The most powerful force in nature is a mother’s love. So when cameras set to capture the lives of lions in the wetlands of Botswana Okavango Delta, they quickly saw a thrilling tale of a lioness willing to do anything to keep her family alive. And now we have “The Last Lions” narrated by legendary Academy Award winning actor Jeremy Irons.
Global Grind caught up with Jeremy Irons to discuss “The Last Lions” and we also got a his thoughts on his son’s budding acting career. Check out the interview:
GG: Can you tell us how you got involved in “The Last Lions”?
Jeremy Irons: They came and said they wanted to make a feature film, a drama type, they’d shoot it by then and they showed me the footage: extraordinary footage, a drama they’d manage to get, to secrete themselves, embed themselves. When I saw this, I said, ‘this is extraordinary, what do you want me to do, I can’t do anything.’ ‘Well, we want you to tell the story.’ Anything I could do to help. And I just thought, it would be wonderful for audiences to see this story as I’ve seen it.
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GG: You also found out some shocking information, correct?
JI: They told me some figures, they said, ‘Do you know lions are becoming extinct?’ I said, ‘What?!’ They said, ‘Yeah, 50 years ago there were almost half a million lions in Africa and today there are only 20,000.’ I said, ‘Why is that?’ They said, ‘Well, they’re not on the endangered species list and people are hunting them.’ Last year 600 were shot by hunters or poachers. But 560 of those lion skins were imported into America.
Also, local herdsman, they’re encroaching more and more as land gets shorter and shorter. They’re cattle are getting killed by lions and they will normally go out and shoot the lions. But what we’re doing, the money raised by this film is going straight back into the Big Cat Initiative, and one of the things they do is they pay the local tribesman for the price of every cow that is killed by a lion, the market place. So it’s like, don’t shoot the lions, if they kill one of your cows, we’ll give you the money, so it’s like you’ve taken it to market but hadn’t had to. But leave the lions alone. And that’s a huge—that will make a big difference.
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GG: Can you imagine a world without lions?
JI: “I’d be very sad. I mean, we all live such concentrated, busy lives and to know that there is wildness out there with wild animals, that there is a little bit of nature left, I think it’s terribly important to us, in many ways, I really do. And you know, I think audiences are responding to this. When we opened here in New York (we had) a great first weekend and I think people love to be taken out of their city life and shown what is out there. Some of us are lucky enough to get out there ourselves. But if you’re not, to have the privilege of seeing this sort of story on screen, to see this real life story, is a great privilege.
GG: You were also the voice of Scar in “Lion King,” so was doing voice work on that film similar to narrating “The Last Lions”?
JI: No, no, not at all. I mean, when we were doing the “Lion King,” we didn’t have picture, we just had those drawings and I worked in the same room with the guys who were drawing – they’d watch my face to try to get a quality of me into the lion. We’d play around, we’d try different lines. So it was really an integral process where two things happened at once. And we did it over a period of about six months.
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GG: Your son, Max Irons, is staring in “Red Riding Hood.” Did you give him any on screen advice?
JI: Yeah, I give him advice. His mother gives him advice. I’m not sure how much you listen to your parents at that age, but he’s grownup in an acting family. I think he knows the scroll. I wish him well, I haven’t seen the movie yet but I’m looking forward enormously to it.
GG: He was on one of the late night talk shows and he said you used to drive around in a horse and carriage.
JI: Horse and cart, yeah.
GG: Did you do that purposefully to embarrass him?
JI: (Laughs) No, I did it because it’s what I like doing. The kids have to cope with whatever the parents do.
GG: Is there anything our readers can do to help the lions?
JI: Another thing that the audience can do if they want, they can just text, “lions.” You know, it’s an easy word to remember, “lions” on 50555 and they can immediately just send what they can afford, 10 dollars, towards the preservation of these magnificent beasts. Because if it continues like this, then my grandchildren will not have a chance to see lions in the wild. I’d hate a world like that, wouldn’t you?
We sure would.
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