Peter Jackson - Director
Watford, UK, September 2003
Are your Rings colleagues
going to be friends for life ?
Of course. They are all friends - these actors have been with us for nearly four
years now.
Why do you think Rings has
been so successful ?
What we set out to do - and we succeeded - was to make the films believable. And
when I say believable I mean you are dealing with very fantastical elements and
characters : Hobbits and cliché characters like Wizards with pointy hats,
Dwarves and Orcs. I saw the French and Saunders parody of the Fellowship Of The
Ring – you look at that and think "Jesus, the difference between them and
us is so minute..." To tip into parody, something that was a bit Monty
Python, would have been so easy. We have gone in the other direction. We have
taken this fantastical world and really grounded it in reality. You look at
Aragorn and you believe he is what he is. You don't look at a guy in a costume
playing a lost king and all that. Viggo makes him feel earthly and organic and
real.
Which role would you like to
have played ?
The character I probably identify most with is Bilbo Baggins - he is sitting at
home with his feet up and a pint of ale. I certainly identify more with Bilbo
than Frodo; Frodo just goes through so much and becomes so aliented, I couldn't
begin to think what he experiences.
What was the toughest thing
you had to do ?
The scriptwriting has been the hardest and most critical element of it. Beyond
the writing, it was achieving the reality and not allowing visual effects and
design of it to make it seem artificial. All movies are artificial, all movies
are pretence, and we worked really hard to make our pretence as real as
possible.
How does it feel to say
goodbye ?
That is a very hard question to answer. I
think it is going to be sad, and to some degrees a relief. It will be something
to be proud of. It is something to put behind us and just say was done. I am
comfortable with the fact that my carrer will in some ways be defined by Lord Of
The Rings : everything up to Lord Of The Rings, Lord Of The Rings; and
everything that happens afterwards. It will sit as this island in the middle,
which is fine.