Tuesday, October 7, 1997
Pitt's quest
By LOUIS B. HOBSON -- Calgary Sun
TORONTO -- French director Jean-Jacques Annaud feels he was fated to direct the spiritual adventure movie Seven Years in Tibet.
It tells the story of a most unlikely meeting between the Dalai Lama and Austrian mountaineer Heinrich Harrer.
After escaping from a British prisoner of war camp in 1942, Harrer and his fellow mountain climber Peter Aufschnaiter defied border patrols and strict customs to seek refuge in the Dalai Lama's mountain retreat.
The Dalai Lama was still a child and he found Harrer a fascinating tutor.
"I'm not a religious man, but I was intrigued by Harrer's book about his years in Tibet," recalls Annaud. "The Dalai Lama's sister sent it to me.
"She loved my movie The Bear. She thought it was the ultimate Buddhist movie. She hoped if Harrer's book was to be made into a film, I would direct it."
When Annaud began working on Seven Years, it was not as a project for Brad Pitt. The actor only came on after the script had been sent to other actors.
"Brad loved the script and contacted us. Of course, Columbia Pictures was thrilled. They told us to do some rewrites. They wanted Brad to get the girl and for us to show his torso," recalls Annaud.
"Brad told me not to make any changes to the script and to leave the studio to him."
Annaud says Pitt literally threw himself into the role of Harrer. "There is a scene when Harrer is so frustrated in the PoW camp, he flings himself against the barbed-wire fence.
"We replaced the actual barbed wire with leather, but Brad threw himself against the fence so hard all day for the difficult shoot that he had terrible bruises that didn't go away for three weeks."
Annaud also recalls that Pitt scraped himself seriously when he insisted on doing a stunt that required him to jump from a moving truck.
"Brad is such a big star that people on the set would steal parts of his wardrobe and props if we didn't keep strict tabs on everything associated with him.
"The day of the truck sequence, somebody stole his padding. He didn't say anything because he knew it would delay the shot. He jumped without the padding.
"We were horrified at the bruises and scrapes he had all over his body. He shrugged it off by saying they'd all be gone in six months and he wasn't doing another movie before that."
While the film was shooting in the Rocky Mountains in B.C., Pitt almost suffered frostbite.
"He was required to sit in a tree for hours that day.
"His voice kept getting weaker. I kept asking him to give more volume and power until I realized he couldn't. We had to rush him to his trailer.
That's the kind of total dedication he had to the movie. Don't let anyone tell me Brad Pitt is a movie star. He's a dedicated actor."
Pitt's co-star David Thewlis recalls that "Annaud told Brad and I he wanted us to be real climbers, not sissy actors, so he sent us on a three-month training session.
"We climbed mountains in Austria, Italy and British Columbia. Our trainers actually appear in the film with Brad and I as fellow mountaineers and they double for us in a few shots."
For Thewlis, climbing mountains was "a bit like doing a bungee jump. We had our doubles, but we had to do each shot once ourselves for the close-ups."
Thewlis says the training helped him bond with Pitt.
"Once we actually got filming, Brad pretty much stuck to himself. There were far too many people around for his liking. He has so little private life that he covets every second he can spend alone."
Thewlis and Pitt met Harrer in Austria.
"He's a very volatile, egocentric person. You can never get a word in edgewise and he's only interested in talking about himself."
Thewlis recalls that Pitt became immersed in Buddhism while they were filming Seven Years.
"My interest in Buddhism predated the film, so it became a way to enhance what I'd learned and felt. It had a noticeable effect on Brad.
"He was very calm and serene during the latter part of the shoot in particular."