Iceland stands in for the Arctic in the film. What was your experience in Iceland like?
My experience in Iceland was that I have never seen anything like it. First of all, I think there are only about 300,000 people there – it’s very small. But the space and the grandeur of the glaciers is something that I haven’t seen before.
Also, the thing that was great … I live in a country where there is a good portion of the country that denies science, that denies climate change. When you are in the frontlines, which they are [in Iceland] and you can see the glaciers melting ... there is no denying it. And to them [Icelanders], it’s not a question of debate, it’s about when, not if. So I really appreciate being there. They are all environmentalists there. They have a great outlook on life and I really love Iceland.
What were the Icelandic people like?
The people of course were fantastic. I wasn’t able to drink or do any of that stuff because of course I was sick and directing, so I was in my hotel room most of the time. But it’s stunning. To be in a place that doesn’t have many trees for instance. It is just so vast and so beautiful, and then to go by the great icebergs that are just floating in the lakes right off of the water. I know people come there and do it as tourists, to look at the ice. They should, it’s like nothing you have ever seen. We saw the northern lights up there. We got to see that, which was just amazing.
You also hired Icelandic actors and crew. Tell us about that.
They came in and read and it was really fun. That’s one of the things that is really great about doing a film in a different country, because you get to go and immerse yourself in their world. And it’s not just the world of the hotel and the cities and driving the streets and sightseeing. It’s also the inside world of the acting community. All the actors that we hired, they all knew each other because they all worked together in theater or in small films or whatever, and to see them and be there with them and watch their energy – because for me, I’ve never been on a glacier like this before. But to them it is like Friday afternoon.
Tell us about working with the actress who plays Iris and those scenes you had with her. They are beautifully shot – I mean magnificent. But it must have been rough to shoot.
It was rough. She is seven so she is little. But we were also sort of tied together to one another with ropes, so we couldn’t get blown away. It would be a perfectly blue sky and you could see forever, because it was not a snowstorm we were in, it was actually a windstorm that is blowing up snow. So it is almost like little tornadoes that are coming. You can see it coming – it’s a wall of white and we’ve got the 65mm camera, which weighs a ton, and they’re holding it like this (demonstrates) and we’re all waiting for this wall to hit us and they go: rolling, and the minute you say action, you cannot hear each other, you cannot see each other and your eyelashes freeze your eyes and they are taking a blow-dryer to your eyes, so you can open your eyes again.
And it would last for about five minutes maybe and then it would pass and there would be a blue sky and calm and beautiful and we are like: what just happened? And then you wait for the next one...
