![]() ![]() When people realised we were the film-makers, they literally offered us cash because they were so moved. After one early screening, Richard and I were standing outside. Like any pivotal movie moment, it was sound, emotion and picture coming together to lift you to your feet. It would fly out of the water and come to a stop then CGI would take over. It was the early days of CGI so we shot at high tide in a small harbour – and literally built a rocket launcher with an animatronic whale on it. I remember saying to my agent: “If I can deliver the finale – where the whale leaps to freedom – we’ve got a movie.” We had so many meetings about how the hell we were going to do it. When we showed him a rough cut, he gave us the song Will You Be There. He mentioned this movie about a boy and a whale and Michael said he’d love to take a look. Richard wandered into the reception area one day and Michael was there, too, waiting. Richard Donner, our executive producer, had the same dentist as Michael Jackson. Afterwards, I did another movie called Operation Dumbo Drop with an elephant and found, again, that large mammals are easier to work with than many actors. Keiko was a beautiful creature, trapped in this undersized bowl in a theme park closed for renovation in Mexico City, but he loved the crew and the cameras, everybody being around. Our producer had the same dentist as Michael Jackson – that's how we got his song Will You Be There The emotion you see on the actors’ faces is real. I said: “Why don’t we see if he’ll do it for Jason?” And – would you believe it! – the whale did it. He was supposed to circle the pool, jump out and slide on to a concrete surface but the trainers couldn’t get him to do it. The next day, we were filming Jesse putting on a show for the park owners but Keiko was still down. The vibe was bad and the whale could clearly feel it: he was really down. At one point, our underwater photographer slipped and broke his leg. ![]() He was an animal-lover and the trainers were great at integrating him. Jason built a wonderful relationship with Keiko, the whale who played Willy. ![]()
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