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Members
of the Fellowship, Aragorn (Viggo Mortensen) he was in all the time.
Because as it got closer to the end of filming they wanted to get
as much as they could of One then. And it was just crazy there was
like five main film units, three subsidiary units, splinter units,
green screen units, digitalisation units, special FX units, all
kinds of stuff, I mean it was just bizarre.
And Pete Jackson was there like this massive 10-headed conductor
just wielding a baton over the whole thing - in complete control.
Would
you like to direct a film?
I would yes. I think that’s probably another stage that I need
to go to. At the moment I’m obviously getting offered some
fairly decent stuff and recovering from those long times. I was
in New Zealand for basically a year.
Things
needed
doing around the house, so I took some time off this year, I put
things aside mainly through the summer. Just to kind of be here
and live, you know. So there hasn’t been an awful lot of time
to devote to that and I suppose I should really focus on it more.
But
it’s something I really want to do. I mean I’ll be kicking
myself by the time I get to 80 and turn round and said, 'Well I
didn’t even have a go, I didn’t even try it, it didn’t
even give myself the opportunity to fail'.
As
you say in your words, you’ve been offered some pretty good
stuff these days. You appeared also in another blockbuster, Titanic,
Captain Smith, what was it like working on that film?
That
was great fun. Really good fun.
Six
months in Mexico, just near the border with San Diego so we could
kinda go across and get the luxury stuff if we wanted it in America.
But I was always very happy to get into Mexico. I just felt more
free, just a different kind of atmosphere, a different kind of people
obviously and that was great fun.
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| James
Cameron |
I had
a really good time working with Jim Cameron. A lot of people didn’t,
but I did as I got on with him really quite well.
For
a director who spends most of his time looking down a lens or in
the digitisation studio or working out some graphics, he is actually
very good with actors. And he’s just a massively intelligent
human being. He describes himself as a compulsive obsessive so that
gives you some idea of what he’s like.
He’s a geek, he’s a nerd, an anorak, he collects bucketloads
of useless information but then somehow turns it to useful purpose.
He gets obsessed by things and I had a really good time with him.
When
you’re working on a film like that, it was a massive, massive
hit, billions of dollars, are you aware at the time that you’re
working on something special?
No,
not really, we knew it was a big film. Someone said to me, 'Have
you ever worked on a film this big before,' and I said, 'Well no,
nobody has'.
At
that time it was the biggest project ever. It was huge, just the
sets and the structure. All,
massive, massive planning, huge project.
It’s
a long way from Boys from the Black Stuff, circa 1980. Do you enjoy
the Hollywood bit?
It
depends, some of it doesn’t feel like Hollywood at all. I mean
Lord of The Rings is the biggest, biggest thing ever and it felt
like we were shooting a small budget, little film with Pete and
his family.
It
felt like a family movie, because his wife and their best friend
wrote it with him. One of Pete’s best friend’s designed
it, another of his best friend's makes all the armour and the prosthetics.
It was like being round at Pete’s house. You walk on set and
he has just known everybody all his life.
 
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The
Queen 
