The following is the quick and informal interview we had with Ms. Swinton, the evil White Witch Jadis, who goes through 7 transformations through the film; the outfits that they’ve got for her. The movie’s unit publicist, Ernie Malik, was also there and fielded some questions as well.
Had you read the books long before the movie?
Swinton: No, I read the books this very year.
Malik: I’m finding the majority of people I’ve asked say the same thing. I didn’t read them as a child.
Swinton: I don’t what it was; I think the world is divided between those who read it and those who didn’t; or had it read to them. But those were the days before Disney’s marketing machine actually got a hold of Narnia, you see. It’s not like Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings now, which are pushed down everybody’s throats. In those days people kind of discovered it. Let’s hope children will still be able to discover it.
It’s much more accessible to children than Lord of the Rings.
Swinton: Yeah. Well it’s about a children’s world. Lord of the Rings isn’t really. I think the real question, and I speak as the mother of two six-year-olds, the real question is “What do the parents want to read?” And it’s lovely to read the Narnia books to children. I’m not taken to the idea of reading The Lord of the Rings to my children. I’d be interested to know if most people discovered The Lord of the Rings by reading it themselves or whether people read it to them.
Have you seen the BBC production of the movie?
Swinton: No, I’ve never seen that. I saw the American cartoon. (laughter)
It doesn’t give you much to go on.
Swinton: Well, you know at the very beginning, this American kid says: “We’re going to stay with the professor.” And you’re going: “NO, you didn’t go stay with the professor, you were English and it was the blitz and you were sent away from your family… (laughter) Slightly different. And that’s going to be great in this film; we’re really laying that down nice and hard.
Malik: Yeah, that’s less than a paragraph in the book and I think it’s about the first ten or twelve minutes of the film.
Swinton: It really does set the tone.
It’s something that people need to be told about. It’s sixty years since the blitz.
Malik: We’ve seen the footage because the scenes are all done and it’s amazing, within three minutes you get – now understand, we’re subjective because we’re here but I’ve worked on as many films where I don’t give a damn and I’m sitting there for two hours saying I’m not involved with it, you know – but within three minutes you get it right here (points to his heart), and it’s the faces of those kids, it’s the moments that Andrew [Adamson] chose…
Swinton: I think it’s the labels on their clothes; I think that’s what does it. You put a little child in a forties coat on a railway platform, with a label on their – it’s tricky, you know.
