The streaming wars are showing no signs of slowing down, and folks with an Apple TV subscription are about to be treated to an exciting new movie release with Jennifer Peedom’s Tenzing. The biographical film tells the true story of the 1953 British Mount Everest expedition, where Tenzing Norgay and Sir Edmund Hillary successfully climbed to the mountain’s summit for the first time. Filming on a mountain sounds hard, but Willem Dafoe’s comments about not having a toilet put it on another level.
Time will tell if Tenzing joins the ranks of Willem Dafoe’s best movies, but he has a spirited performance as British officer John Hunt. As you can see in the above video, I had the chance of speaking with the Spider-Man: No Way Home actor about shooting on real-life mountains, and he told me how intense the experience was. In his words:
Well we shot in Northern Nepal in the foothills of the Himalayas, and we also shot in Kathmandu some. But the high altitude stuff was in the tallest mountain in the South Island of New Zealand called Aoraki. And that was fantastic. We helicoptered to work every day. They drop you off, you know, little helicopters, you get in the huddle, it takes off, you’re there.
That’s certainly intense. While Marvel movies rely heavily on green screens, that wasn’t how Tenzing was filmed. Instead they really filmed in Tibet, as well as on top of a mountain in New Zealand. The actors didn’t have to act like they were cold because they actually were. Shooting in such a remote location definitely complicated things for the entire crew, who used real-life sherpas in order to get equipment and supplies up the mountainside.
Not only did Willem Dafoe and company have to take a helicopter to work every day, but once they were on location they didn’t have access to essentials like food or a restroom. As the American Psycho actor went on to tell me:
It’s you and the mountain and the crew. And then you hike to wherever we’re gonna shoot, so you’re already in action and then you kind of set up. And just like anything else make the shots. But we’re out there all day, no shelter. We bring food, but it freezes immediately. So no food, no toilets most of the time. So yeah, it was an adventure.
Calling it an adventure sounds like a serious understatement. Having seen the movie, I think these efforts really paid off. The views shown are absolutely stunning, and the locations help to make the dangers of the characters’ climb feel all the more real.
Willem Dafoe plays an important role in Tenzing, but I can only imagine how much more time on the mountain was required of its stars Genden Phuntsok and Tom Hiddleston.
Tenzing will arrive on Apple TV January 16th as part of the 2026 movie release list. Be sure to stream it if you want to see just how hard Dafoe and company worked to shoot the film.
