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WILLIAM MOSELEY AND GEORGIE HENLEY
from MightyGanesha.com, May -, 2008
by Rebecca Silverstein

Q: What changes have you gone through since the last film?
GH: Adolescence!
WM: For the first film, it was a new experience. It was a really rewarding experience, as is this one, but we were seeing it all for the first time, and comparatively, the second film, we were going into it for the second time, so you really want to take a step up. You really want to push it to the next level, go that extra mile, and for me, personally, I worked with an acting coach for three and a half months here in New York -- with Sheila Gray for three and a half months and then I also worked with a boxing trainer. So, really what's changed is hopefully I've become a better actor. I feel like a professional, and physically, I think I've learned a lot about my body and what feels good, what works well, and emotionally, I really got much more in touch with myself.

How old are you now?
WM: I'm 21. I just turned 21 last Sunday.
GH: I'm 12. I'm 13 in July.

Q: Georgie, what changes have you gone through since the last film?
GH: Well, since the first one got released, I mean, a lot happened. I've changed schools because, you know, primary school, secondary school. I've made new friends, kept old friends. And it was weird going to a bigger school with bigger people, and you know, sometimes, you do get taken the mick out of because of Narnia.
WM: Aww …
GH: But you know, I don't mind because I’m proud of what I did, but I think the big change really was Lucy, the character, and the nice thing was that I kind of have grown with her and she's grown with me. Strange that, isn't it? I love the fact that changing her has changed me, as well. Getting in depth with her was like, as Will said, I've looked inside myself and am figuring out who I am as well. I feel like I take more from Lucy's character. I feel like after being Lucy, I feel like I've become a better friend to my friends. I feel like I can be a lot more loyal to them because I feel like Lucy is and qualities like that. She's a lovely person, and I feel like if I take something from her, and she's taken some stuff from me in the film. Her fiery temper doesn't come from nowhere, people! {Laughs} No, joking. But yeah, I think changes go both ways.

Q: Georgie, previously you said you didn't know if you wanted to keep acting. Do you still want to?
GH: At this age, nobody really knows what they want to be in the long run. A lot of people know what they want to do in the short run. And I'm very looking forward to filming the next Narnia installment, which I've signed on to do and which I'm really excited about because it's my favorite Narnia book, Voyage of the Dawn Treader. And I think that having that journey without William and Anna {Popplewell} will be OK, but I think as an actress, you have to cope with those changes and changing the director and things, I mean Andrew {Adamson, director}'s leaving me as well! I'm still a child, I'm still going through childhood, I mean there are so many other things I want to do. I want to write, I want to act, I’m really into music, I want to do something with music. There are so many things I want to do, and I still don't know what I want in life. I mean, I don't think anybody does, I don't think even William does!

Q: William, what are you doing next?
WM: What am I going to do next? I'll have to see. People always ask me, "What do you want to do next?" And I used to say I want to do some dark, deep drama, but you know what? Just what I read and I like, and I like the people involved, and I think the script’s interesting, and I think the project has a good potential, so something I feel instinctually about. You know, I'm pretty lucky I can do that now. I have friends that are actors that would take anything just to work, so I'm in a really fortunate position that I can choose my next project wisely.

Q: Would you consider something like Equus?
WM: You know, what's funny was that I was actually thinking about doing that before Daniel Radcliffe did it in New York, but I just never followed through with it, but just anything that sort of takes my fancy.

Mighty Ganesha: Last night, you saw the movie with the rest of us. What are your thoughts on it, and what did you think of watching it with an audience?
WM: Yeah, you know it’s definitely epic, I would say was one of the words. And I was really impressed by the composition of the film and the last battle of Prince Caspian because I think Andrew really does direct a fantastic film and a fantastic battle scene, and the way he builds the tension, the way he really takes you in and then builds it to a wonderful crescendo, and I feel really fortunate to be a part of that because I gave everything I could to that battle scene, everything I could. I was working as hard as I possibly could, and emotionally, and the emotions were working as hard as I could, giving 110% because there are thousands of people around you and all over the world working on this film right now, and if you're not giving what you've got, then you're kind of letting yourself down, so when I watched it, it was eye-opening.
GH: I was getting so nervous about it because there was so much of the film that I hadn't seen because I just wasn't involved in it, like the battle and the raid and things, and someone asked me if I wanted popcorn. I said no because I thought I'd be sick! I did eventually get the popcorn, though, I was too hungry. But once I got in there, from the title sequence, I was on the edge of my seat and I felt like I was a member of the public and I had completely forgotten what it would look like because when you're filming, you don't know what the heck it is gonna look like from the outside when its cut together and like William said, with the music and the composition, and I think the word is, I was mind blown! And if I was gonna be rude, I was gobsmacked! Seriously, I was amazed by it. And I hope that doesn’t sound big headed, but I thought it was great. It was really good.

Q: What was your hardest day of filming?
WM: My hardest day? Well, I think that as an actor you can be very self-critical. I think I'm definitely my worst critic out of everybody, I'm my hardest critic. So, it wasn't doing the big emotional scenes; it wasn't doing the big physical scenes. It was like, running down a hallway and just not feeling like I was there in the headspace, you know? And I was really frustrated, the tension was going, the tension was going and for me, that was the hardest day. But actually, it might have been the fact that both of my best friends turned up on set that day. They had been staying in Prague the night before -- that might have had something to do with it. But none of the emotional scenes or the physical scenes -- just running down the hallway was my hardest moment.
GH: I think mine was I had a weird time a couple of days on set. I went through a blip with my acting. And I think it's because I started asking myself a lot of questions, and I didn't feel like I could act properly anymore. You get a flow, and I didn't feel like I got the flow anymore. I know that sounds weird, but… And so many people were trying to help me -- I mean, Will was trying to help me; all the other cast members were trying to help me, Andrew particularly was trying to help me. You know, he came to see me everyday and talk to me about the scene we were about to do and things. And it came to a time when I got really frustrated because we were doing this scene which is really important to me. It was the scene in which I heal Trumpkin after they’ve come back from the raid, and it was a tense scene because Will and Ben had just had the big fight, and I don't know, it was all little technical things. I had to put the bottle in the right place and everything, and they did my close up and I just couldn't do it. And we did it so many times, I don't know how many times we did it, not 60 but a lot of times, and in the end, Andrew's just like, "We'll do it when you feel like you can do it," and I came out of that blip just like that after that because I just thought, "Wake up, Georgie! What are you doing?" You know, there's no point being here and having all these amazing opportunities being thrown at you and then going through this blip, and I was just out of it and I felt so much better after that.
WM: You know what's funny is that as an actor, you're performing in front of thousands – well, millions - essentially of people. That's why I think you really have to take your hats off to the people that are doing it well. The top, top actors out there who are really doing it well, because it isn't easy, and anyone who turns around and says, "Acting's easy," I think you're talking out of somewhere which I don’t wanna talk about.

Q: Is it harder to talk in interviews than it is to act?
WM: It's way tougher to act. It's the hardest thing, acting. It's the most liberating, therapeutic, emotionally deepening experience, but it's also extremely difficult because you're dealing with your own emotions on a day-to-day basis, and some days, like we all have, some days we don’t have good days. Some days you feel tired, you feel ill or something, you just some bad news on the phone and if you’re gonna perform this wonderful, happy scene, and you just don't feel like it. But that's why we've been privileged to be in this position, and I think that's why Andrew chose us because we are very headstrong, and we are very determined, and like Georgie said, she pulled it out of herself, which I think is a fantastic character trait.
GH: All I'm saying is that I think acting -- some people thing acting is a walk in the park and for some people, they just have it naturally. I think some people just have it and it's a very raw talent and it can't be tampered with. Some people just force it, and I think for people who force it, they're the people who think it's easy. But the raw talented people, like William, I think you're very rawly talented. Because you feel like you have to control it so much like, because you have all this energy and all this inside your head and you have to control it somehow and that's the hardest thing I think because you have to control it and channel that energy into an emotion, into a scene or something, and I think that's the hardest thing of acting, really.

Q: Do you ever get called by your character's name?
WM: Yes.
GH: Definitely. Ohhh, it's horrible! I ended up being at my first day of secondary school, and all of my friends saying Georgie and Georgie and Georgie, and stuff, and I was like, OK, this is going to be fine. And then my teacher said, Georgie, and that was fine, and then she said Lucy, and I was like, "No! This is not going to stop." But then it did stop and then it was fine after that bit. It was just that one moment of anger.

Q: How do you see the next film being with Anna and William leaving, and Ben Barnes, Georgie, and Skandar Keynes staying?
WM: I'm not in the next film, but as you know, Peter passes Narnia on to Prince Caspian. Now, I - essentially William - because I feel very strongly about this, I’ve worked on this for six years, I thought I had to also pass this on. It sounds really weird and I know it's just a film, but you know, this film is very deeply rooted. It comes from an emotional place, and so at the end of it, I felt like I was giving this over to another leader, someone who would look after Georgie and look after Skandar, and would really be there to hold the film up and to be a support and you know, I'm really happy Ben's here and I'm really happy that he's going to be taking over, I'm really happy that I think he's going to hold my sword with the justice and the pride that I did.
GH: I'm really excited about filming the next film with Ben because although Anna and Will won't be there, I think it's nice to have another familiar face with Ben and Skandar. I think the nice thing about the next film is also Eustace is coming in, our cousin, so who Eustace will be is still yet to be seen. But I think William’s right, I think you do need that kind of column of support, and I think you and Anna and also Andrew and all those, but I think in the Pevensies, you and Anna have definitely been the columns in The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe, and then Ben came and he was another column. But I think he will look after us, I think he will be that support which we need, and I'm young, I'm very naïve sometimes, and I get tired sometimes and you just wanna go up to Anna or Will or Ben and just give them a big hug and just lie on them and just loll around a bit. And I don’t think Ben minds if me and Skandar go up and give him a hug.

Q: When you watch the movie, do you think of Prince William?
WM: I don't know, actually. I didn't think about that once to be quite honest. I mean, I have had that comparison before.

Q: Would you ever play him in a TV movie or something?
WM: You know what's so weird? Before I got Narnia, my last audition, like I got down to the final two for actually, it was an American TV thing, it was a TV series, and I got to the final two and I was actually playing Prince Harry and I didn't end up getting it and I ended up getting Narnia.
GH: Yay! {claps hands}
WM: So, I feel very fortunate to have gotten Narnia and not Prince Harry!

Q: William, now after having finished your role as Peter in Narnia, do you think you need to do something dark next to counteract being typecast?
WM: No, I don't. I think Daniel Radcliffe is in kind of a difficult decision because he has to do something that's very off the other end to prove he's an actor, to prove it to people, whereas I've only done two films, and that's it. And I think my character's actually very different in the second film than he is in the first film, so I think I'm in a very fortunate position that I can read whatever. If Ridley Scott did another sort of Gladiator, I would be there in a flash! So, it really doesn't bug me in any way being typecast. I'm ready.

Q: What was it like playing Peter going back to being a kid again after having lived as an adult in Narnia?
WM: It was hard, you know. You just have to, I don't know. I mean, I think Peter feels very self-entitled. He was a king for 15 years, a high king at that, so he has to come back and learn a valuable lesson.

Q: Georgie, doing anything else?
GH: I don't know. I would love to spend some more time at school, but it depends what comes up, really.

MG: Good luck on the books you’re writing, Georgie.
GH: Thank you.

Q: Georgie, who are your favourite bands?
GH: {Shouts} Bloc Party and Kings of Leon!

Original Source: Online

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