We Chat To Alice In Wonderland Stars Helena Bonham Carter, Anne Hathaway and Michael Sheen!

Written by Sheila Roberts Monday, 08 March 2010 14:47

Interview

Alice in Wonderland co-stars Helena Bonham-Carter (The Red Queen), Anne Hathaway (The White Queen) and Michael Sheen (The White Rabbit) tells us what we can expect to find down their rabbit hole...

What were the challenges of acting in front of a green screen?

HELENA BONHAM-CARTER It was all green. When you’re acting, you have to kind of imagine anyway. The unsung heroes of it are these various green people that gave us their lines off. We had real proper actors who would dress in leotards and didn’t look that good at their best. For instance, I’ve only met Michael Sheen in the last 12 hours. He wasn’t there [when I was filming]. I just had a 12-inch drawing of a rabbit. But then, behind him, was this green screen, green actor. That’s what we had to act opposite.

MICHAEL SHEEN It’s because I don’t like being around other actors. It’s in my contract!

BONHAM-CARTER I would have appreciated if you had come in your bunny outfit once. But he didn’t.

SHEEN I used to stand outside. You didn’t see. I was outside the studio with my nose up against the glass in a rabbit costume going “Please let me in, Helena. Please.”

BONHAM-CARTER I wish. But it was no, no, he only acts by himself. And then, Matt [Lucas] had to be always hunched over or on the floor to give lines. Whenever I’d look at Matt, he was always in deep discomfort because he had to try and make himself smaller. [Anne] is the one who does her own special effects, but she didn’t have anything special done to her. She does her own gliding. Crispin [Glover, who plays the Knave of Hearts], I don’t know how he did it. He was on crutches and had no eye and somehow managed to remain upright. I don’t know how he did that. We all have to act opposite tennis balls and bits of tape, but you do that anyway. And actually, tennis balls and bits of tape can be good actors. You know, they’re minimal.

Anne, what was it like to play the opposite of Helena’s character?

ANNE HATHAWAY I’m so much more interested in what Helena has to say about it. One of the most fun parts about my character was this freedom that Tim gave me from the first conversation we had. He said, “In Wonderland, I don’t want anything to be all good or all bad, so I don’t want it to be the Red Queen is the bad one and you’re like the nice benevolent one who’s all good.” He said, “Have fun exploring the relationship between the two of them. They come from the same place.” I thought, oh how fun if my character has a sort of hidden psychosis.

BONHAM-CARTER It’s not that hidden.

HATHAWAY Now it’s not. [Laughs] She’s dangerous and is interested in knives and things like that and is kind of adorable on the outside and has tried very hard to become this good, almost over the top, positive creature. But underneath, she has a murderous streak that comes out when she’s around weaponry. So, it wasn’t necessarily that they were opposites. They were just sisters who were different.

SHEEN I watched it for the first time the other night and the thing that struck me the most was the thing I liked most about the Red Queen [which] was her vulnerability, and the thing I liked most about the White Queen was how sinister she was. That worked brilliantly for me. It’s tragic when she says, “It is better to be feared than loved.” That’s a tragic line really. It’s beautiful. In my case, I thought it was better to be furred than loved and I slightly misheard it.

Michael, being just a voice in the film, were you ever jealous that you couldn’t actually be there on set?

SHEEN I would have given anything, literally, to put the ears and the tail on, and jump around. I would have loved to have done that. One of the things I loved about the film most is that the animals really do look like animals. They’re not humanized, in any way. When a horse suddenly turns around to the Knave of Hearts and says something disparaging about dogs, you really don’t expect it. It’s really effective. So, I can understand exactly why they went with the idea of really going for the animal thing. But, I still look very cute with a little bunny nose, so maybe I can be in there, if there’s a sequel or something. So, I did a couple of sessions with Tim, and just had him all to myself, in London and in America. I was filmed with just a basic camera, so when I saw it, I was amazed at how much all my hand movements were there. Tim said, “Really perform it. Don’t just do the voice. Move and do as much performing as you can. Twitch your nose as much as you can.” So, I really recognized my hands. It was really funny. I didn’t think I’d recognize any of that. See, I lived with rabbits for 6 months beforehand and I did a lot of yoga to build up my legs so I could get my leg up and scratch my ear like a bunny.

Helena, you spent hours in the makeup chair each day, what was the challenge?

BONHAM-CARTER Speak to my husband! It wasn’t that long. I just said hours for the sympathy effect, but it was only two-and-a-half hours. I did exaggerate it, I guess. They had to get rid of my hairline so you put a bald cap on. That takes about two-and-a-half  hours and then they have to paint it and then they put my beauty makeup on. That took some time. And, my huge wig. But they didn’t blow my head up every morning. They did that on camera. I had this one camera. There are two cameras in the world that do this and they just blow your head up. That’s all it does. And I had this huge camera dedicated to me, which was fine by me.

What was your first experience with Alice in Wonderland, growing up?

HATHAWAY When I was in 5th grade, I had a teacher and he made the entire class memorize Jabberwocky and perform it. So, during the battle sequence, I made Tim let me recite the poem and he literally looked at me and said, “Well it’s not going to be in the film.” And I said, “I know, but just for my own sense of completion in my life, please let me do this.”  I didn’t read Alice until I was in college. I was reading a lot of [Vladimir] Nabokov and actually one of his big inspirations was Lewis Carroll, so I thought before I get too deep into him I’ll read Lewis Carroll, then I never went back to Nabokov! That’s when I read it and I was really moved by it. She’s a very emotional character and a lot of people feel a kind of confused 19. [It’s about] who they think they are vs. who they want to be. You struggle with a sense of identity then and at other times in your life. I really read the book from that perspective as a girl who’s trying to find her identity, which is great because that’s what the movie really focuses on. Which Alice are you? So, that was my experience.

SHEEN As most people, I think I knew the characters before I ever read the book. They’re just ingrained into the Western consciousness. For me, the allure of the story is that we all live in this illusion that we’re civilized and that everything makes sense and everything has a place, and Alice in Wonderland shows you that actually it’s a very thin film between sanity and insanity, and total wildness, chaos and fear. Somehow, that seems to be the most true expression of what it’s like to be a child, where things are both familiar and strange, at the same time, and when you think you know what something is, it suddenly shifts and becomes something else. We grow up and forget the truth of that, or buy into the illusion that that’s not the case. We’re drawn back to Alice in Wonderland all the time because it somehow reminds us, as all great Greek drama does, of what the actual truth about life is.

What do you think is an appropriate age for children to see this film?

BONHAM-CARTER Tim always has this theory that it’s us that have got the problem, that we impose fears on our kids and the kids are actually quite robust. But it depends on your kid. We haven’t shown it to Billy yet just because it wasn’t finished until a few days ago. I don’t know. You know, there was that 3D thing. We were trying to find a nursery school for our son, Bill. Apparently, according to the Montessori method, they can’t tell the difference between reality and fantasy until age 6. They had recommended no fairytales so that’s why we didn’t send Bill to Montessori because having Tim Burton and fairytales and his world of ideas. Oh! Okay!

SHEEN I still have difficulty with that. Someone told me once, and I don’t know if it’s true, that there’s a part of our brain that, when we’re acting and something traumatic is going on, believes that it is actually true. So, part of us is traumatized from it, as actors, which probably explains why actors are the way they are.

Anne, how do you feel about being CGI’d or do you prefer playing a real person?

HATHAWAY Honestly, I would do anything if Tim asked. I’m fond of saying that I would have played a mushroom in this if that’s the way he saw me in it. So, I would have happily donned my green onesie and been up in stilts. I would have just done anything to be in Wonderland. But, it’s nice to be a real person as well. I have no preference. I’m sorry, I don’t.

Helena, what was your family’s reaction when they first saw you as the character in full makeup and costume?

BONHAM-CARTER Well my little daughter, who was only 1, just said “Mommy!” It was bizarre. But my son is slightly frailer or sensitive. He just didn’t want to look at me.

Michael, what does your daughter think of you being the White Rabbit?

SHEEN My daughter is still living off the fact that I’m in [Twilight] New Moon! Now that I’m in Alice in Wonderland as well, it’s just gone stratospheric. At school, I’m treated like royalty now. But, everyone is convinced that I have red eyes because that’s two characters now with them.

Read Interview with Tim Burton
Read Interview With Johnny Depp
Read Interview With Jemma Powell
Watch Alice in Wonderland Trailer