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4 Naomi Watts talks about King Kong days
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 Q: What took you all the way to China and meant you only got three and a half hours sleep last night?A: I'm filming there right now in Beijing. I am doing a movie called The Painted Veil which is a Somerset Maugham story.
Q: What's it like out there?
A: It's amazing, a great time to be there. It's very transitional and there is a lot of excitement and energy.
Q: This time last year you were in New Zealand, filming King Kong. What a life you have?
A: Starting this - almost a year to the day.
Q: And you've worked really hard to get to this stage, haven't you?
A: I have and now I'm getting to the point where I'm like...ok, time for other things.
Q: You must have worked several years non-stop?
A: Really since Mulholland Drive came out - the films have been pretty much back to back. I have had months in between but still....Now I want a good run of time off.
Q: King Kong must have been your most physically taxing film?
A: Without question! And I will never be up for it again. I'm too old for it (laughs). I'm not trying to pull a sympathy card here, I didn't quite realise going into it - not that it would have stopped me - the extent of the physical demands. Yes I thought there would be running, chasing, jumping...But there was a period throughout the six months shoot, and in the last three months especially which was all me and Kong, where my body was in a state of absolute exhaustion. We were doing days back to back and weeks back to back of really taxing stuff. There was a point towards the last bit when I went to Peter [Jackson] and I said...'I don't know if I can do this. I feel so frustrated because I want to and my body is not as good as my will.' But I got through it.
Q: How did you get time to recover during filming when so much of the action is you and Kong?
A: That's the thing. That's why I went to Peter and said I don't know if I can do it - help me...But your body just keeps going and then you collapse at the end of it. I had major cuts and bruises on a daily basis and I had one bad accident. I was lucky and thought thanks goodness for my yoga because that had made me supple and agile.
Because I fell six feet backwards down a ditch - with quite a lot of force - and I was jammed up in a hole. My legs were up in the air because the ditch was only about that wide [pulls her hands a short distance apart] and so I fell back backwards into it. I had a couple of seconds when I was out and because I couldn't move I thought I may be paralysed...I may have done something really bad. I was physically trapped in that position. But after a few seconds I was able to move and they slowly got me out. But that was the moment when I thought is this it!
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Q: How did you maintain a healthy regime, protect your complexion when you are working on such a rigorous schedule?
A: Yoga and you drink tons of water, that's the be all and end all. I constantly reminded myself to keep drinking water. And you have just got to try and get as much rest as possible.
Q: But how do you rest when you are in just about every scene?
A: You get rest because you just don't do anything else at the end of the day. It's not like you have a life to go home to. You commit yourself to that six month period. But come on though there are people out there with much more difficult lives. This is a pretty easy life.
Q: Maybe so, but you still put yourself through the mill for this film?
A: Most of my movies are not like this one, they are much more intimate and emotional. So this was new to me. And I had an absolute blast every step of the way. But it was difficult and I will not be signing up for a big action movie any time soon. I will never say never...
Q: The 1930s costumes look fantastic. Are they great to wear?
A: They are beautiful. The 1930s were such a wonderful period for women, really celebrating the woman's body. Yeah the costumes were easy to wear, they were just so feminine.
Q: It also seemed to be an era of hats - year a great hat early in the film when you steal the apple. Do you like hats?
A: I'm not a big hat person. I wear a cap every now and again or a hat for the sun but I always feel a bit showy in hats for some reason.
Q: All those outfits, down to the grey/blue shoes you wear as you walk the ship's gangway must help you to get into the character?
A: Yeah, the costume and the wig - it was a wig, it wasn't my hair - just helps you get into the era. They are little tools that help you get closer to the character.
Q: You said that the big test was the green screen stuff when you were pretending to be alongside Kong. What was that like?
A: That was hard but you know Peter is so skilled at that, that he helps you along the way and every time you had moments when you felt lost he guided you through. He had these animated story boards that he shows you the shots, the scale and the proximity of everything. So they helped you tap into it. But even with your imagination being as wild as it can be it can sometimes only go so far so it is still quite a vulnerable position to be in. You are reacting to and creating all these things that aren't there. But you give yourself over to the man who knows best. It takes a lost of trust.
Q: How do you avoid feeling daft when you are being emotional when there's nothing there?
A: My big emotional moments were mostly with Andy Serkis and so there was never a moment where I felt daft. It did feel like I was looking at the absolute truth. He is an extraordinary man and actor who makes you transcend all disbelief and you are connecting with a soul. So whether he was hairy and 50 feet tall or whether he was himself you still felt like you were there.
Q: What did Andy actually do as Kong; did he inhabit the beast's body language?
A: Exactly and sometimes that was difficult because he is only his own size and when he was put up in a contraption that raised him up to the right eye line as Kong he was in an encased rig and couldn't move in the same way. It was never as you will see it. It was always a little bit of help but you had to do the rest.
Q: Were you emotionally drained?A: Yes and there is also the fear when you do the remake that comparisons will be drawn and you are up against it. We know both films were great in their own way. Some may have liked one more than the other but they were both very emotional. If the movie is done right then we should have the same experience. I felt enormous pressure about those last moments in the film. `Oh my god, I've got to make the audience feel.' Which is a horrible pressure and if the fear is consuming you, you can't tell the truth because you are battling with that and you are not free to connect the truth of what is happening in the moment. So I had to try and do what I could to let go of that. I hope...I hope...
Q: Why do you think that Kong doesn't simply kill Ann?
A: To begin with it is intrigue that Kong has about Ann. There is something about this woman that is different. They came up with great ideas to separate it from the first movie because the racial undertones were a bit heavy. So it is not just because she is a golden girl, it's not that at all, there is something about her and they tapped into who she was, a New York girl at the time of the Depression. She's a survivor, strong and gutsy and she can exist alone - like he can. There is a kindred spirit connection, as absurd as that may seem. The way she screams is what alerts him and it is time for another sacrifice for Kong and he comes to get her - but then there is some feistiness; there is some attitude in her that he has not seen before. You'll see...I don't want to give too much away.
Q: Were big hairy hands ever used in your scenes?
A: No. We had a hand that I was sleeping in at one point. But it was a blue polystyrene hand. He was never there. There is this wonderful moment at the end of the movie when we come together in New York and you see her touch him. I'm just touching air but we were to assume that she was touching his skin and hair. That stuff is about imagination.
Q: What did you do after the wrap and you went home?
A: I basically finished in April and I had till July off. I went on safari in Africa. But it was not a holiday, it was like boot camp. I went to East Africa and it was amazing. Being out there in the wilderness and seeing the animals. We did have some time in tents and you would hear the lions and hyenas at night. I loved all that.
Q: But don't you like five star comforts?
A: Yeah but I like to mix it up, I'm not a princess all the way. It's not how I was brought up.
Q: Apart from the safari then did you take time to do nothing?
A: Yeah between April and July after the two weeks on safari I was here in New York and hanging out. Then I had to go back on July 18 to New Zealand and do two weeks of pick ups on King Kong and then I went straight to China to start the movie that I'm doing now.
Q: Does the new movie not feel a bit too soon after King Kong?
A: It is a bit. I didn't realise that King Kong was going to be as draining as it was. But I did get four months off. But I could have gone longer.
Q: What do you feel about the whole King Kong experience?
A: I have great feelings for the experience and the connections I made with people...friends for life. So there is that. But yeah I have a degree of excitement to see the movie because there is so much of it that happened on the day that I have no idea about. So it is just as exciting for me as any other audience member that is eager.
Q: What makes Peter Jackson so special?
A: The great thing about this movie is that this had been his passion since he was nine years old and this is what drove him to be a film maker. And this is why a minute after meeting with him I said I had to do this because I was not entirely sure right away...was this a monster movie? So when you get to share that dream with someone and that kind of passion it becomes really fun. And of course the way Fran and Philippa talked about the journey of Ann, I knew it was going to be a much modernised version of the story. This was not just the damsel in distress. You cover so much. That is why this was such a great experience. This is not just an event movie; this is a love story, emotions, action, effects...that's why - all things going well - it should have a great place out there in the world because it really does appeal to the broad demographic. I'm excited.
Q: It's bound to touch on the impact of the Depression?
A: Everyone is freaking out, times are beyond tough. They really tapped into the Depression part of it. It was a time when film became a good medium for women to voice themselves and they have really tapped into that. Ann has a lot to say, she knows who she is.
Interview: John Millar
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