Traversing the Towers In a Moment of Joy

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Petit on Being Arrested Atop the Towers

Philippe Petit discusses his famous walk on a wire between the Towers at the World Trade Center. The walk, the morning of August 7, 1974, is the subject of a new documentary "Man on Wire." He is sitting next to the film's director, James Marsh.

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He doesn't own a TV, so he learned about the attacks of Sept. 11 from a friend, who called to say, "Philippe, your towers are being destroyed." (He was devastated, of course.) Much of his time in recent years was spent building a farmhouse, using only 18th-century tools and 18th-century methods. It took the dedication of a true stickler and purist.

"I remember seeing him cutting a piece of lumber for like three days," says Tom Kellogg, a next-door neighbor and admirer. "And I went over there and said, 'Hey, Philippe, you want to borrow my circular saw?' " Kellogg laughs at the memory of Petit's reaction. "I didn't ask him again."

Petit's girlfriend at the time of World Trade walk, Annie Allix, says in the film that renown changed her ex dramatically. "I saw Philippe discover what it meant to be famous," she says, sounding forgiving in a way that seems very French. "To be recognized with expressions of friendliness and enthusiasm. People would cross the street to tell him, 'You gave us such a gift.' "

Pfft, replies Petit, shifting to the edge of the sofa and waving his hands for emphasis. Yes, fame opened some doors, and as a bio in the film's publicity packet makes clear, it brought him some high-profile friends, such as Sting, Robin Williams and Milos Forman. But he's happy to say that he still is a rule-breaker, still struggling against forces that are perpetually arrayed against a true artist. By which he seems to mean, more or less, the Man.

"Next Saturday and Sunday, I will be wire-walking in Washington Square Park, you can put that in your paper, at 3 p.m.," he says. "I will be passing the hat, and after that if my hat is full, I will invite my friends for dinner. If there is no money, I'll steal something to eat."

Steal something to eat?

"I am speaking metaphorically," he says, with a smile. "If an artist is not a little famished, then something is wrong."