What bug is on your shirt?
It is a weta, a bat native to New Zealand that gives our company its name and that we have recreated in 3D.
It is huge and beautiful!
To an inversely proportional measure to the effort, talent and illusion that we dedicate to it. That is why the image industry trusts us and they have given us five Oscars.
Critics praise his fantasy...
Fancy? It is our reality every day! We suffer and enjoy, we fail, we cry, we throw away and we restart designs until we give life to King Kong, The Lord of the Rings, Avatar, Narnia... and those that remain.
In New Zealand! Nothing could be further from Hollywood or European or Asian cinema.
We have worked a lot and very well with China. It is the most technologically advanced nation in the world today...
Is your ideology already technology?
That's where they go, yes. As for Hollywood, the best know that we aspire to be without looking at the clock, but against the clock. This is a... job? It's not life.
What do you aspire to after five Oscars?
To eternity.
It sounds, if I may, pretentious: like the bad guy from The Lord of the Rings.
Let's see: will you and I end one day?
That's for sure.
But our passion... Do you like journalism?
It would be too late to regret it.
If you like to write and it gives you something to eat...
Al menos is also para merendar.
Well, that is success... Congratulations!
And what about being eternal?
If you publish, there will be some kid who wants to be a journalist and will read to you... No?
Hopefully.
Well that's eternity! His vanity and his ego will end in the grave, but his passion will be eternal to the extent that it inspires others to continue it, improve it... He will live in them.
If it works for you...
It helps me feel eternal in the workshop with my young creatives and gives meaning to each day of life: teach your trade to the youngest, because it is the way of feeling that transcends.
How did you come to Barcelona?
Professor Judith Urbano, an expert on Gaudí, taught me the best of him and today I have seen Gaudí's lizards again...
Cool... right?
What superb special effects when there was still no cinema!
I guess they are eternal, yes.
Well, Gaudí lives in all the architects he has inspired. I wanted to be a sculptor... And what the hell! I am! And Gaudí lives in me.
I doubt there are many sculptors who have moved more than you.
I was born on a farm. I didn't have toys, so I learned to make them up. My wife was the neighbor who lived on the farm next door and at the age of 16 we fled together to find a life in Wellington. The two of us went into a rented room: tiny.
And have you already designed dolls?
Crazy with love and illusion! I can't stop making things up. If I stop, I get overwhelmed.
In New Zealand he did not have many references for sculpture. Museums?
That was my other big advantage. In Barcelona you have... so much culture! But culture enriches with its weight... Weight! If you see Gaudí, it will be hard for you to dare to build, create... magical lizards.
His genius compels us to be humble.
A Kiwi, a New Zealander like me, on the other hand, doesn't have that weight of culture on his brain: he can create bullshit and not feel stupid. And that's what I started doing with my wife in that little room 34 years ago... and we continue.
Are your characters not art?
It's not important. The essential thing is to keep jumping as if there were no ceiling or Gaudí to overcome. Passion, enthusiasm and tenacity. And some naive ignorance, like that of a child: never stop being a child. Surprise yourself when you wake up each day.
The most reputable film critics tend to be wary of special effects.
Those critics get bored and bored.
Can you make art on TikTok?
Half the planet watches those two-minute videos: are they all idiots? But for that very reason too: it is a danger.
Metaverse? Artificial intelligence?
Someone must already write the Constitution of the metaverse and the AI, just like the one of the USA. If you are always in front of a screen, you do not use touch or smell. And we will end up as bugs in cocoons connected to an AI-controlled network that will suck our energy.
Don't scare me.
I had books on the farm, that's why I'm here and that's why I ration the screens to my children and give them books.
The screens do not allow you to dive into what you see; the book, yes
It is what I intend with my work.
