The Pevensie children couldn’t have been better cast. William Moseley plays Peter, who must lead an army. Anna Popplewell plays cautious Susan. Skandar Keynes is devious Edmund. And Georgie Henley is openhearted little Lucy. On the set in New Zealand, the cast gave one of its first interviews to NEWSWEEK’s Jeff Giles.
ANNA POPPLEWELL, 16: Georgie’s and my costumes have all this long, authentic 1940s underwear. One day we were hot and complaining, and I said, “Oh, I’ve got so much underwear on!” Skandar had this look on his face like he was not comfortable.
GEORGIE HENLEY, 10: It was a very uncomfortable conversation.
WILLIAM MOSELEY, 18: Skandar has girls’ disease, which is a, um, mild form of hating all women.
SKANDAR KEYNES, 14: No, I don’t! Just people who are older and scarier.
ANNA: Anyway, ever since, we’ve teased Skandar about his phobia of women’s underwear. So for his birthday we chose the pinkest, tackiest, smallest G-string we could find and wrapped it in pink tissue paper.
WILLIAM: The look on his face was the same look that the White Witch uses to turn creatures into stone.
When did you first read the “Narnia” books?
ANNA: I was 7 when I read them.
SKANDAR: I was 8.
GEORGIE: I was 6.
ANNA: Georgie’s very smart.
WILLIAM: Georgie’s a very good reader. One of the assistant directors will come up and say, “OK, school time, everyone,” and Skandar and I will roll our eyes. And the girls will be like…
ANNA and GEORGIE: “Yaaaaaaay!”[Laughter]