PROP MAKER

MULITPLE AGENT SMITHS

Now I’ve been working on the scene with all the Hugo Weaving [Agent Smith] body doubles. We’ve made one hundred and five dummies - a hundred of which are on set - and then there are one hundred and ten heads to match them. This project has been a huge collaboration within not only the Props Manufacturing Department, where we’ve got several very specialized people in to do these dummies, but with the Wardrobe Department and the Hair Department, and we’ve also worked with the Breakaways Department [part of Special Effects], who helped us cast out the bodies. The one hundred dummies on set will stand in front of fifty humans wearing Agent Smith masks and suits, and the humans will operate two dummies each with the mechanism in the back of each dummy.

MATRIX: How long was that project?

ANNA: I came into it quite late in the game when all the pieces had already been made but they were still all very separate: we had all these heads, we had all these bodies, and we had all the mechanisms to fit inside them, as well as all the hands and the feet and the shoes. Initially my role, working with a group of about six, was to keep an eye on everything and work out where everything was supposed to go. Because there was so much work in between departments we had to make sure we didn’t lose anything -like no heads went astray - and that everything got done on time.

I’ve probably only been working on this project for a month now, and most of the time has been spent putting the bodies themselves together, helping Wardrobe dress them, and helping them be transported onto set. Now my role is to be on set to help move them around and do maintenance work on them – we have to make sure that they don’t rust and that they work properly.

MATRIX: What kind of tests the final puppetry mechanism was decided upon, particularly with the view the mannequins would be standing in pouring rain?

ANNA: We had a couple of guys who worked for many months on the actual mechanisms themselves, and they’ve been made out of products that are supposedly antirust. We make sure we wipe them down at the end of each day so all water is off them, and then spray them down with WD40 to make sure the actual mechanisms are always lubricated.

MATRIX: How are they holding up on set?

ANNA: Fantastic, actually. Everyone is really happy with them, they’ve been getting some really great feedback. There were a few things we were a little bit worried about, like how the paint on the faces was going to hold up – for that we got a special Prosthetic Make-up Artist team in [Rick & Charmaine Connelly] who have done a fantastic job. There are also certain points on the neck where the heads turn - that’s the motion the mechanism in the back does - that tend to wear on either side of the neck. But Rick has been there on set also to do any touch-ups, and so far it hasn’t been a problem. With all the rain and everything else you don’t tend to see those tiny little details, but we know that they’re pretty perfect.

MATRIX: Did you have any part in teaching the fifty extras to turn the mannequins’ heads?

ANNA: Yes, it was quite a funny experience that day. We were on set and Kevin McManus [Prop Manufacture Leading Hand], who oversaw this Hugo project, was leading the “puppeteers” with the microphone. I was there with a couple of the other guys from Prop Manufacture seeing if we could help in any way to get the head turning action really fluid and smooth because you don’t want any jerking around. The guys operating the dummies caught on really well.

MATRIX: What did the fifty “puppeteers” go through each day on set?

ANNA: I keep talking to them, asking them if they’re okay - they do have wetsuits on underneath the Agent Smith outfits, which is the shirt and suit, but by mid afternoon they start to get a little bit cold, and they starting to really feel it by the end of the day. Having to just stand and be absolutely drenched on must be very difficult, because it is really, really heavy rain. This is actually one of the biggest rain and lightning rigs that has ever been set up in Australia, so they’re kind of making film history in a way as well. They’re holding up really well and they’re all in really good spirits; I don’t think anyone has dropped out yet.

From what I understand, we actually have four different types of Agent Smith on this set. We’ve got the real Hugo Weaving, who is the real Agent Smith, we have fifty (there are actually sixty of them because there are always ten on standby) operating doubles who just have the prosthetic masks on, we have one hundred dummies, and there are about ten or twenty stunt double Agent Smiths, who have their hair done like him, and once they have the glasses on they look like him. For example we did a shot today from behind, and they look like the real Agent Smith.
There’s one shot we’re doing in the near future where all the Agent Smiths have to look up, and if we were to use the guys who are wearing the prosthetic masks you’d actually see the join line on the masks, so we’re using our dummies - I think that’s why they wanted them, and also so they wouldn’t have to have so many extras on set. By using our dummies you won’t see that line, so it won’t be quite as obvious that they’re not real.

MATRIX: Have you had the opportunity to see any of the footage?

ANNA: There are monitors around the set so I have been watching as they do each take, and you can really start to get a feel of how it’s all going to work together. It’s amazing the way the Directors can fore-think what it’s going to look like. They’ve got real vision. They seem like really nice guys, but they’re incredibly busy: they seem to be popping in between First Unit and Second Unit all day - they’re not always just on one set. But they seem really relaxed, often joking around with the actors and the Camera Operators.

I haven’t met Hugo Weaving either, although I’ve come very close to him. He always smiles, and looks like he’s having a great time, which I’m sure he probably is. The dummies we’ve made have all got these incredibly harsh expressions - one has a really grumpy face, one is quite neutral, the one that is smiling also looks quite frightening - but the real Hugo Weaving is always smiling.

MATRIX: You’re wearing wet weather gear; have you been running onto set?

ANNA: Yes, we have for the last couple of days. We have all our wet weather gear on so that we can be right there in the wings, on the side of the set, so we can run on at any stage. It has been raining all the time, and they bring back the rain so it’s only raining lightly, which gives us a chance to run in there, check anything and change anything that needs to be done. It often happens at the beginning of the day that there are a few things we have to tweak.

MATRIX: What kinds of things do you find yourself tweaking?

ANNA: On the mechanisms themselves we have these little things that we call stops - it’s a round mechanism loop that sits in their back - so the “puppeteer”, if they wanted to, could turn the handle and keep turning it to turn the head all the way back to front, which would look a bit weird. So we set the stops so that they can only do an appropriate head turn, and as we move the dummies up and down the street throughout the day, we sometimes have to change those stops so they’re looking in the right direction.

MATRIX: Thanks Anna.

CLICK HERE TO READ ANNA'S FULL INTERVIEW

Interview by REDPILL
December 2001