The LET IT SHINE

This month, Lyrically Speaking found ourselves in a dilemma searching for an answer to a few of life's more complex problems.

So, with this being said, and, us being in the word business, Lyrically Speaking stumbled upon a couple of songwriters who's honest approach to the craft is refreshing, and in one songwriter, her words could "shine" a bright light on lyrical sense all together!

We recently caught up with Rebecca Lord, lead vocals/songwriter, and, Paulie, guitarist/music arranger from the Southern California band, Becky in the recording studio working feverishly on their DVD/CD tentatively titled Studio/Live.

At press time, Paulie assures us that this musical masterpiece will be out by Christmas, and this compilation of the band's favorite studio sessions will be cut together with numerous live shows!

We couldn't resist asking the dynamic (songwriting) duo about the story behind their single Shine, and talk shop about their heart-stopping lyric writing and musical creations!

"Emotionally speaking, I guess my favorite song would have to be Shine," confesses Rebecca. "It's a simple message about love. We live in a world where people tend to focus on the bleak, but love is the key for getting rid of the darkness. Love heals, so it's nice to remind people about that every once in a while."

So, Paulie, how did the band Becky come together? "Rob and I play ice hockey together." He reveals, "We always talked about music, recording, and our favorite bands. Rob invited me over to his home to jam a little. It sounded great from the first chord progression. Rob is an amazing drummer with a great feel for all types of music especially, the upbeat stuff, which I love! We played for about an hour or so, and Rebecca joined in (Rob and Rebecca are dating, so they are always together!)."

He continues, "Right away, she started working her vocals into music I was playing. Her lyrics just fit into the music like a glove! I think we wrote about five or six songs that day! It sounded so unbelievable we decided to get a bass player and start a band. Since Rob has played with Keanu (Reeves) for over 10 years, it was a natural fit from the time we all first played together--and--that's how 'Becky' was formed! "

Speaking of storytelling, Rebecca, how do you bring a musical tale to life? "It's a really natural progression. I let myself run with a melody and the emotion the sound evokes brings the story. I don't go in with preconceived notions about what I want to say. The song tells me what to say- it makes writing flow a lot better, and the song ends up being a lot more honest."

Paulie interjects, "I like to write with tension in mind. in a good way, I like each section of the song to work off each other, so that one part will play off the other. I like to create a little song within the song with each progression should flow whether it's one part or five. It's very important to me with the style that I play that the music works perfect with the beat and Rob can really make it work. He is an excellent drummer who plays right on the money with the chord progressions that I play. That's why his nickname is 'Swatch Mono.' Swatch from the watch and mono from monophonic." (A cliff note: Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary says that monophonic means relating to sound transmission, record-ing, or reproduction involving a single transmission path!).

Rebecca, do tell, is there a secret on making the words sound right in revealing a part of your soul? "I definitely have favorite words- all my lyrics begin as stream of consciousness, but as I listen back, I notice a few words always pop up! I am in love with language-words have so much effect, if they are used in the right way. First, the emotion has to come through, if I don't feel that, I don't know how I could even begin to try to write lyrics. It's all about flow."

Paulie, describe your song writing process? "I write the music (guitar parts and arrangements), and Rebecca will sing along and come up with melody and lyrics. Keanu will add his bass parts, while Rob locks down the beat! "

Pssst... where do you listen for lyrics, Rebecca? "What inspires me in lyrics? I would have to say honesty. I love subtlety, and I love when artist show instead of tell. I am not a fan or really obvious messages. I like songs to be a little obscure, so people have room to interpret. Everyone has a different experience, so it is nice to allow people the ability, to take what they wish from a song. My idea is most likely a really personal emotion, so to understand exactly what I mean would be virtually impossible. I like people to have the freedom to interpret."

First off, Paulie, are you a lyrics or a music man? "Music, I am always jamming guitar chords. Rebecca just flows right into them with ease, Keanu, too! He is always writing the coolest little ditty- we call them! I love to use those and write songs around them! He is a very, very melodic bass player! "

On a personal note from Paulie to you: "I would like to say thank you, oh so very much, for this wonderful opportunity to make music that our fans enjoy! Without you, the fans- none of this would be possible! Thank you... Thank you... Thank you!"

For more information on Becky, please visit them on the web at: www.becky-band.com.

KEANU FOCUSES ON SCOTS FILM PROJECT

Dec 29 2003

How to avoid Bridget Jones party horrors

KEANU Reeves has revealed he wants to come to Scotland to star in a screen version of Macbeth.

The 39-year-old Matrix actor is looking to begin filming Shakespeare's tragedy in the Highlands.

He explained: ''I've done Hamlet on stage, now I would like to do Macbeth on screen.

''It would be cool to do it in Scotland.''

The Canadian star said he has been learning aboutthe Scots accent from Tilda Swinton. Though Londonborn, the 42-year-old actress is married to Slab Boys author John Byrne and lives in Moray.

She is tipped to play opposite Keanu as Lady Macbeth.

Yesterday, a spokeswoman for Scottish Screen, which promotes Scotland as a film-making venue, welcomed the news.

She said: ''I'm very glad he might be thinking about setting Macbeth in Scotland. It would be a welcome boost.''

Chinese Actor in 'Last Emperor' Dies at 74

BEIJING - Chinese actor Ying Ruocheng, who appeared in Bernardo Bertolucci's 1987 film "The Last Emperor," has died of liver disease, state media reported Sunday. He was 74.

Ying, who died Saturday at a Beijing hospital, also played a Tibetan monk in the Italian director's 1993 film "Little Buddha," which starred Keanu Reeves.

Ying was a graduate of China's prestigious Tsinghua University. He went on to act with the Beijing People's Art Theater in the 1950s, various newspapers reported.

He was jailed for three years during China's 1966-76 Cultural Revolution but later became vice minister of culture in the mid-1980s, when the nation began to open up again to the outside world.

Nudity just part of the deal

December 25, 2003

Skinful performance ... Keaton in Something's Gotta Give. Photo: Columbia Pictures

Diane Keaton is taking it all off in her new movie - more than 25 years after her first nude scene. And at the age of 57, she's sexier than ever.

"There was nudity in 'Looking for Mr. Goodbar' in 1977," Keaton says in her familiar patter. "But people forget that, because I guess I'm usually clothed!"

In 'Goodbar', Keaton was topless, but in Something's Gotta Give she gives the full Monty to co-star Jack Nicholson and movie audiences.

Keaton sees her skinful performance as part of a tit-for-tat arrangement. "It's no big deal," she says. "If Jack's running around with his butt hanging out in a hospital gown, then I've got to be this naked fiftysomething woman, you know? Jack makes a fool out of himself, why shouldn't I?

"It's an important aspect of this movie - the idea of intimacy. You have to be willing to give something. It was a required part of accepting the role, and I never for a moment thought I wouldn't do the nudity.

"Mercifully, the lovemaking scenes were clothed!"

In Something's Gotta Give, Keaton is so desirable she's wooed by two very different men: Nicholson, 66, and 39-year-old Keanu Reeves.

She says that getting steamy with Reeves was, well, odd.

"It was pretty embarrassing, and for Keanu, too," Keaton says. "It has to do with time of life. It's instinctive - (while kissing him) you go, 'Uh, probably not!'

"And Keanu was going, 'Definitely not!' He was trying to be polite. But he's so beautiful, it's stupefying. It was a guilty pleasure. A very guilty pleasure."

The Academy Award winner - for 'Annie Hall' in 1977 - and multiple nominee - for 'Reds' (1981) and 'Marvin's Room' (1996) - just snagged a National Board of Review award for 'Something's Gotta Give', fuelling buzz of yet more Oscar gold.

Her continued success comes as no surprise to frequent screen partner and ex-love Woody Allen. "Diane has gone her own route over the decades, and has proved to be a perennial, beyond fashion or trends," Allen told the New York Daily News.

"She proves that the cream rises to the top and stays there."

Keaton's vocal rhythms are still punctuated by giggles and endearing utterances like "Oh, wow, yeah." In her brown menswear hat and tweed coat - but sans gloves, her favourite fashion accessory - she's as cute as ever.

And she's taking the renewed interest in her with a sense of humour.

"I feel like Seabiscuit. The ol' gal. In her final race, she's too old, but still she does it. Then they retire her," she says, smiling.

"Are they gonna retire me? Don't retire me yet!"

Keaton, who never married (she has two adopted children - three-year-old son Duke and daughter Dexter, 8), says she likes to stay pals with her exes, including Allen, Warren Beatty and Al Pacino.

"In some cases it's easy to remain friends - I never see Woody enough - and in others it takes more time, because you get hurt, you know?" Keaton says. "But pain is part of it. Falling in love is a scary proposition.

"That's why it's so sweet to play being in love in a movie, because you win. You go in knowing you'll be saved."

Though her real-life romantic history has been with older men, Keaton did have one experience in the other direction - during auditions for her 1983 drama 'Mrs Soffel', co-starring Mel Gibson.

"I was in my upper 30s, and Tom Cruise, Kevin Costner, all these young guys tried out for a role," she recalls.

"The worst was literally touching Tom Cruise. Honest to God, his chest was like a rock, like a tree trunk - there was no softness.

"Tom was bouncy, like a springer spaniel. Keanu is, too. Keanu would leap all over me. I was like, 'Whoa, go a little slower, babe!' He was like a Jack-in-the-box."

Her scenes with Nicholson were different: they compared past romances as they lolled in bed waiting for the cameras to roll.

"Failed romances," Keaton corrects. "I started right in, since I knew the way to Jack was to just be direct and say, 'OK, did you have an affair with so-and-so?"'

Keaton laughs at reports that she and Nicholson - who usually dates much younger women - have become an item since filming the movie.

"Concerning Jack, the rumors are hilarious, and I'm honoured that anyone would consider me Jack-worthy," she says.

"When I was with Warren, I got to know Jack slightly. Then when we made 'Reds' (in which Nicholson co-starred), I got to know him better, if briefly.

"We never dated, never did. I think we both probably thought, 'Why didn't we?' But it wasn't fated to happen. It's all timing."

Romance just isn't me, says Keanu

24/12/2003 - 14:10:09

Canadian star Keanu Reeves, plays a romantic emergency room doctor in Something’s Gotta Give, but in real life the eccentric actor insists he is very different.

The 39-year-old declared at a recent press event for the film, “I’m not romantic. I’m just like, ‘How are you doing, do you want to get in the sack?

"There’s no romance. No sweet nothings. No playing in bed, no gifts, no flowers, nothing. Take it or leave it. This role was really a stretch.”

'Constantine' sets its Satan

Mon Dec 22, 7:00 PM ET

DANA HARRIS

(Variety) Peter Stormare (news) will portray Satan in Warner Bros. Pictures' "Constantine."

Satan is the arch-enemy of mystical troubleshooter John Constantine, who is portrayed by the pic's star, Keanu Reeves (news). Kevin Brodbin, Mark Bomback and Frank Cappello adapted the script from the DC Comics property.

Stormare, repped by Paradigm, will next be seen in Fine Line Features' "Birth," starring Nicole Kidman (news). Other upcoming titles include Terry Gilliam (news)'s "The Brothers Grimm" and Wes Anderson (news)'s "The Life Aquatic."

2003 Oscar FX contenders announced

By: PATRICK SAURIOL
By: News Editor
Source: The Hollywood Reporter

The candidates for the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects of 2003 have been announced and seven films are in contention to win Oscar gold. They are 20th Century Fox's MASTER AND COMMANDER: THE FAR SIDE OF THE WORLD and X2: X-MEN UNITED, Buena Vista's PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: CURSE OF THE BLACK PEARL, New Line Cinema's THE LORD OF THE RINGS: RETURN OF THE KING, Universal Pictures' THE HULK and PETER PAN, and Warner Bros.' TERMINATOR 3: RISE OF THE MACHINES.

What happens next is that the studios will assemble a 15-minute reel showing the effects highlights from the picture nominated, which will be shown to a nominating committee on January 21. The top three of the seven films selected by the panel will then go on to be the final candidates for the Oscar which will be presented on February 29 next year.

Got a scoop? Know something that you need to tell us about? Send it to us!

Dark days loom for film industry

By Peter Mitchell
December 23, 2003

A soaring Australian dollar, staunch competition from Canada, eastern Europe and New Zealand, the impending US-Australia Free Trade Agreement and the election of Arnold Schwarzenegger as Governor of California have cast a dark shadow over the Australian film industry. The Matrix films, Peter Pan and the Star Wars saga have wrapped and there are few major films on the horizon for Australia.

David Pratt's office is on the 19th floor of a tower in Los Angeles, just across the road from the Twentieth Century Fox studio lot. It's also a short walk to the new Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer tower.

It's a convenient location for Pratt's role as AusFILM's Los Angeles-based commissioner.

His job is to entice Hollywood studios to shoot in Australia instead of Canada, New Zealand, Mexico, South Africa, eastern Europe and the US.

Locked away in Pratt's office is a confidential list of 31 film and television projects Hollywood studios plan to shoot somewhere in the world in coming months.

In early 2001, when the Australian dollar was worth around 50 US cents and the images of large passenger planes crashing into skyscrapers did not exist, Pratt's workday was easier.

Hollywood, benefiting from a half price Australian dollar, could save tens of millions of dollars shooting the Matrix trilogy, Moulin Rouge, Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones, Kangaroo Jack and Peter Pan in Australia.

Hollywood stars looked forward to living in harbourside apartments in Sydney, or luxurious homes in Queensland, for six months while they made films at the Fox Studios lot in Sydney or the Warner Roadshow Movie World Studios on the Gold Coast.

Today, the Australian dollar has soared above 70 US cents, a level that significantly erodes the budget savings Hollywood enjoyed in Australia in 1991.

That 70-plus US cent level is too high for some in Hollywood.

Hollywood producer, Lucy Fisher, who chose the Gold Coast as the shoot location for the $US100 million Peter Pan fantasy film, admitted to AAP she would not have made the film in Australia at the Aussie dollar's current level.

Also hurting the Australian film industry are global security concerns. The September 11 terrorist attacks, the Bali bombing and wars in Afghanistan and Iraq made Hollywood's top actors and directors more reluctant to spend several months shooting a film in Australia.

Working in a country a 14 hour flight from their homes and families in the US became too much of a sacrifice, particularly for Hollywood's A-list who hold the power to pick and choose where a movie is made.

Another dark cloud for the Australian film industry is the impending Australia-US free trade agreement. There are fears an FTA could erase the 12.5 per cent tax offset the Australian government successfully introduced to woo Hollywood.

Then there is the burly figure of Arnold Schwarzenegger.

The Terminator star, now Governor of California, has vowed to halt "runaway" production and bring film and TV projects back to Hollywood.

"In the six years I have been doing this job I haven't seen it this tough," Pratt told AAP.

Of those 31 projects on Pratt's confidential list, only "a handful" of studios were seriously looking at Australia as the shoot destination.

The projects have budgets ranging from $US10 million to over $US100 million and would generate thousands of jobs for Australians in the film industry.

"Seriously looking at Australia?," Pratt asks.

"There's a handful, around four or five, and I'd be really happy if we landed two or three of those."

A more dour statistic is the number of major film and television projects lost.

Pratt estimates the current economic and world security conditions contributed to Australia losing 10 Hollywood productions in the past year.

"There's been many," Pratt said.

"I can't tell you what they are because it's highly confidential. I can probably tell you this year alone we would have lost 10."

They included several TV series, some TV movies and some feature films with budgets between $US50 million and $US100 million.

Pratt's experience at the coalface in Hollywood is reflected in figures released by the Australian Film Commission (AFC) for the 2002/03 financial year.

For the first time in eight years feature film and TV drama production in Australia dropped.

Total expenditure in Australia in 2002/03 fell by 23 per cent to $US513 million, compared to $US663 million in 2001/02.

The number of feature films made in Australia slipped from 39 to 26 while foreign features decreased from seven to five.

The lack of Hollywood and other foreign-financed film production in Australia resulted in a 63 per cent fall in feature production in Australia from $US131 million in 2001/02 to $US49 million 2002/2003.

The rise in the Australian dollar is partly to blame.

"If we went to 80 US cents I think I would be looking for a new job," AusFILM chief executive Trisha Rothkrans joked.

"But at the moment we still have inquiries from overseas coming in."

Rothkrans says Australia is still competitive and points to two Hollywood feature films, Stealth (starring Jessica Biel and Josh Lucas) and Son of Mask (US comedian Jamie Kennedy), scheduled to shoot at Sydney's Fox Studios.

While Australia does not have as much bang for its buck as what it did two years ago, Australia still has some attractive traits to woo Hollywood studios, according to Rothkrans.

"We work in different ways. We work with less crew and in a much more competitive way and I think everyone is happy with the finished product," she said.

"When you look at the Matrix trilogy, it is such a good calling card for all of our technicians."

The state-of-the-art film studios in Sydney and on the Gold Coast and the new facility being built in Melbourne provides facilities equal to any in the world.

The problem during 2003 was the Fox and Gold Coast studios were empty for several months.

The Gold Coast studio lot was the home to the $US100 million production Peter Pan for almost 12 months, until shooting wrapped in June. Since June the lot has virtually been empty.

The fantasy film based on J.M. Barrie's classic tale was funded by three major US studios Columbia Pictures, Revolution Studios and Universal Pictures and with a $US100 million budget, it ranked as one of the most expensive films made in Australia.

The film was shot entirely inside sound stages on the lot.

So why shoot Peter Pan in Australia if it was a film made entirely within sound stages? Under that environment it could be made anywhere in the world with suitable facilities.

"Money," Hollywood-based Peter Pan producer Lucy Fisher said.

"We saved a lot of money by shooting in Australia."

Fisher was just as succinct when asked if she would shoot Peter Pan in Australia today with the Australian dollar above 70 US cents.

"No," Fisher said.

When Fisher and producing partner Douglas Wick selected the Gold Coast as the shoot location the Australian dollar was worth about 50 US cents. The duo managed to lock in some of that cheap currency to protect the production from any rise in the Australian dollar.

"We started at about 50 cents, so we were getting 50 per cent more," she said.

Fisher, a former vice chairperson of Sony's Columbia Tri-Star Motion Picture Group, estimated between $US8 million and $US10 million was saved by making the film in Queensland instead of the US.

That $US8-10 million saving was poured back into the production with better special effects and sets. So, Peter Pan was actually a $US110 million production.

"If we had shot it in the US you wouldn't have seen as much on the screen," said Fisher, whose other film producing credits include Men in Black, Jerry Maguire and Stuart Little.

"We would have had the same amount of money but we wouldn't have had as much. We built everything. It was like an old-fashioned 1930s movie where we took over the whole studio and built everything."

At least two films the sci-fi film I, Robot starring Will Smith and the thriller Gothika starring Halle Berry and Penelope Cruz were pencilled in for Australia but were lost to Canada because of a number of factors, including the reluctance of cast and senior crew members to spend extended periods in Australia.

"The war in Iraq made actors and directors more nervous to travel because they want to be home with their families," AusFILM's Pratt explained.

"Canada is only a couple of hours flight from LA, particularly Vancouver. That's an important factor, particularly large budget feature films with A-List actors and directors who have so much power in where things are shot."

Ask Hollywood-based director Richard Donner about shooting a film in Australia and he jokes: "It's tough on weekends if you want to go home and see the family."

Donner and wife Lauren Shuler Donner are one of the most powerful couples in Hollywood. He is a director and producer. She is a producer.

They know how to make a film on a tight budget.

They also know how to make them on a $US100 million-plus budget.

Donner directed Mel Gibson's four Lethal Weapon movies, he shot Christopher Reeve in Superman: The Movie and a string of big-budget Hollywood productions, including Julia Roberts in Conspiracy Theory and Sylvester Stallone in Assassins.

Shuler Donner has the two X-Men films on her resume and is working on the third as well as a spin-off movie for Hugh Jackman's X-Men character, Wolverine.

The couple combined their expertise to make their latest project, the time travel adventure film, Timeline, starring Australian actress Frances O'Connor.

Donner is proudly American and during his interview with AAP wears a badge promoting retired army general and US presidential candidate Wesley Clark. But as patriotic as Donner is, he understands every movie he makes cannot be made in the US.

Timeline, like most Hollywood productions shot outside the US, was made in Canada.

"The bottom line, it comes down to cost," Donner said.

The incentives the Canadian government provided Hollywood filmmakers, Shuler Donner said, also made the decision to shoot north of the American border financially attractive.

"They give you all kinds of things, incentives, they do actor buyouts on residuals," she said.

Asked if the rise in the Australian currency to over 70 US cents would push him away from shooting a film in Australia, Donner said "99 per cent" of the decision on where to make a film "is motivated on a monetary issue".

"If you are impacted adversely you think twice about going," Donner said.

"We try not to. We just want to make the film where it is best suitable."

Australia's rival in rugby, league and cricket, New Zealand has emerged as a force in movie-making.

Ask executives in Hollywood about making movies outside the US and New Zealand, along with Canada, Australia and eastern Europe will more than likely be mentioned.

That wasn't the case three years ago.

The Lord of the Rings trilogy and the success of TV series Xena: Warrior Princess and Hercules: The Legendary Journeys put New Zealand on Hollywood's radar screen.

Tom Cruise's The Last Samurai was largely shot on farmland in New Zealand's north island. Gwyneth Paltrow shot some of her new film, Sylvia, in New Zealand and Rings director Peter Jackson is preparing to shoot King Kong in his homeland.

A new Power Rangers TV series is being made in NZ, two Hollywood TV movies are scheduled to begin shooting after Christmas and a Seth Green comedy, Without a Paddle, and a Miranda Otto film, In My Father's Den, are being made there.

"There are number of big productions looking at setting up operation in January and February. I'd love to tell you but I'd be taken out and shot," assistant manager of screen production for Investment NZ, Paul Voight, said.

Voight says even if the $US300 million spent in creating the Rings trilogy was excluded, New Zealand has enjoyed "steady growth in overseas production" in recent years.

"Spending $US300 million creates a distortion in any long-term statistics. But it's still trending upwards without Rings."

But New Zealand doesn't view itself as a competitor to Australia. Voight says New Zealand works alongside Australia to attract Hollywood projects for both countries.

"We actually tell people straight up front if a particular film will be perfectly suitable for, say, Queensland," Voight said.

"We don't have the beaches where you can jump into the water 12 months of the year without a wetsuit.

"You couldn't have really made Lord of the Rings in Australia, or Vertical Limit, and I don't think you really could have made The Last Samurai in Australia.

"Similarly, you couldn't have shot The Thin Red Line in New Zealand because we just don't have that type of jungle or the Matrix which needs a big city."

The New Zealand government has formulated what it calls a 12.5 per cent expenditure grant to overseas filmmakers, an incentive similar to the Howard government's 12.5 per cent tax offset.

But as rosy as what the New Zealand film industry appears to be, Voight said the industry has also suffered from the strengthening of the the Kiwi dollar against the greenback.

"Australia, New Zealand and Canada have been knocked around," Voight said.

"It's the free-falling US currency that's hurting us all.

"A lot of films were budgeting in New Zealand at 51 or 52 US cents and suddenly that 10 cent hike has really knocked things around."

Voight said a film with a budget of about $US50 million was scheduled to be shot in New Zealand but the producers pulled the plug on it partly because of the currency rise.

AusFILM's Pratt says he has seen a change in attitude in Hollywood in recent years.

With governments in Canada, NZ, eastern Europe and Australia offering tax incentives and subsidies to shoot in their respective countries, Hollywood, more than ever, is looking at the bottom-line.

"Here's a really good example. Last Thursday night I ran into a senior executive for one of the major studios in town and we had a chat," Pratt said.

"She's in the tax side of the business and she basically said to me it's really where they can get the best deal and that comes down to incentives. It's a combination of incentives and of course the dollar exchange rate. It still has to work creatively for the director of course, but it comes down to that now.

"Ten years ago it wasn't that important.

"The incentive side of it has become such a driving force now it's become extremely competitive."

AAP

School's Out

For Keanu Reeves, Christmas is a time for family and friends to get together. "I love Christmas shopping, actually," says the star of The Matrix trilogy. "I save it 'till the last second and do some mad dash through the streets, but I really enjoy that part of it. As a kid, I used to try to unwrap gifts (early) and my parents had to hide them, but then I got over that. I grew up in Toronto, Canada, so there was always the winter climate and I really enjoyed getting together with friends and going out in the snow tobogganing and stuff, and it meant no school. I really liked that there was no school."

We Want Answers: Hugo Weaving

We Want Answers: Hugo Weaving

He’s worn drag in the outback, laid some serious beat-downs on Keanu Reeves, and dispensed words of elfin wisdom. “The Go-To Guy” has a nice ring to it, don’t you think?

Maxim, December 2003

By John Walsh

You’ve been involved in so many trilogies lately, couldn’t you have snagged a role in Star Wars or something?

It was wonderful to be involved in both Lord of the Rings and The Matrix, for very different reasons. They tend to last a long time. I’m actually not quite done with Rings. With that it’s more like I keep going back to revisit old family friends when we go back to do these reshoots. But The Matrix was more of a continued matter over two years with the training. They’re both time-consuming. I was pleased to go back to Sydney to work on a more modest project, a play, after that.

So you’re tight with the hobbit crew?

The wonderful thing about it was the sense of family, the sense that everyone was working on this project and they really wanted it and they were very much committed to it. I felt a little bit on the outside, because Elrond isn’t really a part of the core group. He’s not along on the quest. I was popping in for three weeks and then going away for two weeks.

Did your Spock ears ever fall off?

If we were in an incredibly hot studio all day, by the end of the day they started to droop a little. They’d store them in the fridge. There’d always be about three or four Elrond ears in the fridge and someone else’s feet in there.

Do you get to travel a lot?

I’m lucky to be in the industry I’m in, and I get flown around. I think it’s great for my kids to have that chance. I was born in Nigeria and came to Australia when I was a kid. My dad was a seismologist and later got into the computer industry, and he got jobs all over the world. He would say, “I got a job here. What do you all think?” and we’d all go, “Oh, no-o-o…OK!” But I got to see the world, and it was wonderful.

When did you start acting?

At 14 or 15 I started liking the idea of acting. I was in boarding school, and I had an English teacher who got a number of us to perform bizarre pieces in front of the class, like “I Am the Walrus.”

Did prepping for The Matrix require six months of nonstop fighting?

For the first one we did about four months of training. For the second and third it ended up being another five months before we even started shooting anything.

So we hear that you Australian men are all supposed to be tough. Are you a tough guy?

No, I’m not. [whispers] Don’t tell anyone.

No martial arts background?

Not at all. My background for the last 20 years has been that I’m an actor, prepared to jump in and do whatever is necessary for the role, whether that means bulking up or getting frail or getting really fat or whatever.

Any workplace injuries?

We all had our knocks and bruises, but certainly there were a few more serious injuries too. When you get up to take 17 doing the same movement that involves, like, kicking in the ribs, you know, you’re all black and blue. There were times I wanted to go home.

Did you ever “forget” to pull a punch and actually bean Keanu?

Yeah, I hit him in the face every now and then, but he did the same to me. So first there’s a little suspicion and then an apology. Keanu Reeves is a gentleman. By the time we got on set, we were pretty careful not to whack each other around too much.

Did you have any idea that The Matrix would explode the way it has?

No one really knew for sure. The more we worked on the first one, the more I felt the Wachowski brothers are wonderful people. They are really intelligent and interesting, funny guys. They conceived it in such detail. The more we worked on it, the more we realized it was pretty extraordinary.

How did you come up with the Agent Smith voice?

It wasn’t a particular part of the script or anything. I wanted to create something that was neither particularly robotic nor particularly human. The more I was training, the more I was hanging out with Larry and Andy Wachowski. They’re Chicago boys, they both talk pretty slowly, and they have an incredibly deep timbre to their voices. There’s something methodical about the way they speak. So that was part of the voice I suppose I took on. I was watching a newscaster on TV one day, and I thought Yeah, that’s exactly it. There’s just something odd about it.

Do you get any bizarre fan mail?

Most of them are just excited people who loved the films. But some of them are a bit sad. Some of them really want me to help with their lives. It’s tragic. I was advised not to get involved. I actually wanted to fly to them and knock on their doors.

Wait, these were people in personal crises who thought Agent Smith could help them?

Maybe Elrond.

Was dressing like an elf like going in drag in Priscilla, Queen of the Desert?

Not a lot. With high heels and a wig and fishnets and the makeup, you start to walk in a certain way. There’s a sort of liberation in a way. Elrond’s gear is a long, flowing cloak. He’s a wise old elf. So there wasn’t a lot of running around to do.

Do you feel like Elrond misses out on all the good LOTR action?

In the first film Elrond has a sword, and he’s involved in a bit of action. After that, though, he’s full of wise words, but there isn’t much more than that. I have to say I much preferred the action.

Did you read the Lord of the Rings books?

When the project came up, I did. I read them, and I loved them.

Did you read them like an actor, as in: “Bullshit…my part…bullshit…”

Of course! No, no…I actually read the whole thing. So, apparently, this whole world revolves around this wise elf. [laughs]

Who’s got the cooler action figure: Agent Smith or Elrond?

Well, when you squeeze Elrond’s legs together, his arm comes down with a sword, so I’d have to say Elrond. But Smith has got a gun. But Elrond’s immortal. So it’s a hard one. Smith can multiply himself. Elrond would disappear and go to the undying lands, so Smith would just start fighting with himself.