Jenny Halper of Cinema Confidential interviews Anna Popplewell. Again we’ve selected a few questions, and for the rest, you’ll have to visit our source link.
If sixteen-year-old actress Anna Popplewell could have one superhero power, she would want to fly. “That,” she says, “Or super-speedy archery.”
CINEMA CONFIDENTIAL: When I was on the set last fall, Andrew (Adamson) told us you and Georgie were the first to see the model Aslan. What was that like?
Anna Popplewell: It was really amazing, the first time we saw the model Aslan- most of Aslan is CGI- but on the set table they built an Aslan, which is really amazing, it looks like a real lion, and certainly it will onscreen. It was really helpful to see because it was built to scale and looked so real and was so impressive.
CINEMA CONFIDENTIAL: Were there any scenes you particularly loved shooting?
Anna Popplewell: One of my favorite scenes is when we get to the beaver’s dam, which is one of the very few scenes where we had to laugh. There was a lot of running away and a lot of being scared; a lot of highly emotional scenes, so that was one of the few scenes where Andrew had to try and make us laugh. That was fun.
Probably the most difficult scene was the death one, but it was also really rewarding when we got that.
CINEMA CONFIDENTIAL: And the battle scene?
Anna Popplewell: It was crazy. (Laughs). It was really fun. It was different, because we’d spent four months in studio so being on location was new and it brought lots of challenges. The weather was difficult, we had to get the right light, and for William Moseley, who plays Peter) who did a lot of work in that scene, it was exhausting having to wait for the right weather and that sort of thing. But it was really fun to be outside, and it was really fun to shoot on such a large scale, the scenery’s amazing.
CINEMA CONFIDENTIAL: I saw some pictures of Tilda Swinton as Jadis the White Witch, and she looked terrifying!
Anna Popplewell: Tilda’s amazing. She’s very, very warm as a person so it’s amazing to see her being transformed into someone so cold. I think I only have one scene with her, when she comes to Aslan’s camp. But on set when we were doing the shots she scared me. I was really scared of her. (Laughs). But as a person she’s really nice and it was really wonderful to work with her.