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Anna » Noteable Quotables » Others by Anna
Anna's thoughts and opinions on things such as life, her character and showbiz! These quotes are gathered from a variety of sources including news articles, promotional interviews, behind the scenes segments and other news sources.
Lion, Witch and the Wardrobe | Prince Caspian | On Co-Stars | Girl Next Door
THE LION, THE WITCH AND THE WARDROBE
Auditioning for the role of Susan:
• "I first heard about this part over two years before it was cast. I was very excited about it, but you try never to get your hopes up, because often auditions just don't work out. If you're not right, you're not right."
• "I really wanted to get it. I had read the books when I was about 7 years old, and really loved them. I just thought they were great stories, really fun page-turning adventures. And then I read the movie script and really loved the script as well."
The character of Susan:
• "I certainly have some of her sense of logic, and I understand the idea of her trying to look after her younger siblings and growing up before she really should."
• "I also really like Susan and what the script did with Susan. Not that it's very different from C. S. Lewis's Susan, but the way in which C. S. Lewis wrote the books means that the characters are open to a certain amount of interpretation, because he writes with this wonderful style and tone that encourages you to use your imagination and create characters for yourself slightly. And I really liked that Susan was brought to life a bit more in the script than she was originally in the book."
• "I think at the beginning of the story, Susan is definitely very practical, very logical. I think she's forced into a kind of maternal role by being away from home as a result of the evacuation [due to the WWII bombing of London]. And I think she almost feels that she has to grow up before she's actually ready to, and maybe that's what fuels that sense of logic and her pragmatism. But I think that as the story progresses and she experiences Narnia and goes on that journey, she warms up and she's able to allow herself to be a child again. I think she really learns something from Narnia."
• "I think I am [like Susan], strangely enough. I'm quite a logical person so I definitely identified with her on that front. And I always imagined Susan to be the type who studies pretty hard and works hard at school—and I've always tried to focus on my studies. And she's a big sister, and I've got two younger siblings. So, we have that in common as well."
Pulling pranks on Skandar:
• "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. 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."
Cair Paravel and dressing up as Queen Susan:
• "I loved it because it came at a point where we were leaving Auckland after four months of filming there, and everyone got to dress up in really nice clothes and they looked great and the set was gorgeous. It was a really nice moment because everyone was happy and having fun."
Her crowning dress in 'Lion, Witch and the Wardrobe':
• "It's so pretty!"
Susan's disastrous taste in clothing:
• "And my least favourite [outfit] was probably Susan's schoolgirl shirt and skirt. I completely understand why Susan would wear it, though."
Her favourite scene from 'Lion, Witch and the Wardrobe':
• "Watching Aslan die was my favourite scene to shoot - and also the worst because it was so hard. It was difficult because even though I've lost grandparents, I haven't been in front of someone dying and if you haven't really been there it's something you can't easily imagine. You feel as though if you don't do it right, you're insulting all the people who have been through those experiences in real life."
Working in New Zealand:
• "I really enjoyed it. I missed everything at home, but it was really nice to be out in [New Zealand] with such lovely people. It was great to be a part os something with so much magic - both in terms of actual magic in the film and in the terms of the production.
Filming 'Lion, Witch and the Wardrobe':
• "It's gone more quickly than I expected; the time has really flown past. It's a bit like a long and lovely dream and now I'm ready to wake up."
• "My parents couldn't be there with me the whole time; they both work, and I've got a younger brother and sister. So my mom flew a lot from England to New Zealand. I really missed my family; that was hard. And I missed being away from school and all my friends. But it was a really wonderful experience and I was busy all the time, so there wasn't much time to be upset or anything."
• “I have never done anything on this scale before and it’s the biggest part I have had, but I started when I was seven doing TV, and a couple of independent movies.”
Susan and Lucy in fighting scenes:
• "That was a slight alteration we made because we felt that Susan and Lucy should [go into battle]. To be honest, the part that Susan and Lucy play in the battle, although it's very important, is right at the end of the movie in terms of the "battles" where women fight. It's not Susan and Lucy fighting all the way through the battle. But we thought that was important to include them in the battle. So, yeah, that is a difference from the book."
'Lion, Witch and the Wardrobe' publicity:
• "My brother bought the video game and walked me into the lamppost about eight times. I think it's very weird to see your face on stuff in public places. I was confronted by a cereal box the other day, which took me by surprise. Most of it's going straight over my head."
• "I think the weirdest experience I had was I was on holiday in the summer and I hadn't seen the trailer in cinemas, I'd only seen the tape of it, and I went with some friends of friends to see War Of The Worlds and I didn’t know the trailer was on it and they'd only just met me and they didn't know about the film and I got this sudden [points] 'Is that you?!' It was really embarrassing; a really weird experience."
Experiences on the 'Lion, Witch and the Wardrobe' set:
• "If you're working 12-hour days then you come home to do three hours' homework, it's quite a lot on your plate. In between battle shots I was sitting on a chair on set in my leather bodice with my ring binder of English notes."
• "We did a scene where we were crossing the great river and they built this amazing waterfall and hydraulic icebergs which moved when you stepped on them. And just like a real frozen river when you stepped on one of these icebergs water spurted up from underneath them. And William was all right, because he was in trousers, but for some reason every iceberg I stepped on I got water up my skirt! I just ended up at the of the day completely soaked and I had to ask for a new pair of knickers!"
The meaning of Aslan to Susan and herself:
• "When I read the books, Aslan was just this wonderful, magical lion, the epitome of goodness. And I think even after the movie, that's what remains. He's really just full of love. As for Susan, when she meets Aslan, that's when she really believes in Narnia and kind of gets a grip that things are going to be okay. I think Aslan really serves as a symbol of hope for Susan."
Christian animism in 'Narnia' and the success of Narnia
• "For me, I read the books as simply stories. I think what they represent about human relationships can be interpreted in any way, in the same way that any book is a piece of literature and is open to other interpretations. The film is an adaptation of that piece of literature and will still be open to interpretation. I think in the same way that people may read the book in different ways, people will interpret the film in different ways. For those who look for the Christian symbolism in it, it will be there. And for those who don't wish to be confronted with it, they won't be confronted with it. But for me it's really a story about human relationships."
• “One of the strengths of the Narnia stories is that they’re not a sequential franchise. Part of the reason why the books are so popular is that you have recurring characters and new ones every time. So you’re seeing some of the same people in completely new situations. Aslan (the lion considered by many as the series’ Christ figure) is the only character who’s in all the books. The fact that it appeals so well in the cinema is that it’s a very human story—it’s very much about family dynamics. Whether you’re an only child or you have brothers and sisters, the humanness of the stories is something that everyone can relate to.”
PRINCE CASPIAN
The character of Susan in 'Prince Caspian':
• "I think this time around Susan’s a little warmer. This issue this time is not whether or not to believe in Narnia, she knows Narnia’s there. I think the problem she has with it is kind of being afraid that any moment the kids are gonna get pulled back into the real world. And that’s something that’s very hard to kind of come to terms with and accept that you can have this isolated experience and go back into the real world and everything’s okay."
• “I think that from the first film Susan isn’t very likeable because she’s always the one saying, ‘Well, hold on a minute. This doesn’t make sense.’ She’s kept that element this time around as well. She’s still asking questions and causing problems, but I think she’s a lot more human this time and so I wanted her to be a little more sympathetic and hopefully have people see where she’s coming from.”
Returning to the Pevensie clan:
• "What's nice is everyone has grown up a little bit and changed a little bit. But I've probably grown up the least, I'd say. Maybe that's just because I haven't noticed the change in myself."
• "It was really nice to be filming together again!"
Joking about pranks on 'Prince Caspian'
• "Pranks? I don’t know. Oh, there was one funny moment— One funny moment, the whole seven months. No one laughed."
• "There was one funny moment where we were filming a scene where a bear chases after Georgie, and Peter successfully kills the bear. And he got some kind of awful looking arrangement "
Meeting Ben Barnes:
• "We were interested how well he would fit into our family."
• "Ben had a lot to live up to before we'd even met him. He managed to establish individual relationships with all of us. He had that something that we very much conntected with."
Susan/Caspian tension in 'Prince Caspian':
• "[It's] not a deep, romantic, passionate thing."
• "It was not in the book. The whole affair is however very subtle and Ben is worth romantic interest. We knew each other for five months and suddenly it was said to us that we have to kiss; we were a little shocked but we finally said okay."
• “We made sure we did not make too much of it. It’s not meant to be a tweeny trashy romance ... it’s done very subtly ... with a look here and a kiss at the end but it’s not a kind of jaw-dropping, X-rated kiss.”
• “I think fans are worried that they're going to see some teen romance. There's no love scene in this film. It's very much a question of looks here and there."
• “[I was] anxious about having that thread in the movie because it's not one that's present in the book ... [it's] very spontaneous and impulsive to me, and I feel that way about all relationships."
• "They wanted to treat it very lightly."
• “I think Susan could probably do a lot worse than Prince Caspian, anyway."
Kissing Ben:
• “It was a little bit daunting. I mean I’ve never done a screen kiss before and I am not into public displays of affection at all and ... well, this was about as public as it could possibly be, with 300 extras just standing around and the film crew... I had to just get over it and get on with it!”
• “I was quite nervous because not only had I known Ben for five months already—it’s always odd kissing a friend—there was an audience of actors watching. We were up on a platform. It really couldn’t have been more of a show. It was especially nerve-wracking having Skandar, Will and Georgie there. They are like my surrogate sister and brothers. If I were kissing someone and I had my brother or sister standing there, I’d be very nervous. But the kissing scene went fine. Ben is great. He was very professional about it.”
Susan's added role as a warrior
• "I have a lot more action going on in this movie, which is great. I was quite worried about not being able to keep up with the boys, so, on the quiet, I had twice as many riding lessons as anyone else before we went out to film in Prague. When the battle scene was being choreographed, we started a body count of all the people we had “slain” and I was doing very well."
• "At least I didn’t have to run up and down hills wearing a suit of armour, like the boys. There were 500 people on the battlefield one day and it was so hot and crazy that there were some injuries – but nothing too bad."
• “I was so excited to be a part of the night raid (on King Miraz’s castle) and the battle and learning to do new things this time instead of just drawing an arrow and shooting it. I got to choreograph fights and work in the harness with the gryphons ... lots of more creative things in terms of action.”
• “It is a slight departure from the books but we have got Douglas Gresham (C.S. Lewis’s stepson) as a producer and he was always around making sure that even with the changes, the film stayed true to the book and what C. S. Lewis would have wanted.”
• “It was scary because there really were about 300 huge, Czech guys (extras) dressed up as Telmarines charging at poor Georgie! You can imagine it was quite terrifying.”
• “I wasn’t involved in any of the [battle scenes] last time around, and to be the only one on the battlefield in a skirt was interesting.”
• “I shoot lots of people with my arrows. We kept a sort of death count, and I reached 14 halfway through shooting.”
• “I made sure I did twice as much horse riding training before I got to New Zealand as the boys, because I didn’t want to get left behind. Of course I pretended that I’d had no training whatsoever.”
Filming 'Prince Caspian'
• “I found myself being suspended in harnesses from cranes doing action scenes, and once had to be microphoned – with six people up my skirt fiddling around with mikes.”
• “[It was] brilliant and strange.”
• "It wasn’t necessarily easier or harder, it was just different. The last one was big in terms of the scale, but this one was bigger. Even having experienced the huge scale of the first movie, I was surprised by how big everything was."
• "It did feel different, because it was a different story and it had more characters in it so we had more people around and it all felt even bigger than the first film, we had bigger locations and everything and that made for a very dynamic film set indeed!"
• "Yeah, particularly [the weather] in New Zealand we had some quite crazy locations – places where we had to helicopter everyone in as well as all the equipment! And when you’re doing scenes with 200 extras it’s a real hassle to get them under cover immediately so that their costumes weren’t ruined when the rain started!"
• "One of the most difficult things was a scene at the end of the battle where I drop from a ledge that was 60 feet from the ground so we did an awful lot of takes of that. Then there was the weather, which was absolutely insane!"
• "I don’t think there was a time during filming where I did not have scrapes on my knee, my costume was probably the trickiest because there is nothing quite so difficult as a long skirt! When wet it felt as though I was running with weighed curtains attached to me and there was one take when I fell flat on my face but had to carry on! "
The final gown of 'Prince Caspian':
• "Without a doubt, it was my favourite costume! The dress that I wore at the end of the movie was just stunning and made me feel like Cinderella. I think any girl who's ever played dress-up would want to be in that costume. I felt really special being in it."
Surprises on set:
• "We didn't really expect things to up themselves quite as much as they did. There's so many new characters and so many more plot spreads, and more CGI (computer-generated imagery) and more action."
Seeing the movie for the first time:
• "I need to see it again, because you’re watching it and thinking, ‘Oh, that was nice ...’ Yeah, so I need to see it again. But I was really excited. Obviously it was really great to see all the effects. As Pete says, you’re filming with a tennis ball, so it’s nice to know a mouse will actually be there on the day. I was really pleased with it. I think it’s really exciting to watch."
Regina Spektor's song 'The Call':
• "I was in editorial a few weeks ago, doing my dialogue recording for some bits and pieces, and Andrew said, “Oh, you know just this week I’ve been figuring out the credits song and I’ve got this girl Regina Spektor,” and I was like, “REGINA SPEKTOR? WHAT?” And so when that song came on at the end and it’s all about kind of not coming back and everything and I just…a little tear, maybe, a little tear. But I think I was kind of overwhelmed by the whole thing. I mean I don’t really have any concrete conclusions to draw about it at the moment. I need to watch it again."
Comparison of 'Lion, Witch and the Wardrobe' and 'Prince Caspian': (source: this article)
• "This one was bigger. ... Suddenly you have Telmarine armies as well as Narnian armies, suddenly there are 300 extras training in one area and a huge prosthetics tent in another and you're catering for a thousand people. Even having experienced the huge scale of the first movie, I was surprised by how big everything was."
• "It is more the matter, because it gives more characters, more action and the film is merrier."
• "They were very different. I think Caspian was more difficult - I was working adult hours and I had to take some public exams right in the middle of it. There are more action scenes so it was more physically challenging too. I don't think I enjoyed it less though - it was an incredibly dynamic set to be on. There was always something going on. They were both great, but I liked the new challenges of Caspian."
Last day on set:
• "My last day was actually with Pete, falling off the edge of the How, doing a 15 foot drop thing where Pete catches me. My scene was appropriately surreal, to be spending my last Narnian shoot day jumping off some sort of cliff. "
Leaving Narnia and Susan:
• "On the one hand I feel incredibly luck to have had this experience, and I've had a fantastic time. I'd so much rather have been here than not been here. At the same time, it's really sad that I won't be coming back. And I will feel sad that the others are doing the next movie and I'm not. But it's time for me to carry on and do other things in my life."
• “It was kind of weird and sad at the end of the shoot because both Will and I knew we wouldn’t be back. It (Narnia) has been a huge chunk of my life ... I first auditioned for the film when I was 13 and I am now 19 and it seems odd to be closing that chapter of my life. But it’s an exciting time for me as well. I’ve nearly completed my first year at university ... I am at Oxford reading English Literature and I feel ready to move on."
• "I'll miss the people and the buzz of being on a massive film. It was quite a bittersweet thing to film Susan and Peter’s departure because it was quite true to life. I think it’s sad, but it’s also realistic for Susan at that stage in her life to go back into the real world and forget about Narnia."
• "I think Will and I are going to have to come and visit. We can be centaurs."
• “I mean, it’s bittersweet, the fact that Will and I won’t be involved next time around. I had my first auditions for this when I was 13, and I’m 19 now. So it’s been a big chunk of my life. I don’t want to play the same character seven times. I think people would probably get bored of it. It’s been wonderful, but it will be nice to move on too. "
• “The last few shooting days were really sad. It was quite a bittersweet finish for Will and me, but at the same time I feel that I’ve learnt a huge amount from doing these movies. But I’m ready to move on and do other things. I don’t think I would want to play the same character seven times.”
Susan's minor role following 'Prince Caspian':
• "Queen Susan is in 'The Horse and His Boy'. However, with this story, the teenage Susan is done. Which is really sad. Filming the scene where the Pevensie's leave Narnia was quite hard. Especially for Will and me, knowing we won't be returning."
• "I’m not in it as my character stops believing in Narnia so she doesn’t go back!"
• "There is a scene where Aslan tells Peter and Susan that they won’t be coming back and I felt really sad to no longer being involved with the films but I’m really happy and lucky to have a lot of opportunities in my life."
Difference between Anna and 'Susan'
• "I’m not totally “nylons and lipstick” orientated like Susan."
ON CO-STARS
On-set chemistry:
• "I think sometimes the work off camera that you don't see is some of the most important. If we're doing a scene and I have to get angry, then William will be off-screen when I'm doing my close-up and he'll try and make me angrier. He'll go out of his way to help me out. We all do the same for each other."
• "I will definately see all the Pevensies when we get back. I live around the corner from Skandar, so I'm not going to be able to escape."
• "The dynamic among the four of us of has pretty much remained constant, which is great. I know we'll all still be friends after the movie finishes."
• "We know each other very well after spending that much time together. We know the good things and tolerate the not-so-good things. Skandar lives around the corner from me, and I couldn't escape if I wanted to."
• "[We're a] surrogate family."
• "We got really close. We actually became a sort of mini-family because none of our families could be there. We all had a read-through together before we were cast, and I think we just really got on kind of instantly. It was really fun."
• "There was a little bullying at the start."
• "The four of us are very close. It’s very cheesy the way everyone says, ‘Oh, they’re like a real family,’ but there is a connection between the four of us. When people send people on summer camps or bonding trips, they send them to do things like high rope climbing or extraordinary things. And when you do extraordinary things with people, like fighting battles or simulating huge wars, you do bond very quickly."
• "We stayed friends between the movies, I don’t see any reason why it’s going to stop now."
• "I’ve met some really special people that I wouldn’t have had the opportunity to meet if it hadn’t been for these films."
Her co-star William Moseley:
• "He's very charismatic and very open - very good looking, too. I've never had a big brother in real life, and now William has become one for me."
• "Although Will is 20, he's playing a 16- or 17-year-old. But he's an adult now. I had my first audition with him when I was 13. And we really have sort of grown up together. We go back a long way."
• "It's probably the only thing he has ever organized in his life [organising the wrap party]. Will is not the most organized person."
Her co-star Skandar Keynes:
• "Skandar has these eyes that are really expressive and quite pentrating. He was quite shy at first actually, believe it or not. He changed ... the first weeks on set he played loads of jokes."
• "We used to torture him with group hugs."
Her co-star Georgie Henley:
• "Georgie's very smart."
Her co-star Ben Barnes:
• "He's quite gorgeous."
• "He realized he was only going to survive if he was prepared to have all of us tease him the entire time."
• "Ben’s really lovely. Kind of from the other perspective, the fact that the four of us were so close, we were nervous about the new characters in the movie, and who we would be spending this amount of time with. You want to have a good time when you’re shooting. I was completely delighted when I met Ben and Peter. They both have amazing sense of humor. We just had a riot, basically."
Her co-star Tilda Swinton:
• "She's awesome. As in 'I am in awe of her' but the moment you start talking to her you realise she's friendly and very kind and down to earth."
Her biggest fear, mice and director Andrew Adamson:
• "Then the day before we filmed the scene he called me onto the set and said, 'Good morning, this is Mr Jingles.' He had a mouse in his hand and I freaked out. I squealed and cried and felt sick. Andrew could finally see I wasn't kidding, so he arranged for my double, Ashley, to do the parts with the actual mice."
Director Andrew Adamson:
• "He's so good at maintaining a blance between work and play. And he knows exactly what's going on in your head; he's so good at reading people. I'll miss just knowing that he's there to talk to."
• "He's really good at playing jokes on people."
• "He was fantastic at giving us direction. He talked to me and Georgie about sad things and made up really put ourselves in our characters' choses at that point. He got us to watch some of the filming of the actual scene at the Stone Table. It was pretty intense. We spent two days solid crying."
Lack of tantrums on Narnia sets
• "There’s a potential for quite unstable behaviour on set, but I don’t think there’s any necessity for it."
With Peter Dinklage:
• "On Wednesdays we wear armor."
BEING THE GIRL-NEXT-DOOR
Multitasking:
• "Working for my exams on 'Prince Caspian' was a big challenge but I think it was something seperate from 'Susan'. I reckon she would have studied more than I did! That said, I think all experiences provide you with a potential bank to draw from when acting, but I don't think there was anything in particular about my A-levels that channeled into Narnia!"
• "I should be writing an essay right now."
• "I'm enjoying my summer off. And I'm going back to school. But in terms of acting, I'm keeping an eye open, and if a project jumps out at me that's really great, I'll see how things go."
• “I came back for three weeks in the middle of the shoot to do my A levels, which was quite a weird thing to deal with, but it was a big challenge and I did it.”
• “It was hard to balance, for the last film I was 15 years old which meant that legally I was a child and could only work for so many hours. But I was 18 this time so I could work for as long as they liked! I got three A-Levels though and I’m at Oxford University now where I’m reading English Literature.”
• "There's lots of juggling going on. I have literally just got back from two weeks in the States on a press junket so there are lots of balls in the air. But that's a conscious decision. No one has forced me to work, study and play all at the same time. Let's just say that during term time I don't get a lot of sleep."
• "I've always wanted to go to university and although I've been acting since I was six, school always came first, so wherever I was filming I always had a tutor."
Going to university:
• "I'd really like to go to university, because I think it's a really important academic and social experience. But I'm going to take things as they come and see what happens."
• "I've always wanted to go to university, so [getting good A-level results] was something really important to me."
• "And although I think I would like to be a full-time actress one day, if I hadn’t gone to university now I think I would get to 25 or 26 and wish that I had gone at 18 or 19 like most other people. So while it would have been really good fun to do another Narnia film, creatively I would like to do something else. I’m reading other scripts at the moment, but it’s a question of trying to fit things into my summer holidays."
• “I’m at Oxford studying English literature. I’ve done one year and have two to go, so I’m not doing anything concrete at the moment. I’m reading scripts with quite a critical eye.”
• “I started university about three weeks after we finished filming the first movie and I did get a few funny looks at lectures but, you know, just because you’ve been in a film, doesn’t mean you are not a normal person and I think people recognise that and treat you accordingly. Also, I think that if you strutted around in huge sunglasses the whole time ... I don’t think you are going to make any friends anyway. It’s important to have balance.”
• "I love my grandfather, he's hilarious, especially his bushy eyebrows. The idea [to study law] had occurred to me but at the moment, I'm not sure what I want to do."
• "I've thought about both [going into law or medicine]. I've thought about pretty much everything under the sun, I'd have to say! I'm one of those people who really wants to do everything. And if I had enough time, I really would. This summer I've done work experience in medicine, in law, and I'm currently doing work experience in advertising. I really wish I could do absolutely everything. But I suppose I'll have to make some kind of decision at some stage."
• “I feel really lucky as I have quite grounded people around me and I lead a very normal life. I take the bus, go to the cinema – but I did have a few funny looks at lectures when I first started at university.”
• “I was recognised a bit but that wasn’t too difficult because there are a lot of people there who are doing kind of crazy things like on the floor above me there is a semi professional footballer and there is a girl on my corridor who runs for Great Britain!”
• “We do have a University Challenge team but there is no way that I have the level of general knowledge that you need for it!”
• “I’m really enjoying it. We have very long holidays at Oxford so I’m hoping to do something this summer. I’d like to continue acting but I see it as a long-term career. I’d like to act for 25 years, not five years, so I’m taking the time now to earn my degree.”
• "And anyway, there are so many extraordinary people in Oxford doing extraordinary things that I don't stand out at all."
• "And university is such a wonderful place. Without wanting to sound pretentious about it, you get to learn an awful lot about yourself and other people."
• "I see my degree as a steep learning curve and I'm doing it for myself, not anyone else. But I only made a decision in the past six months that it's what I wanted to do."
• "Until then it was more of a hobby, but I found the filming of Caspian really challenging and decided that's what I would like to do with my life. It's just never really felt like work before."
Attending the same university as C.S.Lewis:
• "When I picked that college I didn't know that. I read a biography of C.S. Lewis and learned about his involvement with Magdalen. And that was, in a way, a bit spooky, but also really nice. Even though I won'd be a part of [the next few movies] I feel as though C.S. Lewis will still be a part of my life in the next three years."
• "It wasn’t in my consciousness when I applied, but there’s a wonderful symmetry to it – possibly I’m even being taught by people who were taught by him."
The role of an actor:
• "To me, the power of storytelling is all about people and transformation. As an actor, your power of storytelling comes through transformation. The fact that Ben can put on an accent and become somebody completely different, or that Will can jump onto he side of a horse and suddenly become this action hero. That Georgie or I can put on a dress and be transported into a fairy-tale world. In such instances you're presented visually with something that doesn't really exist."
The origins of her name:
• "I've always wanted to play Anna Karenina as I am apparently named after her. Quite why my parents wanted to call me after someone who had affairs and jumped in front of a train I do not know!"
Student drama and professional acting:
• "The nice thing about student drama is that you're allowed to get things wrong, because it doesn't mean no one will ever hire you again."
• “Acting on stage is so different to films because you can’t spend four days shooting one scene, you take two hours doing the whole play.”
• “You can take risks here on stage and if it doesn’t work out you can go to the pub and forget about it without a studio peering over your shoulder saying ‘you can’t do that’ or ‘the audience won’t like this’. Here you’re allowed to be independent and creative.”
• “I have done loads of dramas. Doing Lady Macbeth was pretty difficult, there is a reason why people say that it is one of the hardest female parts to play but it was great fun and at the market in Oxford we got pig bladders and used them for the blood scene!”
• "Being part of Oxford's student drama companies has been an incredible experience because there is so much room for learning in Oxford."
Perils and realities of auditions
• "I always thought if I'm going to put myself up for these things I have to be realistic. You may not look the part, you may be too short, too tall, too fat, too thin, too brunette, too blonde, or you may just not be good enough. And if you can't deal with that then you shouldn't throw yourself into it."
Difficulties of acting
• "You have to recreate things visually for yourself. You do learn by playing opposite an imaginary mouse, but I'd like to do something less technical. What I love is acting, and the technical stuff does tend to slow things down. When people ask what I'd like to do next, the answer is usually, 'Something with people in rooms.'"
Fan reactions at the 'Prince Caspian' premieres
• "It's mental, mental, chicken oriental is what I think. It's really nice to bring the film home for us British actors and to be with a home crowd."
Paparazzi and keeping low-key
• "If my friends are jealous, they don't show it. I'm at an all girls school [North London Collegiate School in Edgware] which could be quite catty but I've been very lucky. I had mock GCSEs on the day I got back to school after six months filming so there were 20 minutes of screaming 'Oh my god, you're here' and then it was straight back to 'Have you done your biology?' "
• "It can be bizarre. Today I had a normal day at school, then I went to Armani Couture and spent three hours looking for a dress to wear to the premiere, then I went home to do my essays."
• "I came home the other day and there were some of them hanging around outside my house, which was slightly worrying because I don’t usually get attention like that. Nowadays you can’t deny that the image factor goes with the job, and wearing an Armani frock to the premiere of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe was great fun. But I think there’s something bizarre about projecting yourself, rather than the characters you play, for publicity. Celebrity is a very odd thing."
• "I take the bus and the tube. I don’t walk around with sunglasses and a large handbag and a sign saying, 'I’m a superstar.' I’m a very normal teenager and I’m going to do what teenagers do. I’m very interested in the theatre and I go shopping and see my friends. I’m not going to go out and get drunk every night, but every now and then I’m going to have a drink. I don’t buy into that Hollywood slimming thing, and although I go to the gym a couple of times a week,I eat chocolate and cake every now and then."
• “I started university about three weeks after we finished filming the first movie and I did get a few funny looks at lectures but, you know, just because you’ve been in a film, doesn’t mean you are not a normal person and I think people recognise that and treat you accordingly. And anyway, there are so many extraordinary people in Oxford doing extraordinary things that I don’t stand out at all.”
• “I live on a student budget at the moment - all the money from the films is in the bank. I still use my student discount in some bookshops - with the number of books I buy, it would be crazy not to.”
• “I like to keep fit and look good, but I do love chocolate and as a student I don’t eat that healthily - though I haven’t succumbed to a Pot Noodle yet.”
• “I failed [the driving test] twice and I dread them because I get so nervous, I don’t get nervous on stage or on film set but for some reason the driving test makes me absolutely petrified!”
Being a positive role model
• "I have a very supportive family who make sure my feet are firmly on the ground. My brother and sister keep me in check! To be honest, because I've always been at school or uni or whatever, I've always wanted to get along with the people I'm there with and I don't think 'going crazy' would be the best way to do that."
Guys, guys, guys!
• "Humour is very important. Arrogant guys can stay away at once. They're so disgusting! It is very hard to find mature boys among teenagers."
• "But I’m sure I’ve had some male attention as a result of Narnia, because people may think it’s all glamour or that I must be loaded."
Musical Tastes
• "I’m terrible, I always have to get my sister to load songs on to my iPod because I don’t have one of those musical brains that picks up on stuff and remembers it!"
Comedic Roles
• "I don’t think I have the timing for it, I would love to try everything but I am not a natural comic though I do have a very witty sister."
To act or not to act?
• "I’m not 100% sure, but I really enjoy acting and I’m doing lots of student drama at the moment and I’m really enjoying that, I felt it was really important for me to go to university and to learn a more about myself."