Richard Madden – who many of us know from HBO’s Game of Thrones – has taken on a different prince, the role of Prince Charming “Kit” in the blockbuster film Cinderella. From the blue eyes (his natural color) to the determination of finding his true love to the “happily ever after”, Madden is perfection in his role.
“You’ve got a young man with all of his own problems and a young woman with hers and, actually, they bring the best out of each other. I think she rescues him as much as he rescues her and that’s why I was really interested in this version.”
Madden was lucky enough to work with some Hollywood powerhouses – Cate Blanchett, Helena Bonham Carter, and Kenneth Branagh’s direction.
Ken’s just amazing because the same amount of detail was put in something like this as it would be into something like MacBeth. And that’s great because it just gives you so much ammunition so I can into these scenes with Derek (Jacobi) and we can improvise. And we can really play because you’ve got so much going on – Ken really kind of inspires you. And that’s why you know it brings out the best in me and that’s why we’re working together again in 2016 because we enjoyed working together.
Working with newcomer Lily James was a treat in itself for Richard Madden. They became good friends during filming and remain good friends now. Madden talked about some of the funny things that would happen on set.
“Lily used to burp just all the time. It’s because she’s got this corset on and she can’t really eat anything, especially when she was kind of first getting used to it. And she’s kind of over eager and like just to eat a sandwich or something and we filmed for like an hour because she’d be fine, she’d be fine. And then the food can only go so far and of course it actually means nothing else can go through.”
But it wasn’t always fun and games – there were some emotional moments as well, like filming his final scene with Derek Jacobi, who plays his father, The King. “That was a very emotional day, but a really good one,” he says, “I love working with Derek. it was kind of an icon to me and that was kind of a really moving scene. He plays it so beautifully – it was hard not to get caught up in that.”
Madden also knows he is now officially a role model for boys who are too young to watch his other films and television characters like Robb Stark in Game of Thrones – “They’re both young men that have responsibilities on them that they’ve not asked for and, and they’re both young men that follow their hearts instead of their heads”.
I think that (Disney animated films) is just where you first deal with death, and love, and good and bad, and that’s what I really wanted to do with this Prince – to make someone, that’s not that old fashioned view of a girl needing a guy. I think I wanted to try and make a Prince that young men would have to look up to – a Prince that has a built in respect for women and a compassion to the people around him, an awareness of his privilege. And so if there’s there’s little boys that grow up and are (influenced by this) I’ll be really honored by it.
Don’t miss Richard Madden as The Prince in Disney’s Cinderella, in theaters now!
