Elijah Wood Drops A Bomb About Sex Abuse In Hollywood And Then Takes It Back
Wood felt his comments were misrepresented.
We all know Elijah Wood as the nerdy dude from "The Lord of the Rings" movies, but he's making headlines this week for his thoughts on a controversial topic while promoting his new movie "The Trust."
Wood dropped a big bomb about the sexual abuse scandals involving child actors in Hollywood in The Sunday Times this weekend, and today he retracted on his comments saying they were "taken out of context."
Wood's comments alluded to direct observation or interaction with those involved in child sex abuse scandals in Hollywood.
When referencing the abuse Wood said that "clearly there was something going on in Hollywood." He also said that "it was all organized."
He followed up those comments with more insight which reaffirmed people's beliefs that Wood was referencing specific interactions with people, or that he was speaking from personal experience.
"If you're innocent, you have very little knowledge of the world and you want to succeed," Wood said. "People with parasitic interests will see you as their prey. What upsets me about these situations is that the victims can't speak as loudly as the people in power."
Elijah Wood, a former child star himself, is photographed with Macaulay Culkin in 1993's "The Good Son."
The Daily Beast reports that Wood's Sunday Times interview included details about his own childhood upbringing in Hollywood, and that he was protected by abuse by his mother Debra.
Wood stated that his mother made sure they, "never went to parties where that kind of thing was going on." Wood also said in the interview that "other child actors had been regularly preyed upon by vipers in Hollywood."
Before the smoke cleared on this newly dropped tinsel town bombshell, Wood came forward and said that his words were taken out of context.
It seems like Elijah heard all the buzz his comments were making, and it seems he felt he should go back and clarified some things.
The Huffington Post reported on May 24 that "after receiving new information from a representative for Elijah Wood, it s clear that the quotes he gave to The Sunday Times last weekend were taken out of context."
Wood clarified his comments in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, and emphasized that he was not speaking from personal experience with his comments.
"The Sunday Times interviewed me about my latest film, but the story became about something else entirely," Wood said. "It prompted a number of false and misleading headlines. I had just seen a powerful documentary and I briefly spoke with the reporter about the subject, which had consequences I did not intend or expect. Lesson learned."
The documentary Wood is referencing is Amy Berg's "An Open Secret."
According to Entertainment Weekly, the documentary sheds light on "the sexual predators who prey on the eager and naive child actors who come to Hollywood with dreams of becoming movie stars."
The film's executive producers Gabe Hoffman and Matthew Valentinas made the film after the late Corey Haim acknowledged that he had been a victim as a famous kid-actor. "Pedophilia has always been the biggest problem in Hollywood, and it will always be the biggest problem," Corey Feldman says in the documentary. "They're everywhere."
This controversial film screened last fall at the New York Doc Fest, and it will debut internationally at the Cannes Film Festival on May 19.
Perhaps this film will offer insight into the unknown dangers child actors face in Hollywood. At the very least the film inspired the start of a conversation, and as Elijah Wood pointed out this problem isn't going away any time soon.
"An Open Secret" opens in U.S. theaters on June 5.