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| PK talked to NATHANIEL LEES |
| "Mifune" in "Matrix", "Uglúk" in "Lord of the Rings" |
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| Though a theatre man at heart, Nathaniel Lees has become a familiar face both on small and on big screen. Unrecognizable under the heavy make-up and prosthetics as Uruk'hai "Uglúk" in "Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers", but all the more present in parts 2 and 3 of the "Matrix" trilogy as Captain Mifune. Fantasy fans will certainly also remember his various appearances in the TV series "Xena: Warrior Princess" and "Hercules: The legendary journeys". Nathaniel Lees is an accomplished stage actor and -director, and could be seen in classics like "Othello" or "Macbeth." He is also very interested in martial arts and has the black belt in Tae Kwan Doe. We have been very lucky to get the chance to talk to this charismatic actor in November during the "RingCon" in Bonn/Germany , and we would like to thank Nathaniel Lees for his generosity. Also special thanks go to Sebastian and the great RingCon crew, who made this possible. Consider yourselves hugged. |
| NATHANIEL LEES |
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| PK: We already met during the press conference on the first day, and you told me that this was your first convention. You seemed to be a bit nervous. How is your experience so far and how do you feel about it? NL:I've enjoyed it immensely. It's been a lot of fun, it's been great meeting the fans, being in Germany, and I enjoyed it a lot. And you might consider coming back...? I might come back to Germany; I'm not sure whether it will be here. It depends on where it is. I don't travel very well, so I can't sit on an aeroplane for 23 hours, but you know, if it's in my schedule, I think I might come back. You have done such a variety of things in your career, you are a TV and movie actor, you've done Shakespeare, but you also have the black belt in Tae Kwan Doe. These are very different interests, so was there one specific moment in your life, an event which you remember which was the kick to persuade you to become an actor? I got into acting almost by accident. There was a theatre piece, some friends of mine were into it, so I went with them, and they asked me to stay out at the theatre, but I watched what the actors were doing. I've always enjoyed watching people do what they do, try to see why they do it, and how they do it, and watching actors coming to terms with their roles or parts I found really interesting because I found that it means that I discover things about myself while I'm working on a role, and that's always a good thing. Probably from that time on, I tried this role, I tried that role, and each one told me something about me, so - I like that. If you compare work on a movie or on stage, which is more "you", where do you feel more comfortable? On stage. Because I enjoy the immediateness of it, you know? When I'm on stage and performing or directing theatre, getting that immediate reaction from the audience means a lot. If I'm doing a film or television, it won't happen for another year or six months, and you don't know, you can't gage how you felt and how people are going to react to it, and you have almost forgotten about it, so that makes it difficult. So you have been directing as well? Yes, I direct a lot of theatre. What was the last play you directed? That was a new play in New Zealand, "Fire Mountain"; but I'm about to take on another new play when I get back to New Zealand, and I'll be doing "A Midsummer Night's Dream" in the middle of the year. Will you be in it as well? No, I've done that once and I'll never do that again. Which role did you play? In "Midsummer Night's Dream"? I was Puck. You have worked on Matrix as well as on Lord of the Rings, both trilogies, both enormously demanding movies with lots of special effects, but still very different. What was for you, personally, the biggest difference working on these movies? I suppose the biggest difference was the amount of work that was involved in each piece from me personally. Also the vision of the two - I can't say two directors, as on Matrix, there were two brothers - the difference of their vision of what they wanted to see, that was a big difference between Peter's complete passion for the trilogy and the brothers who were making a much more not so much accessible movie, a much more modern piece, with new people getting into it. Lord of the Rings has history, while Matrix doesn't. That was the big difference. And then working on it, it felt like that on both of them. And the Matrix was trying to tell a new story about the future, whereas Lord of the Rings was being part of history, and that's the big difference. You played a rather unusual character on Lord of the Rings. Yesterday, John Rhys Davis said during his panel: "Now I worked thirty years to make my face known, and now they hide it behind all this make-up and prosthetics!" How does one prepare to play an Orc or an Uruk'hai, what was it like for you when you first realized what your part would be? That was very difficult. When Peter and I talked about what Uglúk was going to be, I thought: that sounds cool. But when I did the make-up for the first time, with all the prosthetics, armour, and boots, I realized how hard this was going to be. There were some guys, the stunt guys, who did this every day for three years! But the preparation for it was to actually get your mind mentally set that you were going to put this thing on again, you had to get yourself mentally prepared for all the prosthetics. What was your first thought when you saw yourself for the first time in the mirror with full make-up on? "Ew! What an ugly, ugly man!" (laughs) But it was extraordinary, because it was one of the first times that WETA had got the make-up together. They almost got it to the point of "this is what we are aiming for" after all these years in New Zealand, where they had been doing prosthetics. It was great stuff, but with Lord of the Rings it was amazing. And you were sitting there and asked yourself: "Can I actually recognize anything of me there?" It is completely glued to your face, every expression you make - it's you. You look at it and think: is that me? I don't look like this, I'm sure! But it's amazing. What was your favourite character you ever portrayed? In the movies ... well, I enjoyed doing Mifune in the Matrix-movies, because I felt like I was in a video game. It's hard to say - there were so many, and once they are done, they are done, and I tend to forget about them. I can only remember the ones I've recently done. But I would say, yes, Mifune, he was probably the most enjoyable. If there is one you would really love to do; if you had the freedom to pick one? I think Legolas would be a really cool character - but there is no way that I'm gonna get to play him! Oh, you never know ... Blonde, blue eyes, young man - I really don't think so! Now that would need a good make-up job! But he is pretty cool. I like him. When you were a child, did you have any heroes, people you really admired? A lot of people - at every stage of your life, you look at someone else. I'm a big admirer of Martin Luther King and Mahatma Ghandi, that's the sort of people I admire, rather than somebody who is in a movie. It's this commitment on life, so it's probably people like that that I admire, because of their commitment. And it's the same meeting the fans here, which is an amazing thing. Because of their commitment. They are very committed, too. It's an amazing thing to see how much commitment they have, how strongly they feel about the trilogy, the work. That's good for yourself - it's good for your soul. If you had the chance to talk to the entire world for two minutes - everybody could hear and understand you - what would you say? Oh lord... I know it's a bit weird, but it's actually that: be committed, or take on a passion. Be passionate about things. Be passionate about something, be it your relationship with your husband, wife, child, brother, sister, whether it is about the people next to you or people who live in another country. Be passionate about what you want to do in life. Thanks a lot for this interview. You're welcome, my pleasure. |
| Nathaniel Lees as Capt. Mifune in "Matrix: Revolutions" |
| "Meat's back on the menu, boys!" Uglúk in "LOTR: The Two Towers" |
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| "Be passionate!" |
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