00:00Can you talk about the physical challenge of the film, of the training and filming in the real mountains in
00:06New Zealand and Nepal?
00:08It looked very cold and very scary from my point of view.
00:12Well, yes, it was challenging and thrilling and important to say we did this for real.
00:21No soundstage, no studio, no green screen.
00:24We were on real mountains in the foothills of the Himalayas, in Nepal, and also on the high mountains of
00:31the South Island of New Zealand.
00:32So when you see Gendon climbing out of a crevasse as Tenzing, that's Gendon at the bottom of a crevasse
00:40and climbing up a wall of ice.
00:43When you see me as Edmund Hillary falling into a crevasse.
00:52Have you got me?
00:54Have you got me?
00:55That really happened to Hillary and it really happened to me.
00:58They dropped me into a crevasse and I had to climb out of it.
01:05Together, there's a 40-foot ridge of rock and ice on Everest called the Hillary Step now because Hillary was
01:11the first to summit it.
01:13And they did it together.
01:15And we found a 40-foot ridge of rock and ice outside Queenstown in New Zealand and we climbed it
01:21for real.
01:21And when you look over the edge, there's a precipitous drop all the way down to the bottom.
01:27Don't look down and don't fall down.
01:29Yeah.
01:31But it was, you know, we, it was our honor, our privilege, our thrill because as actors, you know, we're
01:37not performing these, we're not performing, we're doing.
01:42We are living in the shoes of these great men and following in their footsteps, literally in the same environment.
01:50So, it was a challenge, but we embraced the challenge.
01:53Yeah, yeah.
01:54I think it's, I want to tell the point that the day we filmed the big crevasse.
01:59Yeah.
01:59And we filmed that two days and, yeah, I'm on the edge of the crevasse and I pull up Tom
02:08and all the day we filmed and I'm just cramped in the snow many times and really clamming, really cramped.
02:18And just some, your weight is hung, just pulled back from my body and I want to cry in front
02:25of more and we, we cry, we shoot that many times.
02:32And in the end, like the afternoon, when we rubbed and all my body's wetted and I can feel this,
02:40the outside is really cold.
02:42But inside is really hot because I worked so hard and when I got to the set, when I took
02:51off my jacket, I saw there's the fogs coming up here.
02:56Yes, yes.
02:57Is climbing a dangerous mountain like that something either of you would want to do, like for real, for fun?
03:03And do you understand why people like Tenzing and Hilary feel this calling to do what seems like an impossible
03:10task?
03:11Can I say climbing a mountain like Everest or climbing any high mountain is an act of worship.
03:17It makes you feel so alive.
03:21It is, of course, incredibly dangerous and perilous, but it's that, it's the focus and the attention that you need,
03:30that you're aware you are very small in the face of truly awe-inspiring, majestic beauty.
03:39You know, you know, the greatest wonders of this world.
03:43And yet, every step you make, you have to test the probity of the snow that you're on.
03:49You have to make sure you're not going to fall down a crevasse.
03:51Every knot you tie in a rope, every calculation you make about how much oxygen you have left, how much
03:59daylight remains, it makes you feel intensely alive.
04:06And I think that is the passion and the love that Tenzing and Hilary had for these mountains, is they
04:14felt free in the mountains, even as they had to be careful.
04:20Because it takes such competence, it takes such awareness, they revered mountains for the sake of the mountains, it wasn't
04:27about their ego.
04:28Would I do it?
04:29I'd love to.
04:30I'm a father of two young children I love very much.
04:33I think some of the risks of Everest itself are too great.
04:37It would be irresponsible.
04:38So I hold in my heart the privilege of this experience.
04:42I got to live in the shoes of Edmund Hilary, one of the greatest mountaineers of all time.
04:48And maybe that's where my Everest expeditions end.
04:52But I'm already more fortunate than many others.
04:56How about you?
04:56Yeah, I also, I'm from mountain, I really love mountain and the nature, and especially you just walking in the
05:04valley, and near the river, and the sounds of the tree, and the birds, or the wind, that's really enjoyed,
05:14you know, that's, I think all the mountaineers, they climb, or they're just hiking, it's not just for some big
05:22purpose or target.
05:23I think the, really mean, they want to really enjoy the nature.
05:28From the lower altitude, you climb more higher, higher on the way, it's just, just, I told that, enjoy the
05:36nature, the soundness, and the wind, and the approach to the mountain, and snow mountain, even summit.
05:44It's just feeling the nature, and enjoy the nature.
05:50I think that's, that's, that's, they really want it.
05:53It's for me, I really, yeah, it is.
05:55And I really hope one day, one day I can try to climb Mount Everest, but I, I, I, I'm
06:02not believing that I can do that.
06:04But anyway, I would like to try to, any, even just to go to the best camp, or more higher,
06:09if I can do, I will try that.
06:11I really love that, yeah.
