It’s based around it obviously, but then it’s basically if this tale’s been retold over many generations through lots of families and ends up becoming the story we know nowadays, so it’s kind of the tale of behind that, and altered into a fairy tale romantic adventure.Ĭan you talk a little bit about the 3D cameras? Is this your first time working with them and have there been any challenges doing so as an actor? Hoult: That’s the thing the really nice thing when I read the script was the ending of the story and how it all ties together, and this is basically not the “Jack and the Beanstalk” you see in pantomimes or the story you know. Isn't some of what you’ve said so far part of the original myth? This is based on something a lot of people already know. I think I’m giving away quite a lot of the story. So that was that sequence and then the princess is trapped inside the house with the beanstalk growing and lifting up into the sky, so Jack’s trying to get in to save her and help her. It was a lot of fun to do all that and there’s a bit of dialogue in that scene as well. I would be running to try to get to Ellie and it hit me in the stomach, lift me up and then I get thrown out through the roof. They built Jack’s uncle’s house in the studios and then had it on a rig whereby the whole house would shake and the floorboards would explode. Hoult: Ah, yeah, that sequence is really cool. Can you talk about the challenges of filming that sequence? We saw some previz of the beanstalk going up. She gets caught out in a storm, ends up there and then this whole adventure begins. So that’s their first encounter is him trying to help her and later on she turns up at his house. The first encounter they have, there’s actually a pantomime going on of Jack and the Giant Killer and they’re both watching in the audience and he sees her getting accosted by some drunks and tries to do the heroic thing, the good thing, as we all hope he would, and step in to try to help, but that doesn’t quite go to plan and he gets knocked out. Hoult: No, she’s a headstrong, fiery young princess who isn’t too happy being cooped up in the castle and she goes on these little escapes occasionally. What about Jack’s princess? Is she a damsel in distress at all? How does that romance start? Hoult: No, we did a bit of fitness training just because there’s a lot of running around and jumping and all that sort of stuff, but apart from the giants Jack doesn’t actually fight any humans. That was mainly the training, that sort of stuff. Not that I’ve actually done that much riding. So we did a fair bit of climbing, a bit of horse riding. I don’t know if you’ve seen any of the beanstalk stuff, but we spent a lot of time climbing on beanstalks with the rain effects on and the wind machines battering us. Hoult: Yeah, we did rock climbing, which was lots of fun actually. What sort of training did you have to do for this role? We heard there was some rock climbing and stuff like that. He has to overcome quite a few of his fears of heights and thunder and all these sorts of things along the way. He’s a good guy, which is nice, playing a good guy for once, but he’s fairly laid back, understanding of the princess's situation and wants to become a Guardian and protect her. He’s an average hero, an average guy who becomes a hero. He hasn’t had an easy upbringing and then he’s kind of catapulted onto this epic mission and falls in love with a princess. Hoult: What’s my Jack like? He’s a dreamer. I think I missed the first set of screen tests because we were filming up in Georgia for the final battle sequence of X-Men and then came in and did a few screen tests the beginning of this year and it worked out. But at the time, Mad Max was going to be shooting again while this was filming, so I wasn’t really in the running for it and then that got delayed again. He mentioned he was doing this and that he was prepping it all basically while we were filming X-Men. So nothing really happened and then I got cast in Mad Max and then that got delayed and then went on to X-Men and met Bryan. I think Bryan went to work a lot on previz and all that sort of stuff.
I met Roger, the casting director back then, and then it went really quiet for a fair while. Hoult: The first time I heard about it was a real long time ago, I think it was when we were doing press for A Single Man. Were you aware of all the names circling this project or were you just sort of keeping your head down? There's been a few little injuries along the way.Ĭan you talk a little about getting involved in this project? This is one of those films where there’s a lot of talk about who was going to land this role. Nicholas Hoult: You guys saw that? I can’t remember what I said, so apologies. We should probably start with the most important thing – horse injuries? Horse stepping on feet?