Elijah's away with the fairies

With his nest of chocolate hair, pool-blue eyes and elfin mien, Wood does seem the ideal candidate to play a hobbit (Jackson cast real actors and digitally shrunk them). But the role didn't fall in his lap. When he first heard, on the set of The Faculty, that the film was being cast, he realised he would have to come up with a singular audition to assure his place in the brotherhood.

'I didn't want to do it the standard way, to go into the casting office where there's a white background and the video camera rolls. It wouldn't have conveyed my passion for it.' Instead he made a beeline for a Los Angeles costume store, picked up 'knee pants and a flowy shirt' and went into the Hollywood Hills to film scenes with the help of friends. He also had to prove he could do an English accent. 'We knew we had to find an actor of great depth of range to take an audience on a journey through three movies,' Jackson told The Hollywood Reporter. 'It was clear from the moment that we met Elijah that we had found Frodo Baggins. He has an enormous natural ability to draw an audience in and the dramatic depth to hold them there.'

From his first major role (1990's Avalon), Wood commanded attention with a set of large, thoughtful eyes under brows that could wrinkle sadly or leap in spirited fashion. Over the years, audiences have witnessed his limbs lengthen, his face develop into adolescence, and his evolution into an actor. 'The signs are there that he alone among today's hot child stars will also have a career as an adult,' predicted Entertainment Weekly in 1994. 'I do believe that Elijah has an extraordinary talent that will carry him through 30, 40 years. He really is a star of the future,' gushed Rob Reiner, who directed him in North. For his part, Wood is sincerely appreciative of the career he's had. 'I feel so fortunate because it's all happened so gradually. I've been able to get used to changes as they come along, as opposed to a sudden thing that becomes difficult.'

One disadvantage to growing up in the public spotlight is the plethora of archival evidence available, and interviews littered with embarrassing adolescent gaffes. Such as the time, in 1996, when a 15-year-old Wood was quoted on the thorny subject of the opposite sex. 'My older brother told me, "Stay away from women!" and I'm taking it to heart. I'm staying clear. It's kind of like a museum where they have those really cool paintings. They're behind the glass and you can look at them, but you can't touch them.' Reminded of those comments, Wood looks almost nauseous. 'Dude, I regret that comment. I read that quote recently and I don't know what was going through my head.'

Born in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, in the middle of the Corn Belt, Wood had the type of unfailingly wholesome upbringing that is light years away from the Drew Barrymore story. Perhaps the only discordant note, and it's hardly earth-shattering in an age when celebrities like Anne Heche are compelled to write books detailing their sexual abuse as children, is that he rarely speaks to his father. Asked about the relationship, Wood becomes quiet and reticent. The family split up in 1986 when it looked as if Elijah might make a go of acting. His mother, Debbie Wood, steered her son's career, uprooting the family to Los Angeles, although she is far from a Kit Culkin-style calculator. 'I have ultimate respect for my mom,' says Wood. 'She's responsible for me being here today in every possible way and I owe it all to her. As I got older I obviously took more responsibility of my own.'

His first job was a Paula Abdul video. 'Which, by the way, was directed by David Fincher [Fight Club]!' he points out. As the youngest person on set, a child actor who had private tutors for most of his life, Wood says he was fortunate that few of his colleagues tried to dispense guidance. 'I can think back on some experiences where they could have easily treated me as the youth, but they often treated me as an equal - which was great. One of the best pieces of advice was from Mel Gibson, who said, "You can always do better," and I think that's very true, not just for acting but for life.'

Tolkien fans might say the same. Some of the Oxford professor's devout followers might be scandalised to learn that Wood never actually finished reading The Lord of the Rings. He looks sheepish talking about it. 'Strike me down! Maybe it's sacrilege. Certainly the fans would think so and I completely understand. If I had read it, I don't think it would have changed anything. I was so overwhelmed by being immersed in the world once I got to New Zealand. I was absolutely surrounded by Middle-earth and Tolkien's world.'

In the year since the film wrapped, Wood has collaborated with Ed Burns, New York's new Woody Allen, on a project called Ash Wednesday. In it, Wood plays Burns' younger brother, a fugitive who's murdered two men, and returns home years later to reclaim his life. It's Wood's first grown-up role, something which pleases him immensely. 'Yeah! It's cool, it was totally wicked. I have a wife and a child as well. There are more things like that coming along. I'm getting closer and closer, hopefully, God willing, to being perceived as an adult actor, or just simply an actor - to shedding this child actor thing.'

Not so fast. I can't resist asking Wood, who reputedly earns more than a $1 million a movie, whether he is still on an allowance of $10 a week. He smiles painfully. 'In fact,' he says, 'I don't have an allowance.' Glad we cleared that up.