From “Radio Flyer” to “North” to “The Lord of the Rings,” Elijah Wood has grown up in the spotlight, working with acclaimed directors and some of the world’s most admired actors. But with the crime-thriller “The Trust,” this cool customer with a storied career faced a new challenge, co-starring with the one and only Nicolas Cage, an actor so unusual, so omnipresent, so iconic that he has become a living legend.

“The Trust” stars Wood and Cage as a pair of dirty cops in Las Vegas whose lives are forever changed when they uncover the location of a drug lord’s personal vault. Employing their police skills for nefarious means, this duplicitous duo plots a heist that’s as bonkers as you’d expect from a Cage movie.

Following “The Trust’s” world premiere at SXSW, SPINOFF sat down with Wood to discuss the film’s production. Previously, we shared how this led into his thoughts on the state of film criticism. Today, we dig into what drew Wood to “The Trust,” what it was like working with the mythic Cage, and that time a body was discovered while shooting on location in Sin City.

Spinoff Online: What attracted you to “The Trust?”

Elijah Wood: Initially it was really the script. I got it through very traditional means, my agent sent it to me. He’d read it, loved it. And I read it and loved it. It was that simple in a way. It was so idiosyncratic and just kind of funny but also very dark. It didn’t feel like what would you expect from a corrupt cop film or a heist film. It had real world stakes for what it means to go about embarking on something like that. And I love the characters. At its core it’s a two-hander, a buddy movie on some level. And so after I read the script and really loved it, I met with the directors, and became familiar with their work. I saw some of their music videos, stuff like that. Mostly we just talked about the script and the way they wanted to make the film, and the way they wanted to shoot it, influences they had, musical ideas they had for the film. And they just had such a clear vision for the film that they wanted to make that I found it elevated what I’d even read. And then the opportunity to work with Nic Cage. He was attached for I think a year before I came to read it.

Do you remember what your first Nic Cage viewing experience was?

Oh that’s a good question. Um, it may have been “Raising Arizona,” but I feel like I must have seen something before that.

I think that’d make you a cooler kid than me. My first memory of him was “Peggy Sue Got Married,” which I was really into even though it didn’t make sense to me as a child at all.

It’s great. What about “Vampire’s Kiss?” I feel like I saw when I was younger too. And that’s awesome. He’s incredible in that film. I think I saw that early. But “Raising Arizona” definitely stands out as an early film. But I feel like there must have been something that was more commercial that I saw.

Maybe “Moonstruck” or something?

Maybe, yeah.

I was trying to place that myself the other day because he’s such an iconic actor. Was that at all intimidating for you? I mean, you’ve worked with huge stars. But Cage is more than a star, he’s a meme!

Even beyond that he’s such an iconic actor and such and extraordinary actor doing so many different things, and remaining so vital for so long. It was different than anything, anticipation-wise. I’ve been lucky enough to work with some incredible actors. And there’s always a sense of enthusiasm and excitement to work with someone that you admire and a kind of healthy nervousness about meeting those people for the first time. For sure. Nic was something else. You know?

Yeah, he’s almost mythic.

He is a little bit. And he almost operates on a different level that is like cultural iconography or something. He’s in the realm of pop culture in a way that no other actor really is. He is kind of mythic in a way. So, yeah, I was probably more nervous than I’d ever been and more excited. It was just an exceptional thing.

We shot the thing in Vegas. I drove from L.A. on a Friday before the Monday starting work. So we only had two days to rehearse. It was me, Nic, [co-directors] Ben and Alex [Brewer] in an open warehouse room. And we just ran through everything. It was there that I got to know him, and we were just [snaps his fingers] in from the moment go. It was an exceptional thing to see him work, to get a vibe off of him, and realize quickly how well we worked together. Moreover, I suppose how well we got on. It was really easy to spend time around him and to work with him. It’s one of my favorite experiences working with another actor. It was just an absolute joy. He was not a disappointment by any means. He was totally inspiring.