Werner Herzog
(Credit: Vera Anderson/WireImage.com)
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Having made over 50 feature films and documentaries, Herzog's subjects of interest—Spanish explorers, steamboats, emotional dispossession—have been as varied as they are numerous. He’s recently earned great acclaim for the documentary "Grizzly Man" and last year's Christian Bale-starring prisoner-of-war drama "Rescue Dawn."
Herzog has also acquired a reputation for feats of danger and sublime ridiculousness. He hauled a steamer up the side of a mountain during the making of "Fitzcarraldo," cooked and ate one of his own shoes after making a bet with documentary filmmaker Errol Morris (check it out on YouTube) and was shot by a pellet gun during an interview with a British journalist in Los Angeles (again, YouTube). He made headlines in 2006 when he randomly pulled Joaquin Phoenix from a car wreck on one of L.A.’s canyon roads.
The same year, Herzog filmed "Encounters at the End of the World," an exploration under the frozen sea of Antarctica that includes interviews with the men and women who make the city nearest the South Pole their home. According to a philosopher/forklift driver interviewed by Herzog, the remote continent is the perfect place for people with "the intention to jump off the margin of the map."
As “Encounters” rolls out across the U.S., we spoke with Herzog about his penchant for adventure, why he dreads being in the “Guinness Book of World Records” and his skill at inhabiting hostile characters onscreen.
What are you up to at the moment?
I'm in New York. I just flew in from Europe. I'm kind of jet-lagged, but I’ll try to make sense anyway. I had to settle a few things, as I'm planning to stage an opera in Spain in the fall. In a few weeks I'm starting a film with Nicolas Cage in New Orleans. Then I stage an opera and then I do "The Piano Tuner" with Focus Features. These are a lot of plans and they will come one after the other. So talking to you is, somehow, my last serene, quiet moment.
You’ve dedicated "Encounters at the End of the World" to Roger Ebert. What prompted that decision?
I truly love the man. He's in the midst of a battle against cancer, and although he cannot speak anymore--due to some operations--he still soldiers on and continues to write about films. He has this kind of relentless love for cinema. He's such a great soldier of cinema. And I've always felt a kinship because I've always tried to be a good soldier of cinema myself. I said to him, "Roger this is coming at you, I will dedicate my film to you." This has a certain advantage in that he cannot write a review of the film anymore. [Laughs]
In addition to directing, you’re also credited with the sound on this film.
I did the entire sound myself. When we went to Antarctica, we couldn't bring a big crew in. However, the best piece of sound that was in the film was done by a very special artist who recorded underwater: the strange calls of seals. I have to emphasize that this was not recorded by myself.
What kind of planning went into your trip?
I can only say that you cannot travel down to Antarctica just to do some scouting and meeting of people. It's prohibitive, because it's such a privilege to be flown in. Even housing a person down there—a scientist or a mechanic or a cook or a dishwasher in the galley—may cost up to ten thousand dollars a day. Everything, every drop of water, has to be desalinated seawater. This costs a lot of energy. You have to bring in gasoline over great distances.
I was kind of scared when I flew down because I knew that I had to come back with a movie seven weeks later. I had no idea whom I was going to meet. You had to find people and shoot them and that's that. You have to know what you are after. And with this basic attitude, this marveling at the beauty of our planet, you can make a film anywhere in the world.
Many of McMurdo’s inhabitants describe themselves as adventurers. Is that an adjective that you'd apply to yourself?
I'm told I'm the only professional filmmaker who has made films on all seven continents including Antarctica, which is kind of embarrassing. I do not want to end up in the “Guinness Book of World Records.” That would be the moment that I should quit. Do something decent instead of making films.
Like what?
Being a farmer, for example.
There's a line of thought in the publishing world right now that non-fiction and memoir sell much better than fiction. Do you think people have become more inclined to pay attention to documentaries and things that are "real?"
Yes, but you are touching a very, very big subject. [Laughs] We filmmakers know that we must re-define our sense of reality in the real world. We have all the virtual realities on video games and PhotoShop and you've got the so-called reality TV, which is all staged anyway, and Wrestlemania, pretending to be real fights. There's an incredible onslaught of new ways to create virtual realities. All of a sudden, there's a real need for audiences out there to reclaim a sense of reality. I think that's behind it, in a way. And not only concerning films, but as you said, in books and other things.
You had the chance to get some acting work in Harmony Korine's film "Mister Lonely."
Yeah, I had done that before for him in "Julien Donkey-Boy." I'm good as an actor whenever it comes to a character that's vile and debased and hostile. [Laughs]
It's an easy hat to put on?
My wife maintains that I am a fluffy husband...which I am. [Laughs] Let's say my range as an actor is limited, but when it comes to a hostile, dysfunctional character, I'm good at that. I must say I enjoyed acting for him, and the reason behind this is that I love everything that has to do with cinema. Writing screenplays, editing, producing, directing, acting, music, you name it.
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