SI: Your director is a former World Karate and kickboxing champion. Was there any doubt as to who was in charge on set?

Wood: No (laughs). When your director can kick your ass, there is certainly no question who's in charge.

SI: Are you an big sports fan?

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Wood: I'm not a huge sports fan.  But I grew up in Iowa in a family that supported college football and basketball. So there were the Iowa Hawkeyes. But I never really got into it. The sport I probably paid most attention to was boxing. I've been a boxing fan for awhile. Basketball I have followed lightly. I followed hockey for a bit. My brother was a huge Red Wings fan so I kind of got more information about the team. I didn't follow boxing enough to really know many boxers but I enjoyed the sport. It's just one of those things I would catch and watch. As brutal as the sport is, it's really technical. I boxed before. I used to train for boxing mainly for exercise so the kind of chess match that is boxing is fascinating.

SI: Have you ever had any interest playing a real-life person from sports or a film about a sports team?

Wood: Never actively interested in it in terms of looking for it but certainly I wouldn't be opposed to playing a character like that. Sports stories are often such human, heroic kind of stories of personal triumphs. A lot of the sports films that we have seen over the years generally revolve around characters who are fighting against opposition and though a specific sport sport they kind of overcome their own demons. Or maybe it's a team that against all odds wins a championship. That's what captures people's imagination about sports in the first place. It's about watching people achieve greatness on some level, particularly the underdog. Sports films tend to revolve around underdog characters. There are great stories to get wrapped up in. I'd certainly love to be a part of something like that.

SI: You can trade places with any athlete for a day. Who would you choose?

Wood: Maybe Kobe Bryant when he first came into the league. The thing that is always fascinating about great sports figures is the period of time before they are considered to be at the top of their game. When they are just starting to make strides in that direction, when people start to realize the potential of a particular player, it's always an exciting thing to watch someone go from a place of relative obscurity and then over the course of a season that person becomes a sports god of sorts. So maybe to be Kobe during one of those early seasons as he just started to make his mark. I find that period within a particular athlete's life incredibly fascinating and amazing.

SI: You own one of the two prop rings in Lord of the Rings, true?

Wood: I don't carry it with me. The ring is actually in a pouch in a small wooden box, and it's boxed away at the moment.

SI: Make sure that it doesn't get out, OK?

Wood: No kidding.