Jean Jacques Annaud Interview - Two Brothers INTERVIEWER I found myself wondering, are the tigers really that smart? JEAN JACQUES ANNAUD Well, that's a very interesting question. First of all, I want to say, the movie's a fable. The movie's a tale. I insist on that. This is not a documentary. This is not supposed to give you what you would have looking at a National GeographicNational Geographic. It's fiction. Therefore, I am not telling a common story of how tigers react in the wild. JEAN JACQUES ANNAUD What I'm doing is telling you a story that could have happened, that is plausible. Now, you may ask yourself, is it true that tigers are so smart? Well, you know, the answer, they would not have survived so long if they were not. Is it true that tigers have memory? Well, I tell you one thing, in Siberia, they roam areas of hundreds of square miles, and they have their cache, they have their dens very hidden, and they find them years later. They call each other. How do you, they leave alone. How do they recognize each other? Well, by the smell that they put their spray, their sense, on the tree, tree trunks. They call, and each tiger knows what tiger is calling. Is it my lover? Is it my son? And they know. So we know about dogs. We are not surprised when we see a dog recognizing us if we spend two years with him, and then you go abroad, and then you come back, and the dog recognizes you, you say well, of course he recognizes me. Well tiger are the same. In the IQ, they range higher. They rate higher than dogs. They're supposed to be among the very top of the mammals. They've got great perception, they've got great intelligence.  Now once again, it's just, should we say, between us, as I'm telling you that, because if you'd prefer to believe that they don't have all those feelings, you may look at the movie by saying, well, it is just a metaphor, they are acting like humans, that's fine. But as, deep in myself, I just learned after, now, two movies that I've done with animals, that I was very pretentious before to believe that I was so special, because I was a human being.  I'm a much more common mammal than I imagined before. And this is the thrill of doing such a movie, is to have to witness, to watch, to look at those marvelous animals day after day, and, as a director, my job is to identify. Therefore my job is to think when I write what would happen if I were a tiger. Then, when I shoot is what should I do if I were a tiger, how should I approach this, this actor, to have him do what he would probably do in the wild? So there is a whole association, and identification, and I found very humbling, and quite wonderful to feel so much connection with those animals. And I must say, it's not only me. It's my whole crew. We all are in a different sort of mood after doing this movie. It's something that has a very peaceful impact on people for that reason. You know, it's like people who decide to understand a little better their cat at home, or their dog. It's a very rewarding experience, and it helps, look at how much it helps children to have a pet. Why is it? Well, because children, they don't understand all what we say. And they don't understand the complexity of what we do. But they trust their animal because they can read their body language. They can know if the animal is happy, or if he wants to go out, or if he's grateful because he had a nice sugar. And this is very reassuring to say hey, I am a human kid, but I can't understand the world, why when we grow up we don't understand anything anymore. And we ruin the life of others. INTERVIEWER Why would you pick tigers? JEAN JACQUES ANNAUD Oh, I picked tigers because when I research for The BearBear, I was clearly going to places where I could see animals. In those places I was always fascinated with the eyes of the tigers. And for a moment, I was wondering if it would be better to do a movie called The Tiger instead of making a movie called The Bear, you know? Yet, when I finished shooting, it was a great experience shooting The Bear. It was good box office, and critically acclaimed, but I was certain that I would never do it again. You know, because it was once in a lifetime sort of experience. Yet, two years ago, well I just had to do it again because I felt the necessity of it. The experience possibly because my previous film was EnemyEnemy At The Gate. You know, it was a very tough movie set against the dark background of explosion, and fires of the second world war, in Stalingrad. When I finished that, I just felt like going to peace in a green jungle with animals that walk slowly, and I was in the need of diving in their magnificent green eyes. And it is true that I was in the middle of brotherhood, of warm feelings, of heartwarming experience. And this is what happened to me, to my crew. Possibly to my tigers, who were very happy over there. INTERVIEWER What about taking them out of their natural environment and bringing them into captivity? You don't know what they're going to do. JEAN JACQUES ANNAUD No, well listen, first of all, you're dealing with an animal that is about 400 pounds, sometimes 600 pounds, that has jaws so powerful they can crush your head in two seconds. They've got fangs that are as long as my hands. They are extraordinarily powerful animals. Very quick as well, and very clever. Now, we all know that a dog can become upset for no reason in a second. Well think what happens when you have an animal that is 10 times the size of a dog. And this is why, when we shot this movie, we did not want to take any chance. We spent, we the technicians, eight months behind bars in cages. The tigers were roaming free around us. We were in cages. It was not permitted to go out. Never ever anyone but once because Guy wanted the experience of seeing what it felt to be confronted by this kind of terrifying carnivore. So one day we had a very important scene.  It's a scene towards the end. And I understood it was important for him to carry, in order to carry the feeling later on, to have the experience. Next		Home Interviews Antoine Fuqua Interview King Arthur Interview Arv Grewal Interview Asia Argento Interview Behind the Scenes of "War of the Worlds" Bernie Goldmann Interview Clive Owen Interview Dakota Fanning Interview Dennis Hopper Interview George A Romero Interview Greg Nicotero Interview The Hulk Press Conference Ang Lee Press Conference Ioan Gruffudd Interview John Leguizamo Interview Kathleen Kennedy Interview Keira Knightley Interview