Peter Jackson, Viggo Mortensen, and Elijah Woods interview on "Lord of the Rings" (2002)

I would cut off your head dwarf if it stood but a little higher from the ground you would die before your stroke fell one year ago filmmaker Peter Jackson released the first installment of The Lord of the Ring series while the films were initially perceived as a gamble the risk clearly paid off the Fellowship of the Ring earned more than $1 billion doar the latest installment is entitled The Two Towers and here is the trailer for the film he is not coming back the defenses have to hold they will hold there is nothing for you here only death there is still hope joining me tonight is the film's creator director co-screenwriter Peter Jackson and two of the stars of the film Elijah Wood who portrays Frodo and vgo mortson who portrays Aragon and I am pleased to have both of them here at this table uh to join Peter Jackson who was here last time a year ago when the first installment was here come welcome back thank you CH tell me about how tell me about this one where we' got an hour two hours well um I mean what I like about the the is the fact that we're doing a Trilogy of films so people have to realize this is the middle chapter right but the the thing that I like about about it is that it's not a sequel It's we we're not in a situation where the Fellowship of the Ring came out last year and it made a lot of money and everyone said oh good let's make a second one of these and we kind of figured out what the magic formula was and we kind of rushed off and made another one um people should realize that this was this was shot as a trilogy there was 9 hours of movie all shot at the same time basically what 2 and a half years ago nearly now and that that 9h hour epic story has been divided into three chapters and um this is the second of those three and what's chapter two about it's it's well if you've seen the first one I assume most people have probably seen The Fellowship of the Ring um the story continues the stakes go higher as I think any middle chapter of a Trilogy should probably the the vice kind of clamps on our heroes and the forces of Darkness are are closing and it's a little bit darker than the first one it's a little bit more intense than the first one um it sort of UPS the UPS the ante if you like OBS an meaning meaning that things the the situation in Middle Earth where our story is set and now heroes are basically um attempting to overcome the forces of Darkness uh Frodo played by Elijah is has a small gold ring which he has to try to destroy in a volcano um Aragon who's played by vgo has to do everything in his power to help make it make it possible for for Elijah to to destroy that ring um and they just it gets could of complicated and it gets harder for Our Heroes you've already started editing the third install yeah I have yeah yeah the third's my favorite one so I'm looking forward to that Elijah said the same thing what is it about the third that makes it so intriguing um other than it's a conclusion climactic it's it's climactic it's almost sort of biblical and and it's climactic sort of scale and it's just it's sort of over the top but in a good way it's it's highly emotional and um yeah it's going to be my emotional I mean I've seen bits of it and I I can't help but cry every time I mean I saw one bit towards the end of the film in the span of saw it once 5 minutes later saw it again and cried again I mean it's so it's heartbreaking what happens to these characters that you have grown to love over you know the course of three years it's an offre repeated story of how you got this job but tell us for those of who why not us with Story one more time um yeah it was you made your own audition day I did as a result of not wanting to be put on tape at a a casting office against a white background I thought I put on The Hobbit costume you I knew Pete was looking for an English actor and I had to sort of basically prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that I could be English and so I had the odds against me so I thought I'm just going to do something completely mad and make it my own and show my passion for the project and for the character that way and it worked you know went out to the woods and CH the scen what did you see when you saw him I saw froto exactly it's interesting because I I've never seen an Elijah Wood film at that point in time I I hate to admit but it's true that's that's good it's actually true that I hadn't I mean out of all the movies that Elijah's done for some reason or another I'd never actually seen one of them and so I'd heard of Elijah's name Fran Walsh my partner had had seen the ice storm and she and she said no no you should really we should really check out this tape because he's he's a very very interesting young actor yeah and um and I saw and I just saw Frodo I saw everything that we've been looking for and we'd maybe auditioned 200 froos at the point in time saw his by the time you saw his T and did it decid it for you immediately yeah yeah yeah yeah except we didn't say that to Elijah straight away cuz we had to go and meet him cuz obviously I've never met Elijah and you don't want to work with somebody who you kind of can't get on with so we had to go through the process of meeting with them up in LA and having a chat cuz cuz one of the things with casting this film was the fact that we wanted to get actors who were going to stay stay with us for 18 months because you know an actor couldn't bail out at the end of the first film they had to stay there for three movies so we wanted to make sure we we had well you know basically nice people who were going to be you heard him in spite of that meeting yeah they still managed to hire me even after thank you Pete what brought you here uh you know I've never I've never asked Pete that I'm not sure I got a phone call to ask if I want to get on a plane the next day and go to New Zealand for a year and a half at first I actually said I don't know you know I don't I haven't read this book and and I'm not sure that um that I would do justice you know you don't want to let people down who are passionate and are working hard on something so I was tentative about it at first but uh I'm glad I said yes to the CH did you go immediately and read the book or what did you do I started reading it on the plane yeah what have I got myself by the time you got to New Zeal no but I read enough actually to realize that it wasn't such a foreign thing to me after all that a lot of there were elements that were familiar to me I mean the sources for token's writing were not all unfamiliar you know a lot of it is based on Nordic mythology Celtic mythology sagas fairy tales I mean you can there's such a gold mine of information in there that I mean personally I could relate it to Western movie archetypes Samurai movies all kinds of uh things and uh so then I thought well this is good I'm going to pretend I'm a viking you knowed when I was seven years old and wanted to do that since you were seven so well I didn't realize it but obvious yeah you obviously do sing the movie all right take a look at this this is our first scene from The Two Towers walking through the mountain froto realizes that he and Sam are not alone here it is strangely familiar it's because we've been here before we're going in circles what is that AR stink oh word there's a nasty bug nearby can you smell it yes I can smell [Music] it we're not alone you obviously making a political statement with your T-shirt um I wouldn't normally but it's sort of a reaction to I've heard a lot of people say to me and I've read in a lot of places about the first movie and increasingly about the second one I've seen where people try to relate it to you know current situation uh specifically the United States uh and their role in in in the world right now and um I if you're going to compare then then you should get it right you know I I um I don't like hearing you know I mean I played a character who's who's uh defending Helms Deep you know and um I don't think that uh The Two Towers or token's writing or Peter's work or our work has anything to do with the the United States uh foreign Adventures you know at this time time and it it it it upsets me to hear that in a way and it upsets me even more that questioning what's going on right now what the United States is doing uh is considered treasonous really and how dare you say that and how an American of you and really this country is founded on the principle that if the government isn't serving the people you at least have the right to say wait a minute what's going on and there's no questions really being asked at large about what we're doing whereas in in uh in the two top Towers you have um you have uh different races Nations cultures uh coming together you know examining their conscience and unifying against a very real and terrifying enemy what the United States has been doing for the past years bombing innocent civilians without having come anywhere close to catching Osama Bin Laden or any presumed enemies and uh you know as a as a distraction we're now uh apparently it's a given we're hell B on uh increasing the bombing that's been going on for the past 11 years in Iraq and I don't think that uh the civilians on the ground in those countries look at us in the way that maybe Europeans did you know at the end of world war to waving flags in the streets I think that they see the US government as as San you know as a threat yeah as a threat and they're terrified and have been for a long time and and we are not the good guys unfortunately in this case and even though right after 9/11 there was an extraordinary amount of public sport for the United States to do something I'm supportive of the United States I'm I'm an American and and I'm and I I have nothing against patriotism but if one is going to compare then the comparison is is quite the opposite of what let me just make sure the comparison only because you and I asked you about the t-shirt at the beginning and you said you made it yourself yeah you know the the idea idea uh you you you object to the comparison of of this film with respect to American uh involvement with Iraq or the Afghanistan war or the war against terrorism to any comparison with the film as because of your opposition to American the idea is you know that in that comparison is United States is like the good guys in our movie against the bad guys in our movie and I think the opposite is true unfortunately that we're the bad guys because we you know the the the people who are terrified at H Deep who are outnumbered and and this incredible violence and desire to control to destroy the people of Rohan and the rest of the free peoples of Middle Earth uh and to control their Wills to control their you know infrastructure or destroy it that's what we're doing in these countries that's really what we're doing unfortunately and it's I'm not saying to anyone to you or to you or to you this is what you should believe I'm just saying why not ask the question why are we doing this you know and I I don't like the comparison and I keep hearing it so I'm felt like saying something about it you know I'm not really um a fan of of the saying my country right or wrong yeah well that's an incomplete quote too um the rest of it is more reasonable I'm more of a fan of saying um let's make an honest effort to get it right I think the rest of the quote is if we're getting it right let's keep trying to do so and if we're getting it wrong let's try to get it right I think he says something like that you know I want to turn from this but but but let me just stay with the idea for a second though um I mean what would you have had the United States do after the attack uh at the Pentagon and at the twin towers and I would not have continually bombed innocent civilians from 30,000 ft with no possibility of being accurate and maming and killing and destroying the lives of many more people than died at the World Trade Center what does that do does bombing people make us safer does bombing people uh make us more loved or appreciated overseas uh will this be forgotten oh well it was just a little M they had been able to stop Al-Qaeda and you wouldn't have had if there is the connection which many people think it is in terms of the attacks in Kenya for example or other acts of terrorism against the United States and other countries I just somehow by responding you can say because most people believe that if in fact you don't respond you're inviting more terrorism there's nothing wrong with responding it's how do you respond the fact that you one even questions the way that we responded that that's considered some kind of fifth column thinking that it's treasonous and that you know those attacks are used as an excuse to to um limit civil liberties in this country and and you know and that we are coercing other countries whose populations England for example I saw a poll where 70% of English people say they are more afraid of George Bush than they are of Bin Ladon and sdam Hussein because we are our government is incredibly violent and aggressive and rapacious and we want to control those regions it's beyond a an attack you know a response and and and there are other ways I would think of responding you know we've done this before in our history you know even in World War II was it necessary to to kill so many civilians in Dresden and places like that was it necessary to do things that way you know it's hindsight and so forth But Here we are now we've been doing this for a year in Afghanistan we've been doing it for 11 years in Iraq can we not think about this you know I read in the New York Times which you have here I look at it yesterday the front page is it's not even should we do this or is it a question it's just the countdown as if it was a holiday countdown for the the big war and this and that and then the science or whatever section it's uh bigger weapons and faster vehicles for the military and then photographs of the women serving and it's all kind of fun and it's like the people on the ground in those countries who are the ones who are being affected they're invisible if they're not American if they're not European they don't exist they're disposable and more of them have died in the past year than died at the World Trade Center what does that mean anything and now just because we focus on Iraq for many reasons not the least of which is oil but not only oil and you know some kind of um Vendetta maybe that our president's father has who knows what the reasons are it doesn't really matter we going to suggest those two and I know we want to get on and I think I have some respect for you for for the cander and the forthrightness I know I do for of your views and invite you back to this program because we talk about Iraq a lot here right um you know before I turn back just a dialogue about it that's all you know I mean if somebody wants to compare movie which is just a movie people say our movie is a proar movie too which I also have a problem with yeah elij you essentially agree with what I agree with questioning absolutely I agree with asking questions which I don't know if people do enough in that kind of honest way yeah you know let me uh interesting thing as you make some of these political points the president supps would want me to contest each one and there's no time for me or if you were making if you were making an OB political uh statement and SP of the president then people from the other side want me to contest it on and we can't do all of that now but um we'll come back to some of these as it pertains to this particular movie here is another clip in which you are being questioned about your presence and the rer Mark here it [Music] is I am aricon son of AR this is gimle son of gloin and legalis of the Woodland realm we are friends of Rohan and of Theoden your king Theoden no longer recognize this friend from fo not even his own kid Peter as a director how is he different he has more energy than a barrel of monkeys I would say I've never I mean I agree with that but un waning kind of un waning energy but Focus you know and a and but on top of that a calm that I think made made the set incredibly conducive uh to giving out ideas and for us to perform as actors and and uh he he created an environment that was uh conducive to creativity on a on a very wide scale was the experience different than you imagine it might be because you were doing something dramatically different you were making three movies rather than one you had a Continuum of a story uh you had a company of actors that you were getting to know better than you would normally on a set did any of that make this experience different oh yeah all of those those things all of those things I mean normally you'd work on a film you know a filmmaker and actors would get together and often you're working with strangers you know it's not it's not often that you work with people that you've actually work with before and um and you come together for maybe 10 or 12 weeks and you know by the end of 10 or 12 weeks you're just getting to know the person that you're working with you're just getting to understand them and get get a short hand going and suddenly bang it's it's over and go and in our case at the end of 10 or 12 weeks we' still had like more than a year year of filming sort ofo so we just became a really tightnit unit I mean I just I just enjoyed it I mean the best experience of this film has been working with people among the people work with people that you respect and admire and being collaborative just just kind of making it to create that as well in terms in terms of hiring the people that that would be amiable and good to work with in terms of friendly people you had a lot to do with that I shooting at New Zealand too I mean and I think Peter is a prime example of you know not I mean not everybody not everybody's the same no I mean in New Zealand yeah the fact that we shot it there with a mostly New Zealand crew was I think an inspiration to us because um I think that you know you tell me if I'm wrong but typically New Zealand for people in New Zealand I don't know if it's a result of historically being an isolated uh country you know geographically and having to make Doe and pull together but putting the group first and the individual effort second I think comes naturally to new zealanders uh which is also very much what this story is about and I don't think that that most new zealanders need a September 11th or a London Blitz or an earthquake to put aside their differences and pull together for the common good it just it comes a little more naturally to them I think and maybe to Australians too I don't know but uh and then that helped us a lot you always felt that you were that it was a team effort and whenever anybody was flagging you know there was just this unspoken Bond you always felt that you you were supported and I think this movie you know the spirit that you can feel in the screen Beyond uh any special effect Beyond any you know film making flourish there is this gritty uh let's pull our socks up and if you can't do it I'll help you do it and cuz I know you'll help me do it that is something that in in large part comes from the people we were making this movie with and the place we were making it it's it's a spirit I think the films really do embody the spirit of of a group of people enjoying what they're doing yeah that simple so would you do this again not this particular exper oh now that's a tricky question no I mean somebody comes along and says Peter you did that so well I by the way have acquired the rights to this other Trilogy another Trilogy and we want you to go somewhere for 18 months and choose your actors and SLE up uh not for a little while I want to I want to spend a little bit little bit of time with my family okay but do you also want to do a different kind of movie now have spent this much time I mean you're not only spending 18 months you're spending how many years uh seven years seven years of your life so what is it you want do you want to go make a small movie or I want to do a few different types of films I mean I used to make zombie films once in my in my youth I'd love to make I'd love to make I'd love to make another zombie film he's promised a star in my zombie F you zombie fan I'm there you absolutely so we'll see I've got a few ideas of this for but there are tend to be smaller movies smaller yeah yeah yeah yeah I mean there's different skills you exercise it's like it's you know you don't want to be stuck doing the same thing all the time and um and I'd certainly like this challenges to make a very small drama film and I'd like to have go at that one what are the skills how are the skills different just as a director how are the skills different um it's just the size and scope of things that you've got to think about I I think it's it's keeping it's keeping um your your eye on on the on the big picture I mean I the physical aspects of shooting for that long were okay the mental exhaustion kind of freaked me out a little bit I I I used to at the beginning of the shoot I used to be someone who could think of 10 things at once and conduct 10 different conversations at the same time and like if you spoke to me on the last day of the shoot after 18 months of shooting I I I actually said to somebody this this must be what it's like to be 85 years old when I can't remember what I did yesterday and I can only I've got such tunnel vision I can only think of one thing at a time because I lost my ability to be kind of to to think of and stress mental fatigue yeah I mean I was you know after a bit of rest I was all right but um it was kind of weird it did grind you down I want to get another clip in here before we go this is where Sam Sean Austin tells froto uh they have to escape by using the ring here it is put it on disappear I can't you were right Sam you tried to tell me but I'm sorry you came in after replacing an actor who' been what fired yeah fir was that hard was it difficult did you were nervous about it my understanding that it it was that it was more or less mutual and I think it was an unfortunate situation where someone who was too young you know for the part they needed a sort of an older dog to play this part and you said I'm your older dog in Step vegan yeah so I was a uh in retrospect it was a lucky break and um is this is this a career changing role and film because it's got making so much money because it's gotten such an enormous uh viewership and because of three of them rather than one of them Peter do you think career wise for me or well you sure I mean me and I don't want to change I just want to keep doing my stuff in New Zealand do whatever I want to do it's I don't want anything different it just gives you a chance to make another one right you didn't screw this up so you can make another one yeah if I don't screw up the next one I might get get to make my little zombie film but for you I mean does this already has it made a difference in terms of what you see the kinds of things that are available I mean my regular everyday life is pretty much the same what's your regular everyday life like well I guess you could say I don't get out much but but as far as something that I you know that I have noticed and I'm sure you have and probably you have too is that there's these big piles of fan mail that you now get and I'm sure everybody just a function of being part of a popular movie and um you know I've gotten finally I've gotten another job that I would not have gotten I'm sure if it weren't for being part of the Fellowship of the Ring you know it's purely because of that otherwise someone's not going to take a chance on you in a leading role so I'm I'm grateful for that but otherwise I haven't yet noticed much what's your next role it's a movie called hialgo it's a based on a true story from 1890 Elijah how about you uh uh sort of the same in terms of what's happened you know I think that there was an increase in things that come your way but nothing crazy and in terms of my daily life that hasn't changed at all but it's mainly of my own effort I don't stop you know I don't stop doing the things that I would normally do on a daily basis because more people recognize me or anything like that you had a lot of people Peter come up I mean especially thinking of Harvey Weinstein and Bob and saying you know they they as you and I talked about before we went in at length about this relationship a bit like the war um I mean they must be deeply regretful now that they're only getting 5% at the back end I I I don't know I think I I mean the reality ultimately was that they could have never have afforded to make the films at the budget level that they had had to be made so I don't know whether regrets quite the right word I don't think they ever really had a chance ultimately to make them um 5% of a billion isn't bad for not having set foot in New Zealand during the whole sho I'm sure they they'll be very happy with their 5% I'm sure yeah was that 5% of the gross or the net I'm not entirely sure I don't know I don't know the the detail I've heard 5% but I don't know how how they deal the restructure were you disappointed not to get Best Director last time uh not really I uh I kind of we called it didn't we you it Awards I I just I just don't I I found that the awards ultimately last year were in a very very political sort of I I I just found myself in the middle of of of this kind of these Waring factions and the politics of the Oscars I I I found to be very interesting and um because I had to come around you know they sent me once once the nominations were out and we were kind of like there was a sense right we're all fighting for for the Oscar and I had to come and do a 3-we um tour around the states to like you know to promote myself and promote the the movie and and if we got nominated again this year I swore to myself that I'd never do that again because I kind of think the the Oscar is a very simple system where you know very pure system where there's 5,000 people that vote and they simply vote for the movies that they like the best in any given Year and that should be B that should be where it starts and finishes it's very simple and um that's fine and whatever film gets the most votes or whatever actor gets the most votes that's that's the winner but the idea of of the way that people start campaigning for votes like you're a politician I I found to be a bit a bit odd so I I promis myself I'd never get involved with it again in making this movie um you obviously made a ton of choices you made choices about casting choices about um a lot of stuff and choices about narration and voices and lot what was the most surprising choice you had to make most difficult choice you had to make in in all that you have had to do you know that turned out to be you know extraordinarily satisfying in the end well I guess the um one of the one of the key choices that we made very early on was that we wanted to make these films feel historical and feel real because they they were fantasy films which fantasy for a lot of people means you know fairy tale children stories all that sort of stuff um and fantasy movies of the past tend to have an artificial kind of feel to them they tend to be overdesigned and glossy and bright and gy and and and unreal basically um you know fantasy means unreal and I thought well no let's do f fantasy means real let's say that these are historical let's say that that the events of the Lord of the Rings took place on Earth 6 or 7,000 years ago as toen himself imagined and that these these have a reality to them and whether you're an elf or a wizard or a hobbit or a human you're you're playing your character with Integrity you're existing in the moment that you know that the story is the forces of the story upon you you're making decisions based on who you are he there's nothing sort of artificial about any of it it's it it has a certain grittiness and um that was I think a key decision we made right at the beginning which I feel very happy with um because I think it's given the films a a quality which sort of sets them apart from other fantasy movies that we we've been seen in the past do you share the feeling that the third is the best having seen the first and the second movie I I wouldn't even dare to guess what I would feel much less what it's going to look like I don't have no idea no and I was there but I don't know he Peter Jackson is full of surprises and I think it's a good thing he doesn't um I mean I I am in agreement with the way of working that I think he believes in which is never it's not over till it's over never quit trying to improve what you're doing until it's on the screen and people are saying it and and because of that you know he's full of surprises and I'm sure the third one will be you know a surprise it makes it more fun to go to the movies more interesting so sure all right but let me just end with this was there any any significant disagreements on about this film in terms of where it should go I mean did you have agonizing choices to make about that or did it just lay itself out directly from the book this was a tough film I mean this the post-production on this film has been very very difficult it's it's been it's difficult because it it's it's structured in a it's structured in a way that's actually quite hard put together as a filmmaker where you have three story lines because our characters have at the end of the first film they their group of characters divided into into and went their separate ways so you have three different story lines following different characters all progressing at the same time and that makes the editing of the film and the Assembly of the film very intricate and very difficult because you you you're trying to keep each story line alive and keep the tension going and then when you cut to the next group of characters for a while you don't want the energy to drop out of the group You' just left and you want to be able to stick with them and then have the energy and the energy build when you go back to them again and doing that through three different story lines is is hard so this I did find the postproduction on this film to be much much harder than the first film thank you thank you good to have you thank you very much thank you for joining us see you next time

Channel: Manufacturing Intellect

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Length: 31min 16sec (1876 seconds)

Published: Tue Feb 21 2017