Werner Herzog Cheers Himself Up By Reading the Bible and Roman History

DIrector and author Werner Herzog has single of the to the highest degree typical bodies of act and a life to match.His dozens of feature films and documentaries capture people grappling with mighty forces in nature and themselves, something Herzog is also known to do—like when he insisted on hauling a steamboat over a mountain in the Amazon for the sake of realism in his 1982 film “Fitzcarraldo,” starring Klaus Kinski. The title of Herzog’s 2024 memoir is similarly intense: “Every Man for Himself and God Against All.”With his latest documentary, “Ghost Elephants,” the German-born filmmaker, 83, follows conservation biologist Steve Boyes on a quest to find a mysterious herd in Angola. Now streaming, the National Geographic film—written, directed and narrated by Herzog—is as much about the elusive elephants as the people searching for them, including master trackers who channel the spirits of the animals they pursue.Herzog lives in Los Angeles with his wife, Lena Herzog. Below, Herzog talks about his own spirit animal, the necessities he brings into the field and the penguin from one of his movies that recently turned into a meme. What time do you typically wake up in the morning?I try to sleep in as long as I can, but I don’t have a solid daily routine because of the projects. One day I have to move a 320-ton ship over a mountain in the jungle [“Fitzcarraldo”]. Next I have be on death row in Texas [“Into the Abyss”]. Next I have to be in Antarctica where the sun does not go down for five months and there is literally no time [“Encounters at the End of the World”]. When I’m in Los Angeles and editing a film, there is a routine.Does that make you crave rituals in things like breakfast?Yes. Breakfast together with my wife, that’s what I find priceless. It’s always coffee for me and basically a piece of bread with something on it. Very simple.You once walked from Munich to Paris to see an ailing friend. What about more basic forms of exercise?Well, I’m a lazy bum as pretty much everyone else is. I have a rowing machine next to my desk, so when I’m writing, I just get out of the chair, do some rowing, and then I continue.Are there any essential objects you always carry when you’re working?I have wonderful small binoculars that fit in my shirt pocket. And when I know it’s going to get tough, I have two books with me. Number one: Martin Luther’s translation of the Bible. I take comfort by reading the Book of Job, by reading Psalms, by reading the Song of Songs. Number two: the Roman historian Livy’s book about the Second Punic War, with Rome against the invading North African armies from Carthage and Hannibal’s war elephants crossing the Alps. Unbelievable feats of daring and inspiration.The obsessive search for elephants in your new movie made me wonder if you got nervous about the need to come back with trophy footage.Neither I nor Steve Boyes are obsessive. We are very curious and full of awe about what we are encountering. Also, it was never a trophy hunt. It was more like an underlying question: Is it not better to keep our dreams, to keep our ghosts? When Steve finally films a ghost elephant, I make a statement in the film: Now he has to live with his success. You see, a normal National Geographic film would celebrate with fist bumps and high-fives and tears. Nothing like that for me.Boyes is able to grab key footage of an elephant using his smartphone. Do you ever worry about missing important moments because you don’t carry a phone?No, I do not regret that I cannot film everything around me or that I don’t carry a cellphone on me. I store things in my soul and in my memory, and maybe 10 years later, it shows up in a film as a staged event.What do you make of the scene from “Encounters at the End of the World” going viral, with people using the image of a penguin walking away from its colony as a symbol of nonconformity?It’s not only them who repurposed it, the White House has done the same thing [in a post showing Donald Trump walking with a penguin holding an American flag]. What can I do? It’s better that people steal from me than they don’t. What is puzzling is that I filmed and published that 19 years ago. What the hell is going on? It points to something deeper anchored in our collective consciousness and all of a sudden it bursts open.Your voice is so familiar and ingrained in popular culture. Have you taken any steps to trademark it or even license it for AI replication someday?I’m not going to sell my voice for my heirs. I don’t care about the future because I won’t be around anymore. Well, I do care about the future, but not concerning my own personal presence in some artificial form.In your memoir you devoted a whole chapter to project ideas you haven’t had a chance to complete. How do you manage your to-do list?It’s like walking along a torrential river. You never keep pace with it. So I deal with what comes with the greatest vehemence at me.You’ve put a lot of animals in your films, like grizzly bears and penguins and now elephants. What’s your personal favorite or even your spirit animal?That’s hard to say. In “Aguirre, the Wrath of God,” hundreds of little monkeys invaded the raft where Aguirre is half dead, drifting on the Amazon. I had one of those monkeys and he was so sweet and I miss him. But I love some animals that never figured in any of my films. Hummingbirds. They are like part of one’s soul. The native population in the Amazon thinks that because they are fluttering so fast with a thousand heartbeats per minute that they must have more than one life in them. When I see a hummingbird, I think,”‘You little critter. You know you have more than one life and I wish I could fly along with you.”This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.Write to John Jurgensen at John.Jurgensen@wsj.com