Richard Taylor, founder of Wētā Workshop

Innovative. Entrepreneurial. Self-effacing. Throw in a little Kiwi ingenuity and Wētā Workshop wins the nomination for the archetypal Kiwi business, albeit with five Academy Awards to its name.

Richard Taylor, founder of Wētā Workshop.

“Our first workshop was an eight-foot square room with a double bed in the middle,” says Richard Taylor who, with wife Tania Rodger, founded what would become Wētā Workshop in 1987.

“We started our careers sculpting in margarine because my wife and I didn’t know of any better sculpting medium at the time. Most of the first 200 or so commercial sculptures that we did in the film and television industry were sculpted in margarine!” 

Throw in resourceful, too. As the ‘number 8 wire approach’ is considered foundational to New Zealand, so it is to Wētā Workshop.

Using clever and original ingenuity, the team brought to life creatures and characters for the likes of The Frighteners, Xena: Warrior Princess and Hercules: The Legendary Journeys. Wētā already had a reputation for creative genius when, in 2001, The Lord of The Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring catapulted Richard and team onto the international stage. 

Richard was not surprised. “It would be disingenuous to Peter [Sir Peter Jackson, the movie’s director] to suggest that we didn't think it was going to be fantastic. We knew it was, but I don't think anyone could have really appreciated how significantly the world’s audience would embrace the films.”

Lord of the Rings’ success gave Hollywood a big nudge that special things were happening down here. “In New Zealand we’re acknowledged as very hardworking and collaborative; celebrating in the creative process of making films as opposed to just a group of freelancers coming together to work on a film.

“There's an unbridled passion for making film in New Zealand. Hollywood knows what it's like working down here and have a great deal of respect and desire to continue with that relationship.”

Despite five Academy Awards wins, complacency isn’t a world that sits easily with Richard. The desire, always, is to drive forward. “The audience never wants to see tomorrow what they saw yesterday, so you're always trying to push yourself. “You're also challenging yourself to try and innovate with new ideas and new ways to do things so the product you're putting out surprises, engages and inspires people in a unique way.”

Covid had an impact. Like many businesses, Wētā Workshop had to consider diversification, pivoting to provide behind-the-curtain location-based experiences (LBEs), such as the Wētā Workshop Unleashed in Auckland, Wellington workshop visits and the sale of high-end collectibles. 

“Location-based experience is an area that I enjoy, because it gives us an ability to share our creativity without putting it through the filter of someone else’s creative eye as you do with film.”

Richard is particularly proud of Gallipoli: The scale of our war. Built in collaboration with the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, it tells the Gallipoli story through the eyes and words of eight ordinary New Zealanders and has left many visitors in tears.

“New Zealanders are humble. I am to a degree, too. But when you're leading a creative company in New Zealand you have to aspire to lofty goals and push yourself. The Oscars, for example, was never something we set as a goal; we just had the desire to make the best work for Peter’s films that we possibly could.”

And Oscar night itself? “They’re euphoric moments, of course. I never consider that you ‘win’ an Oscar. I'm very much of the view that you collect one and take it home to the people that won it with you. 

“On the second trip we arrived home with two rubbish bags filled with 200 plastic Oscars. When we got back to Wellington we tore the bags open and gave one to each of our team; we were all jumping around in celebration. It was beautiful.”

Richard couldn’t take wife Tania to his first Awards ceremony in 2002 as she was pregnant so, in true Kiwi style, he took his mum instead.

“It was memorable and funny. After the ceremony we were invited to the Vanity Fair party and Elton John also invited us to his party. But as we walked out Mum said her feet were sore and asked if we could go back to the hotel. So, we sat in the hotel room drinking cocoa, watching a rerun of the event on the tele, while I massaged Mum’s sore feet. That was my first Oscar night.”