King of the Rings has trouble with fame

Peter Jackson tells RUSSELL BAILLIE about the new 'Lord of the Rings' film, and dealing with life as a celebrity.

Enter The Lord of the Rings trilogy exhibition at Te Papa and one of the first things you see is Peter Jackson having the time of his life.

It's there in a photo taken from the 15-month shoot. He's standing in front of a line of Rohan warriors, with both armoured cast and their wild-eyed director in full cry.

On Wednesday night at the exhibition, which was part of the after-match function for The Two Towers' Wellington premiere, we encounter the real Jackson too - beneath the pointed finger of the evil Lord Sauron. The director has a satisfied grin, a full glass of champagne in hand, a publicist in front and personal security guard close behind as he wanders through.

Jackson stops to say gidday and looks apologetic that he has to continue on in his power-mingling mission, but there'll be time to talk tomorrow. Well, not much time - 10 minutes or so, as is the pattern of the film's rigorous international publicity campaign.

In past weeks, Jackson and cast have ambled up the red carpets of New York, Los Angeles and Paris before heading back to Wellywood.

So there's no time really to discuss his bunfight with the New Zealand Film Commission this week. Not that there is probably anything left to say after Jackson's broadsides. But, at the same time, Jackson isn't happy with the ongoing side-effects of - here at least - being a star. Especially, when the media get curious about things other than his movies. Such as, just how much money he's made or how he is spending it (he's having a home built in the Wairarapa ).

"Obviously I can't have anything but appreciation for people liking what we do and the films that we make and being proud, that's fine.

"I'm just having a hard time reconciling the fact that because I make movies, it means that helicopters fly over a house I am trying to build taking photos.

"Why do they have to invade my privacy like that? What have I done wrong? It feels like a punishment and I feel, 'What have I done to deserve it?' I don't quite buy into the media line that 'you're a public figure therefore we can do anything we want'."

But surely he must understand the curiosity that goes beyond the films, the Oscar nominations and regularly being declared a genius.

"But I haven't had much of a life. The reality of it is I haven't really had a chance to judge my life, as it were, clearly yet because I'm just working every day .

"I'm aware of things happening. I'm seeing photos in papers of houses and all that sort of stuff, but I'm just ploughing on with this movie. So it will be interesting to see when I get to the end of it to see how I feel."

How he feels right now is "over the hump". For on the second film, he says, he did it tough.

"I think the post-production on The Two Towers was more stressful that the shooting.

"It's the most difficult of the three films, the structure. It was the weakest story in a funny kind of way. We had to craft the shape of a movie out of these very disparate storylines that were going in all directions.

"We had to make them somehow combine and get a rhythm to it, make a shape to it and make it feel like you were watching a structured film."

He already knows that the final instalment, The Return of the King, will be his favourite.

"Now I'm looking at a year of incredibly complicated visual effects because The Return of the King is a lot bigger than The Two Towers.

"In some respects I can't complain because ... I literally walk into a room and say, 'Why don't we have 10,000 orcs marching up that valley? And I'll see you in three weeks time'. And I walk back to the cutting room.

"I can't really complain because it's other people who have to bear the brunt of the complexity of the work."

Jackson would like to rebut one personal myth: that's he's somehow unflappable. It's all for show.

"The actors and people say, 'Peter was so calm and so controlled', but that was deliberate and a strategy of mine - I didn't feel calm.

"Obviously there are days you show up at work when you just don't have a clue how to make this scene any good. Or you're just stuck and you just have to fake it and pretend and hope by the end of the day that you are going to get something decent. But you don't want to let people know that."

Herald feature: Lord of the Rings