Q&A with MIRROR MIRROR's Julia Roberts, Lily Collins,Tarsem Singh

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Category: Interviews

Created: Saturday, 24 March 2012 13:00

Published: Saturday, 24 March 2012 13:00

Written by Lupe Haas

The MIRROR MIRROR cast and director sat down in Los Angeles for a press conference on March 3rd. CineMovie was there with Julia Roberts, Lily Collins and director Tarsem Singh to talk about their new take on the Snow White fairy-tale.

Key: TS: Tarsem Singh, JR: Julia Roberts, LC: Lily Collins

Q: With all of the prior incarnations of this particular grim fairy-tale, what considerations have in developing the story and achieving the look off all the well known characters?

TS: Well I looked at Snow White and just thought do I have a take on it? And funny enough my take tends to be visual, but in this particular case it wasn’t before. Once I layed that out and realized I wanted the same movie and not edgy, but a family friendly film, I was on board.

Producers: We just wanted to make a fun, original movie with a female protagonist that was a great hero. We treated her very much like a male protagonist. Somebody who would stand up for themselves and appreciate what was unique and special about them.

            Lily Collins Duels with Prince Armie Hammer in MIRROR MIRROR Clip

Q: How were the costumes Julia and Lilly? Were they comfortable or uncomfortable? Overall, what did you think about the fashion in this movie?

JR: Well they’re stunning. I really think they are such a integral part. It’s the same as having these amazing sets being in these clothes. They were original and authentic to what we were trying to accomplish. As Tarsem would say in these great huge spaces, we needed to fill them in everyway and physically dominate these spaces. They had to be quite architectural, in that, they weren’t that terribly cozy, but that’s not really the point.

LC: After 4 months of wearing corsettes and sword fighting in these crazy forests, I promised myself I would never complain about wearing high heels again. They became really a second skin and became the process of Lily turning into Snow White every morning. They were so beautifully made and were truly pieces of art, such a privilege to wear. They became part of maneuvering around the set in a way Snow would, not necessarily the way I would.

Q:  I heard not to long ago, you had mixed feelings about the trailer Tarsem. Can you elaborate?

TS: It’s a very alien word to me, trailers. I do a lot of advertising. And I had done about an hour and a half family movie that I adored. To see it distilled, cut down, whatever you want to call it.

Q: From an acting standpoint Julia did you have to look inside of you for the evil queen?

JR: I am happy to announce she is not inside me. But without naming names, I drew from a couple of people I know better than I wish I did, and found it very fun and helpful.

Q: Many of your films have been compared to a modern day fairy tales. Have you always wanted to do a traditional fairy tale?

JR: No and nor did I have any interest in this one really until Tarsem lured me in his luring way and looking at the script and realizing that there was really something here. But just the one sentence pitch of it on the phone, Hey there doing a Snow White adaptation, that didn’t grab my attention.

Q: A lot of actors say it’s more fun to play a villain. Do you agree with this?

JR: Well it was fun to play this villain because there aren’t any real rules  of syntax or reality that applied. So, I could kind of do anything and just go off the rails in any direction at any time. In that regard, it was a lot of fun. You don’t have to worry too much about the reality of what a person would really do.

Q: The original Snow White fairy tales as well as many others were traditionally influenced by the European feudal systems, gender, politics, etc. How did you leave in all the  “princess-y” stuff that little girls love but avoid the tropes and traps that women might find offensive from those classical original tales?

LC: Well, I think visually being in those costumes all the time…the little girl inside of me would just be in awe the whole time watching the film.  So definitely the physical aspect of the film and the way it looked. Also, the way we modernized this Snow White was making her this modern day girl that could save the prince just as easily as the prince could save her. She becomes a fighter physically and emotionally and goes from this young, wide-eyed, innocent princess that everyone grew up knowing to a young woman who finds it within herself to fight for what she believes in. She gives the prince a run for his money while wearing these gorgeous outfits. So it proves that you can still be that princess, but could also have a lot of fight.

                                MIRROR MIRROR Movie Production Notes

Q: Were there any physical challenges in making the movie?

LC: The snow being salt and coarse salt was not that fun while wrestling and losing. That forest had a lot of hills and a lot of places to trip and fall. I’m the kind of person who falls going up stairs so for me It was a challenge having the big dresses, and corset’s and swords in my hand to maneuver around. Especially when your wearing that big white outfit  with wings I wore in the ball scene. I’d forget I had wings on and try to walk through a doorway and get stuck. They become so much a part of you, that you forget how big you are in comparison to doorways and all that kind of stuff.

Q: Julia, you are so bad in this movie. What is the most evil thing you’ve ever done?

JR: Lied to the press. But it was only one time.
Are you going to let your kids see this or are they still too young?

JR: I think they are considering the part I play. We have a pretty rigid viewing feeling in our house. We’re more book people in our house. We’ll find time that’ll be happy and joyous to share that all together but it probably isn’t in two weeks.

Q: Charlize of course stars in another version of Snow White coming out. So, I was curious if you can take her on and if you did, who would win?

JR: I haven’t even met her so I couldn’t even size her up for your entertainment.

Q:  Lily, Did you enjoy the last scene where your singing?

LC:  That was the most fun for me. I’ll never forget being in the sound booth with Tarsem. I sang my heart out and didn’t have a voice the next day but it was so worth it. I watch that back and I think I sang and danced in front of about 400 extras, and didn’t care about anything else in the world but being there in that moment and everything I was saying and singing I truly felt was within my whole being. I look back and can’t remember being happier than I was in that moment.  It was truly the embodiment of everything I had hoped to experience.

Q: What was the relationship like between Lily and Julia on the set? Did you give any advice Julia?

JR: I’m always friendly to Lily. We have a good relationship. It’s acting. We almost try to take better care of our relationship because of the nasty undertones or sometimes overtones of our scenes.

LC: To me its still such an absolute honor for her to even touch my hair. To be in a scene with someone who you grew up admiring so much and to have a moment where you’re looking at somebody and their being so mean to you and all you want to do is smile and giggle because you are so happy, but your job is to stay petrified …It’s taught me a lot about having a poker face which I never really had before. Most of the things I learned from Julia was done by just watching her.

TS: I changed the scene when Julia was being mean to her. We went through everything and finally when I went to Julia’s point of view and looked down at Lily, I can understand what she was saying..she was saying its like being mean to Bambi. The moment I turned around I said, “I know what you mean, maybe we should tone it down a little bit.”

Q: Elaborate on the Bollywood dance number during the end credits.

TS: It was quite unanimously pushed back by an American audience, but internationally they embrace it.  The children loved it but adults generally dissected it because it was coming out of left field, so then it ended up where it did. But then I was very happy with that but the international crowd wasn’t pleased with the America version.

Q: Will the DVD have the full version?

TS: I don’t know your going to have to talk to the responsible adults.
It’s intriguing that people who work in the media have a strict policy with their children watching the media. Julia I was curious if you would give me some insight.  

JR: I don’t think I could offer insight. Just my thoughts of how we consider it in my home which those nice cozy hours before bed we just really spend together as a family talking and sharing the day and reading books. Before you know it, it’s time for bed. We would prefer something different in that time during the week and they do get to watch something’s. I love movies, obviously. I love a great deal of television. I was raised on television. But for us we feel there’s a real time and a place for it. Certainly, I don’t think its that mysterious really and its nice that it opens up other options. You know, stories, poetry and talking, and sharing  ideas.

Q: Mrs. Roberts, When you were first establishing yourself in Hollywood did you ever find yourself on the receiving end of any evil queen type actresses?

JR: Yes, but I wouldn’t limit it to just actresses.  But I did. Yeah, those are good lessons to learn how to never behave a certain way to another person.  There’s that value.

Q: Lily, Snow White is a very iconic character.  When you landed the role what kind of emotions did you feel?

LC: Well, I first got the call last year, April 1st. April Fools Day. It was too good of a joke to believe it wasn’t a joke. First I was shocked and thought it was the best April fools joke ever. But then I broke down crying, laughing, and just screaming. I was in a hotel room with my mom and was just breaking down everywhere crying because I was so excited. As for the iconic nature of the role, I realized, but not until you guys started asking me about how iconic it was. If I was asked this type of question before I shot, I don’t even know what I would have done. I feel like it was such a blessing to get the role that I was just so excited to go into it.

Q: Julia and Lily what was it like working with Armie Hammer?

JR: He’s good on the chin that one. When you look at him, you just look way up. He’s gone off to another movie now, so I don’t think we should give him too much attention. He’s so wonderful. He’s a lovely guy and he really brought a very clever dimension to Prince Charming. He really could have just stood there and just talked and it would have been terrific. But, he wanted to really be clever about it and put a lot of consideration into it. I thought he made great choices and he’s really professional. He always had some little clever thing that he was bringing to it and it made it really entertaining to watch that whole thing unfold.

LC: In real life he’s very much the same mixture of being goofy and funny and at the same time such a gentleman. So regal in the way he stands and makes you feel like you’re the most important person in the room. You can start talking about anything and he knows something about what you’re talking about. It’s almost scary how smart he is. We went through all this training together and he is a strong man. When it comes to the sword fighting, I’d ask him to tone it down at some points.  He was practicing with the stunt guys and we didn’t actually do the sequence together until the day before so I had to remind him I was a little smaller than who he was practicing with.

Q: Julia, what exactly did Tarsem say to you to convince you do the film and at this point in your career, what is your criteria for choosing whether or not you accept a role?

JR: It’s kind of the same criteria it has always been. Its just a feeling that I have and I’m such a fan of Tarsem and when I heard it was his movie and his interpretation I thought, well I’d love to meet him. If I go here and have to talk about Snow White for an hour then that what we’ll do. He had such a great take on it and a vibrant personality. I read the script he had and was really taken and surprised. I thought this was all coming together in an unexpected way, and there we went.

Q: Lily can you describe what your prince of dreams would be like?

LC: Someone that could make you laugh. Someone who is open to spontaneity. Someone by just the thought of them makes you smile. That makes you feel like being you is enough.

Q: Julia who do you go for to answer your questions honestly as opposed to giving you the answers you want to hear?

JR: Well, I always want to hear the truth whatever it is. That’s just full stop and I’ve always felt that way. I have an amazing family and a great group of friends and that’s what I expect from them and rely on and I’d do the same for them. It’s also what I look for in a great working relationship. People that will be honest and will be very plain speaking and not beat around the bush. This is what works and this is what doesn’t.
Producers and Tarsem, elaborate on the two different takes of Snow White coming out around the same time. Is there competition?

Producer: A long time ago a smart man told me to worry about what you do and not to worry about what the other competition does. You have to take care of your own house. The fact that there is another Snow White movie wasn’t something that we couldn’t deal with but it was there. We had a really clear focus on the type of movie we were making that we never veered off. The most important thing for us was to create a movie with integrity on our own terms.

Q: Lily, what were you surprised to learn about Julia?

JR: You don’t have to answer that

LC: I think two things. First and foremost that even at work she’s a mom.  Her kids were on set a lot playing around. They’re so well behaved and so sweet. That’s all a testament to Julia and her husband. It was such an amazing thing to see that mother on set not just Julia the actress. To kind of go along with that, no matter what job you had working on the film, she treated everyone the same. It was all about the team and how we functioned as one to create this amazing project.

Q:  Could you give us a specific memory where she demonstrated a maternal instinct towards you?

LC: Everytime she would be mean to me and pull my hair or grab a cheek it would be yell, cut. She’d go from gripping a cheek to just a sweet, motherly smile. It wasn’t thought about. It is just who she is. Every time she was mean, it just didn’t matter.

Q: How to do you stay true to the past interpretations of Snow White without completely changing it up?

JR: I think it’s about changing the tone of it or giving it different relationship to it. I don’t look particularly good in very big purple eye shadow and a Dracula collar. So we wanted to go a different route there. I think people like variations on things. It funny how everyone makes a big deal out of there being two as though there had never been two movies with similar topics coming up at the same time.

LC: I wanted to pay homage to the classic essence of that fairytale princess and be very particular in everything from my hands to the way that I spoke to people. But then at the same time, I’m wielding a sword, throwing things back at the prince, and running and jumping. I think its about paying tribute to the original, but at the same time if you’re going  to reinterpret a story that we all know and love, there’s got to be things in there that make it more fresh and modern. I know I never wanted to make a Snow White that’s a caricature of the animated story. I wanted to make a real girl  that young girls today could look at and say, I want her to be a friend of mine.

Q: It seems like people are still very fascinated by monarchies. Royal weddings are televised with millions of people watching. Is that something you can relate to?

LC: I loved history in High School and am really into reading period dramas. Being from England myself, it’s part of my culture and I’m just fascinated visiting actual castles in the countryside and I’m such a fairytale girl. I imagine myself in them. What would I do? What would I wear? So for me, I feel at home when reading about kings, queens and castles.

Q: What are you guys working on next?
LC: I shot an Indy film called The English Teacher with Nathan Lane and Julian Moore and I will be going off tomorrow night to shoot a film called The Writers  with Jennifer Connelly and Greg Kinnear.

JR: I have not done any of those things. We were working in the summer and now it’s the school year so, I’m busy with other things.

TS: I’m visual-ed out. Right now I’m looking at just a straight cross. Nothing but dramas. I’m looking at 3 or 4 and by the end of the week I should know which one I’m working on. Lets just say it’s not a visual film.

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