Interview with Rynelf, Tony Nixon, on Dawn Treader

We recently had the opportunity to interview Rynelf himself, Tony Nixon, about The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader.  I asked about deleted scenes, life on the set, and preparation for the role, as well as what he has coming up next.  His role, unfortunately, became a blink and you’ll miss him kind of character in the film.  I think you’ll really enjoy this interview, though, as it is a very good look at some of the things that might have been in the film.

NarniaFans.com: Tell us about yourself, who are you, what role, or roles, did you play in the film?

Tony Nixon: I was born in the UK, growing up in rural Hertfordshire. As a child my two great passions were Drama and Horses. Years later, a string of horse related jobs led me to teaching actors to ride for film, and background riding for Film and TV. This reunited me to my love of acting. In 1988, I migrated to Australia where I settled into an Acting Career, working in Theatre, Film and Television, Corporate Videos, Voice Overs, Radio Plays, Mime, MC work and Site-specific Theatre. I am particularly known for my portrayal of Manuel, the ‘Faulty Towers‘ waiter with my improvisation and physical comedy skills receiving outstanding reviews at the Edinburgh, Melbourne and Adelaide Comedy Festivals.

In recent years I have also turned my hand to film making, writing and producing Corporate Training Videos, Local TV commercials and Documentaries. My most recent major role of course being that of Rynelf in ‘The Voyage of the Dawn Treader.’

NarniaFans.com: How did you come to be involved with this Chronicles of Narnia movie? Take us through the process for how you learned of the film and casting.

Tony Nixon: I had been focusing on live performance for a number of years and apart from a few short films, TVC’s and a couple of my own documentaries I hadn’t been doing any film work since about 2003.
I just finished a long run with a comedy play of about 2 years. This show was touring Australia and the UK, and was getting great reviews. However I was spending two months away from home and two months back and was away from my family for about 6 months of the year.

I was looking to move onto something else. A friend of mine, another actor, Neil Fanning (The voice of Scooby-Doo in the last two movies) told me about Narnia. I went online to an actors casting site called AT2. And contacted my Agent to see if he could get me an audition for Rynelf.

The auditions for roles were held all over the country. I auditioned and was lucky enough to be offered the role.

NarniaFans.com: How did you prepare for your role?

Tony Nixon: Usually I like to get the script ASAP and get as much information from that as I can. However I waited and waited, but no script was forthcoming. The role had been listed as a “Support role” and so I wasn’t sure how much dialogue I would have.

I finally got to see the script for the first time 2 weeks before shooting started at a full cast read through. I was a little disappointed at how little dialogue the support roles had. On the other hand as it was only two weeks out I was a bit relieved too.

In this case of course we had the book to go on. I read the book several times and made notes on Rynelf. In particular I was interested in his relationship to Caspian. And so I tried to build up some kind of character from what I could glean from the book.

NarniaFans.com: What does having a role like this one entail? Were you given the entire script, or just pages at a time?

Tony Nixon: With a support role you usually get the full script (as we did in this case). It’s really important as an actor that your scenes are read and learnt in the context of the full story. And not in isolation.

It may well change the significance of what you are saying. The subtext is often far more important than the words, and will of course affect the way the lines are delivered. Of course with a small role things change as you go along and rewrites come into play.

NarniaFans.com: We know that they cut a lot of stuff from the final film, stuff that was shot. Can you tell us about scenes that your character had that were deleted?

Tony Nixon: I want to be careful here because I don’t want to sound like I am complaining. Every actor and his dog wanted a part in this film, and actors were even prepared to take “Background” (Extra) work just to be involved in this production, and I am incredibly grateful for the chance of being a small part of the film. Also editing is a very hard job (I have done some) and does require sometimes to be ruthless about what’s cut and why.

I actually only lost about two full scenes (I will come back to those). Mainly I / we lost bits of scenes, screen time in action shots, a line here and a line there and in my case other actors references to my character.

Everyone has stuff cut. Of course if you start with very little (and I did) and it gets cut you are left with almost nothing. But lets talk about what’s still in for a moment. Visually I am in the film a lot, however some scenes move at such a pace that only family and friends would spot me. Lets face it a lot of men in matching armour with beards are running around in the action shots. In the market square scene you hear a voice as the camera pans across the crowd: “He’s strong all right, smells like the rear end of a Minotaur.” This is my voice used in voice over.

As it was shot. I was standing next to Doug Gresham and had a couple of lines delivered to Pug and joking with Eustace. In the script as we shot it, it says a hood is pulled off revealing Rynelf and Rynelf shouts “For Narnia.” Reep was always on Drinian’s shoulder and said “For Narnia” after me. In the film my voice is in voice over and the “For Narnia” line is Reep’s (that line being his makes perfect sense to me).

A similar thing happened During Caspian’s speech to the Crew as he descends the steps after his speech a crewman yells “For Narnia” and the rest join in … that’s me. It was shot from the front but the shot used in the film is the reverse from behind the crew, because it’s about Caspian’s response (fair enough Ben’s the star not me).

I had lines when Eustace boarded the boat that are gone. But I’m there bowing.

The high shot of the Crows nest “LAAAND HO” that’s me, but the shot is high and its hard to spot me.

We shot a lot of footage of the aftermath of the serpent attack, with myself and others slowly getting up from under fallen debris. When Edmund spots the Narnian boats Rynelf had a lovely close up of leading the crew in the celebration cheer (that’s gone).

My lovely scene with Shane [Rangi, who played Tavros] and the seagull is still in.

Some things changed during the shoot purely because of practical reasons. There were a couple of lines during the rowing scenes. I was supposed to complain to Mirko’s character that the blue star wasn’t getting any closer, he replies with “if I get any hungrier I will eat that Dragon.” His line is still in the film. However, the scene immediately before that dialogue involved myself and Drinian. Drinian orders Mr. Rynelf to take his team to the Oars room, Rynelf responds and gathers his team. The hatch to the rowing room was at one end of the ship and Mirko’s character was at the other, so physically it was impossible for me to have that conversation with Mirko, so you can see that sometimes you lose a line purely for practical reasons.

Ironically the scene with Drinian has been dropped AND the lines about the Star that were given to another actor were BOTH cut. But that’s the way it goes.

When Lord Rhoop is dropped on the deck, Drinian called down to “Mr. Rynelf restrain that man,” this meant yelling the full length of the ship. Michael felt that being a Lord himself, Drinian would show more respect and so the line was delivered to another actor standing closer to Drinian, but I think this was ultimately cut too, but again you see a practical reason for the change. You just have to accept that’s part of doing support roles.

During the storm sequence Ben throws a rope to Mirko. In rehearsals that was me and Ben went with “Here Rynelf … grab the rope.” Mirko replaced me because I think for the shot they wanted someone physically bigger. So they are just some of the odds and ends I can remember. I’m sure there were more.

The two scenes that I lost, well one was just a very short fight sequence. During the Town Square battle there were a few “cut aways” like Reep releasing Lucy, the Faun vaulting on his spear, that sort of thing. I had a cut away sword fight sequence that wasn’t used. The other scene was the near mutiny. I had a few lines in that scene and featured as the spokesperson for a disgruntled crew, but I don’t feel I should go into detail.

During the dragon Attack you can see me on the fore deck with the girls.

Rynelf had some nice heroic action protecting Lucy and Gael. When the Crossbows were fired he gathered the girls in under his arms and shielded them with his body from falling cross bow bolts … it was nice stuff.

So … am I disappointed at the cuts? Well yes and no. It would be very ungrateful of me to complain, we all know as small part players that this can happen, and Fox don’t owe me anything do they .. it’s their film after all, and the last thing I want to do is give myself a reputation for being “Difficult” of “Complaining” but of course I am human, and the first time I saw the film I was a little disappointed I wasn’t in it more, that’s only natural.

I am over that (in fact I was over that very quickly) and I am very happy to be a small part of the Narnia family it was a great experience. The only negative for me was that I (and others) lost our character names. I was credited as 1st mate not Rynelf ….

NarniaFans.com: Can you tell us anything else that might have been deleted from the film, based on the final shooting script?

Tony Nixon: No, not really, it’s probably not my place. Lots of footage is always shot that doesn’t make it and the reasons for that as I have said are many and varied. We shot a lot of “life on board:” pulling on ropes, swabbing decks, sail repairs etc. Stuff that gave a feeling of life on ship, and a sense of the length of the journey the sailors were on. A few of the stunts and action scenes were not there.

The action sequences moved at an incredible pace didn’t they … I know we shot lots of footage during the serpent attack, that were not used, but the attack couldn’t have been longer, I don’t think.

NarniaFans.com: What was life like on the set? Give us a good ‘day in the life’ type of thing, Bundaberg and all.

Tony Nixon: Days on set are long,10-12 hours usually with an early start. You get a call sheet the night before each shoot day that outlines the scenes to be shot that day (although when shooting outdoors these can change in a moment with the weather). The call sheet also has your expected arrival time at work your “Call Time.” The actors with prosthetics and special FX make up are often in 2 or more hours before everyone else. Your call sheet will have your days mealtimes on it usually starting with breakfast. You may have a makeup call before or after breakfast depending on how early you are required “on set.” I usually spent about 30 mins in makeup, I like this time, it’s time for a coffee and a chat and for me usually a joke or three, it kind of settles me in for the day, and allows me to think about the scenes ahead of us.

Usually after makeup and breakfast you go to your trailer where wardrobe have hung your costume for the appropriate scene. The assistant directors have usually left your “Sides” and any rewrites in your trailer too. Sides are a small A5 size booklet version of the scenes you are about to shoot that day. Then you wait in your trailer until a 3rd AD lets you know when you are required on set.

We do a lot of “Waiting”. Usually you only go onto the set once the cameras and lights are all in place and pretty much ready to go. Although you may step on and off set a number of times to actually help with the “Blocking” of the scene. By blocking I mean the actual physical movements the actors will make during the scene, this is often where a support actor will get a bit of direction. We want you to come in here, walk to here and pick this up and then deliver your lines etc etc. Sometimes you go straight from “Blocking” to rehearse the scene and shoot. Sometimes you block it and stand down while lights, cameras etc are moved…

Then when that scene has been shot from several different angles you start the process all over again. And bit, by bit and NOT in chronological order you make a movie.

Throughout the day hair and makeup is fiddled with and adjusted. Before each “take” the first AD usually asks for final checks and two or three people are fussing at your hair, makeup and wardrobe.

The other thing that happens throughout the day is food and drinks are brought around the set regularly, this keeps energy and spirits up. Soft drinks, water, Tea and Coffee are always on hand. Paul mentioned “Bundaberg.” It’s our local Ginger Beer, and was very popular on set and from time too time would run low, so it was almost currency. I believe we got Paul hooked on it during his visit.

NarniaFans.com: Can you tell us about any pranks that were pulled while filming the movie?

Tony Nixon: A lot of verbal banter was going on between takes, as I have said before it was a very friendly shoot. But Michael runs a pretty tight ship (no pun intended) and that’s not a bad thing. We kept the shoot moving along at quite a pace.

So there wasn’t a lot of time for practical jokes. I do remember on one take during the victory march at Lone Islands, Gary gave me the nod that he was up to something. When Rhince (Arthur Angel) came running into frame to beg Drinian to go with us. Gary (Drinian) was supposed to intercept him. On this occasion Gary grabbed Arthur and gave him such a bear hug that poor Arthur couldn’t breath let alone get his words out.

NarniaFans.com: What does it mean to you, to be a part of a production that so many will cherish for years to come?

Tony Nixon: Its huge. An opportunity like this doesn’t present itself very often. It’s great for my career of course to have this on the CV. But for me personally it was and is an experience I will cherish. I read the books as a child.

So the day I first stood on the decks of the mighty Dawn Treader was incredibly surreal

NarniaFans.com: What are you doing next?

Tony Nixon: I’m just about to start a new film called “The 34th Battalion.” In this one I am principle cast, so it’s a smaller film but a much bigger role. I’m very excited about it. I think it’s going to be a big Australian film, and I hope will get seen overseas too.

It takes place in WW1 in the trenches of northern France and Belgium. It’s very different to VDT and has a completely different target Audience. It brings with it some new challenges.

The director wants to bring to it a level of realism on par with “Saving Private Ryan,” but set in the first world war not the second. So it won’t be to everyone’s taste, but it is based on real events. For me it’s a personal journey because a couple of years ago I shot a documentary about my Great Grandfather who died in this conflict. The character I play in the film has echoes of my own ancestor.

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