Interview - William Moseley

By Sean Lynch
Interview with William Moseley
Star of The Chronicles of Narnia : Prince Caspian

After surviving an 18 month long audition process which landed him a role in "The Lion, The Witch & The Wardrobe", English born actor William Moseley is back for seconds in the follow up to the original hit which raked in over $750M worldwide.

Sean Lynch caught up with the upbeat 21 year old, a star in the making who possesses all the dashing good looks & poise of Prince William (minus the years of inbreeding), during his recent trip to Melbourne to promote his final appearance in the multi-million dollar franchise "The Chronicles of Narnia : Prince Caspian".

You're about to head off to Heasville Animal Sanctuary after we're done here. Is that something you actually want to do, or is every visiting actor contractually obliged to get a photo with a Koala?

[Laughs]. I chose to go there! I actually have a friend here, and we we wanted to go to the Zoo in Sydney - but we couldn't end up going because we were to busy - so we just asked around today. We were told it was a really good place to go, there are some good wineries on the way [Laughs]. So I said - "Lets Go!"

Is that the sort of pull you have these days as a 'Disney Movie Star' that you can just demand to go places...

[Laughs] Yeah, pretty much. If I'm not busy, I'll often do it - I mean why not. They have a car available to you, you have a perdium, they give you your little living allowance, and you sort of say "Wheres the best place to go?". They say "You should go there". Alright I'll do it! [Laughs].

So what leg of the Narnia world tour is this?

Let me think this out, because this could get quite confusing...

I'll organise a Flow-Chart for us... [Laughs]

[Laughs] OK, so I did one day in London. Then I did a few days in New York. Then I did LA, then Mexico, back to New York, off to Japan, LA, Australia : Sydney then Melbourne, off to LA... Israel... England, Prague, Paris, London, Munich, Madrid... maybe Milan.

[Laughs] How easy was that! [Laughs].

So you're one of the few people in the world that can actually use the 6000 songs you can store on an iPod. Not many people can do that unless they're going on a three week jog...

[Laughs] The iPod has been getting a very good workout! Also reading a good book makes a big difference, and I'm reading a really good book at the moment so that helps.

I listen to a lot of Bob Dylan, I listen to The Rolling Stones quite a lot, Neil Young. I love Arcade Fire, some new bands like TV On The Radio - they're quite good. But I also love Podcasts. I always listen to the Ricky Gervais Podcast, it's absolutely amazing. 'This American Life' - so good, just fascinating, it blows my mind. That's like an hour DONE.

I actually download film reviews and trailers, that stuff is pretty cool. And one of the presents Walt Disney gave us was a bunch of these iTunes cards, so I just downloaded the whole season of The Wire. It's so good! And I just finished Rome - which was awesome.

I suppose we should actually talk about Prince Caspian. In real life, you seem like a pretty nice happy sort of dude but no offense, in this latest Narnia flick - your character has become a bit of an asshole [Laughs]...

[Laughs] I love it! I think it's awesome. You know, the character is different and I spoke to Andrew [Adamson] the director. And he said "Look, we're going to change your character and make him more complex". And I was like "OK". So I went and got an acting coach for three and a half months.

Wardrobe was really my first ever film and that was more of an experience. Whereas the second one was more, you know, "Acting". And so I worked with this acting coach on all this sort of in-depth stuff, using all sorts of personal things from my life, music, all those kinds of things to get into the right head space.

And I learned an incredible amount. Physically [the role] it was kind of tough, but it was fun. I got to learn how to chase a galloping horse at full speed and grab hold of the saddle, fly kick a guy in the head when he jumps towards me...

I'm impressed by that! That's pretty cool to see that with such a huge budget you were still able to do your own stunts...

I did nearly all of my own stunts myself. I'd laugh at my stunt double because he'd just be sitting around drinking cups of tea [Laughs] because he'd never get to do anything [Laughs]. Because I wanted to do all my own stuff - I wanted to. I wanted to do a 110 beat sword fight - I mean how many people can say they've done that on a battlefield?

Just the coolest and most fun shit you've ever seen.

I was so into it. I even worked with a Boxing Trainer in New York in this sort of underground 'Gleesons Gym', like under a carpark [Laughs]

Rocky style...

[Laughs] Rocky style! It was absolutely fantastic.

After the success of the first film, was the novelty of the process not as exciting this time around? Are you a little more jaded these days?

No, because it still totally blows my mind. I mean, we flew around in this helicopter to this remote location in New Zealand. Which tourists can't even get there, because you can only get there by helicopter. Like they'd bring this crazy boat in, bring a tiny camera crew and we'd just shoot in the middle of nowhere. It was the coolest thing.

Georgie and Skandar [who play Lucy and Edmund in the film], because of their age, legally had to be only 30 minutes from the set. So we were literally living right in the middle of nowhere. So you could go out for runs and your running in the middle of nowhere, or you'd go out on a kyac, or go explore the mountains. It was just unbelievable.

We shot two thirds of the film on location, and the sets they built were like being on location anyway because they were so big. I think they were like the second biggest set ever built or something. I loved it and I was never jaded by it once, because it was simply the coolest thing you could ever imagine.

What about the enormous Press tours you go on? Do you ever think "I can't be bothered talking about myself today!!" [Laughs]

No - I like talking about myself every day! [Laughs]

No, I can kind of understand what you're saying - but I love to travel. I love to smell a different place, see a different place...

Smell a different place?

Yeah! [Laughs]. It sounds weird, but every place has a different smell. Like if you've ever been to LA it smells...

It smells like shit...

[Laughs] Well, that might be your own.. interpretation [Laughs]. But places do smell! Like, the air here is so clean and so nice. I love just getting immersed in a different culture, meeting different people. And that's why I don't hate doing publicity, because I get to meet different people. I get to take on their vibe, you know. The Japanese are very different to the Mexicans, the Mexicans are very different to the Americans, the Americans are very different from the Australians. So it's kind of awesome, because you don't often get that much in your life.

I mean, if you do travel, you kind of travel with a friend and you kind of don't really talk to people. And you kind of have to get you're knowledge from a waiter or something.

Back to Prince Caspian. How did you deal with the fact that you were no longer the main man there. Were you worried there was a new pretty boy on the set to lap up all the attention of the teenage girls [Laughs]?

Whats funny is, even though the film is called Prince Caspian - I kind of think I have the best role in the film. I hate to say it [Laughs] but I would not swap it. I got to do the big fight sequence, I got to do the big emotional sequence, I got to lead the charge into battle. That's pretty flippin' cool!

So it was kind of nice having another kid who was there in his 20's that we could hang out and have a beer together on the weekend and have a laugh. Like, we over quoted the English version of The Office way to many times...

The better version!

The way better version! But it's fun to kind of hand over the reigns to Ben for the rest of the Narnia films.

So you're not in the next one, is that true? Were you aware of that going into it?

Yeah, yeah, because it's in the books. CS Lewis didn't write him [Peter Pevensie] in. But actually its kind of nice, because I'm given this great passage into the acting world. At the end of this film it's almost like I'm going from Narnia [as the character] into the real word, but as William I'm going from Narnia into the real acting world. So its actually like a perfect way to go...

So at no point you whispered into Andrew's ear "You know, maybe I could come back to visit for dinner in Narnia in the next one?"...

[Laughs] No, not really. I mean sure, it might be fun to come back for a dream sequence or something [Laughs] but, you know, not for another seven month shoot! [Laughs].

So once you get back, life after Narnia, are you going to base yourself in Hollywood - or will you be staying in London?

Well I'm not really based anywhere right now. I was in New York, then I was in Prague...

You're like a Gypsy!

[Laughs] I know. A Gypsy! I literally am a traveling Pikey! [Laughs] I'm a glorified homeless person, I really am...

Before we go, is there anything you particularly want people to know about the new movie?

I just hope audiences like the film. Because so much work has gone into it, and I really do think it's a better film. It's more complex, it's more interesting and I think it kind of appeals to an older audience - an audience of our age...

Plus theres a whole bunch of underage kids brutally killing people in it! [Laughs]

[Laughs] If you're into that sort of thing... which you should be! [Laughs]. Like you've got Susan with a bow just nailing people [Laughs].

... You cut off a guys head!

[Laughs] I know! One minute you're talking to a giant Lion, the next - GONE! [Laughs].

THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA : PRINCE CASPIAN is in cinemas from JUNE 5th, 2008
And is Out Now on DVD across Australia.