European
round table at 2008 Berlin International Film Festival about Prince
Caspian 18th Feb 2008
A journalist: Is your life changing with this experience?
I don't know honestly. I'm not sure I'm very well prepared for that aspect. I'm very excited about the fact the people can see the work and I can see the opportunities that give me to do more works in different kinds of parts and very through myself too. I'm just so... I'm just so excited about the different stories I'm reading. From that point of view, it's fantastic! I'm starting to be invited to lots of cool parties. (laughter) But of course, I'm still working on the side!
I'm very excited
the people can be seeing the work that we have done in the past, during
a couple of years.
A journalist: Do you feel pressured or intimidated to taking this role
in this film... world-wide?
Yes.
The same journalist : Er...
I'm kidding! (laughter)
The Narnia's books are like an institution in England particularly obviously.
I read the books when I was eight and I watched the TV series on the
BBC at the same time. I had fun, that was completely magical with Samuel
West who played Caspian. It will always stick on my memory. And then
when I went to the university I studied literature, my special topic.
So I went through all the J. R. R. Tolkien, C. S. Lewis,... So I was
very familiar with this. The opportunity was very exciting!
A journalist: Can you tell please about your family. How were your parents?
Are you interested
by my parents!?
The same journalist : Yes!
What do you know
about my parents?
The same journalist : I don't know. That's why I asked!
I see. Well, I
grew up in South-West London in a very close family with my parents.
I have got a younger brother: Jack. He is now 23. Much cooler than I
am. Very lie back and easy going, and party animal. So I just try to
be more like him. I take his advice. I grew up with lots of music. My
dad was very interested by the Stones, the Beatles, the Eagles, and
the all great bands. He takes me to the concerts. And I decided to go
to university to see what I can do. Yes, no, yes... I was right: I wanted
to be an actor.
The same journalist: So, your parents were not against you becoming
an actor?
They said to me
when I was 17 and I said I'm going to do this carrier... they said:
Go to university first. And when I finished the school I didn't go to
university. I said I'm going to do others jobs: music, TV,... When they
stop to telling me to go to university, I decided that I wanted to go.
They were perfect.
A journalist: When did you decide to become an actor?
A company came
to my school when I was 15. It was an audition. But my father is a psychiatrist
and my mum a secretary. Between them they have the all gamuts of emotions.
I think that has something to do with an open family.
A journalist: In the movie, you're playing a boy almost 10 years old...
The only things
he says in the book: he's about the same age as Peter.
The same journalist: So he's 13...
He doesn't say
he's 13. The only things he says is what Peter said at one point: he
sees a boy about his age. Peter is supposed to be 13, you're right.
But you can write the many ages he wanted. In the first film, William
played Peter, he's now 20. So he can play 13. So they had to find someone
look the same sort of age like William. And I'm little bit younger than
I am. I think that it was necessary to have the same age. And lots of
thirty older are playing teenagers. It's particularly important in our
version of the film how old he is. In the book, Caspian has a nurse,
and a professor instead of when the nurse is fired. Caspian tells very
intelligent questions, which are not the questions of 13 years old.
We don't have the nurse in the film, so a couple of years have past...
so he's maybe 17 or 18. Something likes that. I have a chance the time
before to have to play a king.
A journalist: It's very good to have this age younger. You have a kind
of sex appeal... Are you afraid about to be a new sex symbol in Hollywood?
Er... I don't
know. If some people can see the movie for that reason... then great.
I think is about to me to choose different types in the future, what
kind of actor I am. I never choose Caspian for that reason.
A journalist: Aren't you afraid with this film or Stardust, before you
play on stage...
Yes. When I started
I was. I did a couple of tv jobs and others things. For a film, there
are a lot of people around you, watching what you are doing. You have
to be so much smaller. When I started shooting, I have to be on right
kind of level to reel play moment. Something unbelievable. I think I'm
still learning. At the moment I'm doing a film with Colin Firth (Easy
Vertue), and I feel very smaller. You believe in everything he does.
I'm learning all the time. I'm fascinated.
A journalist: You said you are very familiarized with Narnia and I guess
you have a sort of image of the Prince Caspian in your head...
I thought that
he was 13 with blond hair, (laughter) because I watched the BBC series
and I read the book. So I knew he's blond. But it makes a lot of sense
how he is. He's supposed to be a swarthy foreign of specific islands.
That's what he says in the book. The sound is a kind of European accent,
and so I think it was very useful to have Spanish, Italian and Mexican
actors. It was a great challenge and it is an interesting aspect of
the film. Sergio Castellitto is wonderful!
An Italian journalist: Of course. He's Italian!
Yes! (laughter)
Elbakin.net: What do you expect after this film and Stardust. The both
are about fantasy. Is it a choice or... ?
Not particularly.
It is just popular at the moment with a kind of revolution of the Potter,
The Lords of the Rings, Eragon and all this. You can see it with friends,
family, and children. The people have a real craving for. I'm shooting
a romantic comedy at the moment and it couldn't be more different. But
I'm having great time. I will have to do so different things in the
future... That kind of fantasy films is the most fun job, because you
get love, horse ridden; fight,... It's a boy's dream! You have to do
it, six day a week!
A journalist: You choose to drop out of a play for the film. What your
colleagues think about that?
They were wonderful.
They couldn't be more open. I'm still friend with lot of them. They
were very warm with me. They just understood that there was something
I had to do. It was a very very difficult time for me, because it was
my dream to work in a theatre. It was just tragic for me: two of my
dreams came to in the same year, and I had to make a decision... not
to regret to do Hollywood film for the rest of my life.
A journalist: How was the shooting with the 4 Pevensies? It was probably
fun, but can you tell something specific, stories, or problems... ?
My relationship
with William was very interesting. He has a lot of fun. There is on
the script a sort of conflict between the two protagonists to know who
the leader is. I think that the conflict is always interessant in a
story, even between two characters on the same side. It's interesting.
I think that we couldn't have the same relationship in real life. Unfortunately
for me, William is very physical and loves to jump, run... and I don't.
So we go to fight staff: he was on the running machine for like an hour
and me (he's out of breath)...but then I go back to the hotel and eat
pizza with Anna. I'm not the best of the both. (laughter)
A journalist: It's not very commune for actors to go to the university
and finish it...
Well, I think
that in England the tradition is links... we have so many greats ones.
I wanted to go to university because I thought that I could. I wasn't
100 % sure that I wanted to be an actor, and I had to explore the others
avenues. I did grammar and English together. It was very academic, it
wasn't practical. It's was theory. But it was great because it was the
criticism of a lot of books and poetry. Now I read some scripts and
I have to decide which one is good. So basically I have a degree for
that! (laughter)
The same journalist: Do you read bad scripts?
Yes of course.
Hundreds! (laughter)
A journalist: do you remember something particular for the casting?
It was a very
quick process for me. Somebody saw me in a play. I read one scene. Then
I think the next day, I did a screen test with the director. For it
they had a table with different swords. I just told that: I will never
know how to use that! A sword is a little bit dangerous. They said me:
just swing with!
Elbakin.net: Will you be on stage again or... ?
Definitely not.
Not for this year because the opportunity to do others films... Theatre
is a wonderful thing: to have the public reaction, the silence,... It's
an electric place! So one day, soon.
A journalist: What's your favourite scene?
I haven't seen
it. So I don't know!
The same journalist: So when you were shooting...
I love the scene
with Sergio Castellitto (who plays the king Miraz): I had my sword on
his throat and he has a kind of smile... makes me scare! This kind of
moment... but I don't how it will be on the screen.
A journalist: Do you know that Sergio is although director? Would you
like to work with him?
Yes, I think he's
great! I love the accent too, keep talking please! (this journalist
is Italian) (laughter)
A journalist: can you please talking about your first big experience,
Stardust?
It was a great
training round for me... to walk near Sarah Miller. I was near to have
a heart attack! In the beginning in a magic market place, I just looking
around... and they said to me: what you're doing now, you will do it
for an half an hour. (laughter) So I did not so many work!
A journalist: You're the hero in the film?
No, I'm in the
first ten minutes! I played the hero's father.