GEORGE MILLER (Director) chats about HAPPY FEET

Interview courtesy of Warner Bros

QUESTION: What drew you to this project?

GEORGE MILLER: I was always fascinated by Antarctica. When I was young I saw some amazing footage from Frank Hurley (in fact, I knew his son), who went there with Shackleton, and then I saw the documentary Life in the Freezer that the BBC and National Geographic had done. I had no idea that the Emperor penguins lived those extraordinary lives, and then one thing led to another. I thought it was a perfect metaphor for humankind: they lived in communities and you could tell the whole story about a nation in the form of penguins. So, it became a fable about penguins, and ultimately about us and about how we are in the world. I saw how the penguins worked and sang together, and suddenly it became a musical, because I knew that nature had written a brilliant story. We tried to follow nature as much as possible.

QUESTION: So, there really is such a thing as a Heartsong?

GEORGE MILLER: Absolutely! There may be 25,000 penguins bunched together, and then one of them will have a call, squawking, which is like a bird song, and he will use that song to identify a mate and they will share it. Then they do a little dance and mate for life through connecting their song.

QUESTION: It seems that lately penguins have become very popular in films. Why is that?

GEORGE MILLER: Because I think that about 15 years ago the documentary crews were able to get in there, the cameras became robust enough in the cold weather and the camping equipment and the communications by satellite allowed the documentary filmmakers to go in and spend a long time to record what was happening. That footage, not just the photographs, has come out into the world and now we are seeing it bubble up into the public consciousness. I don’t think it’s a coincidence, I just think that the same way I became aware of it, so did other filmmakers. And penguins are cute. The little baby ones are like little pandas, and they are also so anthropomorphic – the way they walk reminds us so much of ourselves, but also, their very unusual socialization is amazing.

QUESTION: How long did it take to complete Happy Feet?

GEORGE MILLER: The film took about four years: two years to devise the pipelines (the means by which we made it, put the computers together, and find the personnel and get the technology going) and about two years to actually make the film, animate it and create it all.

QUESTION: What are your thoughts on the themes of the story, like individuality and being true to oneself? Do you think children will respond to it?

GEORGE MILLER: The stories I am attracted to are of people who are outsiders and who, by their own courage and authenticity, manage to change the world they live in. And that was the story in Lorenzo’s Oil, Babe and indeed Mad Max, in a way. It’s something I do unconsciously. I find there is a lot of pressure in kids, because they hate being different. They are afraid and they often take the wrong path to fit in. I made a point in telling my children that it is ok to be different. We shouldn’t bend over backwards or deny who we really are or do something that is fraudulent in order to just to win approval from other people. It is better to be yourself, because it is authentic then. I am amazed by how many people relate to this message. Even charismatic people like movie stars have told me that when they were in school they felt like freaks, different from everybody else. I have felt that way too, and I was cool at school, but I remember changing who I was to win approval from other people. And later on, when I was a doctor, because I was interested in the arts, people also thought I was a little strange.

QUESTION: Do you think there are also thematic elements in the film that have to do with different species living in harmony? What are your thoughts on that?

GEORGE MILLER: That was the other thing: you can’t tell the story of Antarctica and the penguins without being led to the conclusion that we have to live in harmony in every way. We have to belong authentically and responsibly to the world, and that includes how you belong to your family, your parents, your friends and your community, and how you belong to the planet. It’s all part of the same organism, and Antarctica is a place that is suffering, like the rest, from all the excesses of the modern world.

QUESTION: Have you ever been to Antarctica?

GEORGE MILLER: Not yet, but I would love to go. Two expeditions went down to capture the environments and the songs. I love deserts and I remember shooting Mad Max 2 in the center of Australia, in Broken Hill, and having this conversation with Billy Grimmond, an old cameraman who was doing second unit. He told me that I had to make a film in Antarctica, because he had just come from working there and it was like the desert, but many times amplified. And it always stuck in my head.

QUESTION: What was the largest technical challenge you faced with Happy Feet?

GEORGE MILLER: Probably the sheer logistics of getting the movie made and bringing everyone together as a team, which required very clear lines of communication, and not just from me down, creatively. Everyone had the opportunity to say whatever they wanted. We even had a little intranet.

QUESTION: What is more difficult to work with –computers or animals?

GEORGE MILLER: It’s like athletics: you have to choose if you are going to run a marathon, a middle distance or a sprint. But I don’t think I’d hurry to do another animation, because it takes a long time.

QUESTION: Did the actors voice their characters separately or together in the same room?

GEORGE MILLER: Acting is a body-contact sport and it’s what happens between the actors that is really important. In animation, actors tend to be recorded individually, so you don’t always get that interaction and spontaneity; but in this case I realized that even though making an animation is hand-woven it has to feel as if it is very spontaneous, so it was great to throw the actors together. And they loved it! Robin Williams, for instance, studied in Julliard and did improvisational theatre and knows what it is like to work in an ensemble cast.

QUESTION: What was it like working with such a talented group of actors?

GEORGE MILLER: I laughed endlessly. At the end of each take I would try not to look at them, because I wanted to imagine a penguin, but Robin would look across to me, and he knew that if I was giggling we had a good take. But I was trying not to laugh. We also got Brittany Murphy, Elijah Wood, Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman together to interact. It just brought it all much more to life.

QUESTION: What is the difference between directing live actors and animated characters?

GEORGE MILLER: When it comes to recording voices there is no difference, apart from the fact that I don’t have to worry about the lights, or the costumes, or the make-up… I don’t have to worry about the faces. Basically, there are fewer things to worry about, so all we can concentrate on are the voices. I would tell them that I was not being rude if I had my head down, because I was just listening to the voices.

QUESTION: Do you think that directing animation has made you a better director for live characters now?

GEORGE MILLER: I learned a lot. We use 75% of our processing in reading faces and most of that goes into looking into the eyes. So, in the animation I spent more on the eyes than on anything else. And I learned how much you can do by being still. For me, some of the most effective moments of the films are when the characters are still, like in what I consider the greatest movies ever made: The Godfather: Part II. What blew me away the most in that film was Al Pacino’s performance. I mean, how audacious is it for an actor to play a character who is masking his every emotion. It is like a great symphony that you can listen to over and over again.

QUESTION: Do you have a favourite character?

GEORGE MILLER: I think it’s Mumble. He took me a while to get into because he is the one that speaks the least. And he emerged fairly late, because it wasn’t until he was fully feathered that he was also fully articulated and then we saw how strong he was. He was harder to see than the more flamboyant characters. I almost wanted to hug him and tell him that it was ok. But probably secretly deep down my favorite is Loveless. People think I look like him.

QUESTION: Do you think there are similarities between Mumble and Babe?

GEORGE MILLER: Yes, they are both outsiders, and they have changed the world by being themselves. And they do it by courage. Basically, what they have in common is the hero in the classic sense. They are angels of change.

QUESTION: What was your favorite scene in Happy Feet?

GEORGE MILLER: I like the moment when the father asks the son to change, and Mumble says that he can’t.

QUESTION: What makes Happy Feet unique?

GEORGE MILLER: I remember being attracted to the story. So, we worked very hard to tell the best story we could, and people have responded to it. We have tried to make something no one has ever seen before. I have been able to put in it all that I have learnt about filmmaking and story-telling.

QUESTION: Music and dance are very important in the film, though Happy Feet isn’t really a musical.

GEORGE MILLER: I realized by watching musicals that the numbers must be part of the narrative, they can’t be decorative. Within any musical sequence, you must be telling your story; there can’t be interludes where someone just starts dancing or singing. In this case, it is true that without being a musical, it is movie with a lot of music and dancing in it, but the narrative must advance.

QUESTION: How did Prince come about writing a song for the film?

GEORGE MILLER: Well, Nicole Kidman sings a Prince song at the beginning, Kiss, and we had to change the lyrics, but Prince said that we couldn’t do this. Then, two guys from Warners’ music department spoke to Prince and convinced him to see the movie. As the movie came to an end, he picked up his guitar and started looking for chords. And he came up with one that basically falls off Steve Wonder’s I Wish that sounds at the end. He said: “give me two weeks and I’ll write you a song for nothing”. So, not only did he allow us to change his lyrics, but he was so impressed by the movie that he gave us a song.

QUESTION: How was your collaboration with Savion Glover?

GEORGE MILLER: Savion is the heir to all those great African American dancers. He sees himself as a percussionist as much as he sees himself as a dancer. He has extraordinary rhythms and has been able to bring tap to a large audience. And to have the technology to be able to capture someone with his virtuosity and actually put it on a penguin was amazing. He loved it!

QUESTION: What have you learned from Happy Feet?

GEORGE MILLER: One thing I have learned from making films is that you kind of work in a cave, in candlelight, and you are not sure what you are making. You put your best effort into it and then you throw it out there and you basically wait for the world to tell you what you have made. I will not know until in about three years exactly what this film really is.

QUESTION: Is Happy Feet for all ages?

GEORGE MILLER: Yes, I think it is for the child in the adult and for the adult in the child.

QUESTION: What are your next projects?

GEORGE MILLER: I am probably very hungry to work with live actors again. But I am going to have a rest now. I have three films planned, but the one I want the most to do doesn’t involve visual effects. It is a really intimate small story. I am lead by where the story is. If the story takes me, I go there.