Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#267
of 909177 performers
Top 1%
Elijah Wood represents the rare performer whose career became more ambitious with every decade — 38 years in, and Elijah is still choosing the harder script.
The essay
Our editors on the work, the patterns and the reason this body of work holds together.
Elijah Wood appears in 44 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without Elijah. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is the clearest case: a film rated 9.2 by our editors, where the performance carries weight the script only implies.
The recognisable elements are versatility, transformation, quiet performance. Watch two of these films back to back and the method separates from the material — the same instrument, tuned differently for action, fantasy, adventure. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with Andy Serkis, Matt Bettinelli-Olpin, Osgood Perkins and others, Elijah Wood helped set a standard other performers now audition against. Awards bodies have been slower than the work, which is usually the sign of a career built on choices rather than campaigns.
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004) as Patrick · The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003) as Frodo · The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002) as Frodo
Career snapshot
Ranked #267 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
44
1989–2027
Career length
38 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
9.2
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Average Nutevio score
6.5
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
8.5
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
Most frequent director
Peter Jackson
4 films together
Longest collaboration
4×
With Peter Jackson
Most common genre
Drama
21 titles
Average runtime
1h 48m
Across catalogue work
Golden Globe wins
—
Unknown
Nutevio metric
Ten weighted categories, applied identically to everyone we cover.
Nutevio Performer Score
7.1
out of 10
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio metric
Cultural impact and legacy, measured separately from craft — how far the work travelled once it left the cinema.
Nutevio Influence Score
7.3
out of 10
A quieter influence — felt inside the films rather than across the industry.
How far the work travelled past the people who saw it first.
What survives once the release-week conversation has burned off.
Institutional acknowledgement, weighted but never decisive.
Years of chosen, relevant work rather than years merely employed.
Statuettes, read as evidence rather than verdict.
Roles named without needing the film named alongside them.
Directors who wrote parts because this performer existed.
The reading other performers now have to answer.
Actor DNA
A fingerprint derived from the roles themselves — register, range and the kind of film they carry.
The shape of a career
Every performance plotted in time. Hover a point to read the title behind it.
Peak years
Where the scores, the awards and the sheer volume of work agree with each other.
Best decade
1980s
7.9 average MV
The 1980s are where the work and the material meet. Back to the Future Part II — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
1980s
7.9
Across 1 catalogue film in this decade, our scores never drop below the level a career is judged on.
Highest average IMDb rating
1980s
7.8
The public agrees most strongly about this stretch — useful context, and occasionally a decade behind our own reading.
Most awarded era
1980s
0 Academy Awards
Statuettes for the films themselves, which is the honest way to read an ensemble career. Back to the Future Part II.
Most productive era
2000s
14 films
The busiest stretch of the catalogue — volume that reads as appetite rather than availability.
Range, mapped
Genres down the side, decades across the top. Warmer cells mean stronger titles.
| Genre | 1980s | 1990s | 2000s | 2010s | 2020s |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Drama | — | 6.49 films | 7.56 films | 5.84 films | 6.52 films |
| Action | — | 6.41 film | 7.75 films | 6.15 films | 3.02 films |
| Thriller | — | 6.81 film | 6.93 films | 6.06 films | 7.02 films |
| Comedy | 7.91 film | 5.11 film | 6.33 films | 6.07 films | 6.54 films |
| Sci-Fi | — | — | 9.21 film | — | — |
| Crime | — | 6.41 film | 7.03 films | 5.92 films | 6.61 film |
| Romance | — | 6.51 film | 8.13 films | 5.72 films | — |
| Horror | — | 6.82 films | — | 6.03 films | 6.82 films |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
First film in Nutevio
1989Back to the Future Part II
Where our catalogue meets this career, as Video Game Boy.
Career peak
2003The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
Weighing billing against the film's own quality, this is the point where everything aligned at once.
First Nutevio masterpiece · Highest rated performance
2004Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
The first film here to clear 9.0 on our scale — a threshold fewer than one film in ten reaches. 9.2 on the Nutevio scale, the top of the catalogue for this performer.
Most recent film
2027The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum
The current state of the argument, as Frodo Baggins.
Our order
Every performance in the catalogue, ordered by Nutevio Score.
Every title
Filter by genre or decade, and compare any two titles side by side.
44 of 44 films
as Frodo
Directed by Peter Jackson
as Frodo
Directed by Peter Jackson
as Frodo
Directed by Peter Jackson
as Patrick
Directed by Michel Gondry
as Patrick
Directed by Michel Gondry
From the library
Every movie and TV credit stored for this name in the Nutevio catalogue — filter by media, role or sort by rating.
Showing 24 of 63 titles · 66 total credits · active 1989–2027
The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum
2027 · Frodo Baggins
Ready or Not: Here I Come
2026 · The Lawyer
Among Us
2026 · TV · Green (voice)
The Monkey
2025 · Ted
The Toxic Avenger Unrated
2025 · Fritz Garbinger, his Creepy Brother
Rabbit Trap
2025 · Producer
I Love LA
2025 · TV · Elijah Wood
E.B. White's Charlotte's Web
2025 · TV · Adult Wilbur (voice)
Bookworm
2024 · Strawn Wise · Executive Producer
I'm a Virgo
2023 · TV · Studious Guy
No Man of God
2021 · Bill Hagmaier · Producer
Yellowjackets
2021 · TV · Walter
Archenemy
2020 · Producer
Seven Stages to Achieve Eternal Bliss
2020 · Producer
Color Out of Space
2020 · Producer
Come to Daddy
2019 · Norval Greenwood
Daniel Isn't Real
2019 · Producer
Mandy
2018 · Producer
Star Wars Resistance
2018 · TV · Jace Rucklin (voice)
I Don't Feel at Home in This World Anymore
2017 · Tony
The Trust
2016 · David Waters
The Greasy Strangler
2016 · Producer
Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency
2016 · TV · Todd Brotzman
The Last Witch Hunter
2015 · Dolan 37th
The defining work
#1
Frodo
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)
Performance score9.2
The performance the rest of the career is read through. Frodo gives Elijah Wood a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
Frodo
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002)
Performance score9.1
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Frodo is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
Frodo
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)
Performance score9.1
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Frodo is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
Patrick
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)
Performance score9.0
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Patrick is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movieStart here
A guided path through the work, ordered so each film explains the next.
Best entry point
as Frodo
Start here. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King is the clearest statement of what Elijah Wood does — accessible, 201 minutes, and rated 8.8 by our editors. No context required.
Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet Elijah at the most legible performance, then move forward in time so each film reads as a response to the one before it rather than a repetition of it.
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)
Same director as The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, different problem to solve. Watching them in order shows how much of the effect was the collaboration.
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002)
Same director as The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, different problem to solve. Watching them in order shows how much of the effect was the collaboration.
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)
A deliberate change of key after The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)
Same director as Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, different problem to solve. Watching them in order shows how much of the effect was the collaboration.
Company kept
The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.
Peter Jackson
Director
4 films together
Notably The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
Robert Rodriguez
Director
2 films together
Notably The Faculty
Michel Gondry
Director
2 films together
Notably Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
George Miller
Director
2 films together
Notably Happy Feet
Macon Blair
Director
2 films together
Notably I Don't Feel at Home in This World Anymore
Robert Zemeckis
Director
1 film together
Notably Back to the Future Part II
Mike Figgis
Director
1 film together
Notably Internal Affairs
Richard Donner
Director
1 film together
Notably Radio Flyer
Steve Miner
Director
1 film together
Notably Forever Young
Stephen Sommers
Director
1 film together
Notably The Adventures of Huck Finn
Rob Reiner
Director
1 film together
Notably North
Jon Avnet
Director
1 film together
Notably The War
Ang Lee
Director
1 film together
Notably The Ice Storm
Mimi Leder
Director
1 film together
Notably Deep Impact
Liev Schreiber
Director
1 film together
Notably Everything Is Illuminated
Lexi Alexander
Director
1 film together
Notably Green Street Hooligans
Frank Miller
Director
1 film together
Notably Sin City
Emilio Estevez
Director
1 film together
Notably Bobby
Joel Coen
Director
1 film together
Notably Paris Je T'aime
Álex de la Iglesia
Director
1 film together
Notably The Oxford Murders
Lee Toland Krieger
Director
1 film together
Notably Celeste & Jesse Forever
Wayne Kramer
Director
1 film together
Notably Pawn Shop Chronicles
Breck Eisner
Director
1 film together
Notably The Last Witch Hunter
Osgood Perkins
Director
1 film together
Notably The Monkey
Matt Bettinelli-Olpin
Director
1 film together
Notably Ready or Not: Here I Come
Andy Serkis
Director
1 film together
Notably The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum
Mark Ruffalo
Actor
1 film together
Notably Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Tom Wilkinson
Actor
1 film together
Notably Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Jim Carrey
Actor
1 film together
Notably Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Kate Winslet
Actor
1 film together
Notably Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Kirsten Dunst
Actor
1 film together
Notably Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Jane Adams
Actor
1 film together
Notably Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
David Cross
Actor
1 film together
Notably Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Deirdre O'Connell
Actor
1 film together
Notably Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Thomas Jay Ryan
Actor
1 film together
Notably Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Ryan Whitney
Actor
1 film together
Notably Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Lola Daehler
Actor
1 film together
Notably Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Debbon Ayer
Actor
1 film together
Notably Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
Peter Jackson
Director
4 films together · 8.4 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 4 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the KingMichel Gondry
Director
2 films together · 8.8 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless MindMacon Blair
Director
2 films together · 6.3 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
I Don't Feel at Home in This World AnymoreGeorge Miller
Director
2 films together · 6.3 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
Happy FeetRobert Rodriguez
Director
2 films together · 5.9 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
The FacultyRobert Zemeckis
Director
1 film together · 7.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Back to the Future Part IIFrank Miller
Director
1 film together · 7.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Sin CityMatt Bettinelli-Olpin
Director
1 film together · 7.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Ready or Not: Here I ComeLexi Alexander
Director
1 film together · 7.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Green Street HooligansLiev Schreiber
Director
1 film together · 7.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Everything Is IlluminatedRichard Donner
Director
1 film together · 7.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Radio FlyerAng Lee
Director
1 film together · 6.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Ice StormJoel Coen
Director
1 film together · 6.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Paris Je T'aimeJon Avnet
Director
1 film together · 6.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The WarSteve Miner
Director
1 film together · 6.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Forever YoungLee Toland Krieger
Director
1 film together · 6.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Celeste & Jesse ForeverEmilio Estevez
Director
1 film together · 6.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
BobbyMimi Leder
Director
1 film together · 6.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Deep ImpactMike Figgis
Director
1 film together · 6.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Internal AffairsStephen Sommers
Director
1 film together · 6.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Adventures of Huck FinnOsgood Perkins
Director
1 film together · 6.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The MonkeyBreck Eisner
Director
1 film together · 6.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Last Witch HunterÁlex de la Iglesia
Director
1 film together · 6.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Oxford MurdersWayne Kramer
Director
1 film together · 5.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Pawn Shop ChroniclesRob Reiner
Director
1 film together · 5.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
NorthAndy Serkis
Director
1 film together · 0.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for GollumSix degrees
Follow the thread outward — director, film, co-star, and the film after that.
Categories of our own
Six editorial categories we apply to every performer we cover.
Most rewatchable
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
as Patrick
The one that survives a fourth viewing. Nothing in the performance depends on surprise, which is why it keeps paying out.
Most emotional performance
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
as Patrick
Grief played at conversational volume. The film never asks the audience to cry; the performance simply makes it difficult not to.
Most influential performance
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
as Patrick
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
Paris Je T'aime
as Le garçon (Quartier de la Madeleine)
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
as Frodo
If the career had to be argued in a single scene, our editors would pick one from this film and rest the case.
In their films' words
“You can build a whole film around a performer who knows when not to speak. Elijah Wood has known it for a long time.”
Head to head
Put two careers on the same scale and see where the argument actually sits.
| Nutevio Performer Score | 8.1 | 9.0 |
|---|---|---|
| Career ranking | #369 of 681 | #1 of 681 |
| Awards on file | Unknown | 3 recorded |
| Oscar wins | Unknown | 1 |
| Oscar nominations | Unknown | 5 |
| Average Nutevio score | 9.2 | 9.1 |
| Genres | Romance, Drama, Sci-Fi | Adventure, Drama, Fantasy, History |
| Directors | Michel Gondry | Christopher Nolan, Martin Scorsese |
| Performance DNA | Emotional range, Drama, Screen presence | Transformation, Drama, Screen presence |
| Career timeline | 2004–2004 | 2006–2026 |
| Most iconic role | Patrick — Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind | Odysseus — The Odyssey |
| Most rewatchable film | Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind | Interstellar |
| Filmography | 1 catalogue film | 4 catalogue films |
Films together
Nothing in common in the library yet.
Shared directors
Nothing in common in the library yet.
Shared collections
Sci-Fi Movies, Drama Movies
Matt Damon edges ahead here — a higher floor across a comparable body of work.
Ours alone
Recognitions handed out by this desk, on criteria no awards body uses.
Career Achievement
Awarded
38 years of relevant work — not merely a long career, but a long career of choices.
Modern Classic Performer
Awarded
Defining performances delivered inside the last twenty-five years, in films already being taught rather than merely remembered.
Drama Legend
Awarded
21 catalogue titles in drama, each one a reference point for the films that followed.
Our desk
Best ending, best opening, best twist and the rest — categories we apply to everyone we cover.
Best ending
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
as Patrick
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
as Frodo
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
The Romantics
as Chip
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
The Oxford Murders
as Martin
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
as Frodo
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
9
as #9 (voice)
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
I Don't Feel at Home in This World Anymore
as Tony
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
as Patrick
The public vote sits below ours on this one, and the direction is the reason for the gap.
Across the library
Every Nutevio collection this name turns up in, and how high they rank there.
Collection footprint
Appears in 5 Nutevio collections
Keep reading
genre
Best Romance Movies
Features Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind at #1
Read the collectiongenre
Romance Movies
Features Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind at #1
Read the collectiontheme
Hidden Sci-Fi Gems
Features Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Read the collectiongenre
Sci-Fi Movies
Features Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Read the collectiongenre
Drama Movies
Features Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Read the collectionFrom the magazine
Genre guide
The evolution of Elijah Wood, read through best romance movies
4 min read
Genre guide
Why The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King still sets the terms for romance movies
4 min read
Essay
Hidden Sci-Fi Gems: where Wood fits
5 min read
Genre guide
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, explained
12 min read
If you like this performer
Matt Damon
Built a career in the same territory: adventure and drama
Michael Caine
Built a career in the same territory: sci-fi and adventure
Mark Ruffalo
Works with the same directors — shared collaborators
Tom Wilkinson
Works with the same directors — shared collaborators
David Krumholtz
Built a career in the same territory: action and adventure
Tom Hanks
Built a career in the same territory: animation and family
Have your say
Community
Which Elijah Wood performance holds up best?
Our readers argue about this one. Make your case, or read the ranked debate already in progress.
Join the conversation
Reference
Continue exploring
Trending performers
Directors they work with
Collections to read next
