NYC Prince Caspian: Day 2 – Interview with William Moseley and Georgie Henley

The second interview of the day was William Moseley and Georgie Henley, Peter and Lucy, respectively. As you’ll see in the interview, they’re an absolute joy to talk to, and both very smart. Very intelligent, and well equipped with unrehearsed answers. They’re very down to earth and were absolutely awesome to hang out with.

Georgie Henley: Good Morning, everybody!

Paul Martin: Hi!

Georgie Henley: Hi!

Paul Martin: How are you?

Georgie Henley: I’m good, how are you?

Paul Martin: Not bad, I very much enjoyed the movie!

Georgie Henley: Thank you!

Paul Martin (to William): I was two rows ahead of you.

William Moseley: Oh, you were, that’s right.

Reporter: How was it for both of you coming back to Narnia?

William Moseley: You know, coming back to Narnia, it was a completely different experience. The first one I really auditioned, auditioned, auditioned and finally we got out to New Zealand and worked. For this one, Andrew said to me at the beginning, your character’s going to be very very different, you know, he’s not going to be the nice, selfless character he was in the first film. So I thought, well I’d love to, you know, work on that and so here in New York I worked with Sheila Gray, an acting coach out here, and I really got in touch with a lot of the darker, deeper stuff in my character and also in myself. So when I go on I could really perform and give everything I had to this role and also the film’s a lot more physical, obviously, so I worked with a boxing trainer here in New York at Gleason’s Gym which is this kind of underground gym in Brooklyn and I worked as hard as I could there. And I was really really pleased with the outcome of the film.

Georgie Henley: I think the first time you step onto a movie set, it’s a great feeling and that happened to me on The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. When you step onto a movie set after a long time, I think that’s a completely different feeling. I had a tummy full of nerves, and I was really really nervous and then I stepped on the set and then this big feeling of relief came through me and I just looked around and everybody, and loads of people who I knew from the first film were there and it felt so much more familiar than I thought it would. And I just totally got into it again and it was great, wasn’t it? It was great. (William Moseley: It was good.) It was good.

Reporter: Last night, you guys were sitting right in front of me as you watched the movie. When you have a movie like this where a lot of it is effects, how is it watching it for the first time and seeing it on the big screen? Can you enjoy it or are you too critical of yourself?

William Moseley: You know, Andrew’s an excellent director and I think we’ll all agree, he brings you into Narnia, you know, with the music, with the editing, with the shots and the composition and he really creates a wonderful world and just being able to watch that and see that and see my hard work that’s paid off; it was a great relief but it was also a really humbling moment for me and I really felt very privileged to be a part of such a spectacle.

Georgie Henley: Well, at the beginning of the film, I’m ashamed to say, I couldn’t take it, it was too much for me and I was having a bit of a sob. But then my mom just said to me: ‘Just sit back, relax, it’s all right, the film’s gonna be fine, just sit back, relax, and enjoy the film.’ And I thought I’d be really critical of myself, and I wasn’t because I just sat back and I relaxed and I tried to watch the film and I watched everybody. I wasn’t just watching myself, thinking: ‘why did I do that, why didn’t I do this.’ I was looking at everything and every little detail and stuff and trying to soak it all in so I could make myself feel better. (laughter)

Reporter: Did you want each one of your characters to convey a certain message?

William Moseley: That’s a good question, actually, um. What message would I want my character to convey? Well, I think as we’ve seen in history, there’s a lot of leaders who’ve fallen through their own ego. You know, I think most empires actually have fallen through their own ego. You’ve got the Roman Empire, you have the British Empire and I’m not going to talk about the American Empire. (laughter) But, um.. it happens, and I think the most important thing that Peter has to learn is humility as a leader, that he has to serve other people and not serve himself, and do what’s best for everybody else. I think it’s stuck in his mind that he’s this great, wonderful hero from thirteen-hundred years ago. Well he’s gotta prove himself again. He’s gotta have this humility that everybody’s heard so much about, again. So, I think it’s, I’d like to convey the message of humility from a leader.

Georgie Henley: I think my message is just as complicated as that, although this is gonna sound rather corny. My message, I think is, keep your belief in what your belief is and don’t let anybody knock you down, because when Lucy first sees Aslan, she knows he’s there, she can feel it in her bones, and because her siblings don’t believe her, she backs down. She follows them, they go the wrong way. (laughter) And everything starts to fall down even more, even though they meet Caspian. And then she sees Aslan, she actually sees him, and meets him again, and he’s very angry with her. He doesn’t understand why she didn’t go to him, because she believed it, why didn’t she just leave the others? Why couldn’t her belief be stronger than their knock-down comments, if you know what I mean. And that is a definite lesson, it’s a lesson that she learns and it’s a message that she conveys to a lot of people, and I think a lot of people go through that in their lifetime, definitely.

Reporter: What did you guys do off set? I mean did you guys hang out as a cast together?

William Moseley: Yeah.

Georgie Henley: Yeah, I mean, if you’re in New Zealand, basically, there’s so much adventure stuff to do and, (to William) go on, you know what to say (laughs).

William Moseley: We were in New Zealand, and I heard about this incredible bungie jump you could do and this was literally two weeks into filming, and I said to Skandar, ‘I’m going to go and do this bungie jump.’ And it’s like a hundred and twenty meters, like two-hundred and fifty feet, an eight second free-fall, basically: it’s huge. And Skandar’s afraid of heights, and he said ‘I want to do it,’ and I was like ‘are you sure?’ and he’s like ‘I don’t have any money,’ (Georgie Henley: ‘I’ll conquer my fear!’) and I was like ‘I’ll pay for you.’ and his mom wasn’t there at the time and then he told her later that evening (Georgie Henley: My mom was there! (laughs)) and Skandar’s mom said ‘I cannot believe you did that! Why would you book it for so early in the morning?’ (laughter) You know, she didn’t really care that he was gonna bungie jump, all she cared about was that he’d booked it for so early in the morning and she couldn’t have breakfast with him the next day. But anyway, we went off and we had very different experiences. Skandar was positively green before he jumped out and when he came back up, I’ve never seen him so happy. His face was lit up. And for me it was a very spiritual experience. (laughter)

Georgie Henley: Well, we watched the videos when they went down, and Skandar was just sitting there and then he went down and he did a really good dive and he came up and he was all happy and elated. Will was sitting there, running his hand through his hair, and like breathing, and then he did the most perfect swan dive off the side, and then he came up and he was like breathing and it was like a titanic moment or something, it was hilarious!

William Moseley: It’s good having on set siblings that are just the same as your real siblings.

Georgie Henley: It was so funny.

Reporter: Did you guys find that you kinda went through something similar from your characters where you go and make these movies and then you go back to real life and then you go back to movies again and then back to real life again?

William Moseley: You know, that’s true, and you know, we just like I say, four normal kids. We’re here doing a huge junket today and from here on out, but really we’re just four normal people who’ve had these amazing opportunities, this through the wardrobe experience and then we go back to reality, then we come back again. But the important thing, I think, is to have some humor with it. Not to take it all too seriously, to enjoy it. Because I think the most important thing about drama, for any kid that’s listening to this or reading this, is to enjoy it. And I think that’s what we did, and I think that’s what really kept the on-set buzz.

Reporter: What’s it like shooting the battle scenes, because you don’t have much dialog but you’ve gotta portray something going on and they seem pretty intense and tell me those swords are as heavy as they look?

William Moseley: I love it, you know, I absolutely love it. And the sword’s actually aluminium, so it’s very very light. Aluminum. (Georgie Henley: Ha!) It’s very light and you know, for me it’s the most empowering and it’s a really good way to express myself because you can put all this tension and anxiety into this fighting sequence and you can really use it. It’s exciting to go on and learn this stuff from these stunt trainers, and then to have guys dying around you at every moment. It’s just really really fun, like I was saying before, it’s just I really enjoy it.

Reporter: How interesting was it to kind of share the hero thunder a little bit with Caspian in this one?

William Moseley: Yeah, I mean, Caspian, well Ben Barnes, it was the first time I had met Barnes and I was kind of anxious about meeting him and I remember the first time I saw him and he was playing with Georgie. And I was like ‘that’s kind of weird.’ Cause, you know, I’m always playing with Georgie. (laughter) So I actually met Ben and he was actually really cool. He was a really cool, down to earth guy and I was like ‘oh, this is good, this is someone who I can trust.’ He was someone who was like my own age, who I’d go out with at the weekend, we’d go for a drink and a chat about the previous week. And also Caspian and Peter have this rivalry, so you have to have a trust with the other actor, you know, you have to be able to really let go with them, and they have to be able to let go with you, to have this chemistry. So it was great that they chose Ben Barnes cause I can’t imagine doing it with anyone else.

Reporter: Georgie, what was it like working with Ben?

Georgie Henley: Well, it was a bit of a rocky start because we were playing table tennis at the base camp and Ben came down the stairs and Jeff O., who was our Second A.D., introduced him as Ben and everybody gave him a hug and stuff. And I was like, why are they hugging him, I don’t even know who he is? What’s his job or anything? So he went in, and then my mom came over and said ‘so what do you think of Caspian?’ I was like ‘What?’ And she goes ‘That was Caspian.’ I was like ‘That’s Caspian!’ So I ran after him and I was like ‘Sorry, I didn’t know you were Caspian!’ And he was like, ‘Oh, right.’ And then, after that it kind of turned into like a really good relationship. And then we really welcomed him into the Pevensie family, I think. But he wasn’t a Pevensie, which is quite nice, I think, for him as well. I mean, we were the Pevensies, and he was in our family.

William Moseley: Like our adopted child.

(laughter)

Georgie Henley: But I do think he was like another big brother. I’ve got so many now! But he’s just lovely and he’s just as lovely as everybody else who works on them and he’s so easy to get along with, and that’s what you need. I mean, everybody, I mean Anna and Skandar and of course His Highness over here, they’re so easy to get on with. (laughter)

William Moseley: Royal Highness. (laughter)

Georgie Henley: The Magnificent! (laughter) You know, so easy to get on with, and I think that’s a great quality to have if you’re a Pevensie.

Reporter: How do you guys stay so grounded, because this movie’s huge, you guys are stars now, so how do you…

William Moseley: How do we stay so grounded? Well, I think what’s great about this is there isn’t really one person that’s, I mean even though the film is called Prince Caspian and it is The Chronicles of Narnia, it’s everything in one, so if one person’s taking it a little bit too far, you know, any of us could do at any time, the rest would just ‘whoom’ bring them back down to earth. And also, you know, we come from pretty grounded families. Our families are so supportive, so grounded. We all have siblings. We all have other kids. And it was never about ego for us, it was just always about enjoying it, being there for each other, just having a good time and doing hard work, doing good work, so I think as long as you keep that in perspective, I don’t think there should be any problem.

Reporter: Are you twenty-one now?

William Moseley: I just turned twenty-one last Sunday, yeah.

Georgie Henley: Yay!

Reporter: What about the ‘girlfriends’ side of it? Are you dating someone special now?

William Moseley: I’m not really allowed to talk about that. But, um, you know, yeah, it’s, uh… I do have someone in my life that I do feel very special about, so you know, um, don’t really want to say more than that. (laughs)

Reporter: Georgie!

Georgie Henley: Do I have a boyfriend, no. I’m very happy being single, thank you very much. (laughs)

(laughter)

Paul Martin: Georgie, were you happy to finally be able to draw your dagger in battle?

Georgie Henley: I was so happy. I spent all of the first film having this dagger and not really getting to use it. And then it’s just like ‘wha!’ (laughter) But I think one of my best moments in the film is when everybody’s at the side of the bridge and all the Telmarines and stuff, and I’m on the other side, and I draw my dagger with confidence. And then this army comes charging at me. And I remember filming that, and then Damian Alcazar who plays Lord Sopespian doing ‘Charge!’ And I was on my own, cause Aslan, of course, wasn’t standing next to me. We can’t import lions. (laughter) And I was having these horses doing at me.

William Moseley: Galloping.

Georgie Henley: Sorry, doing at me? Galloping at me. And I was absolutely petrified and Andrew kept shouting ‘Don’t show it in your face, don’t show it in your face!’ And I was so scared!

William Moseley: Act, darling, act!

Georgie Henley: Within! It’s called acting! (laughter)

Reporter: Georgie, how do you juggle your school with your acting?

Georgie Henley: Well, it’s the law to do school. You’re meant to do about three hours a day and normally if you had about a half an hour break, we’d go and do some school. One-to-one teaching, which is amazing. Normally, when I go back home to school, I’d be ahead of everybody else because of the one-to-one and stuff. And the good thing is that you don’t get homework because you do all the homework in the latin times, you still do everything. And even coming here on publicity, I’m doing some schoolwork this afternoon and working through, because, you know, you can’t just come here and throw everything else away. You’ve got to have some boundaries. And I’m twelve years old, I’ve got to do my education, and I’m happy about that. I love school, actually. I must say, I’m a bit of a nerd. I love school very much.

Reporter: What’s your favorite subject?

Georgie Henley: Surprisingly, I’m into the arts. I like english, I like languages as well. I like Latin and French and next year I’m taking on Russian.

William Moseley: Are you?

Georgie Henley: Yes!

William Moseley: (something in Russian)

Georgie Henley: (responds in Russian)

(laughter)

Reporter: William, I mean, your character is not in the next one, have you kinda talked to the writers about any way of kind of fudging you in?

(laughter)

William Moseley: You know, that’s an interesting question. Well, for me, as you know, characters leave Narnia. Peter and Susan leave Narnia. They’ve grown out of this world, they’ve learned what they can. And for William also is was always a very parallel experience, actually, and so, for me, I actually feel like I’ve learned what I can from Narnia as well, and I’m ready to move on and do something different, do something interesting and just improve. As an actor you always want to be challenging yourself, you always want to be doing something different, something that’s a little bit beyond you so you have to work that extra bit harder. So I’m ready for whatever comes my way next.

Reporter: Do you have anything right now, that you’re going for?

William Moseley: You know, there is a few things in the pipeline, but I don’t want to curse it, so I’m not gonna talk about it.

Reporter: Georgie, what do you like to splurge on?

Georgie Henley: Well.

William Moseley: Gucci bags and Chanel. (laughter)

Georgie Henley: oh, shhhhh…. No no no..

William Moseley: No, Georgie’s nothing like that.

Georgie Henley: Well, a lot of the time I’m a bit skinned because I love buying music off iTunes, I’m really into my music, so I normally spend most of my allowance on songs and albums and things, which is a bit silly, because you listen to them and then you get a bit bored of them. But I do basically spend all my money on them. I guess it’s okay, I don’t mind and I love pretty things as well. So if I save up, I’ll always get a little pretty ring or something and that’s always nice.

Reporter: What are your favorite bands?

Georgie Henley: My favorite band. I love the Kings of Leon, definitely. The Strokes, Muse, at the moment, I am really… oh, who am I into at the moment? Aw, I’ve forgotten. I’ve actually forgotten! (laughter)

William Moseley: Not The Arcade Fire.

Georgie Henley: No, not The Arcade Fire, but well done for introducing me to them. They’re very good.

William Moseley: Love The Arcade Fire.

Georgie Henley: But, yeah, definitely Kings of Leon. They’ve just got this amazing.. his voice is just amazing. It’s very, it’s husky and it’s sexy (laughter) and it makes you, you know, you’re intrigued by it and their songs are amazing. And I can play some of them on guitar which makes me feel very happy.

Reporters: Thank you!

Will and Georgie: Thank you!

The Cinema Source also has this interview with Georgie and also with William split into two.