![\"'Queen](\"http:\/\/james-franco.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/queen-of-the-desert-presser.jpg\")
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BERLIN \u2014 Nicole Kidman, James Franco and Damian Lewis spoke about their experience of working with director Werner Herzog, vultures and camels at a Berlin press conference Friday for Herzog\u2019s \u201cQueen of the Desert,\u201d which plays in competition at the Berlin Film Festival.<\/p>\n
The film centers on explorer Gertrude Bell, who has been described as \u201cthe female Lawrence of Arabia.\u201d Bell traveled across the Middle East in the first decades of the 20th century, and helped define the borders of the region\u2019s emerging nations.<\/p>\n
But despite her decisive political role, it was Bell\u2019s inner life that Herzog sought to capture. \u201cHer interior life was more fascinating than the political complications of the last years of her life,\u201d Herzog said.<\/p>\n
It was Bell\u2019s romantic affairs with James Franco and Damian Lewis\u2019 characters \u2014 Henry Cadogan and Charles Doughty-Wylie \u2014 that engaged Herzog\u2019s interest. Franco said that it was the first time Herzog had shot a film with love storylines so \u201cit was fun for me to watch Werner figure out these scenes that he didn\u2019t have tons of experience doing. It was almost like watching a master tackle something new,\u201d Franco said.<\/p>\n
The director said that the chemistry between Kidman and Franco was critical.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you cast a film, chemistry is everything,\u201d Herzog said. \u201cIf the chemistry is not functioning you are lost with a story and lost as a director, and I think it was very easy for Nicole to connect as an actress with two great actors [Franco and Lewis], but there was more than just great acting, there was some internal chemistry.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kidman said the location, Morocco, also played an important role in the film. \u201cWerner chooses to go to the places where his movies are set. He is not a green-screen type of guy. The beauty of that landscape, and I have a huge love of the desert, infiltrates the relationships,\u201d Kidman said.<\/p>\n
She added that one of her favorite scenes was when she and Franco climbed a tower, where a vulture was sitting. She said that Herzog had found the vulture, with its owner, by the side of the road and decided to put it into the film. Franco added that the vulture was not trained for such screen roles, and tried to peck Kidman, but luckily it was on a leash.<\/p>\n
Later Franco and Kidman run off into the desert and kiss. \u201cWe get to kiss in this vast landscape, in this desert, and that is just exquisite as an actor to be in the actual place that we are meant to be,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Herzog said that \u201cthere was something in the landscape that was extraordinary and the desert hasn\u2019t been filmed like this before.\u201d He said that they filmed in a real sandstorm, and some of the lenses were damaged because of this.<\/p>\n
He said it was not just focused on the desert but also the people in the desert, the Bedouins. \u201cIt is about the Bedouins and the dignity of life under Islam. There is a certain warmth about what we encountered out there. Nicole Kidman\u2019s character, Gertrude Bell, immediately falls in love with this world, and the texture of what we see there \u2014 a world that has been somehow vilified and demonized in the media recently. And there are reasons for that, of course. But it shows a different side of that. The story makes it necessary that there are all these interactions, including with a young Lawrence of Arabia, who plays a small part here. So it is a big tapestry.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kidman said that on the same day that she arrived in Morocco she had to learn to ride a camel, but she took these challenges in her stride. \u201cI\u2019m at a place in my life where I\u2019m looking to go to different countries and explore new stories, and push out of my comfort zone. I don\u2019t want to be sitting at home and driving to the studio to make a movie. So when Werner said would I go to Morocco and live in the desert with him, I said: \u2018Can I take my children?,\u2019 and he said: \u2018Yes, there\u2019ll be a tent for the children.\u201d<\/p>\n
Herzog said Kidman had \u201can incredible work ethic,\u201d and appears in every scene in the film, with the exception of the first one.<\/p>\n
Talking about the importance of locations, he said: \u201cI have always considered the landscape \u2014 for example the jungle in \u2018Fitzcarraldo\u2019 \u2014 to be an inner landscape, the landscape of fever dreams. Here the desert is also an inner landscape, something that is inside of [Gertrude Bell\u2019s] heart and becomes part of her character. That is a transformation that I know how to do and what I get paid for.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n