The movie Peter Jackson calls “the hardest thing I’ve ever done in my life”
After the critical success of 1994’s psychological biopic Heavenly Creatures, there was little that could stop New Zealand director Peter Jackson from becoming one of the highest-grossing filmmakers of all time, having his movies generating a gross income of $6.5billion worldwide.
Jackson has, of course, tackled some genuine blockbusters throughout his career, including the legendary The Lord of the Rings trilogy of the 2000s, as well as The Hobbit trilogy, 2005’s King Kong and the documentaries They Shall Not Grow Old from 2018 and The Beatles: Get Back from 2021.
However, like any cinematic auteur, Jackson had to start somewhere, and an old 1992 interview that originally appeared in Trash City has Jackson reflected on his earlier days as a low-budget filmmaker, a far cry from the kind of films he would go on to make and be acclaimed for.
Jackson first came to the cinema scene with the horror comedy Bad Taste of 1987 before going on to make 1989’s black comedy Meet the Feebles and 1992’s zombie comedy Braindead. In the interview, Jackson noted, “I was a bit worried about working with actors in Braindead for the first time because I’d never worked with professional actors, but that was easier than I thought.”
“You’ve just got to basically explain to them what you want to do,” the director continued. “Braindead was a much easier movie to make from my point of view than Meet the Feebles, which was the hardest thing I’ve ever done in my life. That was a real nightmare, from beginning to end – it was a very, very difficult film to make in all sorts of ways.”
The difficulty with Meet the Feebles arose from the fact that it’s a puppet musical comedy that features Jim Henson-style puppets that satirise the Muppets. The difference with Jackson’s film is that the Feebles behave in somewhat misanthropic ways, doing drugs and being unfaithful.
Discussing the feeling Jackson had when Meet the Feebles wrapped, the filmmaker said, “We managed to finish it and get it out, and I was exhausted by the end of that, and I thought, ‘God, that was like going through hell’ so I had a bit of trepidation with Braindead because it’s a much bigger film in many respects, with more complications.”
But Jackson went on to make the splatter comedy Braindead, which used real actors, meaning that he found the whole experience a lot easier. “[It was very simple, actually; in the end, I found it a very easy film to make,” he said. But for Meet the Feebles, “Working with puppets was a nightmare; it was really horrible, very, very difficult. Working with actors is much easier.”
