Becoming Mayan: Creating Apocalypto (2007) - full transcript

[birds chirping]

We had the sense that
we were on a frontier of...

...Of doing things
that had not been done before.

[indistinct chatter]

There are so many elements
to make something happen.

The people we work with were
fantastic and understood the vision.

[man] When we"d looked
at the world of the Maya

there was some fascinating
aspects of that culture.

[child laughing]

How they lived, their religious beliefs,
what their spiritual world looked like.

Their customs, what were they doing
in terms of their ceremonies?



There was a need
for the audience to feel that

they"re watching something real.

They had to buy into the story

from the moment they saw
the characters on the screen.

We talked to a lotta people, uh,
archeologists and professors,

and there was a lot of
reading to be done.

That was interesting. The social
morays, the customs, their beliefs.

And be very proud.

Very sophisticated civilization,
at the same time very brutal.

That beats a couple times.
Then he takes away...

Stay up and try and watch it go.

[crowd cheering]j

[man] We did a lot of
location scouting, huge amounts.

We went to Guatemala.
We went to Costa Rica.



My biggest memory
of Costa Rica is Mel"s back,

because we just kept walking
through these jungles and forests,

track after trail after track.
Looking everywhere, everywhere,

and try to find
the right place to shoot.

But, uh, the jungle there was too thick,
and we couldnt see into it.

[man speaking Spanish]

What I needed for a film like this was
some level area that you could

swing a cat in with flat areas and
places where you could build sets.

[Gibson] Action!

And so Mel went to Mexico,
but I didn"t go with him.

And he went to see this jungle there
that he"d been told about by Anna Roth,

who is the
production manager on the film.

[Wwomanl It was basically jungle.
They wanted jungle,

and the fact that it was Mayan
made it logical to...

To be sort of like
put together in Mexico.

[Gibson] There.
Bang, bang, bang, bang.

[Safinial He went to see
this piece of jungle.

He called me and said,
"Dude, I! found it. I found the jungle."

I said, "Wow, cool. What" it"s like?"
And he goes, "Its beautiful."

- [indistinct chatter]
- [Gibson] Action!

[Safinial] Its flat, so we can do
all the chase stuff we wanna do.

We can have our actors run through it.

- [Man] Cool. Thats great.
- [clapping]

[Safinial The best thing about it
is you can see deep into this jungle.

And it"s got these huge trees,
and they really create the scenes.

I mean, they really add
to the atmosphere.

There"s a serenity to it.

In Mexico we were able to find primary
rainforests, really impressive stuff.

I mean, if you saw,
these trees were amazing.

- [man yelling in Mayan]
- That was beautiful.

[Safinial We chose Catemaco,
the village that was near

this piece of jungle, as our base
for the next five, six months.

Your"re there for those two exchanges.
I wanna see you smiling and enjoying it.

OK, and action.

[Roth] We started with
a small group in the jungle

where the reguirements were not so big.
We had a normal crew.

And then, as we approached the city,

in order to fulfill the needs
of the visual concepts

as far as wardrobe, makeup, hair,
it just became big, big, big.

- [-rowd cheering]j
- [drums beatingj

[Roth] Werre talking 700 extras...

Seven hundred extras is not
such an outstanding figure,

but the visual concept is so complicated
that each one of these extras

has a makeup person,
a hair person and a wardrobe person.

And if you multiply it by 700
that is a lot of people.

I suggested to Tom Sanders,

"What about doing the city
in a bigger place,

someplace where I could house
all the people that were reguired."

[Safiniajl We moved to Veracruz,
where we had built the city set.

The camera"s going past you,
you just... [groans, coughing]

[Safinial There"s a tremendous effort
being made for it to be real.

Some people say,
"Well, you could do it all in the CG,

or you could do it all in models,"
you know, uh, but really, Mel said,

"Well, you know, I need to have
a city there. I! need to see something."

- He can turn from side to side.
- He can kinda, more or less, control...

[Gibson] Well, it had to be practical.

You had to be able to walk people
through and march "em up stairs.

Look at "em from down the bottom
and have things roll down, and so, uh,

there was a lotta work reguired
for that. Took a long time.

[Safiniaj]l And Tom Sanders,
production designer,

who had worked with Mel before

on Braveheart came on, very early on,
and decided to build this city for us.

Something that will
never be seen in film again,

that you may have seen way back
in the great Cecil B. DeMille epics

or Cleopatra or like, uh,
Ben-Hur or whatever it may be.

Where the actual Mayan city
that we are shooting in

was mostly constructed
right there before our very eyes.

The huge pyramid temples
and the marketplace.

When you actually see that
marketplace seguence youlll almost,

I think, be able to smell it
off the screen, it looks so real.

It"s like a time machine here.

These elements, the shanty town,
the terraced fields that youlll see,

the lime guarry, and the tree fall.

[Gibson] Action!

[screaming]

[Safinia] Everything you see in this
film were actual, real elements we shot.

The main components of the city

were designed and built there for us on
set and maintained for months like that.

- [ali cheeringj
- [drums beatingj

- [man laughing]
- [Whistling]

Frank on drums.

[Gibson] The real sets
were the way to 90,

and people had a real sense
that they were in a place.

I mean, it was awesome
to walk in there. Even empty.

You"d walk in there,
and you"d g0, "Woo."

[Safinia] I remember
when we shot the village scene

where the storytellers telling his
story. That that was the first time

during the shoot when
everybody came to the set.

[man] Hey gyys, start clearing, please.
GCuiet all around.

- Wer"re ready to shoot.
- [man 2] All cameras set.

[Safinial The storytellers
telling his story,

and when he finishes
this music starts to happen.

[drums beating]j

[Safinial And then people
slowly get up and dance.

And then you see Mel,
in the middle, conducting it.

"OK, now you, slowly rise.
Now tell... Start to dance.

Now you gyys stand up.
And now you move."

I remember everybody crowded around
the monitor staring at this scene.

[indistinct shouting]

[Roth] That was a big opportunity
and a big responsibility.

- [chanting]
- [yelling unintelligibly]

[Gibson] You see these images,
or a way of looking at something

thats exciting.
Its kind of a magic thing.

It"s so vivid, um,
so defined, so beautiful.

[Gibson] Cut.

It was perfect.

[clapping]

[man] We have ceramics and sculpture
and monuments that give us an idea

of what the Maya were doing,
how they were dressed,

the types of jade ornaments
they were wearing,

tattooing and scarification
on their faces, on their bodies.

It was a method of display.

There was a lot of elegance. Even
the way they chose to see themselves.

You"re showing yvourselves off.
You wanna be seen.

Very elegant, very stylized.

[woman] The Mayans
had many styles of beauty.

Looking good for the others
was an obligation.

More.

- For her?
- Yeah.

[Rubeo] There"s a lot of information
on how the Mayans wore their empire.

The challenging thing
was how to interpret all this.

[Safinial] In this film
you"ve got the rich.

You"ve got the young people,
the old people, the very poor.

There are all these
different stratas of society.

Wouldnrt it be great
if you could visually convey that

just through costumes?

I think the reality is that Mel,
as the creative force behind this film,

allowed his key crew members the luxury,

the freedom, to go out there and
come up with beautiful, creative things,

and they did it.

Amazing. Amazing.

[Gibson] The costumer is a young woman
called Mayes Rubeo from Mexico.

She brought designs in
and showed me pictures

that were exciting and
whetted my appetite to see more.

I knew that she had a spirit
of adventure and wanting to get in

and do something really striking.

lindistinct cheering]j

Vvve never seen work like it,
and rve seen a lot.

That King"s costume...
and the Gueen...

Some of these Chacs and Holcanes
with these masks on.

I mean, it"s, wow, that:s amazing.

To set all the different tones
that we wanted to use,

we made samples of all these colors
from natural vegetables

and animals that the Mayans used.

For example, this beautiful red sienna
comes from rojo cochinilla,

and it gives you a variety of degrees
of this kind of red.

We also used indigo-blue.

So many hues in one single feather.

And we actually were able

to recreate a green
that comes from bladders of animals.

We"re making costumes
that nobody"s ever done.

The prints that you see
have to be recreated

because they did it freehand.
We did about 50 different designs.

Patterns and embroidery
that they have from those times.

Every single thing
that you see in this movie

is hand-sewn, handmade.

You cant get any shortcuts,

"cause were shooting
five cameras all the time.

It has to be perfect.

The Mayans use a lot jade.

It was a symbol of wealth
and happiness and trade and trust.

But for logistic reasons we couldn"t
have all these made out of jade,

so we had to learn how to paint
all these like materials into jade,

just hand-painting them.

All these bits are wood. We have to
make it look like if it was jade.

And it looks beautiful, just like jade.

The Maya viewed status
through the use of jade,

exotic commobdities like shell,
mother-of-pearl.

[indistinct shouting]

One of the most obvious things
was the use of jade ear spools.

They would perforate the earlobe,
put a small piece of jade in,

and gradually expand that until it"s
able to accommodate a large ornament.

The things that are very,
very original in this film

stem from the fact that Mel,
as an artist and as a filmmaker,

is at a place where
he can take those chances.

Some of the things youlll see in this
film, you"ll never have seen before.

[drums beating]

[man] The costume that I wear
is so mythic

it belongs in every culture
of a warrior society.

As soon as I put all of that
leather armor on

I completely just... [sputters]
You know, become this character.

It"s like, "Oh, my God, what is this?
Is this an animal or a man?"

There"s no work reguired
other than to wear the costume.

Raul, signal those guys to move out.

[Trujillo] It"s like Mel says, "You
dont have to be scary. You are scary."

Try to look straight out with your face.
I mean, it is so ominous.

This is not a normal movie.
It is a big makeup and hair movie.

- [speaking Spanish]
- Today.

[speaking Spanish]

My department is guite big.

Probably it"s the biggest I! have
ever had in my life, like 250 people.

Details are so important.

Even though
you dont see it, you feel it.

This has really been a big challenge.

[Sodano] They start to see
every single drawing,

what they used to have, uh, for ears
and earrings, for nose bridges,

for tattoos, and everything
which is makeup.

Our first thinking was, uh...

How can we make the public
understand who they are?

Everything they used to do
in their life was for the gods.

In fact, every single tattoo
is a sign of a religion.

[Gibson] They had a concept of afterlife

and a concept of life
as it related to afterlife.

The behavior that
they"d exhibit because of that...

They had a concept of paradise
and damnation and sin.

[speaking Mayanj

Village people. They"re
people that live with nothing.

We"d been very minimal
with tattoos and things.

[Gibson] OK, cut.

[Signoretti] With the middle class
I went a little more tattoos, hairdos.

We also get rich people
and high class people,

but then when you put it all together,
you see this difference between.

Each person looks different.

[Safinial You"ve got these
beautiful ladies with the jade teeth

who are using their fans
and laughing and smiling.

You can tell there"s
something different about them.

Maybe you say something to her,
and you laugh.

[speaking indistinctly]

[Sodano] The material we use
for the earlobes is a silicon,

because the earlobes are stretched.
I could not use something hard.

I need to have, uh, movements.

[chanting indistincetly]

Another very important thing
was the Mayan Perfida.

The real Mayans have kernels.
Its a particular Mayan nose,

- the original Mayan look.
- That"s great.

That was one of the first guestions,
"You mind wearing a prosthetic nose?"

AII the makeup, the scarifications,
the tattoos, the various piercings

were applied to the actors
every single day.

Morning after morning
these busloads of extras would come in,

and there were rows of makeup chairs
with mirrors and red lights above them.

Every time a new makeup chair d become
clear then the red light would come on.

There"s an AD going,
"OK, you, go there."

On the biggest days we had 200
and some odd makeup artists

working on hundreds
and hundreds of extras.

[Gibson] Action!

[Sodano] You see them all together.

The richest one to the poorest one
is made up with tattoos,

with scarification.

Yeah, that"s it, Rudy. Stay like that.

AII of them have to be different,
because we know the way that Mel shoots.

Close-ups on every single extra,
and they are marvelous.

Dont hit him hard. Still miss him,

- but you can make a little contact.
- OK.

[grunts]

There was something exciting in terms of
being able to come up with weapons

that people had never seen before.

Simon Atherton is a world class armorer.

Every film you"ve seen that
the weapons in it are cool,

Simon Atherton probably
supplied the weapons.

- [(Atherton] There you go.
- [Gibson] Thats amazing. Staggering.

Hess a favorite. Particularly
when it comes to primitive weaponry.

So you were going
for fish hunter, right?

Rudy got by you.
Itt:s like pig and farmer, you know.

So youre chasing him back.

T"ve worked with Mel before.
Il worked with him on Braveheart,

and it was one of the
first big feature films I did.

He doesnrtt just limit his activity to,

you know, being the armorer or
the weapons gyy or the designer.

He s really creative
with some of these things.

For example, that frog and blow darts,
and says, "Watch this."

He had this little dart that he made,
with some 0O-Tips and a straight pin.

He just grabs a piece of paper
and rolls it up and goes... [spits]

It went whap!
And he says, "What if he uses a leaf?"

There"s whimsy in it.

[Safinial He came to this film
wanting to strike that perfect balance

between historical accuracy
and things that just looked cool.

First you figure out what tools
and materials they"ve got.

From that you can figure out
what kind of weapons they"d have.

[Safinia]l We knew that the Mayans
didn"t have any metal.

What they used was obsidian,
which is a very hard,

very sharp kind of glass mineral
that would cut through anything.

[Gibson] Hey!

The edge on it is just horrific.

And then it made a fantastic sword.

This is an obsidian sword.
Not many of these things have survived.

lindistinct screaming]j

And this would be
a very sharp cutting edge.

- Itts got obsidian blades on it?
- Yeah.

These things were studded with obsidian.
Could inflict serious damage.

And it was brutal. It was amazing.

It was... glass is gonna shatter,
but it doesnt.

They also used that kind of material
for their sacrificial knives.

They could cut and slash, get inside
a man"s ribcage within seconds.

If you imagine,
that"s the last thing you see

as itts coming towards you.

[crowd cheering]j

In this film,
people arent attacking only.

They"re going out to take prisoners,

so we had to invent weapons that not
only killed people, but stunned people.

[shouting in Mayanj

You"ll see some weapons dont have
obsidian on both sides like this sword.

They will have it on one side,

and that"d be to inflict a stunning blow
rather than a killing blow.

[groaning]

[Safinia] These are the weapons
and technigues the Mayans had.

It was accurate, historically.

Here they were being seen,
for the first time, on film.

- [speaking Mayanj]j
- [screaming]

Cut!

As you look at the guantity
and the extent and the caliber

of the artistic merit that the Maya had,
it breeds a sense of respect,

a sense of awe,
and a sense of understanding.

From the moment the film starts
to the moment it ends you feel like

youre transported into this world that
you are seeing very much, primarily,

through visual means of communication.

And what ends up happening
is that you buy it more.

You really believe these people.

You think that those
are the actual Mayans,

and we just took a camera
and happened to shoot

this fantastic action story
in the real world.

To pull all these things
together into a film

with huge moving parts
is amazing to watch.

Thats what filmmaking"s about.

[Gibson] It was exciting to look at,
it looked dynamic.

That it was odd,
something so strange to look at,

what people thought of as beautiful
or what they wish to adorn.

GCuite frankly,
one started off with that,

"Why"d they think of that?" By the
time you finished looking at "em,

they were beautiful.
I know why they did that.

It had this aesthetic
that began to appeal to me.

And it looks beautiful on film.

And it fills you with wonder.