Family Trips with the Meyers Brothers - ANDY SERKIS Ran Wild Through Baghdad Souks

Episode Date: April 28, 2026

This week on the pod, Seth and Josh welcome Andy Serkis! Andy talks about growing up in a multicultural family with an Iraqi-Armenian father and British mother, being one of five siblings, and feeling... caught between two very different worlds: Middle Eastern adventures and classic British caravan holidays. He also shares incredible stories including spending summers in Baghdad, traveling to places like Syria, Babylon, and Lebanon, and camping under the stars in the desert, his father’s narcoleptic tendencies while road tripping, and so much more. Plus, he shares his experiences second-unit directing in The Hobbit trilogy, directing his latest film, Animal Farm, and his upcoming directing venture in The Hunt for Gollum. Watch more Family Trips episodes: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLlqYOfxU_jQem4_NRJPM8_wLBrEEQ17B6 Support our sponsors: Yahoo Stress less with Planner from Yahoo mail Fitbod Level up your workout. Join Fitbod today to get your personalized workout plan. Get 25% off your subscription or try the app FREE for seven days at https://Fitbod.me/trip. Aura Frames For a limited time, listeners can get 25 dollars off their best-selling Carver Mat frame at https://auraframes.com promo code TRIPS. Support the show by mentioning us at checkout! Terms and conditions apply. ------------------------- Family Trips is produced by Rabbit Grin Productions. Theme song written and performed by Jeff Tweedy. ------------------------- About the Show: Lifelong brothers Seth Meyers and Josh Meyers ask guests to relive childhood memories, unforgettable family trips, and other disasters! New Episodes of Family Trips with the Meyers Brothers are available every Tuesday. ------------------------- Executive Producers: Rob Holysz, Jeph Porter, Natalie Holysz Creative Producer: Sam Skelton Coordinating Producer: Derek Johnson Video Editor: Josh Windisch Mix & Master: Josh Windisch Episode Artwork: Analise Jorgensen Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript
Discussion (0)
Starting point is 00:00:00 Hey, Baji. Hey, Sufi. How are you? I'm great. How are you? Good. I feel like I'm just going to run this intro. Yeah, no.
Starting point is 00:00:09 I mean, you had a family trip. I had an actual family trip, and it involved members of our family. I took Ash to Boston. Alexi was taking Axel to California. Addie was spending the weekend with her aunt and niece. And it was a big. Big trip. It was Ash's first trip to Fenway Park. Mom and dad met us. And it was just exceptional. We took the train. Ash and I took the train up.
Starting point is 00:00:42 We stopped. We picked up his best friend, Huck. And then we got to the city. We checked into a hotel room. I got a room with a sofa bed, pullout couch. And the plan was the boys. We were sleep together in this sort of kick-ass queen bed. Right. Good sheets, good blanket. And then I was in a real janky foldout couch. That was the plan? That was the plan.
Starting point is 00:01:14 I was because they really wanted to sleep in the same bed. And I was like, all right, I'll let you sleep in the same bed. And you wouldn't put the two, like, 10-year-old kids in the janky fold-out? I don't know. It felt a little. That's where they're supposed to sleep. Who is the Dickens character? I don't know.
Starting point is 00:01:28 It felt like Fagan. It felt like, you know, making them, making Oliver Twist, like, ask for newborn gruel. The good news is they couldn't, they self-policed, and the first night they were in bed together, the friend came out, and was like, can I sleep in here? I don't think we can fall asleep in the same room. Because they were too chatty, Kathy.
Starting point is 00:01:48 Chatty and kicky and just like. And so I ended up with Ash and the bed, so we're down here. And the proper, like adult, yeah, bed. We went to an aquarium. I went to the New England Aquarium. Mm-hmm. I love an aquarium. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:02:04 I love that they exist. Are you? With that said, I don't know what the... I'm doing there. You know, at some point, like what? How long am I... You know what I mean? Like, you see the coolest fish you've ever seen,
Starting point is 00:02:16 and, like, how long can you actually look at it? Well, it depends who you are. But I think that aquariums are designed... All museums are designed sort of with a path. Yeah, there was a beautiful path of this one. you sort of wind up, it's really cool. Yeah, so you do that. I do do that.
Starting point is 00:02:33 I just always feel like when I think of like, we're going to go to the aquarium, that feels like we're going to make a day of it. Oh, I see. Yeah. Reality is it's a 45-minute trip. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, a crazy aquarium, you could probably do a couple hours.
Starting point is 00:02:51 Unless there's a show of some kind, I don't think you can stretch it past 45 minutes. We did. They were, like, we watched them beat some seals. Yeah. Fastened, first time a seal catches of fish, it's the best thing you've ever seen. Yeah. Then you sort of understand they're pretty good at it. Not as much risk as you thought there was. Classic Seth Myers.
Starting point is 00:03:14 It is classic. And by the way, you were like amazing. And then every giraffe after that, nothing. You like to see things for the first time and then never again. Never again. Yeah. Well, I want to make it, I want to trick myself into thinking, like, I saw something special. I'm like, and then a dude reached into a bucket, took out of fish through it.
Starting point is 00:03:31 Seale caught it. Yeah. I can't believe I was there on that day. I didn't realize. Then we went to the North End, famous Italian-American neighborhood in Boston, went to a restaurant. Mom and dad met us there. It was great. I will say we had hug with us for 24 hours, and I would say the restaurant was like hour three.
Starting point is 00:03:56 and that was the first time I was like Hour 24 can't come fast enough. It got better. Did you order everything off the menu? No, they were just like he ever, I kept, like, I don't like Kids that aren't yours? I haven't to talk to them when they're misbehaving. You know what I mean?
Starting point is 00:04:15 Like, I'd take an awkward thing. So I kept having to say at this restaurant, Huck, sit down. Because he kept just like standing to like, Just like mess with ash. And I'm like, huck, honey, sit down. We're at a restaurant. Then they came up with this plan where they kept saying they needed fresh air.
Starting point is 00:04:37 And then I would just look out the window and they were sort of running up and down the street. And whatever, I don't care. They can run up the street all I want. Get their steps in. Yeah. Very nice. Also, so you'll enjoy this. They also kept, like, the amount, they were like knocking over like waters and stuff.
Starting point is 00:04:56 silverware, just everything. And I'm just, it was so, and this is before mom and dad came. And it was just like, clank, clank, clank, oops. I'm like, sit down. Once you sit down, stuff, stop, stopping him. And then mom and dad sat down and dad ordered a beer and what do you think he did immediately. Oh, they either spilled it on his chest or knocked the whole thing over. Knocked it over, but on the floor, like 10x worse than anything the boys had done.
Starting point is 00:05:20 Mom was probably cool about it. Mom sighed so loud. the windows to the restaurant blew open. They kept saying it to Nor-Easter, and I had to say it's not, actually. It's just a withering sigh. It's a withering sigh from her mom. But dad, you know, again, dad's never met a stranger. He doesn't want to try to turn into his best friend.
Starting point is 00:05:43 There was like a couple on what looked like a first date across the table from him, because he spilled so much, like, it was an observable amount of beer on the floor. And the dad was immediately like, I'm going to tell him you did that. And they were like, what? I went like, when they got up to leave, he's like, you got to go tell, I'll go apologize for the mess you made. They're like, huh? Oh, yeah. So that was super fun.
Starting point is 00:06:11 And then we went to the Children's Museum. By the way, something positive's coming because I know. Good. Yeah. Children's Museum, the reality is I think 10 years old is too old for a children's museum. Okay. But I didn't know, and then you show up and you're like, oh, my son's the oldest kid here. It's a lot of, like, bubbles.
Starting point is 00:06:30 You got to go to the Teenagers Museum. Or just a science museum. I think at, like, 10, you go to a science museum. We're good to go. That was fine. Then, we went to the Boston Tea Party Museum. And it was a triple plus. I cannot tell you how great the Boston Tea Party Museum was.
Starting point is 00:06:52 Oh, by the way. I talked to mom and dad about it, and dad was gold. Loving about it. Great. By the way, I miss something. This is how busy my day. I fully missed the first thing we did on Saturday morning. We did the duck boat, the duck boat tour of Boston.
Starting point is 00:07:05 Oh, uh-huh. Classic? Classic duck boat. You get on a duck boat. It's a car that then can go into the water. Amphibious vehicle? I told mom she had 10 questions. She could only ask 10 questions about the duck boat.
Starting point is 00:07:19 And then every time she asked one, I would go quack, quack, don't let her know. She was down. The amount of mom asked, what happened to the wheels in the duck boat. I'm like, I don't know. Just don't worry about it. We had a real,
Starting point is 00:07:33 we had a real old school Boston tour narrator on our duck boat. He was wearing a Bobby Orr jersey, but the ore on the back was spelled O-A-R. Uh-huh. He had a lot of duck, a lot of duck boat puns. The best thing about him, though,
Starting point is 00:07:51 was he figured out somebody on the boat had gone to Harvard, and then he just called that guy Harvard the rest of the trip. And every time there was a fact before he said it, he would ask that guy if he knew what it was. And when the guy didn't, he'd be like, too bad, Harvard. You get a little bit more education for your money. It was great. If you went to Harvard at Boston, your nickname is Harvard. That's a thing.
Starting point is 00:08:19 Duckboat was great. Also, Ash, like, felt like he wasn't paying any attention, but I realized he'd get It's a real colonial education at school because he was just like looking out the window, slack-jawed. And then every now when he was like, do you remember it? Does anybody here know who brought the cannons? Who brought the cannons for the battle of Bunker Hill? And as Ash was like, Henry Knox. I'm like, oh, Jesus.
Starting point is 00:08:40 Yeah. Yeah. Shocking. He would also, he got every kid to come up and drive the duck boat. And then they would drive it for like 30 seconds. He'd be like, all right, scram. I like that. I like that vibe.
Starting point is 00:08:53 Yeah. Me too. Doug Bo was great. But anyway, back to the Tea Party Museum. And again, like, if you're going, but I cannot recommend Boston enough as a destination for a family trip. Tea Party Museum, so good. First, you go into a meeting house, and it's one of those museums where you got young actors just bring in their A-game to reenactment stuff. They hand out little cards so that certain people in the meeting house have to stand up and say something about how mad they are, about this T-Tax.
Starting point is 00:09:22 then you go out and there's two boats that are parked there you go the kids get to pretend to throw tea overboard nobody breaks character then you go in to like a little tea party museum there's a video like a 15 minute reenactment video about a what is it the battle of lexington conquered one of those it was shot around the world obviously not remembered around the world but the shot fired up fully teared up Not the last time I would tear up, Pushy. Fully teared out watching this incredible video about our nation's founding. Just exceptional. Then we went to Faniel Hall for lunch.
Starting point is 00:10:05 Yep. You've been to Fanio Hall. Yeah. Often probably often with mom and dad, right? Yeah, we used to go and do like some Christmas shopping. Or just like it was a good place to go and grab a bite. It was great. It's an incredibly famous food court in Boston. I wanted to check your memory that you had been with mom
Starting point is 00:10:22 because I remember being with mom, but mom seemed to have no memory as to how Fanio Hall worked because we walked in and she's like, now were we going to have seats? I'm like, seats. What are you talking about? And she's like, oh, I go, what do you want? She goes, a lobster roll, but not if I can't, if we can't sit down.
Starting point is 00:10:40 And I'm like, huh? Daddy found us seats for what it's worth. Great. I felt like a bus boy because everybody nobody wanted anything from the same place I thought that like we like it
Starting point is 00:10:55 Regina Pizzeria it's the best pizza I'm like everyone want pizza right Ash is like I want sushi his friend wanted chicken fingers at a place that had the longest line of anywhere in Fanon Hall I mean
Starting point is 00:11:07 you were probably pro chicken fingers I got my pizza I stood I had my plan mom got a lobster roll dad got something weird Dad, to his credit, went up and got himself. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:11:19 Also, we sit down and mom's like, I'll get a beer. I'm like, what do you think this is? Where you're at food court? I would think you could get a beer at Faniel Hall, but I don't think you can have a beer in the main area. I think there's probably a bar there. Yeah. I don't think you get a liquor license for a hall. Yeah, but the times have changed, Sufi.
Starting point is 00:11:39 Not enough. And then, oh, also, sorry, this is, I mean, again, you're listening to a family trip podcast. We went to the chintiest mini golf place I've ever been. It was like on two floors inside, but that burned like 30 minutes. We went to the Museum of Illusions. That was also right by Fanio Hall. That's like a thing where like kids stand next to it, like halfway out of mirror. And then if they raise both, if they raise one arm and leg, it looks like they're jumping in the air.
Starting point is 00:12:08 Like illusions. Yeah. Again, you just realize. As it says on the title. I just in general was like, I feel like museum. oversell how much time you're going to be able to burn at them. Yeah. You went to a lot of
Starting point is 00:12:21 museums. I went to a lot of museums. I mean, these are, some of these are again, tea party museum I think is 80 minutes and it's chock full and fantastic. And you're walking from one of these places to the next? We did a lot of walking. We did do a lot of walking. And then
Starting point is 00:12:37 Hux, a family picked them up and then we went to our first Red Sox game. And Red Sox got Terrick Scoobald one of the best pitchers, obviously, in baseball. And so the Red Sox lost 4 to 1. But it was really special. I mean, I think, like a lot of kids go to their first baseball game,
Starting point is 00:12:56 Ash was maybe more interested in what he was going to eat. But we did stay for the whole game, which was really fun. And, yeah, it was just tremendous. The whole thing was tremendous. And then we went to the Science Museum the next morning. The proper – so Sunday morning, that was the day we were leaving. And we got a little bit of a slow start because Ash slept in. And I will be honest, I'm going to take back everything I've said about museums.
Starting point is 00:13:21 We could have spent five hours at the Boston Science Museum. I remember that as being very engaging, very sort of hands-on. Very engaging. Ash was a little bit like, what? Like, the thing that had not happened yet happened right at the atmosphere, he's like, we got to leave the museum. We went to the IMAX. We watched an IMAX, like a 50-minute IMAX movie about the James Webb Telescope. about the building of it.
Starting point is 00:13:48 Yeah, that made me cry because it was like just interviews with the people who made this thing and like them talking about the first time they saw the images that were sent back. Fantastic. Really great. So got a little ripped off at the end.
Starting point is 00:14:06 I was paying like $2.50 a pop for Ash to get these little, you know, those penny things where you like you like do a crank and the penny gets flattened out and they print like a little thing, yeah. You paid $2.50 per. And I think Ash won and three. Ash won and three under the guise
Starting point is 00:14:25 of he was going to give one to each of his siblings, and then I've noticed it's a couple days and he's not been handed over yet. Yeah. Wow. There's still time. Yeah. And then, you know what again? Amtrak as well, both ways.
Starting point is 00:14:39 A hell of a way to travel. Yeah. Yeah. We had, there was someone on our, Amtrak. Ash and I were sitting next to each other. We had one of those, like, table, but like a four-section seating arrangement. And the guy across from us was, he was an interesting cat. Very, very nice, very kind. But a little, I want to be careful with my language. He was very hard to sort of follow. And it was sort of like talking a blue streak.
Starting point is 00:15:10 And I was doing my best to sort of comprehend him and try to have a conversation. But scattered, I would say, is maybe a good way to describe it. And Ash, one point, who was watching something on iPad, took off his headphones and leaned over it because this guy was now talking to somebody else. And Ash goes, what's he saying? And I go, you know, I'm having a hard time kind of following what he's saying.
Starting point is 00:15:33 And Ash said, okay, well, dry harder. And then just put his headphones back on. It was really great. And I was like, you know what? That's good advice. And then I was glad. I was glad that we talked to this. He was a not that sort of individual you run into all the time,
Starting point is 00:15:51 and he made for a very interesting ride. Yeah. Well, that sounds great, Sufi. It was really good. I think mom and dad were really happy. Yeah. It hangs with them. No, I mean, I talked to them the next day.
Starting point is 00:16:01 They were exhausted. I talked to them later on Sunday, and they were just, like, wiped out. I wanted to FaceTime with them earlier in the day to hear how it was, and they were like, we got to lay down and take naps. We'll call you later. I ran them ragged. I mean, really. Random ragged.
Starting point is 00:16:16 Yeah. Well. Sounds like you did a lot. Checked a lot of boxes. And, yeah, no, they definitely, mom and dad had a great time. I'm glad here. So there you go.
Starting point is 00:16:26 That's a family trip. And now we got a great episode for you. Andy Circus. Yeah. Legend. We had to cut him off a little fast. Andy had another interview after this. And it was, you know, our fault.
Starting point is 00:16:37 We did not get to the speed round. Yeah. Yeah. He answers the last question. He answers the most important one. But he answers it badly. Has he been to the grand king? He answers it badly.
Starting point is 00:16:48 But we're not going to tell you. Did you just tell him what he said? No, I just said he answers it badly. Anybody, nobody knows what that means coming from me. Yeah, he's got his film Animal Farm. Yeah. Is out May 1st in theaters. And, yeah, I mean, he's been with Caesar and Planet of the Apes, King Kong, most notably, Ghalem.
Starting point is 00:17:14 Gallum and Smeagel. Yeah. I'm more of a smegel guy. You like Ghalam. You think Ghalom has some interesting ideas. Yeah. He always been very pro-Gallum. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:17:31 All right. Enjoy. Listen. Have fun. Hello, Andy. Hello, Andy. Hello. How are you?
Starting point is 00:17:57 I'm wonderful. It's so nice to see you again. Yeah, you too. You too, gosh. I'm trying to think when we last met each other. It was a while ago. And it's very nice to, sometimes you read someone's biography and you realize, for the purposes of this podcast, I'm certainly hopeful that we're going to hear stories unlike any we've ever heard before. Oh, totally. So, yeah. You know, in my head, I'm like, oh, Andy. It's exciting. There's something about the British Empire. I feel like lends itself to places to. to parts unknown for many of us.
Starting point is 00:18:31 Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, it's part of our makeup. We're good at that kind of stuff. Because you're not just classically. Obviously, you're British, but your background is incredibly a great deal more diverse than just that. It is. In fact, so my dad was Iraqi, and he was of Armenian descent.
Starting point is 00:18:50 So they came through two generations before he did to Iraq, settled in Baghdad and from Armenia. And then my mom, who was recovering from tuberculosis in the, you know, sort of around the time of the war, went over to recover. Her father was working in Kuwait on the oil refineries. And she met my dad, who was an aspiring doctor, and they got married and had three daughters, and then myself and my younger brother. And so we used to spend all our childhood sort of going backwards and forwards between Baghdad in Iraq and then the suburb of Rice Lip. which is a little rather boring suburban plate. No, actually, it's not boring at all.
Starting point is 00:19:33 It's home. It's just outside of West London. That's unbelievable. So my first question is, did she meet him while recovering from tuberculosis in a hospital? Was he there as a medical professional? I believe that's the case. Wow. I mean, you know, this is going back into sort of the annals of history.
Starting point is 00:19:53 But I guess so, yeah. I think that must have been how they did. Yeah, yeah. I don't imagine you're at your best when you're recovering from tuberculosis. She must have really been something else. Well, I think, yeah, I think she, well, she certainly turned his eye. I think he was going to be a Jesuit priest before that. So I think she must have done something.
Starting point is 00:20:15 Now, when you were a kid and, you know, it's obviously, you know, due to the incredibly unfortunate events of, like, the Middle East in the last, you know, at 25, 30, 40 years, you don't think about like vacation to Baghdad. Was that something you looked forward to as a kid? Because obviously it's an incredible culture. Oh, we used to, I mean, I used to go there for six weeks to, you know, or eight weeks of the summer. And it was an amazing place. I mean, it was a magical place.
Starting point is 00:20:41 And we used to go and visit, you know, we traveled all over the Middle East. We went to Syria. We went to Babylon. We went to, you know, to Beirut and, yeah, Lebanon. And it was a remarkable kind of opposite, polar opposite of, of, of, of, you know, where I was growing up. And so it really did hold a sense of magic. And we'd camp in the desert and we'd eat grilled fish by the river Tigris and all that kind of
Starting point is 00:21:08 stuff. It was amazing. It was amazing. But consequently, I've never really felt, you know, I've always felt like a slight sort of outside or betweener, you know. Sure. Because I have to imagine, of the kids in Rustlip, am I saying that right? Rice lip.
Starting point is 00:21:27 Rice lip. that you were the only ones who were summering in Baghdad. I would imagine so. Were the circus kids, were you all collectively excited about the annual trip back to Iran? Oh, yeah, yeah, we still. But that was our norm, actually. So it wasn't, and it was kind of not exceptional in the sense that that was what we did every summer. It was, you know, like that was just like, yeah, we flew out.
Starting point is 00:21:52 We stayed, we stayed there and had all these, I mean, looking back, sort of quite magical, experiences. But also my grandparents, my mom's mom was also part Iraqi and French Armenian. So she, she was an amazing cook. So we used to go over, she lived in Wembley in London, just in the west of London. And so we, we've sort of, the culture was sort of present with us as well. Would you, did you have a family home in Baghdad that you would go to? Or would you? Oh, yeah, my dad's house. I mean, so he was a, he was a doctor and he founded a hospital in Baghdad for at that time
Starting point is 00:22:28 you know there was a huge well there still is a huge disparity between the wealthy and the poor there and these four doctors set out to build a hospital that would really give good service to everyone
Starting point is 00:22:40 and and that was that was why he stayed he didn't you know he'd built this thing and so he couldn't really he used to come home at Christmas for a couple of weeks and then my mum would go out and visit him at Easter
Starting point is 00:22:53 but what was the travel time back then to Iraq? It was about, I guess it was about six or seven hours on the plane. It's actually not that bad. Yeah. Or B-O-A-C at the time it was called. B-O-A-C? What was that? What was that?
Starting point is 00:23:08 The British Overseas Air Corporation, I think. I mean, it obviously made sense that at some point the marketing people were like, we got to change them. Yeah, we'll change it to B-A. How, what was the age gap between you and your siblings? So my eldest sister, Carol, It was like eight years older than me and then five years older and then Anita, my sister, and then Kath, the youngest sister was four years older than me.
Starting point is 00:23:34 Then there was me and then my younger brother was four years younger than me. So really, I mean, pretty spread out group. Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Did you, when you think of, think back to those trips, were the five of you spending a lot of time together or was the age gap such that you all sort of split off to do your own thing? Yeah, you know, I mean, I used to hang out with my youngest sister at the moment. who was four years older than me because we had similar interests.
Starting point is 00:23:56 But, you know, as an older brother, my, you know, I was, when we were growing up, he was like my younger brother, so I didn't hang out with him. But, and then my older sisters were getting into boyfriends and, you know, doing their own thing. I always have this vision. Anytime I hear of about a city like Baghdad or just a city that I've never been to, I feel like, you know, if there's going to be a movie scene, there's going to be kids running through the streets of the city, sort of no parents around was it like that did you sort of have free reign very much so it was you know it just it was so exciting and so culturally different and you know you'd go to the markets
Starting point is 00:24:37 the sooks you know and just sort of find your way running through there and and finding interesting wonderful things all these exotic smells and spices and you know all the things that you find in a market but but seems so different and yeah yeah it was It was a great time. It was a great, I mean, I loved it. I used to really look forward to it. Would you, was it something where you would buy things to bring home? Like, were there, you know, souvenirs and the light that you'd bring back to England to sort of show up?
Starting point is 00:25:08 Yeah, my mom used to collect all that stuff. She loved kind of Middle Eastern pottery and, you know, artifacts and paintings. And, you know, so the house was kind of full of that stuff. But I used to just go for cheap toys, really. I'd find, you know. Right. Yeah, I'd look, I'd seek out toy, basically cheap toys. That was, that was what I used to do at the Suc.
Starting point is 00:25:29 And so you mentioned going to like Syria and Babylon, were those trips that your father would come along? Was it? Yeah. Yeah, he would take time out and, you know, and whilst he was still, you know, he still had to work at the hospital, but we'd have these side trips and we'd go off for, you know, a week or so to visit these other countries.
Starting point is 00:25:51 And yeah, I mean, it was a, it was a, It was an extraordinary, looking back, it is kind of an extraordinary education. I feel very lucky to have had it. So you didn't see him much during the year. What was it like for you when you would see him for those six weeks? And what do you think it was like for him to all of a sudden have his like five British children to send on Baghdad? Yeah. No, I think, well, he was very much a man of routine, obviously with the hospital he had.
Starting point is 00:26:18 But traditionally in Iraq, you have a siesta. So he used to sleep in the afternoons for an hour after lunch. That's what everybody does. And so I think he used to feel a little invaded when we all pitched up. And equally, when he came home to the UK, it was sort of odd and strange to have a man about the house who his position was very unclear. You know, it was like he was definitely a man who had authority in his workplace in his home in Iraq. but he sort of had to fit him with a predominantly female-oriented family when he got back. And so they all had boyfriends and were doing their own thing.
Starting point is 00:27:01 And suddenly he just would try and come in and be this, you know, put his foot down and be a bit authoritarian. And it never really worked out, you know. Yeah, now I wouldn't imagine so. Hey, we're going to take a quick break and hear from some of our sponsors. Support comes from Yahoo Mail. Now with Planner. Hey, Baji. Hey, Sufi.
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Starting point is 00:29:27 Dot me slash trip. That's FIT, BOD.m.m.m. slash trip. Talk about this camping trip by the Euphrates. Does that mean that your parents were. The Tigris, Seth. Tiger. Sorry, my God. Obviously, I haven't been. Did, were your parents sort of rugged people? Were they good at that sort of thing? My mum, I think, was quite intrepid, and my sisters certainly were as well. They went on in their lives to go off and do lots of adventures all over the place. But my dad was, I think he liked calm and peace and order, and being in a hospital environment. I mean, he liked a bit of a party. He was a good holding cocktail parties and things like that.
Starting point is 00:30:17 But he wasn't, I wouldn't say an outdoorsy guy, not at all. In fact. Yeah. I'm in that situation. I'm him and my wife is your... Intrepid is a very good word for it, by the way. I need to start using intrepid more for outdoorsy. So if you're camping by a river, are you at a campground?
Starting point is 00:30:39 And what's like, what's a day like? Are you cooking out for your food or... We went to... I remember one trip which was to Lake Hibania, which is just north of Baghdad and... and it was just like, it was just in the desert, you know, you're camping under the stars and, yeah, it was, it was, for a seven-year-old, it was kind of like extraordinary to have, I've never, I'd never seen the stars like it, you know, so it was, it, it seemed very magical. It seemed very magical.
Starting point is 00:31:09 And we would, you know, we'd cook food, but we were just on camp beds under the stars. There were no tents or anything, you know, so it's, so, and I remember one time there was a a desert rat climbed into my bag, which I didn't realize. a little desert rat climbed into my bag and when I got back to my dad's house I opened this bag and it just kind of jumped out. It was adventurous. But it was adventurous.
Starting point is 00:31:34 Yeah, it was adventurous. How when you, what is the travel, you know, pardon my ignorance, but how do you get from Iraq to Syria when you go to visit there? Was that, would you drive? What am I thinking? Yeah, yeah, I think it was probably,
Starting point is 00:31:49 yeah, we drove. Yeah, we did. It was a long sort of driving trip. a road trip. And what sort of car would you pack in seven circuses? He had an old Pontiac, which was quite, I just have this, I just remember the sensation of sitting on the seats, plastic seats, and burning the back of my legs every time we got into the car, because it was so hot in Iraq.
Starting point is 00:32:15 And as a child wearing shorts, it was not a good thing, you know, getting into that car. I just remember vividly every time it was just. just like, wow, you know, how can it get that hot in a car, you know? But it was a, it was quite, I remember it had little, it had fins on the back. It was quite a start, looking back, it was a proper, you know, it was a Pontiac. So it was quite exotic, really, you know, not suburban rice lip in, just outside. Yeah. I bet probably not downtown Baghdad either, right?
Starting point is 00:32:44 Like a Pontiac scene. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, because it was a bit of American influence as well with, with, with vehicles and stuff. But my dad is a, was a rather, a bit of a narcoleat. So he would fall asleep at the wheel constantly, which was not good. And we all inherited that. We all inherited. Really?
Starting point is 00:33:10 Yeah. I mean, if I fall asleep, by the way, do not be offended. No, we won't. It'll be thrilling. But I have been known on many occasions and people, you know, they rip it out of me. because I have literally been in studio meetings in L.A. and sort of started to go, you know, and I've sat opposite my brother and, you know, having dinner with him,
Starting point is 00:33:30 and he'll, you know, he'll just kind of start nodding off. You know, so it is a circus trait, for sure. I mean, that is so, the idea of just driving from Baghdad to Syria in an old Pontiac with hot seats and not knowing if the guy at the wheel is going to doze off. Occasionally, you'd all wake up and... I also like, you said he liked calm, and I'm like, well, now, that's going a little too far. Yeah, exactly.
Starting point is 00:33:57 I guess it could be worse. You could be the person he's currently operating on. Yeah. Dr. Circus, Dr. Circus, please. But you know what? I'll tell you, I had an archaelectic experience at the Museum of Monart in New York here, and I was, I went to see a photographic exhibition with Lorraine, my wife, and we were standing there. And we are, I was jet lagged, admittedly, but I remember standing, looking at this picture thinking, God, that's an amazing picture. It was Ouija, you know, the photographer, Ouija.
Starting point is 00:34:30 Yeah, of course, yeah. So I was looking at these pictures, and then suddenly I felt this wave of tiredness, and then I just fell over the security line, set off, set off the alarms, and headbutted one of the pictures. You know, it was. That's the one thing they don't, like, when you feel like how they build those lines, they never think somebody might. just doze off. No, exactly. Exactly. Were there ever any accidents, any notable accidents where you were driving on these trips
Starting point is 00:34:59 with your father falling asleep? No, just the occasional kind of like driving. The desert roads, you know, so luckily if you go off the road, you're not going to hit anything, you know, particularly. There's an interesting thing where I've got three kids and I, you know, sometimes just on a long drive, you know, I wouldn't say it's a narcolepsy, but just getting tired. It is that weird balance of like, I know my wife will be so mad if I say, hey, I need to pull over and have you drive.
Starting point is 00:35:24 But it's funny that what you're weighing that against is, you know what? Or I just drive into oncoming traffic and our whole family does. I'm more afraid of her than actually, like, going into the traffic. Obviously, you know, you have three kids, you know, you know, they're at the age where they're born late 90s, early 2000s. I imagine you've never had any chance to bring them back to the, Middle East or have you?
Starting point is 00:35:51 No, I really want to. And in fact, in recent years, I've been trying to write a project, a film based on the hospital that my dad built. Because, and I really want to go back there. And I think it was getting to a point where it was getting safe. Yeah. And clearly, not right now. But it was getting to a point where it was getting safer.
Starting point is 00:36:14 But because the hospital covered an interesting period. It was, he built it in 1964, which was the year I was born. born with these founding other founding doctors. And then and then very quickly of course there was the Barthist party under Saddam Hussein was beginning to ascend and
Starting point is 00:36:31 there was not a good feeling towards the West at that time. So he used to my dad was a doctor for the British Council and for B OAC you know operatives and everyone started to leave
Starting point is 00:36:47 and he gave a speech at a party in his house. He had a cocktail party, invited lots of people over, and then his speech was recorded, and he said some rather unflattering things about Saddam Hussein, and he was arrested and disappeared. And so we were obviously incredibly worried. We didn't hear from him for a couple of months,
Starting point is 00:37:07 so it was a very difficult time. And this was going on. People were beginning to be disappeared, and the other doctors faced threats as well. And then it got taken up. over by the party and was only, the Barthist party took the hospital over so it was only able to be used by Saddam Hussein's family and high-ranking officials. And then, so there's that period. So there was a sort of pre-Bathist party period. Then the sort of Saddam Hussein
Starting point is 00:37:39 and then it began, and then when the, the American intervention in Iraq happened, the US intervention in Iraq happened, it was taken over and it was part of the green zone. So it's gone through this huge journey as a place. So I'm putting together a project which is sort of based on on the, transitions really, seen through the eyes of people who were around in that hospital throughout that period. So I do want to go back. I'm desperate to go back. You know, I really, really want to go back. Yeah. Is it still there, the hospital? Yeah, yeah. Yeah, it still exists. I think it's amazing how a physical space can show how the passage of history. Like just, you know, you think like, oh, a hospital's going to be a hospital for all this time.
Starting point is 00:38:26 But, yeah. Yeah, yeah. It is, it's really something. It's also like, you know, there's many bummers to this story, but it's such a bummer that your dad started a hospital. And it might not be a cool thing to tell people there. You know what I mean? They're like, oh. We don't like people who start hospitals.
Starting point is 00:38:45 Do you still have family there? Any extended family? I mean, there's like some distant family there. Now, most people got out, started to get out where there was a big diaspora and some of them went to Canada, some of them to New Zealand and some of them to France and the UK. So most of them got out during the troubles, you know. Wow, that's crazy. What do you remember about Babylon? Just the lion of Babylon, the sculpture, this huge thing.
Starting point is 00:39:17 sculpture of the, you know, yeah, that was, that's my main memory. And just, just, just, just lots of architectural, you know, artifacts and ancient buildings and, I mean, amazing place. Amazing place. Yeah. No hanging gardens, though. I was quite disappointed. I see. I see. Yeah. You wrote, you left a very angry Yelp review about the lack of hanging garden. If they're not there, stop talking about them. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And would you ever, if you weren't going so far a field as going to Baghdad or to Syria
Starting point is 00:39:51 would you travel in the UK ever for smaller trips? Oh yeah yeah yeah I mean we used to as a family like when my dad was away my mum used to take us to caravan sites kind of on the south coast of Bogner and what was it called I can't remember there's another place now
Starting point is 00:40:08 Bogner Regis was where we used to go and then and then sort of up to the Lake District and travel around. We did lots of traveling around the UK, yeah. So a caravan holidays, which I hear a lot about from British people, is that basically those are campsites? Yeah.
Starting point is 00:40:25 Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's what we used to do. We didn't have our own caravan by the own stretch. You know, we used to go to a caravan site and, you know, they had a social center and, you know what I mean? It was sort of like, it was really good. I mean, really happy memories. So do you look back, are you like just in awe of the fact that you're,
Starting point is 00:40:43 it basically seems like, you know, for most of the year, you had a single mom who was managing five kids. Yeah, I'm full of admiration for what she did. And she was also a teacher. She taught at what was then called a disabled school, you know, but people who were physically impaired and or physically challenged. And so she had a lot on. She had a lot on.
Starting point is 00:41:06 We did have opairs who came to stay, you know, from time to time. But my older sisters really kind of. around the house. Right. Were they benevolent leaders? Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Totally.
Starting point is 00:41:19 I just worry about two younger boys that could break either way. Were you ultimately, do you feel like you were, there's that thing of like when you have, you know, you have a working mother who obviously is doing an incredible job raising the five of you, it seems like maybe you all understood to behave? Well, I wouldn't say that. I mean, I was quite, I suppose I was. I was, we were all kind of rebellious in our own ways, put it that way. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:41:47 We all, you know, we all got up to stuff that we shouldn't have done perhaps. Right, right. But, you know. When you got to these caravan holidays, was it sort of policy of your mother that it was just like, go leave me for a bit? Or would you stick close and stick together? No, we'd pretty much stick together. We'd sort of holiday, you know, yeah, yeah, we kind of hung out. You could rent these kind of, well, they were called social cycles at the time, but, you know, like four-wheeled bikes that you, that four-wheeled sort of that you could all sit on.
Starting point is 00:42:23 Oh, fine. You know what I mean? It's like two bicycles tied together, basically. And so on a social cycle, is everyone responsible for some amount of peddling or some people just getting a free ride? The two front people. Two front people, got it. And then the others at the back just kind of social cycles. I've not remembered that word for a long time.
Starting point is 00:42:42 Yeah, that's a new one for me. Would you go to the same sort of places year on year? We tended to. Would you make holiday friends that you might encounter? I don't remember that. Again and again. I don't remember that so much. I don't remember.
Starting point is 00:42:58 No, I don't think so. No, no, I don't think so, no. Were there people in Iraq, kids your age, that you would go back every summer and reconnect with? Well, we had lots of cousins at the time, you know, because my dad's sisters lived out there. So we had a lot of cousins. We used to go and play with and hang out with.
Starting point is 00:43:18 Were you sort of like this interesting foreign visitor when you showed up? Were the cousins like enamored with your Britishness? I don't think so. I think they just thought of us as, you know, it was just family. You know, it was just family. We did used to go, there was a club called the Alwea Club, which was a sort of a lot of expats used to hang out. And that had an amazing outdoor cinema.
Starting point is 00:43:41 So we used to just, well, it wasn't an amazing out. wall painted white with a few deck chairs in front of it but but that was great and I remember watching films and hanging out there and that was cool. I think it's a lost
Starting point is 00:43:58 delight the outdoor cinema. Totally. Especially like that thing of like there's no also the absence of choice is actually feels like such a freedom like we're just going to go see what the movie is.
Starting point is 00:44:14 You know, when I think about how much time I spend paralyzed by the options, like I love the idea of just walk into an outdoor cinema. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I was always so enamored with the idea of driving movies, which we never had in the UK. But, of course, this was huge here. I'd bring back the driving movie as well.
Starting point is 00:44:34 That's what's... Yeah, yeah. Shouldn't we? I mean, wouldn't that be cool? I live in Los Angeles, and there's this film series at a summer. And it's just one of my favorite things. It's about three to five thousand people on a lawn in front of a mausoleum, which is a big white wall. And they just project an eclectic mix of stuff on the side of it throughout the summer.
Starting point is 00:44:57 And it's fabulous. It's just so nice to be around all those people and be outside. And it's great. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's just something. I love cinema outdoors is the best. You know, if you've got no moreover, obviously. You know, there's just nothing like it.
Starting point is 00:45:12 It's beautiful. I love it. We went to, my wife and I were on like a Greek island. I want to say like Mekanos, who were just like walking after dinner. And there was just like in this little like sort of this copse of trees. There was this little cinema, outdoor cinema. I'm like, oh my God, we have to go and see a movie. And it was just so romantic.
Starting point is 00:45:30 And then I think it was like the second Sherlock Holmes movie with Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law. And I was just weird. We got like, you know, we got like beers and we sat down. And like half an hour in, my wife was like, I'm sorry. Are we staying for the whole movie? I was like, all right, that's fair, that's fair. I go, in my head, I'm a 13-year-old kid, and I can't believe my luck, but you're right. This is not match with everything our evening has been up to this point.
Starting point is 00:45:57 My funniest experience of watching cinema abroad was I was filming in Russia, actually, about just after the wall had come down in the early 90s. And I went to a cinema that was showing the bodyguard. Oh, wow. but it was all simultaneously translated by one person behind the screen with a mic into Russian
Starting point is 00:46:21 so they had the volume kind of half turned down so Kevin Kossner and you know you know and so it was I mean bad rubbish
Starting point is 00:46:30 Russian impersonation but it was just like what this was good old scus what's a good old you're just a you know you know you know
Starting point is 00:46:40 I really hope he didn't try to hit that note and I will always love you. Exactly. It was quite brilliant. And I watched the whole film just mesmerized. Oh, that's really. That is fantastic. What did you film in Russia that early?
Starting point is 00:46:56 It was a TV series called Grushko, which starred Brian Cox as a, it was based on a Philip Kerr novel. And Brian Cox was playing this cop, and it was all about irradiated meat. And it was all, it was kind of, you know, because obviously the war, the wall had, you know, do not come down long before. And so it was going through, I've never been in a country sort of that was going through such change, sort of, and actively sort of seeing it happen in front of you. Yeah, it was crazy, it was a crazy place and a crazy time.
Starting point is 00:47:27 That is like, that's the worst case scenario. The wall finally comes down in the first show they make is about a radiated meat. Yeah, yeah. They don't even hire local actors. I am always delighted. By the way, I love Philip Kerr. I'm very excited to try to find Grishko. I mean, the fact that it's got you and Brian Cox
Starting point is 00:47:46 and it's a Philip Kerr adaptation shot in Russia. I mean, sign me out. Oh, wow. Yeah. Oh, cool. Cool. Yeah. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:47:54 I mean, I don't know. Didn't I buy you a Philip Kerr, like three? Yeah, you did. Yeah. The Berlin trilogy. Wow. Yeah. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:48:03 Okay. That's right at my alley. I love that stuff. Oh, amazing. Oh, cool. Hey, we're going to take a quick break and hear from some of our sponsors. Support comes from ORA frames. Hey, Bashi.
Starting point is 00:48:14 Hey, Sufi. ORA frame. Pretty great Mother's Day gift. Would not just say. Yeah. I mean, really, really good. If you take pictures on your phone, you get a good one, a good shot of your kids,
Starting point is 00:48:28 or a good shot of you and mom. You know, you could send it to her, but what's she going to do with it? Yeah. A much better move is to send it to her ORA Frame, and then that picture will pop up from time to time, from time to time and remind her of a great time that you guys had together. We just took a trip together. We were just talking about it. I went to Boston and dad was like,
Starting point is 00:48:48 send me all the pictures and I was sort of like, I'll do you one better. I'll just send them straight to the aura frame. And you can see them pop up as they come. Yeah. You texted me a picture of you and mom at Fenway Park and right away I posted it to their aura and my aura. So it'll just be there. It's such a good way to see the best pictures in your camera role that you're never going to see otherwise. And we do a fun thing with our mom, which is we upload pictures, individual pictures of ourselves and then individual pictures of our dad so that she will cheer and boo based on them. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:49:23 Based on which one comes up. Great thing about these aura frames, Sufi, is they have free unlimited storage so you can add as many photos and videos as you want. You can also pre-upload photos before it ships, and you can keep adding from anywhere at any time. It's a really cool product. Make Mother's Day special with Aura Frames. Name number one by wirecutter. You can save on the GIF's Mom's Love by visiting AuraFraFrames.com for a limited time.
Starting point is 00:49:47 Listeners can get $25 off their best-selling CarverMatt Frame with Code Trips. That's A-U-R-A-Frames.com promo code Trips. Support the show by mentioning us a check-out, terms and conditions apply. Your kids, did you raise your kids in England? Yeah. Great.
Starting point is 00:50:07 And did, what was your, has your professional life led to unique travel opportunities for them? or are the two been separate? Oh, yeah. No, no, I mean, they've just lived and breathed growing up. Lorraine, my wife, she's an actress, and she's very quite prolific British TV actress, and all our kids have ended up being actors
Starting point is 00:50:28 because they were literally born into it. You know, Graham was filming a TV series, rushed home, gave birth, went back onto the TV show, and I was, you know, she was expressing milk, and I was feeding Ruby, our daughter, and then she'd come off set, and for you know it was just like that's how it started and it's never been any different they've just
Starting point is 00:50:48 been an integral part when i went to new zealand they all came down when they were very very young to do lord of the rings and then you know and then at various stages they've been back when we're shooting king kong and they went to school in new zealand then when we went back to do the hobbit they've actually started doing school in the UK so they couldn't so that was the worst period actually because i was away for a long period of time because i was directing the second unit on that and it was it was like I was away for a year basically so I didn't get to see them but that's that's my that's my that's the biggest thing the biggest biggest downer of you know in terms of having great opportunities and things happen to you and then being away from your family that's a tricky one right and because my dad had been away all his you know I'd sort of I thought this is history repeating itself a little yeah and you didn't even open a hospital you know no exactly exactly hey I I I I noticed that in your bio. So had you directed anything before the second, you knew, The Hobbit?
Starting point is 00:51:46 Because obviously, and I want to talk about it, you just directed Animal Farm. So obviously, but was that the beginning of your transition into doing behind-the-camera stuff? I'd always wanted to, you know, whilst, you know, I'd been acting for many years and started in theater. And as soon as I started acting on screen, I mean, I studied visual arts before I became an actor. I'd always been interested in telling stories visually and made short films and was always doing things like that. And I knew that acting, I loved acting, but I also knew that I wanted to direct. And so it sort of, it sort of transitioned actually. When we were making Lord of the Rings, Peter Jackson became aware that I was very interested in directing.
Starting point is 00:52:35 And so when it came around to The Hobbit, and it was going to be like a huge cast of, of actors that would go between the main unit and the second unit they asked me if I'd direct the second unit and so we shot for 200 days on the second unit and it was and I was getting ready to make my first
Starting point is 00:52:55 sort of feature independent feature film with like three actors in four locations and suddenly I found myself in front of a crew of 200 people shooting native stereo at 48 frames a second with you know going across New Zealand And I mean, it was, it was a phenomenal education.
Starting point is 00:53:16 It is so funny because, like, second unit, that part sounds right for a first job. And then the Hobbit is, like, massively wrong. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. It was just like, I had to learn very quickly. And I, and, yeah, just the responsibility was so enormous. But, I don't know, Pete, Pete just trusted me. And we'd been through a whole journey, of course,
Starting point is 00:53:40 with the kind of creation of the character of Gollum and the whole visual effects side of things and the tying together of performance and technology. And I guess we, and then I'd work with him on King Kong and these are my people really. The family in New Zealand, they're such an incredible team
Starting point is 00:54:03 and a phenomenal sort of, you know, the same people that I'm working on, you know, with now. We're going back to do the film, now the Hunt for Gollum is like it's a lot of the same people 25 years on regrouping and I keep going back there because they just it's just such a great creative atmosphere where everyone is treats each other with respect and is valued and it's the sort of the perfect working scenario you know it's like a big family and we've all got kids that have grown up now and everyone knows each other it's it's it's pretty cool it just happens to be on the other side of the world from where I live
Starting point is 00:54:35 right that's the only problem yeah uh and the hunt for Gollum uh I didn't know it was happening, but you're directing that and obviously starring in it. That'll be the next in the series. That will be. Yes, indeed. And we're in pre-production right now. And so, I've been down there for months and months. We're funny, we were talking with Vincent Donofrio, who's a wonderful actor, and he was talking about how he's been in the Marvel universe playing this character, Kingpin, for 10 years.
Starting point is 00:55:06 And he was talking about how rare it is for an actor to play a character for 10 years. and I mean when you think about your relationship with Ghalam I mean it is truly something and I mean by the way it would have been truly something if it had stopped
Starting point is 00:55:19 you know after the first trilogy after you know like so all these moments it would have been the most complete body of work and so it really is something and it's so exciting that there's there's going to be more of it it is I mean and there's a lot to investigate
Starting point is 00:55:33 with the characters still so it's a really interesting exploration Yeah. What about a, so you did, I mean, I will say animal farm, one, does not naturally adapt itself to an animated film or a film at all, really. And the undertaking of this, you know, I was talking, I had Kate and Matarazzo on the show, and he was, you know, talking on my show about how there was an interesting approach. You had to sort of add different characters. How long has this process been going on for you, like from the... Just about 15 years, I suppose. That's fine. That's not a big easy time. It's a quick one I knocked out, you know. And it's under two hours, right?
Starting point is 00:56:15 So I can watch it in under two hours, but it took you 15 years. Yeah, exactly. I know. I mean, that's the thing. Look, that was the first film, actually. When we formed our company, Jonathan Cavendish is my producing partner. We set up at the Imaginarium, which was a performance capture studio in the UK, and a production company. And the first film that we thought, and it was actually when we were doing the Planet of the Apes movies.
Starting point is 00:56:38 And there's a scene in the first Planet of the Apes movie. I was playing Caesar, you know, the central kind of ape character. And he's in a facility. He's incarcerated in this facility, which is obviously experimenting on apes. And he leads the apes to freedom. And there's a sort of rebellion. And I suddenly, I'd always loved Animal Farm as a book as a kid growing up. And I suddenly thought there hasn't been an adaptation of Animal Farm for a long time.
Starting point is 00:57:07 there was a 1954 animation and then there was a 1990 kind of animatronic Jim Henson style Hallmark film version of it but I just thought performance captures the perfect way of doing it and then and then
Starting point is 00:57:23 so Jonathan Kavanish and I was a big film producer he'd done the British Bridget Jones films and we'd become you know sort of linked for life as it were and we still have our company and we thought we'd get this off the ground. We got the rights.
Starting point is 00:57:41 We went to the Orwell estate. They gave us the rights. And we said we want, if Orwell were writing this now, who had his, you know, we wanted to update it. We always wanted to update it, making it more contemporary, not talk about totalitarian Russia in the 1940s, but transpose the exactly the same themes about power, the corruption of power and, you know, fake news and, and, or. You know, the disseminate, you know, misinformation and the utopia gone wrong. But it was like, how do we make this applicable to a young audience? And this was back in 2011, where we get first, I first had the idea. And it's taken ages.
Starting point is 00:58:28 Because we thought it immediately, it would be like, oh, Animal Farmer, everyone would want to see Animal Farm. Every studio would want to make Animal Farm wrong. Nobody wanted to make animal farm. It took forever. Everyone thought it is a very spinachy, kind of, you know, sort of beating at the audience over the head politically. Orwell's too dark, et cetera. And I do love that you thought, like,
Starting point is 00:58:50 you know kids love animated film, and they love George Orwell. Well, I just remember being so knocked out by the book. Did you read the book? I did read the book. I would knocked out by the book, too. And, you know, by the way, it is, you know, look, Lord of the Rings is a challenging book
Starting point is 00:59:03 that kids love and then made a great movie. So I would understand the impulse. Yeah. So we started work on it and went and approached a whole bunch of actors, most of whom have ended up in the film sort of 12 years later when we were actually making it. I mean, like Seth Rogen and Jim Parsons and Glenn Close were all people we approached immediately who all loved the book. And everyone who's in it, and it is an exceptional cast. you know
Starting point is 00:59:33 we've got Woody Harrison and Kieran Culkin and Steve Bussemi and Iman Valani and it just goes on you know
Starting point is 00:59:42 every single Laverne Cox it's just a fantastic cast everyone we approached was just like I'm in definitely
Starting point is 00:59:48 I love the book so but we had to find a way of telling the story which I wanted to make it for a young audience
Starting point is 00:59:57 I really crucially wanted to have a debate between young kids, their parents and their grandparents all watching the film together in the same room. Nobody, no studio could understand that concept that this could possibly be a family film.
Starting point is 01:00:15 And my argument was, you know, yes, it's dark, there are dark things in it, but if you present it in such way as an animated version where you use that animation, the bucolic kind of the feel, the you know the innocence of the animals
Starting point is 01:00:32 because it is and you know the whole point of Orwell writing about totalitarianism using farm animals is that he wanted to communicate ideas
Starting point is 01:00:41 to a younger inquiring mind so so that that fits in with our version but the book doesn't have any protagonist or a central character where you can follow the story through you know in emotionally engage with
Starting point is 01:00:56 because it's quite an objective book and so that was why we there's mention in the book of sort of in the last part of the book of these young piglets who are elite pigs because obviously the pigs ascend take over control and power and the rest of the animals are treated like dirt and I thought well what happens if you take those you know the pigs in the book are very off stage characters
Starting point is 01:01:21 and you hear what's going on and the corruption of power and how they're becoming more interested in trading with humans after saying that we will never ever communicate or trade with humans. So it's, so these, so I thought, well, what if, what if we actually make the central character, a young piglet who we then follow and go on the moral journey with? And he's, he's an innocent, he just sees himself as an animal like all the other animals, but gradually gets corrupted by this powerful, charismatic, narcissistic, funny, you know, leader. and gets pulled away from the sort of slightly more community-orientated leader, Snowball,
Starting point is 01:02:04 played a lot by LeVern Cox, and gets sucked in by this very funny guy who eventually takes over, and a good entertainer. And so he gets corrupted, and then at a certain point, he realizes what's happened. And as their utopia falls apart, and it becomes, another version of the greed and cruelty that was that they'd faced with humans, he has to make amends. So then we've got a sort of an interesting story. And it's still, I mean, thematically, it's still entirely the book, but it's just the
Starting point is 01:02:42 only other thing that we changed, really, I suppose, was not ending in such a bleak place. Because when kids sit down, hopefully, after having watched this movie, you know, you didn't want them to kind of go, well, oh my gosh, the world is, hopeless, we're never, what can we do? Right, right. So we've got an ending which is an open-ended question, which is, you know, in the book it ends with all the animals standing outside the window, looking in through it and seeing pigs and men and looking from one for a pig to man and man to pig and not being able
Starting point is 01:03:13 to tell the difference and it's a very, very bleak ending. Whereas we end with a much more sort of open-ended, as I say, open-ended question, which is, history repeats itself, this has gone horribly wrong, it'll probably go wrong again, but we have to keep trying and it's in the trying that hopefully you'll find a solution. So it's not a sort of a Hollywood ending or a
Starting point is 01:03:36 wrapped up neatly and a bow ending. It's very much a kind of, okay, this is going to be down to you kids. When we're gone and it's like, you know, you've got to start thinking about this. That's fantastic. So that's the idea
Starting point is 01:03:52 behind this. When we released the first trainer. 15 years. It's really something. I mean, it's truly really something. And we're glad that as soon as you wrap up, the press for this, you can start doing a new Lord of the Ringsman. Just that you can rest.
Starting point is 01:04:09 Hey, before we know you have to run. We know you have to run, Andy, but we do have a speed round of questions. Let us know if you have time for this. If you don't, we understand. But we can try to be quick. You let us know. Maybe one. Okay.
Starting point is 01:04:20 All right, one. Have you been to the Grand Canyon? No, I really want to go to the Grand Canyon. Great, perfect answer. Thank you so much, Andy. Just quick. You did it. Thank you so much, Andy. Okay, thank you. It's been lovely speaking with you, yeah. Bye, great to see you again.
Starting point is 01:04:35 Family Chips, Brothers. Avel too bad every summer with his mom things to see his dad. Steps to Siri, but his dad was not going to watch, chow. Are you? Just not often. fall asleep he was driving off the stream social side

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