Wolfgang Petersen Interview

THE REAL HERO OF TROY

For a man whose films have grossed over $1 billion at the American box office alone, Wolfgang Petersen is unexpectedly polite, charming and unassuming. It's easy to see why the world's leading stars line up to appear in his films: not only are they more or less guaranteed commercial success, but working with this friendly and ebullient German must be a change from dealing with massive Hollywood egos. In town to promote his new epic version of Homer's Iliad, Troy, Petersen speaks frankly about his views on the star system, how he came to choose his cast and why he even considered such a mammoth project in the first place.

First and foremost the most obvious question: when he could probably have made any film he wanted, why did he choose such a huge and ambitious movie. "Well, I became a fan of Achilles at school. For me he was like James Dean or Marlon Brando - the ultimate rebel. Many years later, Warner Brothers told me about the Iliad project and I thought this is what I have always wanted to do. As soon as Brad Pitt said yes, it was a matter of weeks before everything got under way. I was also a great fan of David Lean films, and thought it would be a great nod to him to get Peter O'Toole. I remember when we met him in the Dorchester to ask him to play Priam, the first thing he said was 'don't you want me to play Achilles'?"

Although he trained to direct on the stage in his native Germany, it wasn't long before Petersen took his talent to the big screen and made the controversial Die Konsequenz in 1977. The story about homosexual love in a prison shocked his compatriots, but he soon went on to his first international success with Das Boot, the claustrophobic tale of a German U-boat. Since the early 80s he has been synonymous with high impact blockbusters and has clearly learned a thing or two along the way.