Following the premiere in London’s Leicester Square last Sunday, the cast of the upcoming Warner Bros. production were joined by the film’s director and producer to discuss the live-action adventure.
Seated in The Ballroom of Claridge’s, Joe Wright, Paul Webster, Hugh Jackman, Levi Miller, Rooney Mara and Garrett Hedlund were all in attendence for the PAN press conference on Tuesday afternoon.
Pan is the origin story of the titular character, but as director Wright says, “This is Peter Pan for 2015. A complete reframing of the story as we all know and love it.” Newcomer Miller takes centre stage as 12-year-old Peter, an orphan who is whisked away in the middle of the night to Neverland where he encounters pirates, fairies and warriors. Set on a path of discovery, Peter teams up with Tiger Lily (Mara) and James Hook (Hedlund), forming an alliance against Jackman’s Blackbeard who longs for eternal youth through destructive measures.
With credits including PRIDE & PREJUDICE and ATONEMENT, Webster and Wright are long term collaborators. Having had previous experience of working together, this made their creation of Neverland a painless process: “Well, its always easy when you’ve got a director who knows what he wants. The script called for huge leaps of the imagination and Joe is not shy in coming forward in that regard. And so it was then a matter of managing what he wanted and making it happen, and making everybody happy in the process.” He continued, “We were lucky to have huge support from Warner Bros., so it really wasn’t that difficult in terms of making it.”
For Wright, it was important to create a film full of colour from the point of view of an 11-year-old, and he worked closely with designer Aline Bonetto to achieve this. There is no denying the abundance of imagination Pan has to offer, with spectacular sets and aesthetically pleasing visuals, Wright had a clear vision of what he wanted the film to be: “I try to leave myself open to moments of discovery. But I do have an idea of what I want it to be and look like because I get really scared, and so I want to have things set so I know what I’m doing. And really for me, a lot of directing is about peeling that away and allowing space for the surprising to happen.”
A surprising moment in particular was an unlikely song rendition headed by Blackbeard when the character is first introduced on screen, which Jackman called his “favourite day on set“: “When you have hundreds of kids singing Nirvana as you enter it’s a moment I never really forgot, and that was not something that was in the script. Joe likes to do a lot of improv in rehearsals, to create the characters together in a more classical, theatrical way. It’s what makes working with Joe so unique. We turned up one day and we were all handed the lyrics to Teen Spirit by Nirvana, and I presumed it was either a vocal warm up or some kind of improv and Joe said lets try it out and make this your entrance. Joe’s brilliant idea and a moment I’ll never forget.”
Garrett, too, reflected on his favourite moment to film being at Cardington Sheds in Bedfordshire, a location which has been previously used for BATMAN BEGINS and THE DARK KNIGHT: “We had 200 extras dressed up as the natives and the cast and crew. And Joe’s quite the DJ and every day, not just his birthday, but every day he’d play music in between all the takes. We’re filming this story that’s so full of youth and imagination and here were are, the cast and crew, all dancing together and no matter how old you were, get to feel like you’re a kid again, and I think that was very necessary for the film. It was one of my favourite moments.”
For Miller, it was a entirely new experience. With six film credits under his belt, this was the first leading role for the young actor. He recounted his first day on set at Pinewood Studios, and it was certainly demanding… “I was really submerged under water in a harness. And I remember I had to equalise so I could get further down, and the further you got there was a window and I could see everyone in there, it was pretty cool. But it was a hard first day on set.” Wright quipped, “Threw you in at the deep end.”
Wright watched over 4,000 taped auditions for the role of Peter, and although there were some who had more experience, they were just not as good as Miller: “It was really just about finding the right actor, and as soon as Levi popped up on screen and did his audition it was quite clear that he was our guy. It was an arduous process up until the point of seeing Levi and then it was easy. Then it was just like – ‘ok, get him on a plane.'”
Miller clearly wasted no time in leaving a lasting impression with all of those surrounding him. Mara said that working with him was “one of the best parts of the whole experience” because of his curiosity and lack of cynicisms, while Jackman proclaimed that “the world’s about to fall in love with him“.
As for Mara, labelled as “too white”, her casting as Tiger Lily has proved controversial, but this didn’t influence her performance. She explained how Wright sat down with her to talk through his vision of Neverland and it “just made sense“: “In the original book Tiger Lily is not a Native American, that’s something that was later put in to the Peter Pan adaptations, but is not actually a part of J.M. Barrie’s story. It’s like Joe said, Neverland is Peter’s imagination and we wanted the Natives and the Native village to be Natives of Neverland and Natives of, as Joe likes to say, Planet Earth.”
Tiger Lily was a physically demanding role for Mara as she admitted to spending a lot of time with the stunt department, but it was important to showcase a strong female character and Tiger Lily is exactly that – she’s fierce, feisty and loyal: “I was just happy to be the girl in a film like this that isn’t the damsel in distress. It was cool to get to play the female part who was more capable and badass than the guy. You rarely see that, so that was really fun to play a character who is so capable.”
Hook was an equally physical role for Garrett, but with an additional touch of slapstick humour: “He can be quite uncoordinated at times. When we were first doing rehearsals I think we kind of laughed at this notion, and Joe was explaining – ‘it’s like, you know when someone’s always trying to do the right thing, but they just cant help but mess it up.’”
With the press conference drawing to a close, Jackman was asked about luck and how it has assisted him in getting to where he is today. Initially, he lost out on the part of Wolverine to another actor, but when said actor was injured, Jackman, who was in Los Angeles at the time making arrangements for the adoption of his son, jumped in: “maybe its fate or something in there, you can call it luck or whatever you want. But of course there are moments like that for all of us in life, for good and bad, and I suppose as an actor the only thing you can control is working hard, having a lot of fun, and if you do get a chance at something make the most of it. I slightly regret not doing Chicago. I thought I was too young at the time when they offered me the part because they had a line saying I’ve seen it all kid, and I think I was 30 at the time, bit of a stretch. Then I saw the movie and I was like – ‘make-up, just should’ve put some make-up on.’ But actually Richard Gere was phenomenal and better for the part.”
Jackman definitely lives up to his reputation as the nicest man in show business, although his mother sees it differently. He tells how she was informed of this at the premiere on Sunday to which she replied, “I think we used to call that manners,” she continued, “we taught him manners.”
With the cinema release weeks away, questions are already being asked about a sequel to Pan, but Wright will be leaving that in the hands of the public. “The opportunity for a sequel really depends on the audience and whether they would like one.”
PAN is released in UK cinemas October 16th, 2015 in 2D and 3D. Take a look at a snippet from the conference below.
