Next to "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone," the first instalment of New Zealand director Peter Jackson's "Lord Of The Rings" trilogy, "The Fellowship Of The Ring," is the most highly anticipated film of the year. The films - based on J.R.R. Tolkien's fantasy classic and costing an astonishing $270 million to produce - will undoubtedly catapult 20-year-old Elijah Wood to major stardom. The Los Angeles-based actor, who began as a child star opposite Mel Gibson in "Forever Young," seems perfectly cast as Hobbit hero Frodo Baggin. After all, the five-foot-six actor has otherworldly, wide-set blue eyes and elfin features.

"I think today's audience will find this trilogy like "Star Wars" was for me growing up," says Elijah of the film adaptation of one of English literature 's cultural icons (the books have sold more than 90 million copies). "The worlds of "Star Wars" and "Lords Of The Rings" are completely different though. I think there is a believability to "Lord Of The Rings." It's almost as if it's steeped in history. You read the book and it's almost as if Tolkien was writing about people and places that actually existed. It's more organic. It just seems like it's a real world." Although animator Ralph Bakshi failed to bring the book to life in 1978, the trilogy has the support of one of the greatest hype machines ever manufactured by Hollywood. So far it's worked: the first teaser trailer was downloaded 1.6 million times in the first 24 hours, 26 minutes of spectacular footage premiered at the Cannes Film Festival to an unanimous positive reception, and the official website has received more than a staggering 400 million hits so far. Elijah admits that the anticipation "gets scarier" as the film's launch gets closer. Taking on the role, he always knew it would be a journey both as an actor and as a person.

"I signed on knowing that I would be taking on an adventure that would mirror that of the book," admits Elijah, who filmed the trilogy over 15 months in New Zealand (the sequels, "The Two Towers" and "The Return Of The King," will be released in '02 and '03). "Within the first month, I was the character. We all were. We called ourselves the hobbits because we adopted the relationships that were important to those characters. It was unlike anything I've ever been part of."

The young cast spent all the time together, on and off-the set. They even took a holiday together and went to Australia, where they visited Hayden Christensen and Natalie Portman on the set of upcoming "Star Wars: Episode 2." "We were able to live out our character's experiences in somewhat real time, because the book takes place over about a year," tells Elijah whose day began at 5.30am, standing for an hour and a half while getting his prosthetic feet and pointy ears applied. He would kill time by reading books, among others "High Fidelity" and "American Psycho." This was nothing compared to working in front of the blue screen (the backgrounds are put in later). Towards the end of the filming, Elijah would feel a pang of despair every time he saw that blue screen was on the schedule. But the long, hard work was worth it. Enthuses the actor, "I'm so proud of the movie. It's magical. We were making real magic, making the story come alive. It's been a real journey."

For Elijah Jordan Wood, the real-life journey began back in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, where his mother, Debra, enrolled him in modelling school at the tender age six. "She put me in modelling classes because I had a lot of energy as a child," recalls Elijah whose class went to a convention in Los Angeles two years later. "There I caught the eye of my future manager, who had me read some scenes and signed me on. A week later our family moved to L.A. Although Mom had expected me to just do commercials, I auditioned for various things for six weeks and got the Paula Abdul video "Forever Your Girl" (directed by David Fincher, no less)." He followed that with bit parts in "Internal Affairs" and "Back to the Future, Part II." His first major film was Barry Levinson's "Avalon." In 1992, he starred opposite Mel Gibson in "Forever Young." The biggest boost to his career as a child star was with 1993's "The Good Son," opposite Macaulay Culkin.

Like many child actors before him, he struggled to find decent roles as a teenager. "Once I passed age 12, there weren't as many quality roles available," he explains. "It was harder to see good scripts, and you just keep going while you wait for the gems to appear."

With Ang Lee's "Ice Storm," Elijah made Hollywood sit up and notice him. "It was a more interesting and complicated character for me to play. More of a character role - a spacey guy who's in his own world." "It was basically an art movie about the effects of the sexual revolution on families in the '70s. This was the first time in a long time that I did a smaller role, but I felt I had to broaden as a teenage actor and put myself into a more interesting range of roles, and that really excited me." As a child actor, Elijah didn't go to acting classes and he doesn't think that held him back. "Some acting schools can be limiting, if they result in kids acquiring learned behaviour. It's important to branch out and not be limited to what you've learned. Kids are very spontaneous, but acting classes can make them more self-conscious. I prefer to rely on what I have inside of me. Now that I'm older, however, I think about acting more now, instead of just doing it. I'm going about it more technically."

He has worked with great directors like Ang Lee, Rob Reiner, Barry Levinson, Richard Donner and Mike Figgis.

"Richard Donner and Rob Reiner were magical to work with," he offers. "They were such fun and so caring and filled with love. Richard Donner loves kids and is like a big bear. Rob is similar as a person but different in his directing style. They both have youthful qualities that made it easier to relate to them."

"And Ang Lee was incredible. He had a completely different style of filmmaking. All the actors sat down with him during the rehearsal period and figured out how our characters would speak, walk and think. We had to fill out written questionnaire about the character - how he used his family, his sex life - everything. It was wonderful. At first I didn't want to do it, because it was new, and I'd never thought about a character that way before. I'd always gone about it my way. But now I had to think it out technically and write it for the director. It was very stimulating." He also raves about "Lord of the Ring" director Peter Jackson, saying, "I have such love for that guy. He is quiet but enthusiastic. And a total child. He got so excited about things. And he created a wonderful community feeling on the set."