Hey Boys and Girls, what a fun time we’ve had with the good folks from Narnia. We got to speak briefly with Will Moseley, Ben Barnes, Peter Dinklange and producer Mark Johnson at the New York Comic Con, but we had such a great chat that we sat down again with the actors, this time joined by Anna Popplewell and the adorable Georgie Henley to explore the Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian. Click here for Ben Barnes’ fun interview.

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William Moseley and Georgie Henley

Q: What changes have you gone through since the last film?

GH: Adolescence!

WM: For the first film, it was a new experience. It was a really rewarding experience, as is this one, but we were seeing it all for the first time, and comparatively, the second film, we were going into it for the second time, so you really want to take a step up. You really want to push it to the next level, go that extra mile, and for me, personally, I worked with an acting coach for three and a half months here in New York -- with Sheila Gray for three and a half months and then I also worked with a boxing trainer. So, really what's changed is hopefully I've become a better actor. I feel like a professional, and physically, I think I've learned a lot about my body and what feels good, what works well, and emotionally, I really got much more in touch with myself.

How old are you now? 

WM: I'm 21. I just turned 21 last Sunday.

GH: I'm 12. I'm 13 in July.

Q: Georgie, what changes have you gone through since the last film?

GH: Well, since the first one got released, I mean, a lot happened. I've changed schools because, you know, primary school, secondary school. I've made new friends, kept old friends. And it was weird going to a bigger school with bigger people, and you know, sometimes, you do get taken the mick out of because of Narnia.

WM: Aww …

GH:  But you know, I don't mind because I’m proud of what I did, but I think the big change really was Lucy, the character, and the nice thing was that I kind of have grown with her and she's grown with me. Strange that, isn't it? I love the fact that changing her has changed me, as well. Getting in depth with her was like, as Will said, I've looked inside myself and am figuring out who I am as well. I feel like I take more from Lucy's character. I feel like after being Lucy, I feel like I've become a better friend to my friends. I feel like I can be a lot more loyal to them because I feel like Lucy is and qualities like that. She's a lovely person, and I feel like if I take something from her, and she's taken some stuff from me in the film. Her fiery temper doesn't come from nowhere, people! {Laughs} No, joking. But yeah, I think changes go both ways.

Q: Georgie, previously you said you didn't know if you wanted to keep acting.  Do you still want to?

GH: At this age, nobody really knows what they want to be in the long run. A lot of people know what they want to do in the short run. And I'm very looking forward to filming the next Narnia installment, which I've signed on to do and which I'm really excited about because it's my favorite Narnia book, Voyage of the Dawn Treader. And I think that having that journey without William and Anna {Popplewell} will be OK, but I think as an actress, you have to cope with those changes and changing the director and things, I mean Andrew {Adamson, director}'s leaving me as well! I'm still a child, I'm still going through childhood, I mean there are so many other things I want to do. I want to write, I want to act, I’m really into music, I want to do something with music. There are so many things I want to do, and I still don't know what I want in life. I mean, I don't think anybody does, I don't think even William does!

Q: William, what are you doing next?

WM: What am I going to do next? I'll have to see. People always ask me, "What do you want to do next?" And I used to say I want to do some dark, deep drama, but you know what? Just what I read and I like, and I like the people involved, and I think the script’s interesting, and I think the project has a good potential, so something I feel instinctually about. You know, I'm pretty lucky I can do that now. I have friends that are actors that would take anything just to work, so I'm in a really fortunate position that I can choose my next project wisely.

Q: Would you consider something like Equus?

WM: You know, what's funny was that I was actually thinking about doing that before Daniel Radcliffe did it in New York, but I just never followed through with it, but just anything that sort of takes my fancy.

The Lady Miz Diva: Last night, you saw the movie with the rest of us. What are your thoughts on it, and what did you think of watching it with an audience?

WM: Yeah, you know it’s definitely epic, I would say was one of the words. And I was really impressed by the composition of the film and the last battle of Prince Caspian because I think Andrew really does direct a fantastic film and a fantastic battle scene, and the way he builds the tension, the way he really takes you in and then builds it to a wonderful crescendo, and I feel really fortunate to be a part of that because I gave everything I could to that battle scene, everything I could. I was working as hard as I possibly could, and emotionally, and the emotions were working as hard as I could, giving 110% because there are thousands of people around you and all over the world working on this film right now, and if you're not giving what you've got, then you're kind of letting yourself down, so when I watched it, it was eye-opening.

GH: I was getting so nervous about it because there was so much of the film that I hadn't seen because I just wasn't involved in it, like the battle and the raid and things, and someone asked me if I wanted popcorn. I said no because I thought I'd be sick! I did eventually get the popcorn, though, I was too hungry. But once I got in there, from the title sequence, I was on the edge of my seat and I felt like I was a member of the public and I had completely forgotten what it would look like because when you're filming, you don't know what the heck it is gonna look like from the outside when its cut together and like William said, with the music and the composition, and I think the word is, I was mind blown! And if I was gonna be rude, I was gobsmacked! Seriously, I was amazed by it. And I hope that doesn’t sound big headed, but I thought it was great. It was really good.

Q: What was your hardest day of filming?

WM: My hardest day? Well, I think that as an actor you can be very self-critical. I think I'm definitely my worst critic out of everybody, I'm my hardest critic. So, it wasn't doing the big emotional scenes; it wasn't doing the big physical scenes. It was like, running down a hallway and just not feeling like I was there in the headspace, you know? And I was really frustrated, the tension was going, the tension was going and for me, that was the hardest day. But actually, it might have been the fact that both of my best friends turned up on set that day. They had been staying in Prague the night before -- that might have had something to do with it. But none of the emotional scenes or the physical scenes -- just running down the hallway was my hardest moment.

GH: I think mine was I had a weird time a couple of days on set. I went through a blip with my acting. And I think it's because I started asking myself a lot of questions, and I didn't feel like I could act properly anymore. You get a flow, and I didn't feel like I got the flow anymore. I know that sounds weird, but… And so many people were trying to help me -- I mean, Will was trying to help me; all the other cast members were trying to help me, Andrew particularly was trying to help me. You know, he came to see me everyday and talk to me about the scene we were about to do and things. And it came to a time when I got really frustrated because we were doing this scene which is really important to me. It was the scene in which I heal Trumpkin after they’ve come back from the raid, and it was a tense scene because Will and Ben had just had the big fight, and I don't know, it was all little technical things. I had to put the bottle in the right place and everything, and they did my close up and I just couldn't do it. And we did it so many times, I don't know how many times we did it, not 60 but a lot of times, and in the end, Andrew's just like, "We'll do it when you feel like you can do it," and I came out of that blip just like that after that because I just thought, "Wake up, Georgie! What are you doing?" You know, there's no point being here and having all these amazing opportunities being thrown at you and then going through this blip, and I was just out of it and I felt so much better after that.

WM: You know what's funny is that as an actor, you're performing in front of thousands – well, millions - essentially of people. That's why I think you really have to take your hats off to the people that are doing it well. The top, top actors out there who are really doing it well, because it isn't easy, and anyone who turns around and says, "Acting's easy," I think you're talking out of somewhere which I don’t wanna talk about.

Q: Is it harder to talk in interviews than it is to act?

WM: It's way tougher to act. It's the hardest thing, acting. It's the most liberating, therapeutic, emotionally deepening experience, but it's also extremely difficult because you're dealing with your own emotions on a day-to-day basis, and some days, like we all have, some days we don’t have good days. Some days you feel tired, you feel ill or something, you just some bad news on the phone and if you’re gonna perform this wonderful, happy scene, and you just don't feel like it. But that's why we've been privileged to be in this position, and I think that's why Andrew chose us because we are very headstrong, and we are very determined, and like Georgie said, she pulled it out of herself, which I think is a fantastic character trait.

GH: All I'm saying is that I think acting -- some people thing acting is a walk in the park and for some people, they just have it naturally. I think some people just have it and it's a very raw talent and it can't be tampered with. Some people just force it, and I think for people who force it, they're the people who think it's easy. But the raw talented people, like William, I think you're very rawly talented. Because you feel like you have to control it so much like, because you have all this energy and all this inside your head and you have to control it somehow and that's the hardest thing I think because you have to control it and channel that energy into an emotion, into a scene or something, and I think that's the hardest thing of acting, really.

Q: Do you ever get called by your character's name?

WM: Yes.

GH: Definitely. Ohhh, it's horrible! I ended up being at my first day of secondary school, and all of my friends saying Georgie and Georgie and Georgie, and stuff, and I was like, OK, this is going to be fine. And then my teacher said, Georgie, and that was fine, and then she said Lucy, and I was like, "No! This is not going to stop." But then it did stop and then it was fine after that bit. It was just that one moment of anger.

Q: How do you see the next film being with Anna and William leaving, and Ben Barnes, Georgie, and Skandar Keynes staying?

WM: I'm not in the next film, but as you know, Peter passes Narnia on to Prince Caspian. Now, I - essentially William - because I feel very strongly about this, I’ve worked on this for six years, I thought I had to also pass this on. It sounds really weird and I know it's just a film, but you know, this film is very deeply rooted. It comes from an emotional place, and so at the end of it, I felt like I was giving this over to another leader, someone who would look after Georgie and look after Skandar, and would really be there to hold the film up and to be a support and you know, I'm really happy Ben's here and I'm really happy that he's going to be taking over, I'm really happy that I think he's going to hold my sword with the justice and the pride that I did. 

GH: I'm really excited about filming the next film with Ben because although Anna and Will won't be there, I think it's nice to have another familiar face with Ben and Skandar. I think the nice thing about the next film is also Eustace is coming in, our cousin, so who Eustace will be is still yet to be seen. But I think William’s right, I think you do need that kind of column of support, and I think you and Anna and also Andrew and all those, but I think in the Pevensies, you and Anna have definitely been the columns in The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe, and then Ben came and he was another column. But I think he will look after us, I think he will be that support which we need, and I'm young, I'm very naïve sometimes, and I get tired sometimes and you just wanna go up to Anna or Will or Ben and just give them a big hug and just lie on them and just loll around a bit. And I don’t think Ben minds if me and Skandar go up and give him a hug.

Q:  When you watch the movie, do you think of Prince William?

WM: I don't know, actually. I didn't think about that once to be quite honest. I mean, I have had that comparison before.

Q:  Would you ever play him in a TV movie or something?

WM: You know what's so weird? Before I got Narnia, my last audition, like I got down to the final two for actually, it was an American TV thing, it was a TV series, and I got to the final two and I was actually playing Prince Harry and I didn't end up getting it and I ended up getting Narnia.

GH: Yay! {claps hands}

WM: So, I feel very fortunate to have gotten Narnia and not Prince Harry!

Q:  William, now after having finished your role as Peter in Narnia, do you think you need to do something dark next to counteract being typecast?

WM: No, I don't. I think Daniel Radcliffe is in kind of a difficult decision because he has to do something that's very off the other end to prove he's an actor, to prove it to people, whereas I've only done two films, and that's it. And I think my character's actually very different in the second film than he is in the first film, so I think I'm in a very fortunate position that I can read whatever. If Ridley Scott did another sort of Gladiator, I would be there in a flash! So, it really doesn't bug me in any way being typecast. I'm ready.

Q:  What was it like playing Peter going back to being a kid again after having lived as an adult in Narnia?

WM: It was hard, you know. You just have to, I don't know. I mean, I think Peter feels very self-entitled. He was a king for 15 years, a high king at that, so he has to come back and learn a valuable lesson.

Q:  Georgie, doing anything else?

GH: I don't know. I would love to spend some more time at school, but it depends what comes up, really.

LMD: Good luck on the books you’re writing, Georgie.

GH: Thank you.

Q: Georgie, who are your favourite bands?

GH: {Shouts} Bloc Party and Kings of Leon!

Peter Dinklage and Anna Popplewell

The Lady Miz Diva: Last night was the first time you two saw the film and I wondered what your impressions were? According to Ben Barnes, Anna, you got a little emotional towards the end.

Anna Popplewell: Yeah, I did! You know what; actually, Regina Spektor is one of my absolute favourites music-wise…

Peter Dinklage: Did you know she did the song?

AP: I did, because I was in editorial a few weeks ago, doing my dialogue recording for some bits and pieces, and Andrew said, “Oh, you know just this week I’ve been figuring out the credits song and I’ve got this girl Regina Spektor,” and I was like, “REGINA SPEKTOR? WHAT?” And so when that song came on at the end and it’s all about kind of not coming back and everything and I just…a little tear, maybe, a little tear. But I think I was kind of overwhelmed by the whole thing. I mean I don’t really have any concrete conclusions to draw about it at the moment. I need to watch it again.

PD: I thought it was beautiful, but I agree with Anna about you’re having a sort of out-of-body-experience watching it because it was eight months of our lives condensed into two hours and I’m thinking about the experience I had last year in New Zealand, in Eastern Europe and that day I was… you know? And I’m a little self-critical sometimes, so, it’s hard to watch it as a narrative movie, but I think on second viewing, I’ll be more open to it. But I thought it was beautiful, everything about it was really well handled and the effects and everything and all the acting. It was great.

Q: Was it harder to watch it for the first time with an audience?

PD:  I don’t know. I kinda wasn’t aware of all that stuff. I guess I was pretty in my head about it all. So, no it was fine.

Q: You get a lot of laughs.

PD: Did I? I didn’t hear any laughs. Good, I’m glad, cause I’m all for … comedy. And I think it’s important to have that cynical sort of viewpoint.

Q:  Peter, what’s it like to see someone who looks so unlike you on the screen?

PD:  Yeah that’s amazing, that’s Howard Berger and Tami Lane. Tami is the one who did my makeup every day and Howard Berger is the one who sort of oversees everybody’s work, designs it and also does hands-on designing.  He did a lot of the makeup for some of the creatures. They’re incredible. They became my close friends on this movie. It was three hours every morning with Tami and sometimes my favourite three hours of the day.

Q: Did you have to get up earlier than the other cast to get into makeup?

PD: Yes, sometimes we were the first people to arrive when it was still dark out and we just played music. And sometimes, because it was 4:30 in the morning and I haven’t had my coffee yet, there’s a couple days when I’d fall asleep in the chair and I’d go like this {slumps over to the side}, and I’d wake up, and Tami, being the nice woman that she is would be underneath me {gets out of chair and mimes painting}. She would be lying down on the ground because she didn’t want to wake me up and she wanted to continue her work and it’d be like {wipes mouth} the drool would be like, splashing her face….

AP:  They would have crazy turnarounds sometimes.

PD: They don’t sleep, they’re vampires these people. They’re amazing!

AP: But they were always laughing and joking and having such a good time even thought they’d only had two hours sleep.

Q:  Peter, what is it like to play a role where people won’t know it’s you?

PD:  Oh, I liked that, though. I had done one movie before that was prosthetic-heavy, but about half the time as this one in the makeup chair. But you get a taste of it, it’s pretty amazing. Gary Oldman does a lot of that now, I mean he’s obsessed by it, and there’s some other great actors who get obsessed by it and I can tell it’s because the first time you do it with a really good makeup artist. I went into my trailer and I’ve never felt so vain in my life, I was staring at myself, because they really are great about where makeup starts and where your face ends, you know what I mean. There’s sort of the blending of your face with the makeup. And a lot of it is you see makeup that’s just like, plop-plop {scoops handfuls of imaginary makeup onto face} and it’s like a person that looks pretty bad, but they’re amazing what they do. And really it does half the job for you; it really does a lot of the work for you.

Q: Anna, you were cast when you were thirteen and now you’re nineteen. You’ve gone through your adolescence working on these films. Did you have any idea at all when you were thirteen, the commitment it would be?

AD: No. I mean I had my first audition when I was thirteen and we made the last movie when I was fifteen, it was a very long casting process. And at the time, it was very much about making that movie, it wasn’t thinking, ‘Okay, so I’m gonna do this, and then I’m gonna have a year off, and then I’m gonna …” I didn’t think like that. I think it was a big enough experience just to kind of take it as it all came and it was overwhelming enough as it was.

Q: How does it feel now that your experience now with Narnia is over?

AP: Well, it’s good and it’s bad. It was kind of bittersweet the last days on set, the fact that you know you’re not coming back and that actually these guys are gonna off and make another movie without us. But ...

PD: {in butch voice} We’ll take it from here, babe.

AP: {Laughs} But at the same time, I don’t think I could film seven times seven months and play the same part seven time. I don’t think that would be creatively productive and I think audiences would probably get bored of watching me.

PD: That’s not true.

AP: {Laughs}

Q: How do you think Susan has changed from one film to the next?

AP: I think this time around Susan’s a little warmer. This issue this time is not whether or not to believe in Narnia, she knows Narnia’s there. I think the problem she has with it is kind of being afraid that any moment the kids are gonna get pulled back into the real world. And that’s something that’s very hard to kind of come to terms with and accept that you can have this isolated experience and go back into the real world and everything’s okay.

Q: Anna, you’re attending Magdalen College, where C.S. Lewis taught. Are there any courses on C.S. Lewis’s work?

AP: Yes…

PD: Are you teaching it?

AP: {Laughs} Not yet!

PD: Are people cheating from your notes?

AP:  When people talk about university in England, they always emphasise, ‘Oh it’s a riot, they’re the best years of your life,’ which I always think is quite worrying because if you get three years which are the best years of your life then what are you gonna do afterwards? But everyone always talks about how much fun it is, you’re partying, you do this, you do that… And I completely forgot that actually there is work involved. I actually have to go now cos I have to write an assay. But no, it’s quite hard work, but it’s really challenging and really good fun and I’m loving it.

Q: Did you choose Magdalen because it was Lewis’ college?

AP: Uh, no. I mean I didn’t kind of read a biography and think, ‘Right, I’m gonna follow every step,’ no. I actually applied before I - someone had told me but it had completely gone out of my head - I applied before I’d made the connection. I mean he taught there for twenty years and it’s a beautiful college.

Q: What classes are you taking?

AP: We just do one subject in the U.K., so I do English Literature. I think it’s amazing that you can get a degree by reading storybooks, but there is a lot of learning to do and I’m really enjoying it.

LMD: One of the things that‘s really interesting in the film is the transformation of Susan. In Prince Caspian she’s an out-and-out warrior and the writers of the film told me out of all the characters, Susan has the highest body count. Is that true?

AP: Yeah, I think the way we worked it out is that Peter gets negative points for the night raid. So, when you take that into account, Susan comes out on top, I think.

LMD: But what sort of training did you do for all the archery and swordfighting you do in the film?

AP: Well, we had a great stunt team in New Zealand; Allan Poppleton is the coordinator. And the nice thing about filming over six or seven months is that you’re not going to do the battle until the sixth month, so you get time during shooting to spend the odd afternoon practising routines and learning things. And I really enjoyed the horse riding especially, actually. That was really good fun, and not something that I would get to do around town in London.

LMD: Are you good at archery, now?

AP: Um, I’m okay…

PD: Yes!

AP: Y’know, people make me look good with the archery. A lot of the time we’re using computer-generated arrows. It means that the camera crews are safe, which is always nice.

PD: That’s the whole why we can do it so quickly… {Mimes pulling rapid-fire arrows from quiver} cause we’re just going like this.

Q: Anna, you’re director Andrew Adamson was asked if there was any threat of an onset romance with Ben being cast as Prince Caspian and he said he knew from the kind of person that you are that you would never involve yourself in one. What did he mean?

AP: I mean, I don’t think there was any threat of it on this, because that just wasn’t the kind of relationship that we had…

PD: They call them “Showmances” 

AP: {Laughs} We’re very good friends and Ben fit in with our dynamic very well. I think if I met Mr. Wonderful on a film set I wouldn’t rule it out, but no that really wasn’t an issue.

Q: Peter, can you talk about you choice of accent for Trumpkin?

PD: Well, I knew I didn’t wanna have my New York/ New Jersey accent in the middle of this sort of world cos I knew it would sort of stick out like a sore thumb. Andrew and I had talked about it, it was my idea for him to be British if that’s what you thought I was being. Because Warwick {Davis - Nikabrik} is British a lot of the actors like Cornell, who played, um...

AP: Glenstorm

PD: Glenstorm is British. A lot of those guys, the badger and Eddie Izzard who played Reepicheep, so I felt I had to be as well, it would only fit into the world and that’s what I chose to do.

Q: You do a lot of acting with your eyes as Trumpkin, was that something you worked on?
 

PD: Can I answer with my eyes? {Starts emoting optically} I don’t know, eye-acting? My wife said that last night she was like, “So much eye-acting going on.” I guess it was the only part of me that was me. I wasn’t wearing contact or anything. You might as well use what you got.

LMD: Peter, what was it like to come into the tight knit family of the cast and crew who had already worked together on the previous film.

PD: I could make crazy jokes about it, but they were just wonderful, they really were. It’s really nice to… And it wasn’t just me; I mean there’s a lot of new characters in this movie who weren’t in the first one. But it’s lovely to walk into a bunch of people that already know each other and they welcomed us with open arms. They already had their relationships and we just sort of blended right in there.

Q: Anna, are you going to continue school or would you take on another acting role?

AP: I think I’m hooked right now, so I’m going to keep reading things and try and fit things into summer holidays, but if I act I wanna act for thirty-five years, not five years. So I’m gonna finish my degree and see what happens.

Q: When will you finish your degree? 

AP: Two years.

LMD: Well good luck, Anna.

AP: Thank you!

~ The Lady Miz Diva/ Mighty Ganesha

May 3^rd, 2008

Click here for our movie review of The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian

PS: Special thanks to Rebecca Silverstein for invaluable transcription aid. All Photos Courtesy of Disney Enterprises/Walden Media. All exclusive original photos from New York Comic Con copyright © The Diva Review MightyGanesha.com

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