Jean Jacques Annaud Interview 3 Previous INTERVIEWER How much of the movie is real tigers? JEAN JACQUES ANNAUD Hundred percent of what you've seen is tigers without any manipulation, without any CGI. There is zero CGI. I'll explain to you how we use tricks. What we did beside interaction with the other actors, we removed unwanted elements in the background of our shots. For instance, you know, when you have the beautiful close-up of a tiger, maybe in the distance you have a trainer, or maybe you have a bit of a net. So this is when we erased the thing in post-production. But in term of working on the tiger themselves, only on two occasions, on two shots I reinforced a reflection of a flame in their eyes for the two animals, and for one baby. This is the only identification you have of the tigers. I'm very proud that there is absolutely no CG, or no visual effect. You know all the movies have that now. And I didn't want to do this. And, and I didn't have to because the tigers were any case, far better than I expected. When I'm saying far, far, far better, I'm going to show on the DVD, the storyboard compared to what is on film. Storyboard was so ambitious that my crew didn't believe that we would do it, and I didn't believe we would do it. Yet, well, the tigers did better, and you will be able to stop the image and to see, it's the real tigers. The reason they did it that way is they were put in a situation they understood. Therefore, they reacted, as any tiger would react in that situation. Even, you know, the scene where they recognize each other. How did we do that? Well, we separated the two brothers for about a week. And they knew they were and we shot that part in a huge studio. And they couldn't see each other, but they could hear each other. So I'm here. Where are you? I'm here. And when we were ready we opened their trailer, and they met in the arena, and they did exactly what was written. First they smelled each other, they licked each other, they played tricks, they run, and then they started playing football with this coconut sort of thing that I had displayed. I know that they love playing with rolling things. But we got the whole scene in 10 minutes with two brothers that loved each other, spend all their time together, and they couldn't stand being separated. Therefore, what you see, and the reason why people are touched is they see it as sincerity. And there is sincerity because it's true. INTERVIEWER How did you pick that trainer and those groups? JEAN JACQUES ANNAUD You know, the key thing is to remember that animals, actors, or, actors, not animals, are the same. You have to treat them well. They have to identify the experience of being on the set, in your set, in front of your cameras as a happy moment. So that's the key to it. And I admit, this trainer, Tiera Leportier on my set on The Bear, he did a scene with a puma, and I loved the way it was working. A lot of trainers, they treat their animals like machines. Pay them when they do something good. Therefore you have an animal who is frantic to get the award. The biscuit, or the, the sugar, or a little piece of meat. It's not at all that style with Tiera and his animals. They have, they get their dinner every evening at eight. And the rest of the day, they work for pleasure, and for the sort of incredible partnership that they feel with their trainer. They like the trainer to be happy, and they like themselves to be happy. For instance, one of the brothers was an incredibly Confucius tiger. There was a tiger that was, like many actors, he was freaking out each time he was coming on the set. And he would defecate.  I'm saying that politely. And we didn't know. So we would wait, and he was coming all humble and trembling, and then, little by little, he knew, he understood what we wanted. And now everybody was happy. And I had my shot. No, he wanted to do it again, better. And again, better. And again. Now his brother, just the opposite. I used to call him Sean Connery. You know, I have a great relationship with Sean Connery. He did The Name Of The Rose for me, and it was one of the best experiences of my life. But Sean, in a way, is very right to say, listen guy, we rehearse as many times as you want, but let's do it right take one. And on take one, he does it perfectly, and the focus puller says, you know, I'm not sure if he's furious, and he says, well, too bad for you. I don't do it again. And my other brother had this style, of saying hey guys. I know I did it well, because they can feel it, you know? They feel the spirit on the set. They understand when people are happy. And then, you want to do it again, so, with that tiger, take one. You know? Well, usually it was always take one. But you see, it's all a matter of respect. Now if you start thinking, I am a man, and I have all the possible rights. Animals are just objects. I do whatever I want. Well, you'll get the kind of acting an object can give you. If you say, well, I'm just like another tiger. I went to school, I learned Greek, but more or less I'm the same.  You don't have the same relationship. You start to feel partnership. And you don't treat your star the same way. INTERVIEWER What was it like to direct tigers in a lovemaking scene? JEAN JACQUES ANNAUD Yeah, well, thank you for asking this question. I forgot that one. You know those are the most frightening scenes, and I'm never worried.  I'm a sort of peaceful guy, you know, when I have 1,000 extras; I don't care. I know that I'll manage. But, lovemaking scenes are frightening because you have one goal. If it doesn't work, you'll never do it. Because people start to giggle, they start to be worried. It's done. So, I'm always very frightened. Now, with tigers you cannot see your star and say, well you know, don't worry. You hope there won't be too many on the set and don't worry if you're making too many noises. It's okay, you know. You have to wait, that monsieur and Madame are ready for the emotion. And what we did is we pre-lighted the set for them and we waited for the moment it would happen. We waited eight months. I was in France shooting that. It was now, we're running out of time. And it was too warm in Cambodia. They didn't like it so we had our little set in France and we knew, all, she was in a very, you know, she was very hot and he was very hot as well. And I set my cameras on that little set and there was a very famous French actress, Semina Zema, we said, can I come on your set? I have been seeing all those tigers for so long. What are you doing to shoot? I said, you know this is a very erotic scene that I'm going to shoot. The tigress, we're going to open a motor home and she's going to come here in this very delicate, on that musk, where it's warm. And she's going to roll on her back and very, very attractive, like Marlene Dietrich then we will call the big tiger, the big male and they will look at each other passionately and it will go on her take her neck and you will see that it's going to be very brief. But extraordinarily intense. What, she smiles, you know, and why we called the tigress. She went on this little mattress of musk. She was very voluptuous. We called the big male. He came and we had the scene on the three different angles. Five minutes later it was all done. And she couldn't' believe what she had seen. What she didn't know is that we had waited for eight months. INTERVIEWER Wouldn't it be better if, at least, you were witnessing love making with an animal that couldn't eat you? JEAN JACQUES ANNAUD Right, exactly. INTERVIEWER Did you see that tail start to swish and run? JEAN JACQUES ANNAUD Exactly. Oh, they go and make this noise. But the good thing with tigers. They warn you, while bears, they don't. We just do this, they do that. While, tigers, they go, like this. Basically, they don't want to eat you. They just want you to go. You know? INTERVIEWER Thank you. Bye, bye.		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