As published in issue #75 of
F*** Magazine
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Text:
MEET THE
HUNTING PARTY
F*** sits down with the stars and
directors of The Huntsman: Winter’s War
By Jedd Jong
Actors Chris
Hemsworth, Jessica Chastain and Charlize Theron, as well as director Cedric
Nicolas-Troyan, were in Singapore for the Asian premiere of The Huntsman: Winter’s War. The premiere
was held at Universal Studios Singapore in Resorts World Sentosa to much
fanfare, with fans shelling out for theme park tickets and braving the
overwhelming humidity to catch a glimpse of the stars on the red carpet.
The next day, the cast
and director fielded questions from F*** and other local and regional
journalists at the Equarius Hotel in Resorts World Sentosa. Hemsworth and
Chastain were paired up, as were Theron and Nicolas-Troyan, taking turns to
meet different groups of journalists.
CHRIS HEMSWORTH AND JESSICA CHASTAIN
First off, we got to
chat with the titular Huntsman himself and his warrior bride Sara. Since
Kristen Stewart, who played Snow White in Snow
White and the Huntsman, was booted off the sequel, the spotlight is trained
squarely on the Eric the Huntsman, whose back-story we learn in this film. We are
also introduced to Sara, a highly skilled warrior who served alongside Eric in
the army of Freya the Snow Queen (Emily Blunt), falling in love with Eric in
the process. The duo had a relaxed rapport, with Chastain sometimes turning to
check with Hemsworth to ensure she didn’t misremember a detail of working on
the production. Hemsworth and Chastain shared about filming action sequences,
generating chemistry together, practicing accents and their reaction to the
heartthrob being crowned the Sexiest Man Alive.
Jessica, you’ve worked with both Thor (Chris
Hemsworth) and Loki (Tom Hiddleston). Without letting present company influence
you, which Asgardian brother did you enjoy working with more?
[Chris laughs]
JESSICA CHASTAIN: Chris.
CHRIS HEMSWORTH: Woohoo! Good girl!
CHASTAIN: [But] I love Tom
What lessons did you take away from the story
of Snow White?
CHASTAIN: Well, I didn’t connect to fairy-tales very well. I don’t really relate
to the damsel in distress, which is the theme in a lot of fairy-tales. I relate
more to this film, where the characters in this film and in the relationship
are equals.
HEMSWORTH: I think in fairy-tales, there are messages for children: themes about
love, good vs. evil, your actions have consequences, and also just your
imagination is inspired as a kid. Whether or not some of the themes or
characters may be dated, I just think the idea of make-believe and fantasy is
very important for the development of a child. I remember as a kid reading The Hobbit and things like that, or my
dad reading it to me, and having very vivid pictures in my mind of what that
world was and the fantasy of it.
Do you think that love conquers all?
HEMSWORTH: I believe it’s a pretty good motivator to attempt to conquer anything. I
don’t know what stronger emotion or feeling there is to want to destroy all
odds. So yeah, I think so.
CHASTAIN: Yeah, I believe love conquers everything.
Chris, what is it like working with Jessica,
who is a little less experienced than you are in the action genre?
HEMSWORTH: Aww, she did fantastic! All her fight scenes were in high heels or
lifts, her shoes, so that was even more impressive. I remember watching, in the
film, the first big fight sequence we had and being kind of blown away at the
acrobatics she was pulling off and how easy she made it look.
Jessica, what did you do to get into the
mind-set of a warrior for this film?
CHASTAIN: Production flew someone to New York and I worked with them for two
weeks. I went to London and worked with the stunt team for three weeks before
we started shooting. That was just to learn the fights, but I approached it
just like I would approach any film. This is the first of this genre that I’ve
done, but I thought about her backstory and where she came from, I thought
about her being a child with Eric, and growing up in that situation, what
happened with her family, and tried to flesh out the character as realistically
as possible. Because yes, it’s an incredible action-adventure fantasy film, but
I feel like the characters are really rooted in reality and whatever is
happening, so as to feel as real and present as possible.
Were there any mishaps when you were both
filming the fights?
CHASTAIN: I hit someone! [To Chris] Did I hurt you at all?
HEMSWORTH: No, we did pretty good actually. I think we were in sync.
CHASTAIN: A couple of times, I fell down, because I was wearing those shoes with
the wedges in them and we’d be walking along in the woods and I’d hit a branch
and I’d just fall down. I hit a stunt person once because I was doing the fight
sequence and I’d rehearsed it where I’d elbow someone behind me without looking
over and over again, and I knew how far to go. When they were shooting it, they
said “the camera angle, the way it is now, you need to go even further back
because it looks fake right now”. So I moved further back, and then I hit him
in the face because he didn’t move further back. I was so traumatised I
immediately went “oh my gosh!” and stopped and ruined the whole take.
HEMSWORTH: Should’ve kept going, because it would’ve looked very real [laughs].
CHASTAIN: It was very real! [Laughs]
Jessica, were the fight scenes or the love
scenes more of a challenge?
CHASTAIN: Well, the fight scenes burn more calories, I’ll say that [laughs].
Chris, was the preparation on this film harder
than on the first?
HEMSWORTH: I was probably involved much more with the script and involved much
earlier than I was with Snow White; I
came in quite late to that. So I was able to develop the character a bit more
and [work on] the script with the producers and so on. What was exciting was
the opportunity to have something different from the first one and lighten it
up in tone; have a greater sense of humour and a sense of adventure; have a bit
more spark between the characters. And, have a stronger love story – we were
kind of non-specific in the first film, so it was nice to be able to go and hit
those themes a little heavier this time around and advance it.
Chris, you were named People’s Sexiest Man
Alive in 2014. How did you take it?
HEMSWORTH: How did I take it? It made me laugh, it was all pretty funny [chuckles].
You can’t take it too seriously, you have to laugh about it, I guess. Then they
took it off me, which was heart-breaking.
CHASTAIN: He made a big joke out of it, which was really funny. We’d be on set
and he’d say “you know, I am People’s Sexiest Man Alive…”
HEMSWORTH: “…So give me some damn respect!” And then in turn, it got me less
respect.
CHASTAIN: Exactly! Then we just teased him!
HEMSWORTH: I don’t take it seriously.
Do you think you’re sexy?
HEMSWORTH: Do I think so? No, not really. Does anyone? I don’t know…[chuckles]. I
know all my ridiculous secrets, which are unattractive.
Did you work on the chemistry between the both
of you to get it to the level we see in the film?
HEMSWORTH: You just get lucky sometimes, you know? You just have an instant sort
of chemistry and connection. Jessica has a great sense of humour, we like a lot
of the same films, love the style of films from an audience point of view. You
can work at it as much as you want, but if it’s not there, it’s not there. As I
said, we got lucky, you know?
CHASTAIN: You have to be open to it, too. We got lucky, but there’s also a
situation where if you’re working on something with someone, between every
take, if they go to their trailer and leave set, [it won’t work out]. We hung
out on set a lot with Cedric and talked a lot, we got to know each other, and I
think that always benefits chemistry.
Jessica, you’ve posted photos of you tucking
into durians while in Singapore. how did you come to gravitate towards durians?
CHASTAIN: I love durian. I worked in Thailand for four months [on Blackbeard] and discovered the fruit
there. I love it. I was in Singapore and Hong Kong a few years ago and had it;
every time I come to Asia I have it. We don’t get it much in the United States
so for us, it’s very exotic. Chris has never tried it.
HEMSWORTH: I would try it; it’s just never come across my plate. But I’ve heard a
lot about it, I’ve heard mixed reviews, that it smells a bit funny, but I would
give it a go, I’d try it.
What was it like working on your Scottish
accents? How did you find the accents, was it a character choice and did you
practice with each other?
CHASTAIN: We didn’t really practice with each other.
HEMSWORTH: Yeah, we just had great dialect coaches and you just rehearse the hell
out of it. Repetition, repetition, repetition. I listened to a lot of tapes of
certain influences and different people for the accent. It has a great
musicality to it, for me personally, it lends itself to humour well. That’s
nice, and it also separates us from the evil, royal [posh] types.
CHASTAIN: I worked with a coach from Scotland, and what I loved is that I kept
asking her “what are little sayings?” Like “you’re a right galoot” or “you’re a
right numpty”, things like that. And Cedric would let me kind of sprinkle in a
little bit, which was fun. Because I’ve never heard that word “galoot”, have
you guys heard that word?
HEMSWORTH: I have.
CHASTAIN: You have? It must be an Australian thing too.
HEMSWORTH: It is.
CHASTAIN: Lots of galoots in Australia!
HEMSWORTH: Lots of ‘em, that’s right [Both laugh]
In the last film, the Huntsman kissed Snow
White to wake her, and now we meet his wife, who was assumed to be dead all
this time. Could it be considered an extra-marital affair?
HEMSWORTH: For me, I feel like the kiss was full of love, but a love for somebody
else. All that was needed in that spell for Snow White to wake up was love; it
didn’t necessarily have to be for her. But he was talking about his wife.
CHASTAIN: Talking about me! [Laughs] That was the true love’s kiss, and that’s
the only reason I think this film works, Sara being here, it’s because of that
scene. I re-watched the first film after I got the offer and I saw that scene
and I said “of course! The true love’s kiss, there was that whole monologue
about his wife.”
Jessica, you’ve worked with some very
experienced directors and on this film, you worked with a first time director.
What differences have you found?
CHASTAIN: It’s interesting, because everyone has their own individual point of
view. When I was on the set [of The
Martian] with Ridley Scott, I knew there was a whole history of filmmaking
that I was going to experience and I was very excited about what that was going
to be like. Working with Ridley was very different than working with J.C.
Chandor, who did A Most Violent Year,
[which was] very different than working with Cedric. Which is why I like this
industry, to do the same thing over and over again is very boring, so I like to
try and mix it up. I’ll go from Christopher Nolan [on Interstellar] to a first-time filmmaker. I hope to work in more
foreign films. Those usually are my favourite, I’ve got to learn more languages
[laughs], but that’s actually what I enjoy.
In the film, you have the scene with the
goblins and they’re not there. What was it like working with creatures who
would be inserted later, and what was it like filming the scenes with the
dwarves?
CHASTAIN: Well, I was really lucky because we actually had actors. Nick Frost,
Rob [Brydon], Sheridan [Smith] and Alex[andra Roach, who played the dwarves,]
were all there. Even the goblins, which we knew the drawings of what it was
going to look like, there was someone there in a bodysuit with little dots all
over them and acting out the body movements, making the noises and doing
everything. Yes, they weren’t as big as the goblins ended up being, but it was
really helpful that all six of us had the same thing to look at, and it wasn’t
just being in a green screen [set].
Chris, how do you stay in such excellent shape?
HEMSWORTH: I just like to stay active. I surf a lot at home, spend a lot of time
outdoors, just doing different activities and obviously in the gym, training.
The biggest thing is just having a good, clean diet, I think. The healthy,
non-processed sort of food is a big thing, even more so than probably the
training. For Thor, I had to lift a
lot of weight to grow muscle, but as far as staying fit, what you put in your
body is number one.
And for you, Jessica?
CHASTAIN: I’m a vegan, so I agree with Chris, so much of your fitness is about
what you eat, so I don’t eat any meat.
CHARLIZE THERON AND CEDRIC NICOLAS-TROYAN
Following Chastain and
Hemsworth were Queen Ravenna herself and the first-time feature film director
who helmed The Huntsman. The
Oscar-winning Theron was clearly a dab hand at press junkets, helping the less
experienced Nicolas-Troyan along in between playfully ribbing him for his thick
French accent.
“Was Chris really
boring?” Theron joked as she entered the room. Theron’s scenery-chomping
performance in Snow White and the
Huntsman is generally regarded as one of the more entertaining aspects of
the fantasy action flick, so it is fun to see Ravenna resurrected. The main
antagonist for the bulk of the film is Ravenna’s younger sister Freya; Blunt
was absent from this leg of the press tour but Theron spoke unreservedly about
how much she adores her co-star. Nicolas-Troyan spoke about dealing with the
pressures of handling a major production, while Theron, who has become a
widely-admired feminist icon, touched on being a role model and how Ravenna’s
pursuit of youth and beauty reflects on gender perception in society.
Cedric, you were the visual effects supervisor
on Snow White and the Huntsman and
are now directing this one. What was the biggest source of pressure in taking
on this bigger responsibly?
CEDRIC NICOLAS-TROYAN: Obviously, it’s a harder job. Doing visual
effects compared to directing a movie, it’s a walk in the park. Directing a
movie is a way bigger deal. So obviously, you have that pressure, but then you
work with those guys [the cast] and all that pressure goes away…
CHARLIZE THERON: You’re welcome.
NICOLAS-TROYAN: They just push you [on], and I think also
because of the first movie, you’re stepping into somebody’s shoes so you have
that pressure for sure, but I think when you shoot the movie, it goes away. I had
a great time shooting the movie and working with them, so the pressure went
away. Maybe now more than ever, the pressure is on, because the movie is coming
out. It’s judgement day, you know?
THERON: It’s all on you [laughs].
Charlize, you’ve played some really remarkable
characters in your career. Do you feel the pressure to be a role model for
women?
THERON: It’s so odd, because I don’t think about anything like that until I
come and do a press junket. It’s interesting because I don’t know what’s really
in the subconscious and what’s really in the conscious. I think there’s a part
of me that feels a responsibility to myself as a woman when I go and do a film,
and for an actor the greatest fear is that you won’t be able to get to the
truth of a character. And so I feel like my responsibility really starts there.
I want to do something
that feels incredibly authentic and truthful, and I think when we do that,
we’re hoping that something will resonate with other people, other women. I
don’t know if that’s being a role model; I worry about that because I’m so
aware that I’m an entertainer. The reason I do what I do is I really love film,
I believe in the power of it, I believe in the inspiration of it. I’ve sat in
many theatres in a dark room and have had stories move me in such a way that it
has changed me. And I think film can really do that and I think I’m a small
part of that process. If I do something that really chases after the truth, I
feel like that’s the only way that you can hope people can be moved by it, and
I can’t hope for anything past that.
NICOLAS-TROYAN: She’s a pretty authentic person, I think, with
all the work she does with her charity. I’m not a woman, and I’m pretty
inspired. It’s true though, I think that as a person, it goes through you,
that’s the way I see it.
THERON: Aww shucks!
NICOLAS-TROYAN: It’s true though!
Is it fun to play a villain?
THERON: Yeah! I mean, I wasn’t miserable about it at all!
NICOLAS-TROYAN: She comes and she’s really funny, she has that
great energy on set, and she comes up with ideas like that. What you see in the
movie is just a very small part of what she does on set. There was stuff she
was doing that was so fun, I couldn’t put them in the movie for so many
different reasons…
THERON: Because they were bad [laughs].
NICOLAS-TROYAN: No, they were not!
THERON: I’ll try anything.
NICOLAS-TROYAN: She comes [to set] with so much energy, so
much stuff, and it makes those scenes so much better. What I’m thinking I’m
going to get from the scene is one thing, what she brings…the whole black stuff
[dripping from Ravenna’s mouth], she came up with that. I’m like “that’s cool!”
THERON: It’s such a fun thing being on set, because what you’re doing is
throwing a ball back and forth with your director, with your [other] actors,
it’s like a sport almost. There’s a constant discovery process. There’s an
element with [Ravenna] because she’s the villain in this fantastical world, the
world allowed her to bleed outside very confined lines and we got to go a
little bigger with her. I didn’t end up in jail [in real life], so that was a
good thing. Not yet!
NICOLAS-TROYAN: Charlize is a lot softer at the beginning of
the film [during the flashback scenes], so we could go really bigger at the
back end. That was fun. On set, it’s always like that – “what about this, what
about that?” And even among themselves, with Jessica, with Chris, we all have those
scenes – this kind of creativity is built on top of the script we already have
that just make it so much better.
THERON: [To Nicolas-Troyan] We are lucky because we had you, the director
really sets the tone.
NICOLAS-TROYAN: That is so true, I was amazing [laughs].
THERON: You really were. I mean, I had some issues with your…
NICOLAS-TROYAN: …My accent [laughs].
THERON: I couldn’t understand a word you were saying. I just knew I went like
this a lot [nods uncertainly]. Your director sets the tone, it’s the shepherd,
there’s the leader and you need that in a filmmaker. Cedric was very good at
setting a tone for this film that was very collaborative. When he’s talking
about a lot of the s*** that we tried, a lot of it was bad, but it was great to
have a director who’s open to anything. I learned a long time ago you have to
do ten bad things before you find half a good thing.
How was it working with Emily Blunt?
THERON: I wish she wasn’t married, because I would marry her. I was thinking we
could move to a polygamist state and just do it; I don’t know if John
[Krasinski, Blunt’s husband] is up for it. I love that girl so much. From the
first moment we were together, it was just instant chemistry. We couldn’t stop,
just a lot of chatter, a lot of Cedric going “girls, we’re rolling.” Both
Jessica and Emily are actresses I really admire, and as my peers they’ve been
people who raise the bar for me as an actor. Their work is so inspiring, so
they’re a huge part of why I wanted to come back and do this. To get to work
with not just one but two really amazing strong powerhouses on film, that’s the
opportunity of a lifetime.
Charlize, what were the differences in working
on this film compared to the first one?
THERON: I feel like the process was a little different. On the first one, there
was a lot of room to discover this character. There was a script, but there
wasn’t that much explored with her. Joe Roth, who’s the producer of both, came
to me and said “this is yours. You can do whatever you want with it.” I’d never
really been given that kind of freedom, so I worked with the two writers really
closely, developing and creating her with Rupert [Sanders, director of Snow White and the Huntsman] so that was
a really fun process.
Initially, when the
idea came to me, she was a cartoon character. I remember Googling her and
getting the cartoon image of the raven hair, the arched eyebrows, the red lips.
I thought to myself “it’s such an iconic character, there would be something
very inspiring about taking that and turning it on its head and doing something
completely new with that.” I was encouraged to do that, so that was great.
That was the process
for the first film, so once we solidified that, we had that for the second
film, so then we got to explore her in different circumstances. When you take
that character that we created on the first one and throw her in these
circumstances with her younger sister, it allows for different things to happen
with her. I never in a million years thought we would ever see Ravenna love
something, and when we found her foundation in the first film, I could never
imagine her showing love to something and in this film, we got to explore that
and that was really great for me.
What did you take away from the story of Snow
White?
THERON: I think thematically, there’s a really powerful story in there for
women and the currency we place our value in, which is this obsession with
youth and that somehow our value really comes from that. I think it’s a huge
misconception about how women think about themselves, but we’ve kind of gotten
pigeonholed in a society that has given us almost no out with that. There’s no
way we can deny that women age differently in our society in men. I’ve always
loved the analogy that we go around thinking that women are cut flowers, that
they just wilt after a while, and men are fine wine, they just age better the
older they get.
I feel like women have
to start taking ownership in changing that concept, and I think this fairy-tale
is powerful in that because at the end of this story, Ravenna ends up alone,
and none of those things give her anything she thought she was going to have.
The Snow White character ends up having a full life, because there’s more to
her than chasing those currencies. If you think that this story was written
hundreds of years ago and it resonates with us as a society still today, that
says something about us.
NICOLAS-TROYAN: What’s great about fairy-tales is that no
matter how you take the fairy-tale and what kind of fairy-tale it is; it always
[offers] very simple lessons in life. They are written that way for kids to
understand: what is good; what is bad? What is love; what is hate? What is
wrong and what is right? Those are universal [themes], it doesn’t matter what
culture you’re from, as a human being, you learn those things.
When we make movies
like that, all we’re doing is creating more complex characters that are more
anchored in reality, of the reality we know today. But if you look at
fairy-tales within themselves, you would see that even in modern movies,
they’re always essentially the same lesson, they’re always there to remind us
what we should be doing. We live today in a world that is focused on ugliness
and negativity, and we have a tendency to look in that direction instead of
celebrating what we should be doing. Those fairy-tales have been created from
the get-go to teach the kids to not do that, in 20 years, we’re going to do
fairy-tales in a different style and a different medium, and it will tell the
exact same story.
