RadioSonic Transcript

Grant Lawrence: Welcome back to Radiosonic everybody, I'm Grant Lawrence and this is CBC Radio Two. And in just a few minutes time Elijah Wood and Franka Potente will be here to talk movies and talk music and spin their favourites. And why are these two big time movie stars on our little radio show tonight? Well, stick around and you'll find out. Basically they just love music and caught wind of our show and wanted to.. heard that we have the guest dj thing happen and they wanted to come down. They'll be playing music like Gomez, Cornelius. They'll be playing some Kruder & Dorfmeister. Old stuff. Television. The Stooges, as well as Clinic and Pulp. Possibly even, if we can fit it in - what was that other one that I saw that was of interest - oh, Idlewild, I haven't heard from them. And something from NZ of course, where Elijah did all that Lord of the Rings stuff. The Clean, I think he's going to be playing for us as well.

[Cut out some stuff like the news and whatever.]

GL: Welcome all our listeners from around the world tuning in tonight on Real Audio. We have had email about this from every pocket of the globe. Little did we know. Thank goodness for computers. It is now time for the Elijah Wood - Franka Potente Escapader Hour.

[Couple of songs.]

GL: Welcome back to Radiosonic everybody, this is the Escapader Hour. My name is Grant Lawrence and this is CBC Radio Two we're going coast to coast to coast in Canada. This is a very special..
Elijah Wood: Is that three coasts? *laughs a bit*
GL: Yeah, three coasts. This is a very special Escapader Hour, might as well, yeah okay sure, it's a celebrity edition of the Escapader Hour. Joining me tonight is Franka Potente. Hi Franka.
Franka Potente: Hi Grant. How are you?
GL: Good thank you. And Elijah Wood. How are you doing?
EW: Very well, thank you.
GL: Thanks a lot for coming down.
EW: It's a pleasure. This is sort of a dream come true, actually. *laughs*
GL: Why don't you first tell us what you're doing in Vancouver, first of all.
EW: Well the two of us are actually here, making a movie, a small movie called Try Seventeen, little independent film. We've been here about a month so far.
GL: Okay. And how are you enjoying Vancouver?
EW: Love Vancouver.
GL: Yeah.
FP: Yeah. I'm actually glad we're not shooting in LA. It's a lot more.. it's less dirty air. It's more cosmopolitan. It reminds me of Berlin a lot, I have to say.
GL: Okay, great. And that's where you're from?
FP: Well, that's where I live at the moment.
GL: And Elijah you're from Iowa?
EW: Originally, yeah.
GL: And but now LA.
EW: Now Los Angeles. I've been there for like 13 years, so I essentially grew up there.
GL: So basically, people are going to be out there in Canada and going what they heck are these guys doing on Radiosonic. You know, usually it's musicians and...
EW: They just ask me that going down the street: "What are you doing in Vancouver?" *geeky laugh*
GL: Yeah and so, you two are bonefide fans of basically the kind of music that we play on the show.
EW: It so happens.
FP: Yes.
GL: And so you've brought in a whole hour plus maybe of songs that we're going to hear tonight.
EW: I could have brought so much more. *geeky laugh*
GL: So, what kind of music are we going to hear?
EW: We're going to listen to some Clean, which is actually a band from NZ that I became familiar with while doing LotR. Some Cornelius, Japanese kind of artists. Uh, Gomez. The White Stripes, which I'm sure plenty of your listeners are familiar with. Idlewild, The Hives.
GL: Great.
FP: Some, I brought some German bands. I want to make them popular here. We're going to listen to Einstuerzende Neubauten, which means "Collapsing New Buildings."
GL: Great, well, again, we're very excited to have you here.
EW: Thank you.
GL: And so, well we'll talk later. I'll ask you about making movies and all that kind of stuff a little later. But uh music now. So uh..
EW: Let's cut to the music.
GL: Let's keep rolling. So what's the first band we're going to hear?
EW: Alright, this is The Sneaker Pimps. This is actually off of their third record, which is as yet unreleased. So this is kind of an exclusive for y'all. *giggles* Pulled this off the internet. They've been around for a long time, since '97 I think was their first record. They had a female vocalist initially. The female vocalist, Kelli Dayton, left the band - creative differences - and they released another record with one of the main songwriters doing the lead vocals. This is their latest effort, to be released on Tommy Boy Records.

[Songs.]

GL: Welcome back to Radiosonic everybody, this is the Escapader Hour CBC Radio Two.
Someone - EW?: Escapades. [Said in a kind of childish voice.]
GL: I'm Grant Lawrence and that is Elijah Wood, yes I said Elijah Wood from LotR. And over here is Franka Potente. And uh, from yeah, Run Lola Run. Yes, the same. *Franka giggles* And they're here in Vancouver doing a movie called Try Seventeen. What's the movie about?
EW: Uh..
FP: It's about Elijah. Only about Elijah. *Elijah laughs* And about wet dreams and cleaning those up and having..
GL: What is it, like a teen thing?
EW: NO
FP: Cause he gets to kiss Blondie in the film.
EW: Debra Harry was actually in the film.
FP: He's making out with her in the film.
GL: Really, she was flown to Vancouver to be in the movie?
EW: She actually was here for..
FP: To kiss Elijah, yeah. *Elijah laughs*
EW: She was here for something else. It kind of worked out that she was here. So she worked with us for two days. Debra Harry was on set for two days.
FP: Just Elijah.
EW: Yes, yes.
FP: Well that's a good reason to see the movie, don't you think?
EW: It was a, I had to kind of make out with her to a certain degree because my character.. I have a fantasy about her.
GL: Okay.
EW: But the movie is basically *Franka kind of snort/laughs* a coming of age story *E and F both laugh* about my character named Jones, who moves to this house with, that's seperated into apartments and it's about his relationships with the people in the apartment building.
FP: I'm amongst those people.
EW: I'm, I'm.. Jones kind of falls in love with her character.
GL: Okay, and, this movie going to sort of come out amidst the LotR stuff right. Is it sort of hard to come maybe down from a epic..
EW: It's great. It's a relief. I think I, I've been particularly going for something a lot smaller. So I was much more interested in the smaller kind of scripts than anything. That's partly why I chose it.
GL: And uh, you're obviously, you're both music lovers and that's what we're doing tonight, you're picking this whole hour. All these music choices are yours. *Elijah makes a weird noise* So why don't you tell us what we just heard there.
EW: Uh, well, we did, we heard The Bee's, that was the last track. The Bee's are from the Isle of Wight, I believe. Pretty new band. They only have an EP out at the moment, called Punch Bag, and that was the name of the song that we heard. Before that was Brian Eno and David Byrne, from the album My Life in the Bush of Ghosts. It's a wicked kind of mixture of two very interesting artists. And before that was The Sneaker Pimps. A song called "Sick" off of Bloodsport.
GL: Okay, great. And I hear that that you have been frequenting our local independant record shops quite a bit. *scary Elijah laugh*
EW: It get's around.. I think I have.. It's something that Franka's had to become very used to because every weekend I have to have my time for CD shopping.
GL: Really?
EW: Yeah.
GL: Like how many do you buy a week?
EW: Uh...
FP: Twenty for me, ten for you. *GL makes an'is that so' type noise* Yeah, I'm lucky, I get everything.
EW: I buy her a lot of records.
GL: K, now, I don't know if you want to pick favourites but what's your top Vancouver independant record store?
EW: Oh... *FP whispers something - I think "Scratch" You know, Scratch is really good, actually. And I hadn't been to Scratch before. Because I've spent some time in Vancouver before and the last time I was in Vancouver I frequented Zulu, which moved across the street and up a block. I loved Zulu. [So do I! Clearly it's like.. meant to be or something. *g*] So I'd have to say Zulu is probably still my favourite.
FP: We just went there today.
GL: So what's next?
EW: We're actually heading into a little bit of Gomez, a band from England that I've been into for a while and this is off their new record, called In Our Gun.

[Songs.]

GL: And welcome back to Radiosonic, the Escapader Hour. I'm Grant Lawrence and we're joined by two very special guests tonight. Why don't you guys introduce yourselves.
EW: I.. uh.. Elijah Wood, over here.
FP: Franka Potente over here.
GL: And thank you so much for being here and that was a great track.
EW: Yes, Cornelius. *F laughs, then so does E* YES! Cornelius. I was actually in Japan for the first time recently and I wanted to try and see if Cornelius was playing or
FP: At the Japanese [something.. EW's voice covers it]
EW: .. see some Japanese bands. Yeah he's Japanese. And uh, Buffalo Daughter, I had a friend to go hang out with who kinda hooked me up with hanging out with Buffalo Daughter but I never did anything about it. I had like Sugar's number and I didn't call her.
GL: But you're a Buffalo Daughter fan?
EW: Yeah, love Buffalo Daughter, absolutely. And the new records very strange and I still haven't gotten into it quite yet. But Cornelius is wicked. And before that was Gomez, off of their new record.
GL: We were talking about how we, by fluke, both saw them..
EW: Around the same time.
GL: Around the same time. New York City. I think 1998 for a CMJ [? I think..] I might be maybe a year off. For CMJ and were both bored by them and we both now appreciate them.
EW: Yes. Yeah. I was even more bored, actually, when I heard their first single and I thought umm.. no. And it actually took me a good two or three years to come around. But uh, they're fantastic.
GL: Now, I want to ask you, I've just been looking over some of your old bios here and there. Seen a couple of weird things. Is it true that you both fence?
*Elijah laughs*
GL: Is there any truth to that whatsoever?
EW: He's done his research.
FP: I used to fence.
GL: You used to fence.
FP: I don't do it anymore.
EW: I used to fence as well.
GL: So is that just a complete fluke..
EW: Total fluke.
GL: that you're now friends and I'm mean this is kind of..
FP: Friends and fence and friends
GL: Fence and friends. It's a new sitcom!
FP: We should fence together..
EW: *In dorky announcer type voice* It's 'Fence and Friends'
FP: Fencing friends.
GL: But so uh,. you fenced in your own separate lives..
FP: I fenced in Munich actually.
EW: What year? Maybe that intersected?
FP: Oh, um. Probably seven years ago.
EW: Uh... yeah.
FP: When I was 20. I don't know how old you were seven years ago when I was 20.
EW: Yeah, that's close to what I was [something..] as well.
FW: *laughs* That's close to what..
GL: It's kind of an aristocratic sport, isn't it fencing.
EW: It's very good for the posture.
GL: And so, have you ever fenced each other?
EW: No. We're thinking of taking lessons again.
FP: Yes. In LA we'll start the fencing thing.
GL: So you're chatting with each other and then one day one of you just said "You know, I really love to fence." And then you said..
All: So do I! *laughs*
FP: I don't know, I think we had, I think it was raining and we had an umbrella and one of us was doing fenching movements with the umbrella and this is how it came up.
GL: I see.
EW: Is that your story?
*Franka laughs*
EW: She's just made up a complete lie.
FP: No!
EW: But it sounds good.
GL: Alright, well.
FP: I was.. *Elijah laughs* ..whatever. I'm not going to fence with you now, anymore. Fence yourself. *Franka laughs*
GL: Is it true Elijah that you're going to shows with the kid from the Osbornes?
EW: Uh,. yeah. My sister actually hung out with the Osborne family before I got to know them. But Jack and Kelly I know quite well.
GL: Are you surprised by the rampant sucess of this tv show?
EW: No, because they're incredibly fascinating. Um, I'm not surprised. They're funny. They're endearing. And the fact that they have their own show so that people can get a look at them is absolutely brilliant. And I'm not surpised they're so sucessful. It's fantastic. But strange, I'm sure, for them.
GL: I was mentioning earlier to you before we started doing this, that I'm picking up what I thought was a NZ accent but you were saying its more British.
EW: Probably because I spent so much time, well I spent so much time in NZ, but mostly around, you know, the British actors. So yeah, probably pieces of NZ as well.
GL: I saw you on the Academy Award there with uh, is he sir yet?
EW: Sir Ian McKellen. They apparently flashed to me 15 or 20 times, which is really bizarre. I don't know what I was doing up front.
GL: I can't believe.. I was sh..
FP: You were looking good, that's why. *Elijah laughs*
GL: I was pretty choked that he didn't win.
EW: Yeah, so was he, I think.
FP: They'll win next year. Next year.
GL: Oh right, cause he's got like three shots at it.
FP: Yes.
EW: Yeah, he does.
GL: Who was that guy with him.
EW: Uh, that's his boyfriend, who's actually from NZ as well.
GL: Oh really. Everyone wanted to know, 'who's that guy?'
EW: "Who's that guy?"
FP: Well, they were holding hands. It's probably not his brother.. or his uncle.
GL: Could've been his son.
FP: I don't know.
GL: Looked like a fairly young man.
EW: Yeah, that was his boyfriend. And his boyfriend is from NZ. So he actually met him on the film and imported him *GL and FP laugh* to London.
GL: Okay, how about music from NZ. You were down, how long were you down there for?
EW: I was down in NZ for 15 to 16 months.
GL: And you have to go back, right?
EW: I have to go back for like..
GL: For like another month?
EW: ..two, three weeks of pick ups for film two.
GL: So you're down there. You obviously, wherever you are, you discover music wherever you go and NZ was no different. So you got a NZ track for us, lined up
EW: We have a track here by a band called The Clean, which was apparently highly influential to The Pixies. The Pixes have cited them as an influence. They're part of a sound in NZ called the Dunedin sound. There is a place in NZ called Dunedin, and during the mid to late 80s there were quite a lot of bands to come out of Dunedin, and this is one of them.

[Songs.]

GL: Welcome back, this is Radiosonic on CBC Radio Two, the Escapader Hour, a very special one because we have two film stars with us today. Elijah Wood from LotR *elijah makes a musical noise which I can't possibly explain* and the first movie I ever saw you in, The Good Son.
EW: Oh, right. With Maculey Culkin.
GL: With Little Home Alone, yeah.
EW: *laughs* Little Home Alone.
GL: And I think I also saw you in Internal Affairs, which was a couple years earlier.
EW: You know, I didn't actually get to see that until I was 15 or 16.
FP: That's a movie with Richard Gere?
EW: Yeah.
GL: Yeah, yeah.
FP: He's in there for two seconds. I saw it. I saw you too.
EW: But I wasn't actually old enough to see the movie when it came out.
GL: And what were you like?
FP: He doesn't say anything...
EW: Eight.
GL: You were eight.
FP: ..he just gets hugged by his mother in the film, I think.
EW: And I said "No don't. Stop that."
FP: Really.. *laughs*
GL: And Franka Potente is here from Germany. And we're going to get to some German music in just a second. Because, Franka you've been sitting her so patiently as Elijah..
FP: Oh, I have nothing to say, I'm very boring.
GL: Elijah has picked most of the music we've.. in fact.. pretty much all of it since we've heard so far this evening.
FP: That's okay.
GL: What don't you tell us what we heard in that last set.
EW: That last set was uh, the last song we heard was Idlewild off of 100 Broken Windows. They're a band from Scotland. They're pretty wicked. Uh, before that was The White Stripes, off of their new record. And before that was The Clean, which is a NZ band. So if you weren't sitting down I'm sure that probably knocked you on your ass that set. *laughs*
GL: Yes, I would think so. And again, a little more rocking. The White Stripes we were talking about them, out of Detroit, and many things are happening for them, they're exploding all over the place. They were on Letterman. And all this stuff.
EW: It's unbelievable.
GL: People are calling Detroit the new Seattle, which I'm sure uh..
EW: We've got bands like The Von Bondies now coming out and..
GL: I heard that you two went down to see them in Vancouver.
EW: At The Pic. [Piccadilly Pub. Here's a picture from that show. [Of the band, not Elijah. (Thought I should clarify.)]
FP: So how was that show?
EW: That was a great show.
GL: Yeah, what'd you think of that club?
EW: Uh.. narrow, or long.
GL: Yeah, yeah.
FP: Is that the one we could smoke at?
EW: Yes, well that was a bonus, we could smoke there.
GL: You both smoke.
FP: Yeah.
GL: And you're just put off by this Canadian movement to ban smoking everywhere.
EW: But it's not as bad as LA. It's actually better than LA. LA is much worse.
GL: Oh really.
EW: So it's a little more of a relief.
FP: Germany is much better.
GL: Oh yeah. Europe, forget about it. Everybody's puffing.
EW: Oh it's great.
FP: Yeah.
GL: Now Mar, in the booth here, our AP, she was like "You smoke?"
EW: Yeah, I'm sorry. She's against it. I really enjoy it.
GL: Do you get heat..
FP: Elijah has great skin, you wouldn't think he smokes like he does.
GL: Do you get heat from your fans over your smoking?
EW: No, not so much and if I do I don't really pay attention to it.
GL: Just go with it.
EW: Yeah.
GL: Okay, so now over to you Franka, just give people a little bit of background. *Franka laughs* Run Lola Run
FP: Run Lola Run
GL: Everybody's seen it, everybody knows you from that. But of course, your first US film was Blow. That's correct? With Johnny Depp?
FP: Correct. With Johnny Depp.
GL: But you've also music in your background, because - now correct me if I'm wrong - did you compose the theme to Run Lola Run?
FP: I wish I did. No, I didn't compose it. I just basically sang three songs for that.
GL: Okay.
FP: I got an MTV award for it.
GL: Oh really? Congratulations.
FP: MTV Europe.
GL: So you did three songs on that soundtrack?
FP: I think three, yeah.
GL: We gotta dig that up. I gotta find it.
FP: Yeah. Try and find it. Play "Wish" though, that's my favourite of the three.
GL: Now you have some German music for us to play, so..
FP: *Franka laughs* Well, I'm glad you enjoy that wonderful music that Elijah got because the next song from Einsturzende Neubauten, which means - what did I say? - Collapsing New Buildings
GL: Collapsing New Buildings. And Elijah you had some metaphor..
EW: It's just anti-establishment.
FP: Yeah well. Because it's awful. It's very progressive. But it's loud and weird. It's I guess what we call Industrial. Actually, a very very very important band. Didn't only influence German bands, also they had connections to London, English music. Besides music - you will get an idea when you listen to it - they did a lot of spoken word, all sorts of arts. Very influential.
GL: We'll hear them and a couple more. Then we'll chat some more. This is Franka Potente's picks on The Escapader Hour, Radiosonic CBC Radio Two.

[Song that starts with a barking dog. Then some other songs. In my not very humble opinion, the third song in this set kicks at least 15 different kinds of ass. LOVE IT.]

GL: And welcome back to Radiosonic everybody, I'm Grant Lawrence, and just enjoying some German beats there. If you've just turned in, it's a very special show tonight. We have with us Elijah Wood from LotR and Franka Potente from a number of movies. Lo.. Run Lola Run, etc. And that set was put together by you. So why don't you tell us what we heard there.
FP: Well, as I said we started out with Einsturzende Neubauten, some Industrial '80s German influence important band. After that is a band that I loved in the 80s Phillip Boa and the Voodoo Club.
GL: Yeah, we were rocking out to that.
FP: They have an American name, but they're actually German. I don't know if they have an accent to you, they don't to me.
EW: No, they sound American to me.
GL: I heard a little bit of Euro-feel to it. A little Nina type..
EW: Yeah, there was.
FP: And uh, Phillip Boa and the Voodoo Club. "Lunatics Over Brighton" is from their Copperfield album, in case somebody is inspired and wants to buy it. You can buy it here, I bought it here. And Kruder and Dorfmeister. So three very different..
EW: Which, yeah.
FP: What about them?
EW: No, no no. I was just going to say Kruder and Dorfmeister, which is probably familiar to a lot of people.
FP: Probably the most familiar.
GL: Oh yeah, they do a lot of remixes and uh..
EW: Well, they put out that K&D Sessions, which is pretty unbelievable.
GL: Yeah, good cross-section of German music. So thank you very much.
FP: You're very welcome.
GL: Well listen, now, we mentioned that you're a singer. Are you continuing that?
FP: I don't consider myself a singer, even though some people made me sing for Run Lola Run.
EW: *laughs* They made you?
FP: That's basically how it happened.
EW: They threw you into a room.
FP: I had no desire whatsoever. In acting school I did take classical singing classes. But for Run Lola Run they didn't have money to pay a singer and I would sometimes come by the studio. And they were like 'do you mind singing a layout? ["A layout"? Dunno. Can't tell.] We don't have anybody who can sing it. Can you do it really quick?' And I did it. Didn't require much, it's more like spoken word. And they were like 'Oh that sounds great. Do you mind if we put it on the CD?' and I was like 'No that's cool. Sure.' And they mixed it a little, shook it a little and it's basically what the outcome was.
GL: And now, Elijah, now correct me if I'm wrong, are you not also a singer of some kind?
FP: He sings pretty well, I think.
GL: Are you taking singing lessons? Am I just on a totally wrong track here?
EW: No, I.. well yeah.. no..
FP: You're taking singing lessons?
EW: No. No.
GL: That's incorrect.
EW: Well, I did. I did take singing lessons for a little while because actually, I actually auditioned for that Baz Lurhmann movie..
GL: Oh, Moulin Rouge.
EW: Moulin Rouge. I'd auditioned for it and they required people to sing. So I went and did a little voice coaching and all that. And uh, yeah. That was about it.
GL: So no rock star aspirations..
EW: But I'm actually on the soundtrack to North, the movie I did called North. I'm on the soundtrack to that. And I sing a portion of "If I were a rich man" because my character in the movie is on stage and does a little performance for school and they ended up recording me for the soundtrack. *Franka laughs* So yeah, there's my singing venture.
GL: Now see a lot of these rumours come from the web. That brings me to the question of who is Marcus Neidler? [Don't know if I spelled that right, not going to check.]
FP: Huh?
EW: Marcus Neidler?
GL: You ever heard that name before?
EW: That sounds kinda familiar.. why?
GL: He seems to run elijah-wood.com. Any idea who this person is?
EW: No.
GL: Okay, is this just a fan site?
EW: Yeah. [He actually makes one of those noises that means yes but is impossible to spell.]
GL: There's quite a few of them, eh?
EW: elijah-wood?
GL: elijah-wood.com
EW: Yeah, no. I don't personally know him.
GL: I thought maybe could he be a friend.
FP: I don't actually have an official website. In fact, there was a website that was calling itself offical, which was not. But I don't really believe in having an official website. [Kinda burps.] There's something.. the idea of self-promotion.. yes I burbed, excuse me.. the idea.. *FP and GL laugh* that's right.. the idea of self-promotion kind of freaks me out.
GL: Well, I'll do some promotion for you. You may be wondering what these two people are doing on Radiosonic
EW: What are we doing in Vancouver of all places?
FP: I don't know.
GL: Working on this movie, Try 17.
EW: Going to the hockey games.
GL: Also with, who was it.. Mandy Moore. I had never heard of her. You guys are like 'what the hell, you haven't heard of Mandy Moore?'
EW: That's okay.
GL: Our listeners will jump all over me for not knowing Mandy Moore for sure. [Actually Grant, they probably won't.]
FP: She did the song *sings* 'A walk to remember..' *laughs*
EW: For the movie. There you go! Cause Margaret sings it at work.
FP: Our make-up woman sings that song.
EW: A walk to remember. Which is a movie that Mandy is in as well. *Franka sings it again and laughs*
GL: I just want to reiterate that you have.. you guys have picked all the songs that we're playing tonight.
EW: Yeah, I brought my big old CaseLogics with me.
GL: It's a real eclectic set list and this next band we're going to get into, I love them too.
EW: It's really weird. Well they released, it's interesting, they got a lot of press in England and they released a compilation there, called Your New Favourite Band, which is a compilation of the first three records.
GL: We're going to start rocking in this set.
EW: Let's rock with The Hives.

[Songs.]

GL: Wow. That was a great set. So welcome back folks, it's The Escapader Hour, wrapping up here an extended Escapader Hour. We're here with Elijah Wood and Franka Potente, I love saying that name.
EW: Is it..
FP: Say it again, I like to hear it.
GL: Franka Potente. Half German, half Italian. Is that right? Well,.. the name of it is.
FP: Well, 1/16th Italian. It's a German-Italian name, yes.
GL: Yes. And it's been a great thrill having you guys here. We really appreciate it.
EW: It's been a thrill to do this.
FP: I think so too.
GL: For the kids of Canada, playing all the great tunes. So Elijah, why don't you tell us what we just heard in that set.
EW: We heard some music from New York, some music from England, and The Hives - where are they from? - they're from Sweden, aren't they?
GL: You got it.
EW: So, the last band was Clinic, a little band from I guess Liverpool. Not at all like The Beatles. They're actually being compared to Radiohead, as the sort of, the kind of more recent Radiohead, which is interesting. Very atmospheric.
GL: Yeah, they seem a little more like Indie Rock. Did you, have you seen them live?
EW: Clinic? I haven't. They just played Vancouver, I completely missed out.
GL: They were in Toronto a little while ago. Apparently they were like surgical masks.
EW: Yeah, that's their thing. And in all the publicity shots: surgical masks. Before that was Television. They are sort of being cited as an influence, as are The Stooges to a certain degree, to the band we all love, The Strokes. The sort of poster boy band.
GL: In fact sometimes not very, like people say, "Strokes? Ah, just listen to Television."
EW: Exactly. Television's great though, and that's a wicked track. Before that was The Stooges, Iggy Pop's early band. They're just brilliant. It's just pure rock power energy.
GL: Franka and I were shaking it with the hand claps. *Franka laughs* That's excellent.
EW: So good. And before that was The Hives. Your new favourite band.
GL: Yeah, "Die, Allright."
EW: They're billiant.
GL: That's what we heard, wasn't it? Was it "Die, Allright?"
EW: "Die, Allright." Yeah. So awesome.
GL: Great track. So listen, we're just about out of time, as I said. We want to thank you again for coming in and doing this.
EW: Thank you.
FP: Thank you for the invitation.
GL: It was a very eclectic mix. Really appreciated that you know what you're talking about.
FP: I don't.
EW: Well I love music, so passionate about it. *Franka snort/laughs* *Elijah giggles*
GL: And you're all over the place, and you do, you have like you're here in Vancouver, I guess you've been here for about a month, making the film Try Seventeen. When are we going to see that in the theatres?
EW: Probably sometime next year. I heard a rumour..
FP: Summer I would guess. No?
EW: Well, nah, I think they might wait to release it, until after Sundance. They might want to take it to Sundance. That's my inclination, I could be wrong.
GL: And you get to make out with Debbie Harry. This is the big selling point. With Blondie. That's amazing.
EW: And Mandy Moore for those who know her.
GL: What's the age difference between..?
FP: And me.
GL: Oh and you too?
EW: Yeah, in the movie, yeah. My character, I didn't realize it, but he gets a lot of action.
GL: Do you make out with Mandy Moore, too?
EW: Yeah.
GL: Wow, you're all over the place.
EW: Yeah, all over the place.
GL: Okay, and LotR. What a trilogy to be involved in. [Not a trilogy. Dumbass.]
EW: And The Two Towers is coming out again, so that's going to be great.
GL: So, I don't know like, what it must be like to sign onto a project like that where you're, you're just set. I mean, I think the movie is pretty great.
EW: It's awesome. I mean, I'm biased but I can still see it as a fan and I think it's unbelievable. It overwhelmed me.
GL: So how did you get that part? I heard there's an interesting story about a home movie or something.
EW: Yeah, I did my own audition tape because I didn't really like the idea of going into an office and being shot against a white background. Plus I knew that they were looking primarily for an English actor so ... [tape cuts out here] ... barefoot, I had the hobbit outfit.
GL: Now, is it really your hair or did they put a wig on?
EW: In the film it's a wig. [Thank god. Imagine having to live with that mullet cut for over a year of your life.] And prosthetic ears and prosthetic feet.
GL: What about the other hobbits? Did you get along with those guys?
EW: Those guys are like brothers to me now.
GL: Like, what's the guy, you know the guy with the fam.. Patty Duke's son?
EW: Sean Astin.
GL: Yeah, Sean Astin, from The Goonies.
EW: He's like family. I mean, I spent, you know.. Going and seeing the movie, it's an incredible experience for people and they go through a certain journey. But making the movie for me was more of a life experience than a filmic one.
GL: I can imagine because there is three of them.
EW: Yeah.
GL: That's amazing. And I guess, I heard that you got a tattoo with your fellow hobbits.
EW: That's right.
GL: Like, some number, or something?
EW: Yeah, Elvish number nine. Stands for the nine members of the fellowship.
FP: Did you get two towers somewhere as well, or just..?
EW: The two towers? No. I was thinking about getting a scar actually over my left breast cause um, Frodo gets stabbed by a Morgul blade and the wound never fully heals.
GL: What in the first one?
EW: In the first one, by the ringwraith. And I thought, wouldn't it be cool, to get a tattoo of just a simple sort of scratch that will never go away.
GL: And even more interesting is you actually have The Ring.
EW: The Ring.
GL: And so, what's the story there. How did you? Did they just give it? Was it lying around the set, you picked it up? *Franka laughs*
EW: It was a gift, cause you know, we used it every day, so the ring was kind of commonplace.
GL: Was there only one?
EW: There were a few. And varying sizes as well. But they gave me one that had been used I guess the most. And they gave it to me after the last set of pick ups that we did for the first movie. So I went back, did some extra footage and stuff for the first movie while they were still in post. I went to the editing room to say goodbye to Peter and Fran and they were like 'Oh, we've got a gift for you.' And so I opened this box and there was this kind of a wooden box, this really beautiful wooden box, and I thought 'that's cool.' And they were like 'No, open the box.' So I opened it up and there was a pouch inside with the ring on the chain. So I have the one ring.
GL: And where do you keep that?
EW: Hidden away, actually, I don't take that out too often.
GL: It's valuable. Well, Elijah Wood and Franka Potente. We thank you for being here on CBC Radio tonight.
EW: Thank you so much, it's been so much fun.
FP: Thank you.
GL: It has been a lot of fun. And uh..
EW: I hope all of you out there have enjoyed the music.
GL: Yeah and we'll look for the two of you in Try Seventeen in a few months or so or whenever it happens to hit the screen.
EW: Whenever it happens.
GL: And you're going to leave us with
GL and EW: One Last Song
EW: That's right. This is Pulp, off of Intro, which is a kind of - I don't know - it's a weird record for them. It's kind of got a lot of synth in it. It's a sort of synth poppy kind of record. More of an EP than anything. This is called "Styloroc (Nites Of Suburbia)" and it's just a wicked song.
GL: K, well thank you two.
EW: Thank you.
FP: Thank you. Danke.
GL: Thank you, you two. That's what I mean to say. Okay, bye bye.
EW: Bye.

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