MONKEY BUSINESS

From Mordor to music mogul: Elijah Wood's long, strange trip.

With his new record label, Simian, and a new compilation for iTunes, Elijah Wood is keeping busy. Oh, and he still acts, too.

We caught up with the actor-slash-DJ-slash-music exec and wrote all about it in the July issue of NYLON Guys. Read the excerpts to learn why we love the guy, and then pick up a copy (or sneak a peek at your boyfriend’s subscription) to get the rest.

He admits that he’s not good at everything: “I’ve always wanted to be involved in music in some way, but I don’t really play any instruments…Unfortunately, I don’t really have the talent.”

He’s intimidated by some of the characters he plays: “I think that the [Iggy Pop biopic] project will see the light of day…I’m really excited about it, it just scares the shit out of me.”

He geeks out over bands: “It’s Wayne Coyne’s nephew’s band, and the music is psychedelic, experimental, really beautiful.”

He doesn’t always do his research: “Knowing that Charlie Kaufman wrote the script [to Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind], I almost didn’t have to read it. I was like, ‘Sign me up.’”

But he also likes to challenge himself: “As an actor, I’m just looking for something different than anything I’ve done, something that’s challenging.”

INTERVIEW BY PAULINE O'CONNOR



This story was published on June 18, 2009.