The Kingdom - Peter Berg interview
Compiled by Jack Foley
PETER Berg talks about some of the challenges of directing the war on terror-inspired movie The Kingdom and why he worked so hard to make it an authentic experience…
Q. How grueling was the shoot?
Peter Berg: It was a very hard shoot. We filmed in Arizona and Abu Dhabi and it was summer so almost 120 degrees Fahrenheit. And there was a lot of action and tough locations.
Q. The film was based on the Khobar bombings, but other than being based on that event, is there any more truth in the story?
Peter Berg: Well, the idea for the movie came when I was reading a book called My FBI, by the former head of the FBI. When reading that, I came across the Khobar bombings where 60 Americans were killed. The American FBI is mandated to go and investigate crimes against Americans anywhere in the world and he talked about how difficult it was to get a group of American homicide specialists into Saudi Arabia. That’s where the idea came from. I then went down to Michael and said: “Wouldn’t it be interesting to set a homicide investigation in a really hostile and un-welcoming country?” He agreed.
Q. The film shot in Arizona and Abu Dhabi, but did you go to Saudi Arabia yourself?
Peter Berg: While writing the script, I met the then Saudi Ambassador to England and asked him for permission to go. He granted me a visa and I think that I’m the only American to be granted a visa to go there and research a film. I spent two weeks there and there’s a lot on the film that came from that research. There are many things that are accurate, although the specifics of the story are not. There have been kidnappings of Americans in Saudi Arabia and also beheadings. There is also a town where the final fight is set that’s very hostile. There are also different police forces out there and we reflect that in the film. There’s a lot that’s accurate.
Q. Did you feel any sense of threat when you were there?
Peter Berg: Not when we were shooting. The people in Abu Dhabi made us feel very safe and treated us very well. Going to the UAE, Dubai and Abu Dhabi, they seem to be two of the highest-functioning, certainly in terms of commerce, of all the cities in the Middle East. So, you feel safe in the cities, but you do wonder what could happen and know that something could happen. You are, of course, much closer to people who don’t want you alive.
Q. How did you make the decision on cast – you seem to have a good spread: a black actor, a female, an older guy, a younger more comic guy – was that intentional?
Peter Berg: They were just four actors that I like. I don’t think about the four marketing quadrants and what have you. We knew we wanted to have woman, put in that situation in Saudi, where it’s more difficult for them to operate. But they were just four people who I thought could bring a wittiness and honesty to the parts.
Q. Why didn’t Jennifer travel to the Middle East?
Peter Berg: Well, she’d just had a baby. We didn’t need her to go for the key scene out there because her character wouldn’t have been invited to the big banquet. Looking back, she could have come, with no problem. There were plenty of Western women with babies, but we were a little conscious of not taking any more than we absolutely had to.
Q. Why did you want Jennifer in particular to star in the film, because of working with her on Alias?
Peter Berg: I just love her. She’s a great girl. I’ve adored her since Alias and she loves to work, has no attitude, is fearless, and isn’t neurotic or crazy like some actors and actresses are! Her work is really good and she’s a real pleasure. She doesn’t make things any more difficult than they need to be.
Q. How closely do the final scenes reflect a possible reality? Could American personnel really find themselves unaccompanied in that dangerous district?
Peter Berg: With the gunfight at the end, well, just last week a group of American soldiers were ambushed and kidnapped and these guys were soldiers! And, of course, plenty of other people have been kidnapped out there, so is it beyond the realm of possibility? I don’t think that it is. The area we show in the movie is a very dangerous neighborhood and the idea that it’s like that there, with apartments full of guns, is quite true.
Q. How involved was Michael Mann?
Peter Berg: He never interfered. The great thing about working with him as a producer is that he believes in the notion of the auteur. Filmmaking has to be a singular vision and I probably don’t share quite an extreme opinion as him. I’m more collaborative, perhaps, and want to hear people’s ideas. But, he was very protective of me and encouraged me to do what I wanted. He got other people to back off.
Q. What did you learn from him?
Peter Berg: I’ve been learning from Michael ever since I saw Manhunter. I’ve learned a tremendous amount from him and I’m lucky enough to have a good working relationship with him. I’ve learned a lot visually. I’ve learned how to navigate the politics of Hollywood and how to bring an appreciation of the research and authenticity to the project in as many ways as possible.
Q. There’s a lot of hand-held camera work in the film…
Peter Berg: I love hand-held cameras and the first thing I really had creative control over was a TV show called Wonderland about eight years ago. It was shot all on hand-held and bungee-cam. That’s also the way I shot Friday Night Lights, the film, and the TV show is like that as well. And, so is the film I’m working on now, Hancock, a super-hero movie. As I move on, I probably stabilize the shake more, but I like the feel of hand-held.
Q. Do you feel that Hollywood has responded quickly to the Middle East crisis or slowly?
Peter Berg: I really don’t think Hollywood’s reaction to this war has been that immediate because most of us feel that it’s been going on since Saddam invaded Kuwait. It’s been one long war and our administration doesn’t understand the differences or explain it to anyone. It’s a long chain of events that we associate with the first day that we heard about a guy called Saddam invading Kuwait. While there are films coming out now, David O. Russell’s Three Kings was the only early film about this war..
Q. But there’s a raft of films about Iraq and the Middle East about to come out. Do you think 9/11 and the Iraq war has spurred filmmakers on?
Peter Berg: I think that filmmakers have maybe been spurned on by the events of 9/11 and the launch of the war on terror and I guess it’s also taken a long time to get any sense of perspective. If you took 9/11 out of it, it seems that this war’s being on since we were kids, with Israel and Palestine.
The Middle East has been a big mess since we were born. What we’ve done in The Kingdom is to create a piece of entertainment loosely based on things that happened and we’ve set it in that world. I don’t know why you’re not seeing more of that. The idea of doing a bank robbery in Baghdad would be a cool idea to me. There’s so many different movies that can be based on the reality of what happened. You can spin it anyway you want.
Q. The ending is quite bleak. Do you feel that way about the situation in the Middle East?
Peter Berg: It’s hard to not understand how Palestinians will get to a point where their only option is blowing up buses in Tel Aviv. I believe that the way the Middle East is structured politically, the idea that people are going to stop doing this, and that we’re going to get them to stop through violence, is absurd. And, if you consider the final moments of the film, that’s what we’re saying. You can’t kill your way through the problem. And, until a new approach is developed, it’s going to get worse.
Read our review of The Kingdom