EXCLUSIVE: Genden Phuntsok gazes down at Tibet, the place of his birth, with tears in his eyes. Beside him, Tom Hiddleston grins almost in disbelief. They squint into the sun, gasping for breath, as they stand on what is effectively the roof of the world: the summit of Everest, or Chomolungma, as it is known in Tibet.
In reality, the two men are on Mount Aoraki in New Zealand, shooting Tenzing, Jennifer Peedom’s film, which was also shot in Nepal and will screen at the Telluride Film Festival. In this scene, Phuntsok and Hiddleston recreate the legendary steps of two historical heroes: Tenzing Norgay and Edmund Hillary, the first humans ever to set foot on Everest’s peak. But the actors’ wonderment is real, as is the snow, the required camping and the climbing skills. And right behind them on that mountain is Willem Dafoe as expedition leader Colonel John Hunt.
With Tenzing, Peedom takes a sharp turn away from the historically white-dominated narratives of mountaineering and brings us back to an often-passed-over truth: It was the Tibetan-born Tenzing who walked beside Hillary; it was Tenzing who possessed the most Everest experience of any man on that climbing team, and it was Tenzing who began his climbing career with the Sherpas — a community that continues to bring its vital skills to all Everest expeditions today.
As a young camera operator, a friend back home in Australia had sparked Peedom’s interest in mountaineering and she began filming in the Himalayas. There she observed the long-problematic erasure of the Sherpas’ work first-hand, years before she got together with Lion scribe Luke Davies to tell Tenzing’s life story in this film.
“The first time that it hit me and it made me angry was when I was involved in a documentary series on Everest. It was an observational series following an Everest expedition. I’d always been drawn, for whatever reason, to the Sherpa story. I did this very short video journalist piece for a program here on Australian television called Dateline, and that was called The Sherpa’s Burden. Even then, I was looking at the ways in which these guys are these elite mountaineers that have achieved so much and often have multiple, multiple summits to their names, and yet their names are largely unknown outside of Nepal. And that was very much the case then. That was 20 years ago.
It bothered me that for several days, several people had risked their lives to get this person off the mountain, and that wasn’t spoken about or acknowledged in any way.”
“Then, when I did this other film project, I was a high-altitude director on this series. I was always doing these little pieces with the Sherpas, and I was always filming what they were doing when everyone else has collapsed in a tent. And not to mention carrying people off the mountain and having to carry all the extra tents and equipment, where we’re just carrying our sleeping bags and our oxygen. They were carrying and setting up all the tents and doing all the things. And I covered as much of that as I possibly physically could, as well as climbing. And then all of that ended up on the cutting room floor. I was so frustrated.”
But that harsh edit was not all. Later, Peedom would also see foreign climbers fail to thank Sherpas who had actually saved their lives.
“There were climbers from that expedition that hit the speaking circuit, and I had seen what had happened. In one case, one of these people had to be carried down the mountain, and their story ended at the summit, with their triumph, and it bothered me that for several days, several people had risked their lives to get this person off the mountain, and that wasn’t spoken about or acknowledged in any way.”
Following that experience, in 2015, Peedom made her documentary Sherpa, and followed that with the 2017 doc, Mountain, which was narrated by Dafoe, as was her 2021 film River.
Tenzing, Peedom’s first narrative feature, which comes from Apple Studios and is produced by See-Saw films, prioritizes the experience of the Tibetan climber, following Tenzing from boyhood as he observes the majesty of the mountain while herding his family’s yaks in Tibet. He calls Everest “my mountain” and it seems to bring him comfort and solace when his family becomes fractured through hardship. Later, his wife Dawa (Thinley Lhamo) supports his dream of climbing Everest and Tenzing unexpectedly charms his way onto a Sherpa team after meeting expedition secretary Jill Henderson (Caitríona Balfe). When Colonel John Hunt grants Tenzing the title of climbing team member on the British expedition, it seems Tenzing’s dreams might be realized, but ethnicity and class remain obstacles for Tenzing to overcome, among both the Sherpa team and the climbing team. When he befriends fellow climber New Zealander Ed Hillary (Hiddleston) they set out to change the world together.
Tenzing’s son, Norbu Tenzing, who appeared in Sherpa, serves as executive producer on Tenzing. In fact, it was at the premiere of Sherpa that the subject of a film telling Tenzing’s whole story came up.
“We both kind of broached the topic,” says Peedom. He said, ‘I’ve been thinking about this.’ And I said, ‘Well, I’ve been thinking about this,’ and it went from there. I think because of Sherpa, I think he felt that I understood Sherpa culture well enough, more than other filmmakers perhaps, and that I would be the right person to tell that story. And I felt a very strong connection with the family at that point. So, I just started to do my own research, wrote up some treatments, and I optioned Ed Douglas’s biography of Tenzing [Tenzing: Hero of Everest]. Tenzing’s own biographies, no one could find the origin of them anymore, so it was difficult to find out how to option them. That’s since been resolved, but I dove into all of that research, and Douglas’s book is an impeccably-researched book about Tenzing’s early life right through to the aftermath, and so that became a really good resource.”
As an Australian, I’m very aware of the connection of our indigenous people to the land and to the environment and what that means, that connection, and how special and deeply ingrained that connection is.
Davies, a friend of Peedom’s, had just finished work on Lion, and the pair decided to work together on building a kind of flashback structure to the story that explains both Tenzing’s youth and long-held love for the mountain, but also his moment-to-moment experience on that climb.
The project had been on the radar for producer Liz Watts at See-Saw Films, since she had known fellow Australian Peedom for years. And the film appealed to Watts on many levels, she says. “This is not surprising, but as an Australian, I’m very aware of the connection of our indigenous people to the land and to the environment and what that means, that connection, and how special and deeply ingrained that connection is. And what I saw in the script and what I saw in the story of Tenzing, the man, was a story that none of us knew. I didn’t know that story. I’m not a mountain climber, and I’m actually a sea level person. But I found it fascinating that this person who came from the other side of the mountain ended up coming over the mountain and then climbing the mountain. And to me, the connection to the environment and to the sense of place and the importance of that place was very resonant, and I think was very resonant for us, for [See-Saw co-producers] Emile [Sherman] and Iain [Canning] and for me as a story to tell, especially at this time in the world.”
But this was an extremely ambitious shoot, none of it for the faint of heart. Not only would they be shooting on mountains for real, but the actors would need to know how to climb for real and to live in basic conditions at altitude. Watts says, “It was ambitious. It was. But everyone went for the ride on it, I think, and embraced it because of A, the story, and also Jen. And I think those two elements just wove everyone together to make a strong crew and cast. Because we had cast from all over the place, everywhere, from the U.S., from China, Australia, New Zealand, Nepal and Tibet.”
Obviously, key to the story was casting Tenzing. So how did Peedom find Phuntsok for the role? “It was a global search, and it took a number of years,” says Peedom. “Tenzing was a chameleon. He was a very interesting, special person. How I found Genden in the end was through a friend of mine, Tenzin Choegyal, who said, ‘Jen, you have to watch the films of the late Pema Tseden, the Tibetan filmmaker.’ And Genden [Phuntsok] had been in a number of his films. You could tell already that Genden was a movie star. He had this extraordinary kind of contained force, like champagne bubbling under a cork, and he was already a remarkable actor, and he’d never done English language before, but he was not inexperienced.”
I’m very proud of Tenzing Norgay, and he’s a really honest and strong and responsible man. Then I met [Norbu], and I don’t know, I had a very special feeling that we knew each other. I think I tried to join Tenzing Norgay’s character and maybe when I saw them, I thought, They are my family. He is my son.”
Phuntsok studied English for months, along with climbing skills. “He was born on the Tibetan Plateau, as was Tenzing,” says Peedom. “He had never been on an Everest expedition or any expedition, but he was born on the Tibetan Plateau, very high altitude. The Sherpa people originally come from Tibet, and so there’s a lot of cultural similarities, a lot of language similarities, but he grew up on that plateau with his family’s yaks. So, there was a lot of similarity. He knew what it meant to be a person from that part of the world, so that was kind of a gift and still lives there. He lives in China, but he still has family on the Tibetan Plateau and returns there frequently.”
In the film we learn that Tenzing was an outsider among the Sherpa community, being that he was not of Sherpa ethnicity himself. And part of his story is the struggle for acceptance among them on the expeditions.
For Phuntsok, the process of understanding Tenzing was intense and immersive. Speaking via Zoom from his home in China, Phuntsok is choked with emotion as he recalls meeting Tenzing’s son Norbu Tenzing and his family. “I don’t know why. I hadn’t met him before when I joined to this film, but the first time I met [the family], I already read the script and understood many details about Tenzing Norgay’s story. I’m very proud of Tenzing Norgay, and he’s a really honest and strong and responsible man. Then I met [Norbu], and I don’t know, I had a very special feeling that we knew each other. I think I tried to join Tenzing Norgay’s character and maybe when I saw them, I thought, They are my family. He is my son.”
Peedom had signed up Hiddleston to play Hillary by sending him an insightful letter, in which she told him she suspected him of being an adventurer.
Says Hiddleston of that letter: “I asked her, ‘How do you know?’ She said, ‘I just had a sense.’” And he was immediately interested. “I was really moved that this is a film about Tenzing, principally, that Jen had decided to reframe a familiar story about two men, but to put Tenzing in the foreground. I was very moved by that prospect, that perhaps he’s been in the background before and it was time to bring him to the front. And that Tenzing’s story specifically is unique in that it’s a story of spiritual strength and physical discipline and remarkable self-determination, and that he believed the mountain was his soul’s purpose and his destiny.”
It was really important to choose people that we knew would flourish in the environment in the way that we had chosen to make the film, and that was Tom [Hiddleston]. We weren’t going to be able to have anyone that was a prima donna. We needed someone that was just able to roll up their sleeves and live the experience of it.
Hiddleston, like Phuntsok, was not an experienced mountain climber. “But I have always loved adventure and always loved mountains,” he says, via Zoom from his home in the U.K. “And I’ve never climbed high mountains at all, so I want to defer to true high-altitude mountaineers. I would never put myself in their company as professionals, but I’ve always been compelled by them… I’ve always loved the idea of Everest too. I remember being overwhelmed by how high it is when I found out. My dad told me about Tenzing and Hillary when I was young. And then I read the Wade Davis book about [legendary climber George] Mallory, Into the Silence: The Great War, Mallory and the Conquest of Everest.”
“Not everyone is up for the kind of suffering required to make a film in the way that we had chosen to make this film,” says Peedom. “So we did that very carefully with everyone, including the rest of the British cast. All of the Sherpa team were climbing Sherpas. They’d all had multiple ascents of Everest at that point, but it was really important to choose people that we knew would flourish in the environment in the way that we had chosen to make the film, and that was Tom. We weren’t going to be able to have anyone that was a prima donna. We needed someone that was just able to roll up their sleeves and live the experience of it. And that was part of the way that I wanted to make the film, was to give those actors a lived experience of being in those places rather than being on a stage and under lights. Obviously, Tom’s done a huge amount of studio work and can do all of that with his eyes closed. But I wanted to take him out of that comfort zone.”
We were both very aware of the enormous responsibility and duty we felt to tell this story truthfully and sincerely with commitment and conviction, and that Tenzing and Hillary mean an awful lot to an awful lot of people, chief among them, their families.
But before they got to shooting — in both Nepal and New Zealand — Peedom suggested Phuntsok and Hiddleston bond in order to portray Everest’s historical climbing duo. Her method? Sending them off on a trek to Everest Base Camp together.
“Everyone was very nervous,” says Peedom. “And there was a lot of, ‘Oh, I don’t know that you can do that with an actor. The accommodation’s very basic.’ And I said, ‘Tom’s up for it. I promise you. He’s promised me. I think he’s going to love it.’ And he absolutely loved it.”
“It was great,” smiles Hiddleston. “I landed in Kathmandu, and less than 24 hours later I was in Lukla Airport [9,334 feet above sea level in Nepal]. I landed in a helicopter and met Genden at what’s now called the Tenzing-Hillary Airport.”
Says Phuntsok: “That’s the first time I met Tom. I knew about his movies and Tom is also very famous in China and he has many fans in China. I went to Lukla Airport to pick up Tom, just like Tenzing met Hillary. Tom came to me and we had a big hug and then we kept talking all the way, walking for almost two days.”
Phuntsok had already been up there, training with Phurba Tashi, who had been the main character in Sherpa. Peedom says, “Genden had spent about 10 days with Phurba Tashi learning how to be a Sherpa. Phurba Tashi’s young daughter was drilling his lines, fixing his pronunciation like she was a little mini Sherpa teacher, and just being with Phurba. And then Tom came up with our expedition doctor, Dr. Nima Namgyal, who is Phurba Tashi’s cousin, and then the four of them just had this beautiful time together. And that was really important to me for Tom to be in that landscape, to feel the aura, to understand what it is to be in that landscape, to witness a living Sherpa culture, which in some ways is still very traditional, and to give him and Genden time away from the cameras and just to find their own relationship.”
Hiddleston says of the trip, “We were both very aware of the enormous responsibility and duty we felt to tell this story truthfully and sincerely with commitment and conviction, and that Tenzing and Hillary mean an awful lot to an awful lot of people, chief among them, their families. And we could share that and talk about it, and it bonded us very fast and firmly in a shared endeavor.”
And all of their climbing training too would be much-needed, as it happened. In one scene, Phuntsok genuinely and expertly carves ice steps with his ice axe and crampons when a crevasse stands in the way of the expedition, while in another, Hiddleston nimbly climbs out of a crevasse for real on camera.
“They trained me how to climb up ice, snow mountain and rock,” says Phuntsok. “But when we really filmed that across the big crevasse, I really climbed from the deep to the top of the edge of the crevasse. I did it three or four times and I was really exhausted. And I had a safety belt, but when Tenzing Norgay climbed into that, they didn’t have anything like what we had for safety.”
When Willem is standing on a ridiculous ice face, that’s him actually standing on a ridiculous ice face. He just said, ‘Right, I’m up for it. Let’s do it.’ And he’d kind of abseil backwards into it, and then eventually he plucked up the courage, about half an hour later, he said, to look downwards. And I think he found it thrilling.
As for Hiddleston dangling in a crevasse, Watts says, “Yeah, he really wanted to do that. He really embraced the authenticity angle of the film, definitely. And he and Genden did, and Willem, and all of the boys on the mountain, really. They really went to it with open arms and bravery at times. But we were always safe.”
Dafoe proved quite the adventurous mountaineer. Peedom recalls, “He was such a support for me on set. I always felt like he had my back, and I had that from all of the cast, actually. I think they believed that I knew the story that I was telling, and then it was witnessing the relationships with those Sherpas and the team. And when he’s standing on a ridiculous ice face, that’s him actually standing on a ridiculous ice face. He just said, ‘Right, I’m up for it. Let’s do it.’ And he’d kind of abseil backwards into it, and then eventually he plucked up the courage, about half an hour later, he said, to look downwards. And I think he found it thrilling.”
But although safety was paramount, it was somewhat nerve-wracking. Watts says, “Libby Sharpe, who’s a co-producer and the head of production, she and I, that last day we shot in New Zealand, it was just like, ‘Oh, thank god. Everyone come down, just stay a while.’”
Ultimately, the revelation of how an impoverished Tibetan farmer’s son made a history-making achievement is an experience we can all benefit from in some way. Says Watts, “I think what is unique about the film is that sense of authenticity that allows you to go on the ride and have an emotional cathartic experience. I think lots of people will enjoy doing that, I hope.”
And one of Watts’ favorite moments in the film is the ending sequence, which I won’t spoil here. “It makes me very proud because it’s a beautiful knitting together of East and West, a sense of achievement and what it means to those people. Ultimately it delivers Tenzing’s dream.”
Tenzing will premiere at Telluride Film Festival at the Galaxy Theater on Saturday, September 5 with filmmakers and cast in attendance: Director/producer Jennifer Peedom, actors Genden Phuntsok, Tom Hiddleston, Willem Dafoe, Catriona Balfe and Thinley Lhamo, and producers Liz Watts, Luke Davies, Iain Canning and Desray Armstrong. The film is in theaters October 9th and on Apple TV October 16th.
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