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We're Hangin' With..... Captain Hook and Company: THE STARS OF PETER PAN! by: Lynn B.
Confident Jeremy was cute in black shirt and pants. He's still got his Peter Pan "do" of curly, blonde-tipped hair. Polite, petite Rachel, a perfect English rose, has porcelain skin, great lips and looked very cute in her white shirt, mini-skirt and brown suede boots. First, we wanted to know what the actors knew about Peter Pan before signing on for the movie. Jason: In England, Peter Pan is always played by a middle-aged woman whose singing career is behind her. My first experience ever in the theatre was seeing this middle-aged woman play Peter Pan and wondering why Wendy was not so attractive. And then many years later I read the book and then when Peter [Hogan, the director] offered me the film all I remembered of that was the [Disney] cartoon. So my knowledge was very sketchy and when I first read the script I couldn't believe what a magnificent story it was and then of course it made sense that it had been successful for a hundred years. Jeremy: When I was little I watched the Disney version all the time, the cartoon was like my favourite movie other than Batman. Those were my two favourite characters when I was little, Batman and Peter Pan. I just loved the story, it's about a kid who never grows up and has all these things he can do. He can sword fight, he can fly, he can do anything, it's what every kid wants. Jason: So what did you think when somebody said you might get to play it? Jeremy: I thought this was the coolest thing in the world. I told my manager Mark 'you've got to give me an audition for this part, I'll do my best'. So I went in and he thought I was a bit too small for the part, and so I was bummed out. Pretty much later they called me back to audition with Peter Hogan the director and they said I've grown a bit, I'd grown an inch or so. So they had me fly to London to audition with Jason. And we were supposed to do this routine in a park for sword fighting and instead he takes me to an arcade and gives me Chinese food for a couple of hours.[Laughter]. And so they call up and say 'are you guys ready'? And Jason's like 'no, give us twenty minutes'. So we rush to the park for twenty minutes and we're really going at each other and stuff and these cops come over and say 'what are you guys doing?' It looked like this guy was beating on his little kid. Jason: We went to a concert. Didn't we go to a gig as well? There was a gig over in the corner of the park. JS: Oh yeah, there was this big thing going on, it had like the Osbournes and they had like Paul McCartney and Eric Clapton singing and stuff. We were there for the Queen's Jubilee so there was lots of stuff going on. I was then flown to France to audition some Wendys and Tinkerbells. And at the airport P.J. draws this picture and he says 'what is this?' And I say 'its Peter Pan'. And he goes 'no, it's Jeremy Sumpter, you got Peter Pan.' I'm like, really! So I'm like 'oh my god'. And he says 'don't tell no one, I have to run it by the studios first'. And then I said ok, and the first thing I did was say 'dad I got Peter Pan!' AGW: Rachel? You are being left out. How about you? Rachel: Well, I really really loved Peter Pan the Disney version when I was younger. And I was really jealous of Wendy because she got to fly and do amazing things. And I had a bedcover with the Peter Pan Disney version on it, and I just loved that, I just really enjoyed the story. So when I first auditioned for this film I thought I'd better read the book because I hadn't actually read it before. So I read it and I really enjoyed it, although I found it quite hard because of old words and stuff I didn't understand. And then when I read the script I just couldn't believe it, I thought it was fantastic. I just thought it would be really really good fun because I couldn't wait to learn to fly and sword fight. AGW: Can you talk about the challenges of the sword fighting and the flying? How did you prepare for it? Jeremy: We had a lot of difficult routines we had to learn, and the sword fighting was especially hard for me because I had to learn how to keep my knees straight. And me and Jason, we had to actually learn how to do the routines right before the shot because he didn't have a lot of time to rehearse these scenes before we'd shoot. They'd say 'you've got 15 minutes to learn this routine'. Jason: This would be after we'd learned a different routine for three months. Jeremy: P.J. would cut stuff out and change the whole routine, totally different and we'd have to learn it all over again. It was really difficult but the sword master said we were really good at learning it so it was no problem for them. Jason: One of the hardest things about sword fighting is that it all comes from the feet, its all kind of footwork like boxing. It's kind of tricky to thrust when you don't have anything to thrust against [when you are "flying"]. I had done a lot of sword fighting before at drama school and I was ready to be the on-set expert. And at the last second Peter said to me 'you do understand you have to fight with your left hand, don't you?' so that completely screwed me and I had to start from scratch. And Jeremy was embarrassingly coordinated and was within the first day wanting to have little competitions. 'Let's see if we can thrust through the eye of that needle there, can you hit that target over there?" It was tough for me, I found it very hard to do with my left hand. AGW: Were there any sword-fighting accidents?
AGW: Rachel, did you have any sword-fighting adventures? Rachel: I didn't have to do as much as Jeremy or Jason, but I'm not as strong as they are so I found it really difficult carrying the big, big swords. And when I was fighting one of the pirates, well all the pirates I thought were really really tall and they were really really strong and I was really scared they would dash my brains out! AGW: How did you all manage all the flying? Jason: I still can't walk properly. Jeremy and I and Rachel spent a large part of our year in midair getting a giant wedgie from these harnesses. And it was very tough for me, it was very tough for the kids, they had to be in the brace all the time. A lot of people were passing out because it cuts all the blood off from your legs. We had the guys who did all the flying in The Matrix, all the wire work. Toward the end of the shoot, we'd been up there for hours and they'd say 'good job, good job.' I said well those guys [on The Matrix] must have been up there for months'. And they said, 'no no, they used to have a break every half hour.' And nobody told us. Jeremy: We'd be up there for two hours at a time saying 'take us out'. Sometimes they'd take us down for a break if we really needed it. But they really wanted to keep going for the next shot. Jason: Because it's a really big deal to get someone down and unstrap them. If you haven't gone to the bathroom before, you're up there for four hours and you're not coming down.
AGW: Peter Pan doesn't really have a conventional family but longs for one. How do each of you feel about your families? Rachel: Well my family is very important to me. They've been really supportive throughout the whole filming and publicity, which there isn't much of but I'm sure there will be, and they're really important to me, you know they come first. They're just really supportive and loving, so they come very high up to me. Jeremy: My family has been real supportive. I have a twin sister who has just turned to acting and I've been real supportive to her and she's helped me throughout this whole thing. My dad especially is not only my dad but my best friend. We golf, we surf, we do everything, we play tennis together. Without my dad, the family that I have I probably wouldn't have made it this far. I'm very proud of them and to me they're number one in my life. Jason: I became a dad just before this film started and now that I'm a dad I'm completely obsessed about my family. My daughter is 20 months old. Is my family important to me? When you're lying there dying on your death bed it will not the pile of videos on the shelf that you're looking to, it will be the people gathered around the bed. And I think that's pretty wise. Jeremy: Actually I was wanting to go play golf all the time in Australia with Jason. And he'd always say he can't because he's spending lost time with his family because when he was on set he never gets a chance to spend time with his daughter. So I'd call him all the time 'Jason, lets go play some golf' and he says 'I can't, I'm playing with Lily right now', and I say 'ok'. So to him, his family does come first. AGW: Rachel and Jeremy, what do you want to be when you grow up? Jeremy: Well, what I'll do is have kids and boss them around. Get my driver's licence of course. That's what I'm really looking forward to. But I don't want to grow up because I don't want to take care of taxes and do contracts and that boring kind of stuff. Jason: So you might be interested in girls when you grow up? Jeremy: Of course, I already am.
Jason: When Rachel came to audition I was reading in with the potential Wendys in London, she came in the room and she was doing the scene with Captain Hook where she has dinner. And I was trying to help her into the mindset and I said 'imagine having dinner with a big superstar, popstar or film actor'. I said 'for instance who do you have on your wall?' She says 'what do you mean?' I said, 'well what posters do you have on your wall, do you have any boys on your wall?' And she went, 'no'. I said 'well what do you have on your wall?' She went 'dolphins'. She's never wavered from wanting to be a marine biologist. I suspect the best thing about doing Peter Pan was that she got to go up the coast in Australia and spend some time with dolphins. Rachel: Yes. It was fantastic. Jeremy: The only thing she did in school was draw dolphins too. So she loves dolphins. I actually got her a gift once that was a necklace with a dolphin on it. AGW: Rachel, you were in school and suddenly you're a star of a big studio movie. Can you talk about the adjustment of that for you? Rachel: Well, at home when I go to school I have a completely normal life. I go to a normal secondary school. And my friends were really really supportive of me. And a few people have been suddenly wanting to be my best friend, you know, they've kind of ignored me before that. When I came back from being in Australia, there were some people who I got teased by. But mainly everyone's just really supported me. But suddenly being in Australia, and working on a film set, it was just incredible, it was such a weird thing. And it wasn't like I'd imagined. I imagined there would be a lot more time to relax and stuff. But if I wasn't on set I would be in tutoring and if I wasn't in tutoring I would be in stunts. It was just mad all the time. So it was completely different to be at school than being on the set. AGW: So you really don't want to do more acting? Rachel: Well, I'd love to do a couple more films. That would be really really good fun. But I'm definitely set on being a marine biologist. AGW: What kinds of music are you all into? Jeremy: I like the Beatles, you know Paul McCartney, John Lennon. I like all the old stuff, you know, 70s rock and roll, 60s rock. Beach Boys, all that kind of stuff. Rachel: I'm totally different, I like all things modern. Well, I like all kinds of music, I like mostly R & B and Hip Hop and stuff like that. That's my favourite, that's my style. Jeremy: Jason likes Frank Sinatra and that kind of stuff. Jason: Don't tell them that! Jeremy:
Well it's a good thing. It's better than watching Britney Spears. |
 
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According
to Director P.J. Hogan, 14-year-old Jeremy Sumpter didn't so much
walk into his audition for Peter Pan as swagger in like a young
Errol Flynn. Producer Lucy Fisher gave audition tapes to her young daughters
who picked Jeremy hands down! Bad guy Jason Isaacs (he was the
bad British Captain who killed Heath Ledger in The Patriot) plays
a very hot, menacing Captain Hook in the film. He also plays a very mousy
Mr. Darling, Wendy's dad. When we interviewed the cast of the new Peter
Pan recently, we learned that Jason is funny, warm and fuzzy with
the kids in real life and tells some great stories. He and Jeremy seem
more like a cool uncle and his nephew than life or death adversaries.
Jason helped moderate the panel, encouraging young actors Jeremy and 13-year-old
first-timer Rachel Hurd-Wood, who plays Wendy, to tell the press
all about the filming of the movie and off-set fun. 
Jason:
[In films] there are what you call the hero swords which are the very
shiny metal ones used only for the very tight close ups. But for most
of the fighting you use swords that are metal inside but they're hard
rubber on the outside. They're pretty heavy, but if you miss a block you're
not going to put the other person in hospital. And Jeremy never wanted
to use them, he always wanted to use the metal swords because they were
a little bit lighter and he felt he was better with them. We had big rows
about it. And every time Jeremy was like 'just this time oh please, it's
so safe.' One time Jeremy hit me in the face and I flew across the ship,
with my feet off the ground and I was nearly knocked out. We had to stop
filming because you couldn't stick the moustache on my face with all the
blood. And I said to him, 'do think that ends the discussion about the
metal'? And then he's like 'I'm so sorry, I'll never do it again, I can't
believe it.' Next morning we get in and he says 'please can we use the
metal sword?" So the toughest thing was trying to persuade Jeremy
that he actually wasn't Peter Pan and that we needed a bit of help. 
AGW:
Jason, maybe you can explain why Wendy's dad and Captain Hook are the
same actor, you.
Rachel:
I'm a bit nervous about growing up and being an adult because there's
so much responsibility, but there are loads of good things that come with
it as well. There are lots more privileges and things that you can do
and I'm going to be a marine biologist…definitely!