Lord Of The Rings Star Elijah Wood Shares His Scary 9/11 Story

As part of Empire Magazine's joint interview between Elijah Wood and Daniel Radcliffe to celebrate the 20th anniversaries of the Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter franchises, the Lord of the Rings actor shared a frightening story about the 9/11 terrorist attack.

Wood shared that he was doing press in New York City for The Fellowship of the Ring in September 2001 the day of the attack. Together with his co-stars Orlando Bloom and Sean Bean, he flew out of Newark Airport in New Jersey--right across the Hudson River from New York-- and they were in the air as the planes hit the World Trade Center tower.

"The planes hit the buildings while we were in the air," Wood said. "We looked out the window and could see that one of the buildings was on fire. Then there was an announcement from the pilot that planes had been taken over by terrorists and that the FAA had asked all planes to land. We landed in Cincinnati, where I stayed for about a week, before we could take a flight again. So yeah, I directly experienced it. It was super-surreal and scary."

The question about 9/11 actually came from Radcliffe, who asked Wood in the interview if the terrorist attack impacted the press for The Fellowship of the Ring. Radcliffe himself said of the event, "As kids, we didn't really know what was going on. But I remember they flew us everywhere on a private jet and we were like, 'Whoa! We get to go on a private jet!'"

Wood remarked that he doesn't often think about 9/11 as it pertains to the release of The Fellowship of the Ring or Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. But he acknowledged that the event and the release of the movies are "linked because that was what was happening in the world."

Both The Fellowship of the Ring and The Sorcerer's Stone released during Holiday 2001, just a few months after the 9/11 attacks.

Go to Empire's website to order the April 2021 issue.