogy, acknowledged that this year marks the 25th anniversary of the 2001 release of “The Fellowship of the Ring.” Minutes later, Colbert, a J.R.R. Tolkien superfan, said he’d heard a “rumor” he had to ask Wood about.
“I don’t want to put you on the spot here,” Colbert prefaced. “Is it true that you still haven’t finished reading ‘Lord of the Rings’?” Wood, for his part, immediately hunched over in laughter. “To have it [come] from you, I feel almost the most embarrassed, Stephen. Because I know no one else in my life that loves Tolkien more than you,” Wood responded.
“I’ll at least say this. There’s an update: I have started them!” the actor added, noting, “And they’re incredible!” Laughing, Colbert told Wood, “I don’t want to tell you how it ends. But I’ll give you a hint: You know how it ends.”
During their conversation, Colbert also asked Wood about “Lord of the Rings” co-star Ian McKellan’s comments last year that both Frodo and Gandalf would be in Andy Serkis’ forthcoming “Rings” film, “The Hunt for Gollum.” The “Late Show” host asked Wood if he had “anything to add to the rumors,” to which Wood playfully responded, “Nothing to add.”
“Anything to subtract?” Colbert pressed. “No! Nothing to subtract, either,” Wood replied. “So we’re in a good spot. Nothing to add or subtract.” (Do with that what you will, “Lord of the Rings” fans.) McKellan and Serkis are both expected to reprise their respective “Rings” roles as Gandalf and Gollum in “The Hunt for Gollum,” while “Titanic” star Kate Winslet has reportedly been cast as the film’s female lead.
Elsewhere, Wood revealed that he and his former co-stars still keep in touch daily in a text group they’ve named “Shirefolk.” “We text each other every day,” he said. “We do the New York Times mini crossword, and so we share our scores on there.”
Colbert, naturally, asked who among the “Rings” actors usually posts the best score each day. “On that thread, generally me,” Wood boasted. As for who generally loses, Wood sheepishly added, “Sean [Astin] is really intelligent. He’s so smart… but he takes a while. He just takes his time.”
