Peter Jackson has reminded us all that he was actually Kate Winslet’s first onscreen kiss when she was 17 years old.
The New Zealand-born filmmaker, 64, took to the stage during a career retrospective at the Cannes Film Festival on Wednesday to a thunderous round of applause after a sizzle reel of his filmography was shown – from 1987 sci-fi film debut Bad Taste to King Kong and, of course, The Lord Of the Rings trilogy.
It also included a glimpse of his cameo as a tramp in the 1994 crime drama Heavenly Creatures, which may have passed many by.
But it’s him who Winslet’s character Juliet Hulme kisses in excitement outside the cinema – marking the premier pucker-up for the actress.
‘I realised I gave Kate Winslet her first screen kiss,’ Jackson said to the audience, which included Metro as he sat down, after watching the clips from off-stage.
Winslet, now 50, was 17 when she was cast in the film, her movie debut, which went on to become a sapphic cult classic. Jackson was around 31 years old at the time of filming.
The director then quipped that he ‘must have set the bar pretty high’ for the star, who has gone on to lock lips onscreen with the likes of Patrick Wilson, Josh Brolin and DiCaprio since, sharing one of the most famous kisses in cinema history with the latter in Titanic.
Jackson added: ‘It’s a lot of fun when you make movies and it’s even more fun when you get to start the career of somebody else in the film industry. I’m very proud [of that].’
Winslet’s co-star Melanie Lynskey was 15 when she got the role, with Jackson recalling it was ‘real sweaty palm-time’ as the team drove around schools in New Zealand for castings, desperate to find the right actress, until they finally came across Lynskey.
Lynskey and Winslet became incredibly close on set, with Lynskey revealing in 2023 on the Happy Sad Confused podcast that when they lost touch as Winslet’s career soared, ‘it was more heartbreaking than some breakups that I’ve had’.
Jackson was also instrumental in boosting the careers of Elijah Wood – who sat in the audience for Jackson’s talk after presenting the Palme to him the previous night, clapped and whooped all the way to his seat – and Andy Serkis with Lord of the Rings.
He also clarified why it was Serkis who had taken on directing duties for the upcoming Lord of the Rings: Hunt for Gollum, for which both Wood and Sir Ian McKellen are reprising their roles – alongside Serkis – as Frodo and Gandalf, respectively.
‘The film is very much an internal story about Gollum’s psychology and his addiction and it’s a very personal story to Gollum, the character,’ Jackson explained. ‘So I thought Andy knows this guy better than anybody.
‘I actually, I didn’t think much about the idea of me [directing] at all. I thought the most exciting version of this movie is going to be if Andy Serkis makes it.’
Lee Pace is also returning as Elvenking Thranduil, while Winslet and Leo Woodall are joining to play new characters and Jamie Dornan has replaced Viggo Mortensen as Aragorn.
Elsewhere, Jackson also touched on AI, which has already become the topic of the festival barely 24 hours in, saying he ‘didn’t dislike it at all’ and that ‘used in the right way, it’s just a tool like any other tool’.
However, he said it was ‘absolutely critical’ that AI not be used to replicate someone without their – or their estate’s – approval, likening it to ‘stealing’ or adapting a book without the rights.
His comments came as Cate Blanchett, another LOTR alum, launched non-profit RSL Media to help artists control how AI companies use their creative work, voices, and likenesses without permission.
Jury member Demi Moore was also asked about her thoughts on AI at a Cannes press conference on Tuesday, with the Substance star urging Hollywood to ‘find ways’ to work with it, while also saying people were ‘probably not’ protecting themselves against it enough.
‘I always feel that against-ness breeds against-ness. AI is here. And so, to fight it is to fight something that is a battle that we will lose. So, to find ways in which we can work with it, I think, is a more valuable path to take’.
Moore’s words are particularly timely given that a fully AI-generated movie is screening its world premiere during Cannes, with fantasy action Hell Grind the first film produced entirely on AI platform Higgsfield.
Metro is in attendance at this year’s Cannes Film Festival where films starring the likes of Barry Keoghan, Michael Fassbender are expected to debut.
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