TED2011
Julie Taymor: Spider-Man, The Lion King and life on the creative edge
Filmed:
Readability: 3.2
1,034,077 views
Showing spectacular clips from productions such as Frida, The Tempest and The Lion King, director Julie Taymor describes a life spent immersed in theater and the movies. Filmed right as controversy over her Broadway production of Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark was at its peak, she candidly describes the tensions inherent within her creative process, as she strives both to capture the essence of a story--and produce images and experiences unlike anything else.
Julie Taymor - Director, designer
Julie Taymor is a film, theater and opera director. She is known for lavish movies such as Frida and for her hit Broadway musicals, The Lion King and Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark. Full bio
Julie Taymor is a film, theater and opera director. She is known for lavish movies such as Frida and for her hit Broadway musicals, The Lion King and Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark. Full bio
Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.
00:13
(Music)
0
1889
5963
00:19
["Oedipus Rex"]
1
7852
3946
00:27
["The Lion King"]
2
15397
3208
00:34
["Titus"]
3
22485
4432
00:49
["Frida"]
4
37727
5853
01:05
["The Magic Flute"]
5
53751
4474
01:12
["Across The Universe"]
6
60197
6161
01:27
(Applause)
7
75710
4552
01:32
Julie Taymor: Thank you. Thank you very much.
8
80262
2207
01:34
That's a few samples of the theater, opera
9
82469
2717
01:37
and films that I have done over the last 20 years.
10
85186
3342
01:40
But what I'd like to begin with right now
11
88528
2038
01:42
is to take you back to a moment
12
90566
1903
01:44
that I went through in Indonesia,
13
92469
2465
01:46
which is a seminal moment in my life
14
94934
2137
01:49
and, like all myths,
15
97071
2080
01:51
these stories need to be retold
16
99151
2255
01:53
and told, lest we forget them.
17
101406
2499
01:55
And when I'm in the turbulent times, as we know,
18
103905
3024
01:58
that I am right now, through the crucible
19
106929
2388
02:01
and the fire of transformation,
20
109317
2191
02:03
which is what all of you do, actually.
21
111508
2618
02:06
Anybody who creates knows there's that point where
22
114126
3124
02:09
it hasn't quite become the phoenix or the burnt char.
23
117250
5109
02:14
(Laughter)
24
122359
2098
02:16
And I am right there on the edge,
25
124457
2905
02:19
which I'll tell you about, another story.
26
127362
1770
02:21
I want to go back to Indonesia
27
129132
1422
02:22
where I was about 21, 22 years, a long time ago,
28
130554
3922
02:26
on a fellowship.
29
134476
1224
02:27
And I found myself, after two years there
30
135700
2930
02:30
and performing and learning, on the island of Bali,
31
138630
3349
02:33
on the edge of a crater, Gunung Batur.
32
141979
3827
02:37
And I was in a village where there was
33
145806
3017
02:40
an initiation ceremony for the young men,
34
148823
2792
02:43
a rite of passage.
35
151615
1564
02:45
Little did I know that it was mine as well.
36
153179
2552
02:47
And as I sat in this temple square
37
155731
2459
02:50
under this gigantic beringin banyan tree,
38
158190
3000
02:53
in the dark, there was no electricity, just the full moon,
39
161190
4837
02:58
down in this empty square,
40
166027
2056
03:00
and I heard the most beautiful sounds,
41
168083
2150
03:02
like a Charles Ives concert
42
170233
1831
03:04
as I listened to the gamelan music
43
172064
2043
03:06
from all the different villagers that came
44
174107
2049
03:08
for this once-every-five-years ceremony.
45
176156
3398
03:11
And I thought I was alone in the dark under this tree.
46
179554
3595
03:15
And all of a sudden, out of the dark,
47
183149
2831
03:17
from the other end of the square,
48
185980
1884
03:19
I saw the glint of mirrors lit by the moon.
49
187864
3908
03:23
And these 20 old men who I'd seen before
50
191772
3559
03:27
all of a sudden stood up in these full warrior costumes
51
195331
5302
03:32
with the headdress and the spears,
52
200633
2485
03:35
and no one was in the square, and I was hidden in the shadows.
53
203118
4362
03:39
No one was there, and they came out,
54
207480
2361
03:41
and they did this incredible dance.
55
209841
3639
03:45
"Huhuhuhuhuhuhuhahahahaha."
56
213480
3692
03:49
And they moved their bodies and they came forward,
57
217172
3173
03:52
and the lights bounced off these costumes.
58
220345
2802
03:55
And I've been in theater since I was 11 years old,
59
223147
3416
03:58
and performing, creating, and I went,
60
226563
3214
04:01
"Who are they performing for
61
229777
2143
04:03
with these elaborate costumes,
62
231920
2347
04:06
these extraordinary headdresses?"
63
234267
2027
04:08
And I realized that they were performing for God,
64
236294
4787
04:13
whatever that means.
65
241081
2711
04:15
But somehow, it didn't matter about the publicity.
66
243792
3588
04:19
There was no money involved.
67
247380
2251
04:21
It wasn't going to be written down. It was no news.
68
249631
3220
04:24
And there were these incredible artists
69
252851
2146
04:26
that felt for me like an eternity as they performed.
70
254997
3501
04:30
The next moment,
71
258498
2085
04:32
as soon as they finished and disappeared into the shadows,
72
260583
4060
04:36
a young man with a propane lantern came on,
73
264643
2506
04:39
hung it up on a tree, set up a curtain.
74
267149
2251
04:41
The village square was filled with hundreds of people.
75
269400
3461
04:44
And they put on an opera all night long.
76
272861
2538
04:47
Human beings needed the light.
77
275399
2260
04:49
They needed the light to see.
78
277659
2637
04:52
So what I gained and gathered from this incredible,
79
280296
3648
04:55
seminal moment in my life as a young artist
80
283944
2612
04:58
was that you must be true
81
286556
3323
05:01
to what you believe as an artist all the way through,
82
289879
4072
05:05
but you also have to be aware
83
293951
3539
05:09
that the audience is out there in our lives at this time,
84
297490
3489
05:12
and they also need the light.
85
300979
1371
05:14
And it's this incredible balance
86
302350
2197
05:16
that I think that we walk
87
304547
1749
05:18
when we are creating something that is breaking ground,
88
306296
3333
05:21
that's trying to do something you've never seen before,
89
309629
2654
05:24
that imaginary world
90
312283
1686
05:25
where you actually don't know where you're going to end up,
91
313969
3377
05:29
that's the fine line on the edge of a crater
92
317346
2766
05:32
that I have walked my whole life.
93
320112
2630
05:34
What I would like to do now is to tell you
94
322742
2548
05:37
a little bit
95
325290
1806
05:39
about how I work. Let's take "The Lion King."
96
327096
2857
05:41
You saw many examples of my work up there,
97
329953
2252
05:44
but it's one that people know.
98
332205
1945
05:46
I start with the notion of the ideograph.
99
334150
2699
05:48
An ideograph is like a brush painting, a Japanese brush painting.
100
336849
3375
05:52
Three strokes, you get the whole bamboo forest.
101
340224
3509
05:55
I go to the concept of "The Lion King"
102
343733
2531
05:58
and I say, "What is the essence of it?
103
346264
2068
06:00
What is the abstraction?
104
348332
1636
06:01
If I were to reduce this entire story
105
349968
3261
06:05
into one image, what would it be?"
106
353229
2741
06:07
The circle. The circle. It's so obvious.
107
355970
2954
06:10
The circle of life. The circle of Mufasa's mask.
108
358924
3977
06:14
The circle that, when we come to Act II and there's a drought,
109
362901
4540
06:19
how do you express drought?
110
367441
1479
06:20
It's a circle of silk on the floor
111
368920
3159
06:24
that disappears into the hole in the stage floor.
112
372079
4054
06:28
The circle of life comes in the wheels
113
376133
2629
06:30
of the gazelles that leap.
114
378762
2448
06:33
And you see the mechanics.
115
381210
1722
06:34
And being a theater person, what I know and love about the theater
116
382932
3378
06:38
is that when the audience comes in
117
386310
1695
06:40
and they suspend their disbelief,
118
388005
1794
06:41
when you see men walking or women walking
119
389799
2835
06:44
with a platter of grass on their heads,
120
392634
1897
06:46
you know it's the savanna.
121
394531
1616
06:48
You don't question that.
122
396147
1544
06:49
I love the apparent truth of theater.
123
397691
2484
06:52
I love that people are willing to fill in the blanks.
124
400175
3597
06:55
The audience is willing to say,
125
403772
2020
06:57
"Oh, I know that's not a real sun.
126
405792
3000
07:00
You took pieces of sticks.
127
408792
2308
07:03
You added silk to the bottom.
128
411100
2095
07:05
You suspended these pieces. You let it fall flat on the floor.
129
413195
3704
07:08
And as it rises with the strings, I see that it's a sun.
130
416899
4403
07:13
But the beauty of it is that it's just silk and sticks.
131
421302
4407
07:17
And in a way, that is what makes it spiritual.
132
425709
4552
07:22
That's what moves you.
133
430261
1445
07:23
It's not the actual literal sunrise that's coming.
134
431706
4216
07:27
It's the art of it.
135
435922
1531
07:29
So in the theater, as much as the story is critical
136
437453
5360
07:34
and the book and the language,
137
442813
1905
07:36
the telling of the story, how it's told,
138
444718
4651
07:41
the mechanics, the methods that you use,
139
449369
3618
07:44
is equal to the story itself.
140
452987
2599
07:47
And I'm one who loves high tech and low tech.
141
455586
3338
07:50
So I could go from --
142
458924
1799
07:52
For instance, I'll show you some "Spider-Man" later,
143
460723
2206
07:54
these incredible machines that move people along.
144
462929
2871
07:57
But the fact is, without the dancer
145
465800
2366
08:00
who knows how to use his body and swing on those wires,
146
468166
2753
08:02
it's nothing.
147
470919
1787
08:04
So now I'm going to show you
148
472706
2909
08:07
some clips from the other big project of my life this year,
149
475615
4318
08:11
"The Tempest."
150
479933
1042
08:12
It's a movie. I did "The Tempest" on a stage three times
151
480975
4093
08:17
in the theater since 1984, '86,
152
485068
3237
08:20
and I love the play.
153
488305
2204
08:22
I did it always with a male Prospero.
154
490509
2526
08:25
And all of a sudden, I thought,
155
493035
1662
08:26
"Well, who am I gonna get to play Prospero?
156
494697
2086
08:28
Why not Helen Mirren? She's a great actor. Why not?"
157
496783
3722
08:32
And this material really did work for a woman equally as well.
158
500505
3260
08:35
So now, let's take a look at some of the images
159
503765
3095
08:38
from "The Tempest."
160
506860
1993
08:40
(Music)
161
508853
4983
08:57
(Video) Prospera: Hast thou, spirit, performed to the point the tempest that I bade thee?
162
525220
3752
09:00
Ariel: I boarded the king's ship. In every cabin, I flamed amazement.
163
528972
5508
09:09
Prospera: At first sight, they have changed eyes.
164
537664
2956
09:12
Miranda: Do you love me?
165
540620
1195
09:13
Ferdinand: Beyond all limit.
166
541815
1376
09:15
HM: They are both in either's powers.
167
543191
2592
09:17
Trinculo: Misery acquaints a man with strange bedfellows.
168
545783
5131
09:22
(Music)
169
550914
3242
09:26
Looking for business, governor?
170
554156
3477
09:29
Caliban: Hast thou not dropped from heaven?
171
557633
2002
09:31
Stephano: Out of the moon, I do assure thee.
172
559635
2555
09:34
Prospera: Caliban!
173
562190
1997
09:36
Caliban: This island is mine.
174
564187
2265
09:38
Prospera: For this, be sure, tonight thou shalt have cramps.
175
566452
3545
09:41
Antonio: Here lies your brother no better than the earth he lies upon.
176
569997
3509
09:45
Sebastian: Draw thy sword.
177
573506
1799
09:47
And I, the king, shall love thee.
178
575305
3609
09:50
Prospera: I will plague them all, even to roaring.
179
578914
5386
09:58
Ariel: I have made you mad.
180
586133
4573
10:08
Prospera: We are such stuff as dreams are made on.
181
596874
3045
10:11
and our little life is rounded with a sleep.
182
599919
4211
10:16
(Music)
183
604130
5325
10:21
JT: Okay.
184
609455
2850
10:24
(Applause)
185
612305
3974
10:28
So I went from theater, doing "The Tempest"
186
616279
2428
10:30
on the stage in a very low-budget production
187
618707
2324
10:33
many years ago,
188
621031
1638
10:34
and I love the play, and I also think
189
622669
2445
10:37
it's Shakespeare's last play,
190
625114
2024
10:39
and it really lends itself, as you can see, to cinema.
191
627138
3680
10:42
But I'm just going to give you a little example about
192
630818
2275
10:45
how one stages it in theater
193
633093
2178
10:47
and then how one takes that same idea or story
194
635271
4061
10:51
and moves it into cinema.
195
639332
2992
10:54
The ideograph that I talked to you about before,
196
642324
3096
10:57
what is it for "The Tempest"?
197
645420
2111
10:59
What, if I were to boil it down,
198
647531
2826
11:02
would be the one image that I could
199
650357
2313
11:04
hang my hat on for this?
200
652670
2247
11:06
And it was the sand castle,
201
654917
2288
11:09
the idea of nurture versus nature,
202
657205
3140
11:12
that we build these civilizations --
203
660345
2455
11:14
she speaks about it at the end, Helen Mirren's Prospera --
204
662800
2955
11:17
we build them, but under nature, under the grand tempest,
205
665755
5473
11:23
these cloud-capped towers, these gorgeous palaces will fade
206
671228
5495
11:28
and there will -- leave not a rack behind.
207
676723
4223
11:32
So in the theater, I started the play,
208
680946
2629
11:35
it was a black sand rake, white cyc,
209
683575
3062
11:38
and there was a little girl, Miranda, on the horizon,
210
686637
2925
11:41
building a drip castle, a sand castle.
211
689562
2668
11:44
And as she was there on the edge of that stage,
212
692230
3440
11:47
two stagehands all in black
213
695670
3361
11:51
with watering cans ran along the top
214
699031
4504
11:55
and started to pour water on the sand castle,
215
703535
4627
12:00
and the sand castle started to drip and sink,
216
708162
2770
12:02
but before it did,
217
710932
1399
12:04
the audience saw the black-clad stagehands.
218
712331
4240
12:08
The medium was apparent. It was banal. We saw it.
219
716571
4587
12:13
But as they started to pour the water,
220
721158
2983
12:16
the light changed from showing you the black-clad stagehands
221
724141
3732
12:19
to focusing, this rough magic that we do in theater,
222
727873
3314
12:23
it focused right on the water itself.
223
731187
3553
12:26
And all of a sudden, the audience's perspective changes.
224
734740
4222
12:30
It becomes something magically large.
225
738962
3506
12:34
It becomes the rainstorm.
226
742468
2632
12:37
The masked actors, the puppeteers, they disappear,
227
745100
3644
12:40
and the audience makes that leap into this world,
228
748744
3200
12:43
into this imaginary world of "The Tempest" actually happening.
229
751944
4323
12:48
Now the difference
230
756267
1429
12:49
when I went and did it in the cinema,
231
757696
2603
12:52
I started the actual movie
232
760299
2384
12:54
with a close-up of a sand castle, a black sand castle,
233
762683
5282
12:59
and what cinema can do is,
234
767965
1838
13:01
by using camera, perspective,
235
769803
3456
13:05
and also long shots and close-ups,
236
773259
2742
13:08
it started on a close-up of the sand castle,
237
776001
2319
13:10
and as it pulled away,
238
778320
1883
13:12
you saw that it was a miniature sitting in the palm
239
780203
3034
13:15
of the girl's hands.
240
783237
1903
13:17
And so I could play with the medium,
241
785140
1828
13:18
and why I move from one medium to another
242
786968
2952
13:21
is to be able to do this.
243
789920
1483
13:23
Now I'm going to take you to "Spider-Man."
244
791403
2431
13:25
(Music)
245
793834
3836
13:56
(Video) Peter Parker: ♪ Standing on the precipice,
246
824794
2827
13:59
I can soar away from this. ♪
247
827621
4479
14:04
JT: We're trying to do everything in live theater
248
832100
2100
14:06
that you can't do in two dimensions
249
834200
1919
14:08
in film and television.
250
836119
2784
14:10
PP: ♪ Rise above yourself and take control. ♪
251
838903
3930
14:14
George Tsypin: We're looking at New York from a Spider-Man point of view.
252
842833
3396
14:18
Spider Man is not bound by gravity.
253
846229
2250
14:20
Manhattan in the show is not bound by gravity either.
254
848479
3158
14:23
PP: ♪ Be yourself and rise above it all. ♪
255
851637
4219
14:27
Ensemble: ♪ Sock! Pow! ♪
256
855856
4103
14:31
♪ Slam! Scratch! ♪
257
859959
2585
14:34
Danny Ezralow: I don't want you to even think there's a choreographer.
258
862544
2201
14:36
It's real, what's happening.
259
864745
1126
14:37
I prefer you to see people moving,
260
865871
2873
14:40
and you're going, "Whoa, what was that?"
261
868744
2186
14:42
(Music)
262
870930
12221
14:55
JT: If I give enough movement in the sculpture,
263
883151
2084
14:57
and the actor moves their head, you feel like it's alive.
264
885235
3191
15:00
It's really comic book live. It's a comic book coming alive.
265
888426
2950
15:03
(Music)
266
891376
7201
15:10
Bono: They're mythologies.
267
898577
1162
15:11
They're modern myths, these comic book heroes.
268
899739
3626
15:15
PP: ♪ They believe. ♪
269
903365
5963
15:21
(Screams)
270
909328
3677
15:25
(Music)
271
913005
5518
15:42
(Applause)
272
930766
2268
15:45
JT: Ohhhh. What was that?
273
933034
4610
15:49
Circus, rock 'n' roll, drama.
274
937644
2271
15:51
What the hell are we doing up there on that stage?
275
939915
2842
15:54
Well, one last story, very quickly.
276
942757
2662
15:57
After I was in that village, I crossed the lake,
277
945419
2870
16:00
and I saw that the volcano was erupting
278
948289
3089
16:03
on the other side, Gunung Batur,
279
951378
1753
16:05
and there was a dead volcano next to the live volcano.
280
953131
3085
16:08
I didn't think I'd be swallowed by the volcano,
281
956216
2021
16:10
and I am here.
282
958237
1586
16:11
But it's very easy to climb up, is it not?
283
959823
3937
16:15
You hold on to the roots,
284
963760
1585
16:17
you put your foot in the little rocks
285
965345
3200
16:20
and climb up there, and you get to the top,
286
968545
2582
16:23
and I was with a good friend who was an actor,
287
971127
2290
16:25
and we said, "Let's go up there.
288
973417
2020
16:27
Let's see if we can come close to the edge
289
975437
2048
16:29
of that live volcano."
290
977485
2136
16:31
And we climbed up and we got to the very top,
291
979621
2852
16:34
and we're on the edge, on this precipice,
292
982473
2505
16:36
Roland disappears into the sulfur smoke
293
984978
2413
16:39
at the volcano at the other end,
294
987391
1937
16:41
and I'm up there alone
295
989328
1842
16:43
on this incredible precipice.
296
991170
2736
16:45
Did you hear the lyrics?
297
993906
1621
16:47
I'm on the precipice looking down
298
995527
2326
16:49
into a dead volcano to my left.
299
997853
2311
16:52
To my right is sheer shale. It's coming off.
300
1000164
3828
16:55
I'm in thongs and sarongs. It was many years ago.
301
1003992
3768
16:59
And no hiking boots.
302
1007760
1625
17:01
And he's disappeared, this mad French gypsy actor,
303
1009385
3959
17:05
off in the smoke, and I realize,
304
1013344
3304
17:08
I can't go back the way that I've come. I can't.
305
1016648
3928
17:12
So I throw away my camera. I throw away my thongs,
306
1020576
4681
17:17
and I looked at the line straight in front of me,
307
1025257
3229
17:20
and I got down on all fours like a cat,
308
1028486
3634
17:24
and I held with my knees to either side
309
1032120
3022
17:27
of this line in front of me,
310
1035142
2393
17:29
for 30 yards or 30 feet, I don't know.
311
1037535
3042
17:32
The wind was massively blowing,
312
1040577
2713
17:35
and the only way I could get to the other side
313
1043290
3430
17:38
was to look at the line straight in front of me.
314
1046720
2443
17:41
I know you've all been there.
315
1049163
2003
17:43
I'm in the crucible right now.
316
1051166
1973
17:45
It's my trial by fire.
317
1053139
1864
17:47
It's my company's trials by fire.
318
1055003
2330
17:49
We survive because our theme song is "Rise Above."
319
1057333
4257
17:53
Boy falls from the sky, rise above.
320
1061590
3141
17:56
It's right there in the palm of both of our hands,
321
1064731
2414
17:59
of all of my company's hands.
322
1067145
1627
18:00
I have beautiful collaborators, and we as creators
323
1068772
3568
18:04
only get there all together.
324
1072340
2011
18:06
I know you understand that.
325
1074351
2189
18:08
And you just stay going forward,
326
1076540
2425
18:10
and then you see this extraordinary thing
327
1078965
2641
18:13
in front of your eyes.
328
1081606
1546
18:15
Thank you.
329
1083152
1300
18:16
(Applause)
330
1084452
5447
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Julie Taymor - Director, designerJulie Taymor is a film, theater and opera director. She is known for lavish movies such as Frida and for her hit Broadway musicals, The Lion King and Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark.
Why you should listen
Working in musicals, Shakespeare, film and opera, Julie Taymor is a wildly imaginative and provocative director and designer. She is well known for having translated the film The Lion King to Broadway, a still-running show for which she also designed costumes, masks and puppets -- and won two Tony Awards. (She was the first woman to win a Tony for directing a musical.) She has received multiple awards for her work, and given both MacArthur and Guggenheim fellowships.
In 2005, she worked on a lavish production of Mozart's opera, The Magic Flute, and in 2006 she co-wrote a version of the story of Beowulf, Grendel. Meanwhile, she has developed a fascinating career in the movies. She directed Across the Universe, a romp through the music of the Beatles, Titus, a 1999 adaptation of Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus, and the glorious Frida, the 2002 film about Frida Kahlo for which she received an Oscar nomination. More recently, and most dramatically, Taymor collaborated with musicians from U2 on a Broadway stage version of Marvel Studios' Spider-Man.
Julie Taymor | Speaker | TED.com