Children of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe in the spotlight

The four child stars of upcoming movie The Chronicles of Narnia have appeared in London’s Leicester Square. The youngsters play the Pevensie children in The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, which hopes to rival Harry Potter at the Christmas box office. Adapted from the CS Lewis book, the film also features Tilda Swinton as the White Witch and Liam Neeson as the voice of Aslan the lion. In the story, they discover a wardrobe gateway to the snowy land of Narnia.

William Moseley, 18, from Gloucestershire, plays Peter, and Skandar Keynes, 14, from London, is Edmund. Keynes is from the same school as Harry Potter star Daniel Radcliffe.

The youngest of the four, Georgie Henley, 10, from Ilkley, West Yorkshire, who stars as Lucy, is making her professional acting debut.

“This is my first movie so it’s quite overwhelming for me, but it’s amazing,” she said. “I don’t want to sound selfish or anything, but I kind of like being in the spotlight. It’s nice to be noticed.”

Sixteen-year-old Anna Popplewell, who played Colin Firth’s daughter in the film Girl with a Pearl Earring, is Susan. Her sister Lulu appeared in Love Actually and her brother Freddie was in recent film Finding Neverland.

BBC News

My trip inside The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe
by Lauren Packer

Setting the scene

There were lots of photographers crowded around the Narnia scene which had been set up in the gardens. But to our disappointment, it was really just a wardrobe. I was at least expecting some snow!

Hanging Around

I got a taste of what it is really like being a TV reporter, as the kids were quite late! There was a lot of hanging around involved, so we spent some time watching the mad (but quite frightening) pigeons in Leicester Square.

But that wasn’t all I was doing – I was actually planning my interview!! I thought about the questions I would ask the actors and spoke to the Newsround assistant producer about what shots we would use.

Then we all got a bit of a shock when Wallace and Gromit popped out of the Odeon cinema for a chat. Obviously, they were just people dressed up as the characters but they were fun!

Suddenly there was a lot of hustle and bustle and we could see the actors coming in the distance. At this point, I was feeling nervous because I really didn’t want to mess up the interview! But I didn’t need to worry because they were all really friendly, they were calm as well. They were just like normal kids – they weren’t starry at all.

Screen Magic

I asked them how they felt about becoming famous and they didn’t really know how to answer because they said they’re not famous yet! Also, I asked Anna, who plays Susan, if the Snow Queen was scary; she said the actress who played her was very intense but she wasn’t afraid of her.

And she hopes the film’s exciting: “The screen magic’s very different to the book magic but I think it’s magical and I hope everyone’s going to enjoy it.”

Georgie Henley who plays Lucy was my favourite out of all of them because she’s so young but so confident, she’ll talk to anybody! And she’s only 10!

CBBC Newsround
Video of this Article