“Certainly, Peter Jackson was the biggest draw, the first initial reaction, was wow!” says Naomi. “The Ring films were so accomplished and the films made before as well. And, yeah, it is an iconic story and I did kind of want to do one of these event movies.”
When she's asked what it is that makes Peter Jackson so special, Naomi lets flow with a bunch of observations. “I think his vision is extremely clear, you trust him before you've even got to the set. He is so mindful of your interpretation and willing to let that integrate with his. And so, although he is incredibly strong, he is not intimidating or overpowering like a lot of directors. He is very welcoming and so you feel very safe to expose your ideas, and sometimes you ideas are so crazy and they could be really great or really shit. But you still want to voice them in case they are great. He helps you trust your instincts. That is the most vital thing that a director can do to empower you.”
Like the majority of movie goers, Naomi had seen both of the King Kong movies. “And I went back to see them again once I started talking to Peter,” she says, stressing the impact that the 1933 film had made on her. “It
had stayed with me, the film is so iconic and the part as well.”
The strength of King Kong, reckons Naomi, is that it is a great simple, beautiful story. “It has got all kinds of things going on and I knew that Peter, Fran and Philippa would bring something incredibly new and great to it. That they would add to the already quite powerful themes, and they have done.
“It is still being written, that is the beauty of what we are doing here, trying to discover what is the best way to put the story across as well as add to the characters. It makes it fun; everybody has got ideas and can take right up to the last minute. And I really love that process, it keeps you creatively charged.”
One crucial aspect of filming remained very much the unknown for Naomi when we met. That was her blue screen filming of the scenes in which her character is reacting with Kong. “That was certainly one of my concerns when I was asked to do the picture, 'My god, how do you create a love story when one half of it is not there?'
“But they have made the great choice of hiring Andy Serkis (to provide the physical template for Kong). So to have a pair of eyes and a soul behind him will, hopefully, help me get rid of my fears. There will be a real connection. It is all new to me. It will be interesting.”
Naomi sees the character of Ann Darrow as a street kid and survivor. “She has to deal with all kind of creatures not just Kong and then actually builds this beautiful connection with this completely different species that is in every possible way threatening to her.
“That to me is the heart of the story. So, both of them have a major transformation: someone who is completely afraid and someone who wants to completely dominate and then the balance shifts. That to me, in film, is what you look for, to be surprised, journeys that you think will be predictable play out transformed into something else.”
The research that Naomi has been able to do has meant delving deeply into the period in which King Kong is set and the behaviour of women in the late 1930s. “And I looked at every National Geographic piece of footage that I could find on gorillas. You learn a lot when you see those documentaries, you see the behaviour. That is one thing they have really developed in the film, and it is going to be really beautiful.”
Although King Kong is a period piece, the character of Ann has been modernised and Naomi says that's something that Peter Jackson's co-writers, Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens were particularly aware of.
“Obviously, Fran and Philippa are very sensitive to that. Who a woman was in the 30s is very different to the way a woman is today, even though we are playing it for that period we have still got to relate to her,” says Naomi. “And so, her voice has been really developed and she is much stronger and you see her back story and a lot more about who she is and why she can survive in the jungle and what makes her so loyal to Kong. Those were the things that were especially dated in the original and the second film.”
It's almost time for Naomi to return to work but before she does, she's asked if there is still much screaming involved from her screen character.
“Funnily enough, we had the great opportunity to watch the original on the big screen just a weekend or so ago and yes, I was struck by how good the scream was. But I forgot how much there was, there is a lot. So we'll see, you can never really gauge that, maybe not so much screaming now. Maybe Ann is a bit tougher.”
Moulding a Monster – Peter Jackson in interview with Three Monkeys Online