More Pictures, Behind the Scenes

Interview Just Before the London Premiere

Young British actor William Moseley talks to Roya Nikkhah about his final Narnia film and hanging out with Lindsay Lohan

"Don’t you ever get tired of being treated like a kid?" demands Peter Pevensie of his three younger siblings, picking himself up off the floor after a vicious scrap with hostile school mates.

The opening scene of The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, has a particular personal resonance for the actor William Moseley, who this month reprises the role of Peter in the latest film adaptation of C.S. Lewis’s beloved literary classics. In the new film, released here next week, Peter’s punch-up follows his struggle to adjust normality after a taste of the high life as King of Narnia. Not so long ago, Moseley found himself in a similar spat, coming to blows with fellow pupils after returning to school straight from the film set of one of the most successful film franchises of all time.

Moseley looks sheepish as he recalls the incident. "I didn’t have the easiest time at school," he shrugs. "People didn’t like the fact that I was away a lot auditioning for and then playing the part - they thought I was arrogant and up myself for believing that I might just get it. Every time I went back to school, it got worse.

"It all exploded at my leavers ball when I ended up getting into a huge fight with another boy, and I really punched him. Everyone was uptight about me coming back, and I had a lot of energy in me and it was just unleashed. I knew I couldn’t leave school without doing something stupid, but I wished I’d been more controlled. I didn’t behave like a gentleman at all, I behaved like a savage."

Like the character he plays in the Narnia films, Moseley, 21, has done much of his growing up on screen. Cast for the role of Peter Pevensie at 15, he was very much a young boy in the first film, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, but appears on the brink of manhood as a 17-year-old Peter in Prince Caspian.

It is a transition Moseley is aware of: "When Peter steps through the wardrobe, he’s a boy. But when he steps back out of the wardrobe, as the story finishes, he’s a man," says Moseley, who is still both the boy who keeps a toy badger on his bed, but a gentleman who insists on paying for lunch. "I like to think I also became a man throughout the making of this film."

Hollywood certainly thinks so. Vanity Fair has hailed him as Britain’s hottest new leading man and scripts have flooded from directors eager to snap him up for star roles. Catching his breath at home in Gloucestershire where he has a few days off from the worldwide promotional tour for the new film, Moseley reflects on the whirlwind six years that has seen him picked from obscurity and catapulted into the Hollywood heart-throb league

"It’s mad, sometimes I think I have dreamt it all," says Moseley, who grew up listening to the Narnia audio tapes from the age of seven. "But I was always a total show off," he says. "So I did all the school plays, and auditioned for literally everything", including the role of Harry Potter, a role from which he feels he had "a really lucky escape".

"Phew can you imagine? I mean, once you’ve played Harry Potter, that’s it for an actor."

First spotted by the casting director, Pippa Hall, as she scouted for a television adaptation of Laurie Lee’s memoirs Cider with Rosie (in Moseley was cast as an extra), Hall remembered the young Moseley several years later when casting for the Narnia films, and asked him to audition for the lead role of Peter.

After 18 months of auditions - Moseley even quit school to dedicate all his efforts into learning his lines - he beat 3,000 other boys to bag the role.

"I nearly blacked out when they called to tell me," he says. "I was shaking, crying, totally freaked out, because I knew everything was about to change forever." Change it did, with Moseley spending much of the next four years wielding a sword on horseback and filming huge battle-scenes in New Zealand and the Czech Republic.

A huge success at the box office - The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe made £400 million at the box-office making it one of the biggest grossing films of all time - Prince Caspian looks set to eclipse that success, making £30 million in its opening weekend in America last month.

Even though his face is now plastered across billboards around the world, with hundreds of websites dedicated to how "hot" he is, and 10,000 fans expected at this week’s London premiere of Prince Caspian at the O2 Arena, Moseley finds the all the adulation "just a little bit odd".

"It is very strange turning up and hundreds, sometimes thousands of people screaming your name," he muses. "And then you go back to the hotel room on your own, have a cup of tea and you kind of think - why were they here? What have I done to deserve it?"

While admitting that he has been mobbed by ardent female fans, Moseley says he goes unnoticed most of the time - and that, he insists as nobody bats an eyelid while he orders a bacon sandwich from his local pub, is the way he likes it. "It’s not like I walk round with a sword, a shield and giant lion strapped to my back," he laughs.

And has the adulation brought forth a leading lady for Moseley? "There is a special someone at the moment," he says, jokingly adopting an American accent, "but I can’t talk about it". Further enquiries reveal his girlfriend is currently an assistant with the celebrity photographer, Mario Testino, but Moseley is saying no more.

Home is a 400-year-old bake house in the sleepy village of Sheepscombe, where his parents, Peter and Julie, and his younger siblings, Ben and Daisy, "keep me on the earth rather than in the sky". He has, however, recently dipped his toe into the heady world of Hollywood, moving to Los Angeles for a few months last year to take acting classes, auditions, and "hang out in the sunshine".

So was he seduced by the bright lights and obvious temptations on offer for a young actor living in tinsel town? "To be honest, Los Angeles is a strange old place and it can be very lonely," he says, stroking Bam Bam, the family cat, who has climbed up onto his lap. "I’m not surprised so many young actors go off the rails out there - they are probably bored out of their minds because there’s nothing do to but party - or work. But when you go to Hollywood, you make a choice. Either you go out shopping to Gucci and Prada and get yourself photographed or you don’t.

"You can hang out at the hippest bar, smile for the cameras and then get free drinks all night, or you don’t. I choose not to. It might sound nerdy, but I’m all about the work. In fact, it kind of disgusts me, all those actors who do the schmoozing thing just to be "seen". They are just a load of kids in Gucci dancing round like morons. I’d rather mow the lawn, to be honest."

Hanging with Lindsay Lohan - the "troubled" Hollywood starlet best known for her partying, trips to rehab and scrapes with the law than her acting skills, gave him all the insight he needed to convince him to make London his next permanent base. "We were talking, then we said goodbye and suddenly there were like, hundreds of people and photographers chasing her down the road," he says, eyes widening in amazement. "It was crazy. But then she’s driving her Cadillac, so it’s not like she’s invisible. It’s not what I would want. I couldn’t do it even if I wanted to. My hair’s always a mess and I’m always wearing the wrong thing," he says, gesturing to his artfully arranged hairdo and trendy outfit of black skinny jeans and cashmere cardigan.

But just a little bit of Hollywood has rubbed off on Moseley, who now wears Dolce & Gabbana, flies first class and slips into an American lilt when he tells me he is "twenny one".

Prince Caspian will be his last Narnia film - the older Pevenise siblings, Peter and Susan, don’t appear in the next book, but Moseley has another blockbuster in the bag. Next up is Iron Clad, a medieval swashbuckler set amidst the political turmoil of the Magna Carta, where Moseley will star alongside Lord Attenborough, Bob Hoskins and James Purefoy.

Despite his status as the leading man in what will likely be the biggest film of the year, Moseley still feels humbled by the company he will keep in his next role. "I’m incredibly nervous about just meeting those actors, and I hope I do the best job I possibly can," he says seriously. "I mean, Hoskins and Attenborough - those are true legends. Compared to them, I’m just a kid."

Source: Telegraph.co.uk

Related Blog:
William Moseley After Narnia
(follow up on William's role in "Iron Clad")

Rotten Tomatoes Interview with William Moseley

RT Interview: William Moseley on His Last Narnia Adventure in Prince Caspian

by Joe Utichi (Interview done before the Premieres)

What can we expect from Prince Caspian?

William Moseley: In very simple terms, the first film was a children's Narnia. This film is going to be an adult Narnia, and I say that with every implication as in we're fighting adults this time, we're not fighting mythical creatures anymore. Even Tilda Swinton as an actress is definitely a mythical creature! We've got a whole army of humans to fight this time.

Narnia's changed. It's 1300 years later, it's not pastoral anymore, or idyllic. It's dark and nasty and all the creatures we once knew, who roamed the land freely, have been pushed into the forest and the woods and forced to live this closed lifestyle. It's about Caspian calling the kids back to save everyone from that and to bring this light, almost, back into it.

Of course we couldn't do it without Aslan and he helps out, so that's good. But I think this film is going to be very different for audiences, I have to say.

You guys are charged to bring the magic back to Narnia, but you were the least magical people in the first film...

WM: Right! I suppose we were the least, least magical out of everybody and that was sort of because we were going through it with the audience and taking the audience into this world - as we were seeing it, they were seeing it. In some ways Susan was everyone's cynical voice, you know, which was quite funny. But this time it's like, "Well, you did it last time, do it this time for us."

Everyone expects it of us. For Peter, especially, his journey has completely changed. He used to be a very nice, considerate, moral person. Very selfless. And this time he's quite selfish, I have to say, and he's quite angry and frustrated and thinks he deserves more. The film starts with this huge fight sequence where he's just angry and he's lashing out and nobody respects him as a High King in London, of course - they think he's a bit of a dick to be honest with you - and so he ends up going to Narnia and nobody respects him there, either, which he finds out just as he's thinking all his dreams have come true. He has to learn this very important lesson of humility and that shapes his judgements from then onwards.

It's also sad for him and Susan because this is their last journey into Narnia.

WM: It's really sad, actually. I remember doing the scene with Aslan at the end and I said to Andrew, "Should we be crying in this?" Anna and I both wanted to bawl out - it was pretty much the final scene we did of the whole film and he was like, "Um... No, just be very stoic and reserved." He was definitely right, because it's sad for the audience and sad to say goodbye to Narnia but it's also very hopeful. To some degree we're passing Narnia on to Caspian. It's almost like we're passing the torch and going on to something else. We're going back to England and doing what we have to do. We've learnt our lessons from Narnia.

Very nice of them to schedule it as one of the last scenes you shot.

WM: I know! It was one of the last scenes we did as the four of us and it was a really brilliant scene but it was a hard scene for me. I didn't really know where I was going with it at the time. I didn't know whether to play it sad or to play it hopeful or both, and for me at that point it was even like, Am I ever going to get another acting part again? [laughs] This is going to be it for me, forever! As an actor you're always thinking that. I figured you get to Anthony Hopkins' age and think, "Of course I'm going to get parts," but I even read interviews with him where he says he feels he'll never get another part again.

I guess that's the challenge of the profession you've thus far been able to avoid having started in a big franchise.

WM: I know, it's true. The only thing you can really hope for is just to keep going on the same line of quality. I really 100% believe, and I hope everyone else does too, that Narnia is a quality film and that it isn't just there to make a bunch of money. I think that's always been the drive of the director and the producer and all of the actors as well. So that's really what I want to do next; something of quality and something I can be proud of.

But perhaps something on a slightly smaller scale?

WM: Yeah, I think so! [laughs] I can't imagine myself doing something like Narnia again. I would love to do something with Ridley Scott, you know, some action/adventure or something like that. But I'd also love to do a dramatic piece. It's really just whatever you read and take to.

I'd love to do a Michel Gondry film. That would ideal! I'd love to do an Almodovar film, you know, I think he's very, very talented. I don't care that people say he's pretentious. So what? He's a good director, he can be pretentious. Paul Thomas Anderson I really like - I loved There Will Be Blood. I've always loved the Coen brothers. There's been a lot of depressing films out this year but they're bloody brilliant films. Depressing as hell, but bloody brilliant.

Do you have an idea of what you're going to be doing next?

WM: I've been reading loads of scripts but I really have no idea. For me, my taste isn't limited to magical films, whatever I read and I like I go up for and a lot of the time it's an American accent which can be quite trying, but I'm working on it as much as I can. Who knows what I'm going to do next, you know, there's this Roman Legion project that I love that I might be too young for. There are so many things involved.

Do you enjoy auditioning?

WM: Yeah, I love taking meetings because I love hearing what other people have got to say. I used to not listen that much, but I've really learnt to listen to other people and to really listen to what they're saying. I've found especially being on a film set, people have so many different stories, if you just listen you can pick up so much stuff. I try to listen as much as I can.

Peter and Susan pass the torch onto Prince Caspian at the end of the movie - has it felt like that in real life? Obviously, Ben Barnes will be continuing with Skandar and Georgie on Voyage of the Dawn Treader...

WM: I do, actually, it does feel like I'm passing it on to him. There was always this joke on set about how his sword was bigger than mine and all this kind of stuff, and finally I passed my sword onto him and I think he knows what the responsibility is.

It sounds weird and ridiculous, because I know we're just actors in a film, but when you put so much of your heart into something and you spend so much time with someone - I even spent eighteen months auditioning for the part, let alone all the filming on top - you really do want to pass it over and to have them accept it with respect and I really think Ben Barnes will pull up trumps and if he doesn't then I think Skandar will knock him into shape and get him there!

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/chronicles_of_narnia_prince_caspian/news/1737153/2/rt_interview_william_moseley_on_his_last_narnia_adventure_in_prince_caspian

He's yet to go through the whole world premiere experience, and I was there at the Royal Albert Hall for the premiere of the first and it was massive - there must be some knowledge you can impart to him there to prepare him!

WM: That premiere was mad, wasn't it? But I don't want to seem like I'm patronising him because he's hugely experienced, you know, and he's got loads to teach me. But to be honest, Narnia is huge. It's colossal. And I think when Ben starts to see what it's like in Japan, for instance, I think he's just going to think how lucky he is. That's all I thought. I'm so lucky to be here, so lucky I got the part and so lucky I had the chance to work so hard. I'm sure the same thing will strike him no doubt.

You've shot quite a bit of the film in Eastern Europe this time - how changed will Narnia be?

WM: Yeah, we had a different D.P. on this one - Karl Walter Lindenlaub - and he shot it really well. His shots are just beautiful - really, really stunning. Everything in every shot is absolutely beautiful. I think just because it was bigger this time and they had more to work with. People always ask if we shot it on green screen, which is a D.P.'s nightmare, but we really shot most of it on location. They literally just built everything. It was a battle scene, fine, we'll built it. Aslan's How, we'll built it. Castle, we'll build it. The D.P. has so much to work with, and so many angles to get and I think they're struggling now to bring the film down because it's so many minutes over because there's so much good stuff in there!

Have you seen it yet?

WM: I haven't, I've seen little bits here and there. I did ADR voiceover stuff, and I saw bits like the battle and the fights. It's pretty epic, I've got to say. This one-on-one fight I do with Miraz - I know I'm completely biased and don't take my judgements as sold, but I really think it's going to be one of the best one-on-one fights anyone's ever seen on screen. As a kid, that's all I'd watch, action films. I watched this battle scene and I've never seen anything like it. We even had the camera on a 360 degree dolly and they had three cameras pitched in. I was with the head stunt guy because he wanted to do it with me. We're spinning around fighting, and there are these three cameras filming at 90 frames a second so it's in slow motion spinning all around and it looks so cool! This huge battlefield in the background. It's pretty epic.

In the first film when you think of that scene with Peter and the wolf on the ice, he's very nervous - this is really his chance to go back and have fun with everything he learned in Narnia the first time around.

WM: Yeah. The producer would always joke to me, "You know, I think Peter likes killing a little too much!" [laughs] I was loving it, you know, I love all the physical stuff. I was getting in there and getting stuck in and learning all of these cool physical moves. You could fully see that I was really into it. They were like, "I think we should pull that back a bit!"

Is the stunt work your favourite part?

WM: Well, it's very satisfying for me and it sounds weird but it's very easy for me, I don't find it that hard. But the acting is definitely my favourite bit, and the most rewarding. When I've worked on a scene like crazy and I've worked on these lines and I've given all I can to it and I come off and the director says it was really nice, that means so much to me. Acting isn't easy - whoever tells you acting is easy is lying because it's not easy at all and you have to work at it - when you get that sense of achievement at the end of the day where you know you've done a good job and you've done your scene well, it's really uplifting and that's pretty much why I'm in it.

How has your relationship with Andrew developed?

WM: Andrew's a very visual director. He sees everything before he shoots it. I suppose he's a bit like Alfred Hitchcock, who'd storyboard everything to the smallest detail. For Andrew, everything has to be perfect down to the last branch on a tree, you know, he even sees that. It's so hard for him, I think, on a film as big as Prince Caspian, to give his time up for each of us, so it's very much like we do our thing and then Andrew gives us the time and we have to respect that he has to go off and he can't spend time having a cup of tea with us. I remember even at lunch they'd bring a laptop up to him to have him approve things at lunchtime. He worked his guts out and I take my hat off to him for doing that, you know.

Is it a career that's ever appealed to you?

WM: Yeah, you know, I really would love to direct and but feel like everything's a mountain. I feel I'm very-much still at the bottom of this acting mountain, you know, trying to work my way up that one. Hopefully, maybe half way up, we'll see if I might be able to do some directing.

I've so many ideas for films but it's so hard trying to script them in a concise way and in a way that people might like. You don't know what people might like, you just try to do what you can, you know. It's really hard. You're trying to get this idea out that you think is great and you tell someone and they're like, "That sounds crap."

I'm sure it's all to come - to have Disney put their faith in you for these two giant movies is a great achievement. Because, without wanting to be intimidating, these are massive movies...

WM: Well it's definitely intimidating and I wouldn't want to say it isn't. You mess up a take on a small film, you can maybe go back and do it in a couple of minutes. You mess up on this kind of film and it can maybe take an hour to reset one shot. You fall over while you're running and 2,000 people just collectively groan. There's definitely a lot of pressure.

But I've always been a competitive person to some degree. When there's a bit of pressure I can sometimes either do well under it or not do well, it depends. When it doesn't go well you have to use music or something like that to help you into it. When it is going well you can embrace the pressure and use that energy in your scenes, your fight scenes especially because you can really give it some.

I was thinking today, I was playing a game of snooker with my friend and I'm really terrible at snooker - I'm not patient enough--

Hang on, you're an actor and you're not patient enough for snooker?

WM: [laughs] I know, I know! I get really emotional because I just want it to happen, you know, I want it to happen. So I was playing this game of snooker and it comes down to, I've got to pot the pink and black to win the game, and I can't even miss it. I pot the pink and I've lined up the black and he's looking down and you can feel the pressure. I just whacked it and luckily it went it, but sometimes I'll whack it and it might just come out, you know... It's the story of life, isn't it?!

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/chronicles_of_narnia_prince_caspian/news/1737153/3/rt_interview_william_moseley_on_his_last_narnia_adventure_in_prince_caspian

(Emphasis in bold letters mine.)

Funny Interview with William Moseley and Skandar Keynes by David Savage

William Moseley and Skandar Keynes Interview!

William Moseley (21) and Skandar Keynes (16) play Peter and Edmund Pevensie in the Narnia movie series. Following 2005's The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, the sequel: Prince Caspian is finally with us, and the sword-swinging screen siblings had a natter with David Savage about the new movie, New York, chickens, nerdiness and more!

William and Skandar at the London Premiere!

It's been a busy week for the Caspian cast: they had an international press conference in Prague on Tuesday, and now, on Thursday 19 June, they're back in London for interviews and the UK press conference, then the UK's biggest ever film premiere at the 02 Arena in the evening!

At midday, William and Skandar are holed up in a first floor suite in the swanky Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Knightsbridge. They're friendly, funny and full of energy despite a week of heavy promoting - but they do seem especially grateful to be asked anything a bit different from the norm, obviously having answered the same questions a few hundred times already.

They switch from being serious to messing about in an instant, and amidst much laughter, argue with and tease each other like very close mates. (Incidentally, despite some reports, Skandar seemed even cheekier about William than vice versa!)

Here's what we said:

Skandar, your character flirted with his dark side in the first Narnia film. With the new one, William, it's your turn to get moody and angry. Was that good for you?
WILLIAM: You know, I thoroughly enjoyed it. It was a great outlet to, um - I mean, I'm not sure if you're aware but sometimes there's a lot of pressure on set. There's a lot of things going on and there's a lot of things you sort of expect of yourself. And you can almost translate that energy, your feeling right then, into the scene. You can use it and fully get angry and fully embrace all of those feelings. It can be quite therapeutic, actually, yeah.

I'd heard you practised in New York for a few months for it all beforehand. That sounds like an exciting thing to be doing.
WILLIAM: It was awesome.

What is William Moseley's New York, then? What were your favourite hang outs?
WILLIAM: You know, that's a really good question.
SKANDAR: We do need some unique questions for a change. Thank you very much!
WILLIAM: Well, I was living in the West Village in New York, and I was working with Sheila Gray who was my acting coach, and doing boxing training in Brooklyn.

Boxing in Brooklyn. That's quite butch.
WILLIAM: Yeah. So my favourite hangouts were a club called Salon - I don't think it's called that any more; it's changed to a different club - which is on James Street. We used to go there sometimes. And there's this really good cafe called Domar. And for brunch on Sunday we'd go to this cafe called Cowgirl which was absolutely awesome. It sold southern fried... (SKANDAR GIGGLES) a real southern kind of restaurant.
SKANDAR: Because you see, Will lives on a farm so he was going back to his roots!

William Moseley: misses his chickens.

I was wondering, actually, growing up somewhere really rural did you used to yearn to go somewhere urban like New York? Did you long for a city?
SKANDAR: He misses his chickens now. He misses his chickens.
WILLIAM: Unfortunately I didn't have chickens.
SKANDAR: You DID! You admitted to me you had chickens!
WILLIAM: We had, like, four chickens.
I didn't know it was that rural.
SKANDAR: (HOOTS) He went all the way!
Up early every morning milking the chickens, then?
WILLIAM: I'm not sure you can milk chickens, but, er... do you know, I was looking forward to going to the city. I was looking forward to seeing somewhere like New York that's a very vibrant, happening place, and especially growing up in that environment, it opens your eyes a little bit more, too. And I thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it. And I think I'm now going to buy a place in London.

You're an urban guy now, then?
WILLIAM: I'm not sure if I'm an urban guy.
SKANDAR Urbanised...
WILLIAM: I've still got my country roots, but I...
SKANDAR (SNORTS SOMEWHAT SARCASTICALLY) Yeah, you definitely do.

Do you still need every now and again to be surrounded by hedges and trees?
WILLIAM: Absolutely! Yeah. There's definitely a craving for it.
SKANDAR: And he's off on his way to the zoo.

http://www.popcorn.co.uk/page.asp?partid=785

Skandar Keynes: "I don't have a problem making this film in any way, shape or form."

Back to the film. This one has a darker tone than the first. Does that suit both your tastes?
WILLIAM: I think the tone is definitely darker, but I think it brings a lot of the old things back from the first film. For me, I love the new, slightly more mature Narnia. It is 1300 years later, and it is a slightly more in-depth film, I think, and the character's more complex, and so is the story. So I think for those slightly older audience members, they can watch it and get a lot out of it as well.
SKANDAR: I think what's great about it is that on one side they've managed to have the dark aspect of it, and at the exact same time they manage to enhance the light, comedy effect. And I feel it's really great because they've got the exact right proportions of the two. And they've mixed them at the right times to equal it out, so, you know, you don't come out of the film scarred for life or anything from this dark atmosphere that's been portrayed. And you have a great time and have some great laughs.

William in Peter Pevensie mode.

I'd heard that some of the American religious critics thought it was too dark; and there've been comments like 'they all go to Narnia... and just kill lots of people!'
SKANDAR: (LAUGHS) Mmm.
WILLIAM: You know what I think's interesting? This film has more of an opinion.

You do kill a lot of people.
WILLIAM: We absolutely do.
SKANDAR: I wouldn't use the word 'kill.' Sort of disarm. Immobilise. Momentarily.
With big swords.
SKANDAR Arf!
WILLIAM: I think you're absolutely right that some of the Christian audiences have found it a little bit intense, but at the same time, we're not really making Christian films.
No.
WILLIAM: Andrew's making a film from his own vision, his own imagination, and I think it makes a better film. I think, you know, it's better to be led by your own intuition than somebody else's.

I thought this film did have less of an obvious religious slant than the first one...
WILLIAM: Absolutely.
SKANDAR: Mmm...
...and probably less so than the actual book. Skandar, you've said you're an atheist. The first one did have some strong Christian symbolism...
SKANDAR Yeah.
...so was that ever a problem for you? And when you read the books as a child did you even notice all that or did it all go over your head?
SKANDAR: When I was a child, when I first read it, it completely went over my head. That's what I think is so great about C S Lewis's writing is that while it does have these messages that, you know, I have no problem with at all, it is a very sort of 'take it or leave it' attitude that he's taken. And I think that's what we tried to do with the first film. And what we try to do all the way with these films. This film did very well in Muslim countries so it proves that that aspect isn't vital, and isn't a completely integral part of the film. And it meant that to me, as you said there, with other beliefs, I don't have a problem making this film in any way, shape or form.

You weren't around for some of the recent promotional stuff, Skandar, like the Tokyo Premiere which looked quite exciting. Was that because of school?
WILLIAM: It's because he's actually racist.
SKANDAR Arf! Yes, I can't go. Only England. I'll only talk to people in England. Erm - no. So apparently I'm an atheist, I'm into Darwin...
WILLIAM:...a fascist...
SKANDAR: No, I was doing exams. A very boring reason.

That must have been quite depressing.
(BOTH HOOT)
SKANDAR: Yes, very depressing...
Couldn't you have just sneaked out...
SKANDAR: Aw, I would have loved to.

http://www.popcorn.co.uk/page.asp?partid=786

"You would have this intense stink of B.O. I mean, I almost couldn't breathe in..."

William, you did the New York Comic Con, as well.
WILLIAM: I did, yes.

I collect comics myself.
WILLIAM: Do you! Which comics?

Vintage British ones mainly.
WILLIAM: Really!
(BOTH CHEER!)

And the big New York Comic Con always looked exciting, but I'd be a bit worried it might be a little too packed with people dressed as Star Wars characters, and all that. What's it actually like?
WILLIAM: It is! And between you and me... we were in a fairly nice air-conditioned place, but when you go into where the comic books were, where the Star Wars characters will be walking around, you would have this intense stink of B.O. I mean, I almost couldn't breathe in. (SKANDAR LAUGHS AND GROANS) So for the next one I'm going to bring a gas mask. So even though it is absolutely important and a wonder of the world to go to Comic Con, because it really is like nothing I've ever seen before. Absolutely insane.

What is the connection between collecting things and not washing, though? How do the two fit together?
SKANDAR: They spend all their time looking for stuff and collecting it...
WILLIAM: Exactly - they don't have time! And they think it's all going to rub off on them one day, and if they shower, it'll come off.

"You are actually more nerdy than I am!" "How am I more of a nerd?" etc.

Is there anything that you're both nerdy about?
WILLIAM: I'm a complete and utter nerd.
SKANDAR: Yeah, he's the biggest nerd I've ever met.
WILLIAM: You are actually more nerdy than I am!
SKANDAR: How am I more of a nerd?
WILLIAM: Because you love schoolwork way more than I do!
SKANDAR: (OUTRAGED) I love... what, you're joking?!

So what are you both mad about?
SKANDAR: He loves tea.
Tea?
SKANDAR: He's a big tea man.
You don't collect vintage teabags or teapots, do you?
WILLIAM: No, I wish I did. I can be kind of a nerd about a lot of things. I love films - I can be a little bit nerdy about that. And Sixties music as well, I'm really kind of into.

What about you, Skandar?
SKANDAR: Ummm - I used to be a very big Star Wars fan when I was little.
So you would have been one of the people at his Comic Con?
SKANDAR: Well, I wouldn't have done that myself. But I definitely enjoyed them when I was growing up. And - I don't know. What would classify me as a nerd? I don't know. I think nerds can't recognise their own nerdiness, that's why.

How will you cope not being in the next Narnia, William? Obviously, it gives you the chance to do something new, but some of your mates will be off there making the film without you...
SKANDAR: We're giving him counselling. Therapy. He's gonna get through it, he's gonna get through it.
WILLIAM: No, I don't think we'll miss being on set. As you know, Anna's not doing it and Andrew's not doing it, and I think it's time to move on. I think I've established everything I can with Peter, I've given him my best shot.

Are you going to try to do the kind of thing Daniel Radcliffe's been doing - choosing roles that are well away from fantasy to show a broad range...
WILLIAM: Well, I think I'm lucky. I haven't done seven films. I've only done two. And my next film, which will be about the Magna Carta, and slightly bloody, will be along the same kind of lines, but also quite different.

Oh, a new film. So that's official?
WILLIAM: That's official.

Great. And in the next Narnia then, Skandar, you should get more of the close-ups.
SKANDAR: Exactly!


The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian hits UK screens on Thursday 26 June.

http://www.popcorn.co.uk/page.asp?partid=787
Interview date: 19 June 2008

Interview with William Moseley by Amy, in behalf of www.wmoseley.com at the London Premier

Ben Barnes:
What advice would you give to up and coming actors trying to break into the mainstream?

Ben: I feel like I did it really quickly. I'm only 26 and you know, obviously I've been doing it professionally for 5 years and on and off for about 10. I don't think I'm really anybody to give advice to anybody but just to kind of be your self.



Has it opened up other doors for you?

Yes of course, I think every door you open in this industry will open another one.



Is there anyone you'd really like to work with?

I met Robert Downey JR last week and I saw Iron Man and he's just amazing so maybe him.



Anna Popplewell:
Anna greeted me with a lively "Hi how are you?" and was great to interview.



How's university?

It's great. I've just finished my first year; I actually had exams about a week ago.



So a slightly different world to making a movie?

It is a different world. I'm dressed up in diamonds now and then I'll go back to the library with my tracksuit bottoms on!



Are you going to be slightly envious watching the next film and seeing all the adventures the cast have been on?

It's kind of bittersweet not being involved in the next film because on the one hand I don't think I'd want to play the same part seven times for seven months at a time. It means I get to go and do things like my university degree and play other parts. At the same time it is sad because I've had such a great time making these films and I feel really lucky to be a part of it.



What do think about Disney raising money for Great Ormond Street Hospital tonight?

It's such an important charity to me. My mum has worked there as a doctor for years and years so I'm really glad that we're supporting them and I hope this contributes to the £10,000,000 Disney have already pledged to raise.



Georgie Henley & Andrew Adamson:

How does this compare to all the other premieres you've been to in the last few weeks?

Georgie: This is definitely the best I think.

Andrew: It's certainly the biggest!

Georgie: I've been to New York, Japan and now Prague and London and I think Japan was probably the craziest so far but this is taking everything to a new level!



Are you looking forward to starting the next film?

Andrew: Well I'm not actually starting the next film but Georgie is..

Georgie: You're still the producer!

Andrew: I am, I'm going to stay involved as the producer but I'm not actually going to direct the next film. I'm gonna take a little bit of a break and that way I get to have fun without having any of the responsibility!



Do you think it will be a different atmosphere on set without William and Anna?

Andrew: It will definitely be different

Georgie: I think it will be a different atmosphere, I don't know if it will be a better atmosphere…I don't think it will though. I think the nice thing about the next film coming up is that its got familiar faces and new faces so I think I'll be ok.



WILLIAM MOSELEY
I told William I was there on behalf of Hong and WMoseley.com. He said 'Wow, that's an honour.' I wanted to ask as many of the question that were sent in as possible. I was the last person to do interviews and they were all running out of time so I knew I had to think fast and ask what I could. A lot of the questions that were sent in were about travelling and being away so I went straight in with that theme…



You've gotten to travel a lot making and promoting these films? Where has been your favourite place?

I think my favourite place so far has been Jerusalem. It's thoroughly beautiful, a really spiritual experience and that's something that Narnia is all about and I felt really honoured to go there and have a good look around.



So what are you up to next?

I have a film about the Magna Carta coming up. It's quite a blood thirsty film with a lot of gore in it. A slight change in target audience!



Where will you be filming that?

Actually it's in Berlin, for three and a half months so another travelling experience…

(This was posted in www.wmoseley.com on 21 June 2008. Emphasis in big fonts mine.)

Interview with William Moseley Before the Premiers

At 21, William Moseley has come a long way from the teenager who was cast as Peter Pevensie in the first Chronicles Of Narnia film.

Since The Lion The Witch And The Wardrobe was released to rave reviews in 2005, the former Wycliffe College student has been back to school to sit exams and then spent months with an acting coach in New York to prepare for a more mature reprisal of the role in the forthcoming Prince Caspian.

"In the first film, I really had no idea what I was doing," he admits. "I was just turning up, saying my lines and stepping through the wardrobe as William would, and Peter would at the same time."

Three years later, Peter has become a man, fighting to save the Narnians, and it's clear from his demeanour that William has grown up too.

"Throughout the experience, I've changed a lot in myself," he says.

"I've travelled to so many different countries, met so many different people.

"On the first film, most of my friends were in their 30s and I was 17. It just completely changes how you look at the world.

"So, on an emotional basis and professionally as an actor I think I've matured an incredible amount."

But he admits he still isn't quite ready to accept his heart-throb status.

"It's actually kind of bizarre to me," he laughs. "Right now I'm walking around in my pyjamas in my garden with my Ugg boots on, it's not exactly beautiful.

"There are so many other people out there you could choose from, so I don't think I'm there yet."

Pictures of a sultry-looking William have appeared in recent editions of Teen Vogue and Nylon in the lead up to the release of the second installment of the trilogy.

When cinema-goers last visited Narnia, the Pevensie children, Edmund, Lucy and Susan, had claimed their rightful place as kings and queens of the magical kingdom, after defeating the White Witch.

But it was time to return to England when they discovered the entrance to the wardrobe again.

Prince Caspian, based on the third book in the series by CS Lewis, sees the children magically transported back to Narnia from a London Tube station when the troubled Prince blows Susan's magic horn to call for aid.

"Each child does want to go back to Narnia, but some more than others," explains William, who is relaxing at his Gloucestershire home in Sheepscombe before a string of glamorous premieres.

"Peter does, because he wants to reinstate his authority for his own means. And it's kind of their other home - where they've grown and learned so much.

"But Narnia's changed when they get back and they have to deal with those changes and deal with the changes in themselves."

We first see Peter fighting with school children in the Tube station - and the theme continues once he arrives in Narnia.

"Peter and Caspian don't get on very well when they first meet because they both want to be the leader," William explains.

"They both feel threatened by each other, they've both got egos, but they eventually realise that working together saves the day pretty much."

William had to endure a tough training schedule this time to get fit for the more feisty role.

"Today I was thinking to myself, 'God, I need to get myself fit again', because you get to a certain fitness point and then it just goes," he says.
"But yeah, I was working with a boxing trainer in New York for three and a half months.

"I was running eight miles every other day on set and I was working out in the gym as much as I could.

"I didn't want anyone doing any of my stunts, because I saw them as my stunts and I wanted to make sure everyone had their full trust in me, so that take 10 was just as good as take one."

Filming took place over seven months in New Zealand and Eastern Europe and William says he enjoyed being reunited with the actors who play the other Pevensie children - Skandar Keynes, Georgie Henley and Anna Popplewell.

"Georgie, Skandar and Anna are like my second family," says William. "We're such close friends and we always slip back into our dynamics. I don't think we really could have acted a family as well if not - we actually really were that family.

"Skandar and I went off bungee jumping and at one point we were staying in little huts by this river that had kayaks.

"I went out in a kayak into this huge open lake surrounded by mountains and forest land - I was kind of in awe of it."

When asked about what the production crew thought about them doing lots of risky outdoor activities, he replies: "You just don't tell them - that's the trick. We say, 'oh yeah, we're just going to do some drawings in our room now and write some poetry, we'll see you later."

As for newcomer Ben Barnes, who plays Prince Caspian, William says they hit it off instantly.

"He had a very similar sense of humour to me and I could tell from the start we were going to have a laugh throughout the shoot," he says.

William grew up in Sheepscombe with his parents Julie and Peter, who is a cameraman for the BBC.

He is the older brother of Daisy, 19, and Ben, 16, and narrowly missed out on a part in a TV adaptation of Cider With Rosie when he was 10.

Five years later, he was remembered by the casting director, who worked on the first Narnia film, and had to endure 18 months of auditions before beating 3,000 other hopefuls to land the part of Peter.

Sadly though, William's Narnia adventures have come to an end - Peter has grown up and doesn't appear in anymore of Lewis' books.

"It's really sad," admits William. "I thought, 'well, that's another chapter in my life', but in some ways change is good. If you want to progress you have to move on and put yourself in a vulnerable position.

"I'll definitely use all the tools I learned from Narnia and hopefully get some more along the way."

However the young actor is cagey about any upcoming roles.
"I don't trust Hollywood - not until I'm on that plane and I've signed that contract," he says.

But he does reveal it's an independent film and "one of those stories where it's seen through my character's eyes".

For now though, William is looking forward to the first-class flights and the "beautiful clothes" on his publicity tour to London and Paris.

"It's a lot more glamorous than shooting the film. But I do look at it as work. A chance for me to put myself and the film out there and really give it everything I've got," he says.

Source: ThisIsGloucestershire

(Obtained from www.wmoseley.com)

Paris Premier, Photos

Photos from www.wmoseley.com