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August 26, 2005 - As December 9th approaches and the release of Disney's Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe nears, countless C.S. Lewis fans across the globe wait with bated breath in the hopes that it can live up to the classic story that has lived in our imagination for so many years. The project has been an enormous undertaking.
IGN FilmForce was on set during a portion of the shoot in New Zealand, touring the breathtaking and endlessly expansive sets and witnessing movie magic in the making. The film wrapped in late 2004, but the extensive effects work is likely being completed just in time to make the December release date.
Today on FilmForce we have an extra special treat for all the Narnia faithful out there. Up until now, Disney has remained very protective of the young cast, many of whom have had very little acting experience. IGN FilmForce recently got the unique opportunity to speak exclusively with William Moseley and Anna Popplewell, who portray Peter and Susan in the film, respectively.
IGN FILMFORCE: First off, could you both give me a little background on how you got involved with Narnia?
ANNA POPPLEWELL: I was first seen for it maybe 18 months or two years before they finally cast it, so it was a very long casting process. And I just went for a normal audition and then went back and then went again and again and again. Eventually, actually I think the first time I met Andrew, was when I also read with William, who plays Peter, so we went way back. But at the end, we screen tested and eventually got there.
WILLIAM MOSELEY: Where I live is about an hour and a half West of London. I live in the countryside… It's a classic little village and it's idyllic in a lot of ways. Basically, I was at this school and I was at a primary school, which is basically elementary. I was there from four to ten and when I was ten years old this casting girl came to cast Billy Elliot. She came looking around the school. She was looking for like a village child to play the part in this period drama for BBC. And I [fit] the bill, you know? I was loud, very loud – I just enjoyed life… knobbly kneed and read faced, [I was] basically like a country child. My mom used to call us free range kids, like free range chickens… We roamed the countryside. So I went to auditions and just loved doing all the improvisations and it was great fun. I couldn't have the part because I was too young for the older role and too old for the younger role, the main role… Anyway, [they] said to me, 'Well, I'll get you an agent' and she gets me a tiny agency in Swinton, and Swinton's about 45 minutes away. It's a small town. I was with this agency for about five years. I was always up for parts and I always got down to the final two, like so many, so many, so many times. And unfortunately, [the agent] came around for this film The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and my agent doesn't put me up because she's fearful that I'm going to suicide bomb the place if I got rejected from one more thing. So, as it goes, [The agent] remembered me, she remembered who I was… That was really flattering. I went up and auditioned and 18 months of auditioning before getting the part…
MOSELEY: I thought he was a bit like Garth from Wayne's World, he looks like [that]… I liked him, I just liked the way he sort of sat back and let the kids run wild. What was nice was he got involved as well. There was a kid that was kind of annoying and Andrew was, within one minute, just on top of this kid and [he] quieted him down. This kid had gone to drama school and thought of himself rather highly and Andrew managed to withdraw him.
IGNFF: For Adamson, this film is a pretty big switch from working on animated films. There has been some concern and question as to how he would work out with actual humans versus CG green ogres.
POPPLEWELL: Well, I think everyone was kind of surprised at the idea of Andrew on The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe because he had a background in animation. The thing is, Andrew's so wonderful with people… He's not only a genius, he's such a nice man. He really knew how to relate to all of us as individuals. It wasn't "the kids," he communicated to all of us in different ways appropriately. He's just a brilliant director really.
MOSELEY: You know, it was a challenge for everyone. Mark Johnson, the producer, had done Rain Man, you know, and Mark said this was the biggest film he'd ever worked on. Everyone had a challenge, everyone was working for the passion. I just felt like Andrew had so much dedication to making the film work… So much want and love for it… It just sort of worked out.
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IGNFF: What was your familiarity with the books beforehand?
POPPLEWELL: I had read the books when I was about seven and then re-read them during the casting process. And [I] really, really loved them. Yeah, I grew up on them.
MOSELEY: I didn't read them because I wasn't much of a child reader to be honest. I was more sort of an outdoor kid. I always knew the stories. I used to listen to them on story tapes and just enjoy lying in bed and listening to someone telling me the story. The unfortunate thing about that was that I only ever knew about 25 minutes of it. I knew about 20 minutes by heart but the rest was a bit of bafflement… When I read the books I was about 15, I read The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. I loved it. It was a weird thing for a 15 year old to be liking a child story. It's just one of those stories that can be read or understood and related to by anyone, by any age or any time, by any one.
IGNFF: How familiar did you have to be with the book when you came into cast? Did they give you certain scenes?
POPPLEWELL: I read some pages when I went for casting, but it wasn't the kind of 'You must know about the book or else' kind of thing. But I'm sure it helped knowing about the characters and knowing those kinds of things?
IGNFF: What was your reaction the first time you saw all the sets?
POPPLEWELL: When I first saw the sets, I was blown away by them. Roger Ford, who's our set designer, is really amazing. Yeah, it's a really nice opportunity to get to work on such expansive and detailed sets. It's always amazing to me how these things are lit so that they look just exactly like they are supposed to.
MOSELEY: A lot of it was like, who are these people? I mean, there's so many of them! I learned someone's name after seven and a half months and this guy had been working every day on the film… It's just so scary that it's such a big film that everyone's doing something… The call sheet is four pages long.
POPPLEWELL: Well, some of them were almost exactly as I pictured. Some of them were slightly different and better than I could have imagined. It just varied. I think the nice thing about the books is there is a lot of room for interpretation. I know when I read them and come away with a specific idea that this detail must be in place, this detail must be in place, and the sets just kind of consolidated it all together for me.
MOSELEY: It's interesting from Andrew's point of view with the books and everything… They aren't trying to make a religious film, they aren't trying to make a film with an opinion. All it is is a film from an imagination. It's from Andrew's imagination, it's from his innocence as a child. When you're a child, you don't see the religious aspects. You're trying to preserve that innocence. That's what the books are partially about, is innocence and honestly and truth. I think that's what Andrew tried to do and you can interpret it as a religious story, but I just feel like it was from Andrew's imagination and he could create that world… Fortunately, there was enough money to create the imagination because sometimes I would go on set and think, 'This is beyond my imagination. This is beyond what I expected…' The imagination can be a very expensive thing.
IGNFF: Anna, of the children in the cast, you seem to have the most acting experience. Did you give advice to the other kids or help since it was the first major acting work for some of them?
POPPLEWELL: They hadn't done as many bits and pieces, but they certainly didn't need my advice. The nice thing about a film set is that you're learning all the time from everyone and I certainly felt I learned just as much as they did.
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IGNFF: William, did you look to any of the other actors for tips?
MOSELEY: Totally. What I found with Tilda [Swinton and], James [McAvoy also] told me – I learned two tips from both of them – Tilda would always say to me, you know, it shouldn't be difficult, acting shouldn't be difficult. You should just be enjoying it… It's best to go with it and just be there and just let yourself go. You don't have to really even try hard at all, that's what she said to me. It's something that she had found out herself over the years. And then James McAvoy also said to me, which is really interesting, because I had a problem in one of the scenes. It's funny, because I can ride a horse bareback, galloping across the park, I can sword fight for hours, I can run across the frozen lake. But I had to smile, and it was so weird, smiling on screen. I hate smiling in photos, so I never smile. I find it posing, like I'm not really being spontaneous, I'm just posing… James said to me, 'If you take up the posture in your face, your mind follows,' and then he trained himself to do that. He was telling me that he couldn't smile on camera or he couldn't laugh or cry. He had to train himself to do. And so, they were both very interesting people. Even the mother, Mrs. Macready, I learned some things from, like the way she would just come pumped up… Really bringing out something and just shaking everything up, just going for it. That was a really interesting aspect as well. I found, for me, I have to go back and think, like, what happens to me before, what are my feelings now. With all these people trying to help me, I felt I really progressed as an actor.
IGNFF: Was it a pretty fun atmosphere on set?
POPPLEWELL: It was a really fun atmosphere. It wasn't like working, it was like being at summer camp.
IGNFF: Anna, did you have many scenes with Tilda Swinton?
POPPLEWELL: I had one. I only had one scene with Tilda.
IGNFF: She looks pretty intense in the movie.
POPPLEWELL: Yeah. Well, she's such a lovely person, and then in this scene, when she's all costumed and everything, I was frankly quite scared of her, which is how it should be. You can't believe that this warm, lovely person manages to pull off such a cold character. All of her looks are great. The makeup and costume work on her was really original and intense. She goes through a series of different looks.
IGNFF: And how about James McAvoy? He was a surprising choice to some.
POPPLEWELL: I think some people were surprised because they thought he was a little young, but seeing him in his gear and working with him on set, I can't think of anyone who would have been a better choice. He's, again, such a nice person and I think really, in a complimentary way, pulls off the goat thing fantastically. (Laughs) I think he's a really good choice.
IGNFF: What scene was the most difficult to shoot? I saw a pre-vis of the battle sequence which looked pretty amazing.
POPPLEWELL: That was a pretty intense scene. I think [what was] also intense was that we were working outside as opposed to in the studio, which meant we had to fight with the weather and that kind of thing. Maybe more intense for William and Skander, who were doing a lot of riding and fighting. For me, probably the funnest scene to film was when we arrived at the Beaver's Lodge because, after all of the kind of running away and frightened acting and rushing around that we'd been doing, it was one of the few scenes in which Andrew tried to make us laugh, which was really fun… I really enjoyed making [that scene] just because it was really fun. I guess for me, the most intense scene was the death of Aslan because it was sort of really high emotions for the two days we shot it. That was just really draining, but very satisfying when we finished it.
IGNFF: How difficult was it to work opposite a CG character like Aslan?
MOSELEY: In my imagination, I created Aslan, I created the Beavers, I created the Wolves… They were there for me. Seeing Aslan on screen, actually you know, one of the weirdest things happened. These CG guys are kind of funny. One of them came up to me like, 'Have a look at this?' It was a lion walking down the street with these two fellows and I was like, 'Oh my God, how did you get the lion to do that?' He's so happy with himself, he's like smiling. 'That's no lion, that's a CG lion. And you know what the best thing is? It's only 50 percent of the way there…' But these guys, they are amazing. The way they create these animals. I honestly believed it was a real lion they got from the zoo and got to walk down the street…
POPPLEWELL: It was interesting. We tried lots of different methods. We had people reading in with our lines or we had ping pong balls on sticks for markers. There was a variety of things. At first, it was quite strange acting off nothing, but it got easier and it was a fun new experience… I haven't seen the finished – I mean I've seen the trailer, but I haven't seen the finished footage with Aslan. I've seen a couple of tests bits and pieces with him in it and it looks amazing. You would never know that it weren't a real lion.
POPPLEWELL: I don't know what's happening about sequels at the moment. I think it depends on this movie. I think the studio will see what happens with that before they make a decision on any sequels.
IGNFF: Would you be interested in returning for another?
POPPLEWELL: Yeah, I mean of course it all depends, but I'm very fond of these.
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