The first time Tom Hiddleston came face to face with Mount Everest, he was struck by something no photograph or movie could have prepared him for. After days of climbing toward base camp, the world's highest mountain appeared before him, so enormous that even the journey to reach its foot suddenly seemed small.
"This goddess stands before you," Hiddleston recalled in an interview with this reporter. "It is magnificent and awe-inspiring and powerful. Extraordinary. I'll never forget it."
Next to the British actor was Genden Phuntsok, who stars opposite Hiddleston in the new Apple Original Film Tenzing. For him, the experience was equally overwhelming, but it also carried a different meaning.
In the Himalayan traditions he described, mountains are not simply obstacles to overcome or summits waiting to be conquered. They are sacred presences deserving respect, protection and, before an ascent, a request for permission.
"Of course, the mountain will not speak to you," Phuntsok explained. "But you want to get permission from the mountain. You give some prayer, just to tell the mountain, 'I'm coming to you. Please bless me.'"
That contrast between ambition and reverence is at the heart of Tenzing, director Jennifer Peedom's historical drama about the 1953 expedition in which Tenzing Norgay and Edmund Hillary became the first climbers confirmed to have reached Everest's summit.
Hiddleston portrays Hillary, the determined New Zealand mountaineer, while Phuntsok plays Norgay, the experienced Himalayan climber whose partnership with Hillary made the achievement possible. Willem Dafoe rounds out the principal cast as John Hunt, the British Army officer who led the expedition.
But for Peedom, the film is about more than the extraordinary physical accomplishment of reaching the top of the world.
"There's a different kind of hero," the Australian filmmaker told me in a separate interview. "There's a different way to achieve your dreams. And it doesn't need to be about conquering. It can be about approaching a goal with reverence and respect."
It is a distinction that becomes especially interesting when Hiddleston and Phuntsok describe what drew their characters toward the mountain in the first place.
Hiddleston sees Hillary as a man whose extraordinary determination allowed him to pursue something most people considered impossible, even when he was frightened. The actor recalled a description of Hillary written by expedition leader John Hunt, who characterized the climber as exceptionally strong, filled with restless energy and possessed of a mind capable of sweeping aside obstacles.
"I think Hillary had that," Hiddleston said. "He just believed it was possible, and he felt fear. He talks about how he felt fear in the pit of his stomach, but he also believed."
For Phuntsok, understanding Norgay required looking beyond the personal ambition of reaching a summit.
He explained that the relationship between Sherpa communities and the Himalayas is rooted in traditions that emphasize respect for the mountains, including prayers and rituals before entering their sacred spaces.
"The love of mountains is really special for Sherpa culture," he said. "First, they want to respect them and protect them."
The two perspectives are not necessarily contradictory. Both men who reached Everest's summit in 1953 needed extraordinary courage, preparation and determination. But the film explores how people from different backgrounds can approach the same goal with different ideas about what reaching it means.
For Peedom, that difference in perspective was one of the reasons she wanted to make Tenzing as a dramatic feature rather than another documentary. She had already spent years documenting Himalayan communities, including in her 2015 film Sherpa. But the idea for Tenzing emerged from an unexpectedly emotional moment at the Sydney premiere of that documentary.
Tenzing Norgay's son, Norbu, had traveled to Australia for the screening. After the film, Peedom invited him onto the stage in front of approximately 1,200 people. "The whole audience rose to their feet," she recalled. "There was this sense that they were touching greatness."
The reaction stayed with her. Peedom and Norbu realized that the public's interest extended beyond the famous photograph of two climbers reaching Everest's summit. There was a life story that audiences wanted to understand.
"We both realized there was a craving for this story," she said.
Phuntsok came with a responsibility that extended far beyond recreating a historic climb. The Tibetan actor wanted audiences to understand the lives of the Sherpa people, whose contributions to Himalayan expeditions have often received far less attention than those of the international mountaineers they guide.
"I'm representing Sherpa culture and Sherpa people, and also the Himalayas," he said. "Without Sherpa people, I think no one can climb to the top of Mount Everest." He emphasized that the film was not inventing hardships for dramatic effect but portraying a reality that continues today. "For some people, climbing is a dream or something fun. But actually, for most Sherpa people, it's not a dream or fun. This is for survival."
He also hopes Tenzing will encourage visitors to the Himalayas to recognize the people whose livelihoods depend on the mountains and treat them with greater respect. He also called for mutual understanding between local communities and foreign climbers, arguing that cooperation should replace divisions. "Just forgive each other and help each other. I think that's important," he said. But his message went beyond the treatment of Sherpa workers. He urged everyone who visits or lives in the Himalayan region to take responsibility for protecting its fragile environment. "Whoever is from Europe, or Sherpa people, or from Mount Everest, I think all people should pay attention to how to protect the environment around the Himalayas and keep the Himalayas cleaner," he said. "That's really important."
Tenzing opened in select theaters October 9 and premieres globally on Apple TV on Friday, October 16.
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