Interview with William Moseley

The Hook, from Charlottesville, VA, interviewed William Moseley (Peter Pevensie) while he was in town for a screening of LWW:

FILM- Moseley on down: Actor brings Narnia to town

Published October 26, 2006 in issue 0543 of the HooK.
By JUSTIN HUMPHREYS FIVESTARFINAL@HOTMAIL.COM

There was a time when William Moseley was but a fan of C.S. Lewis' classic novel, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.

"My mind was spinning with these stories," he recalls. "It's everything a child wants to hear about: valiant children doing something brave and honorable and good."

Never did the boy dream that he would end up in these very same "spinning stories." No, he never discovered a magic wardrobe, but two years ago the English teen became the regal Peter Pevensie, a.k.a. Sir Peter Wolfsbane, Knight of Narnia-- and King Peter the Magnificent in the Disney adaptation of the novel.

Of course, the reality of making the movie was not nearly so magical as the fantasyland Lewis described. While filming Disney's epic, Moseley spent lots of time reacting to nonexistent computer-generated beavers, wolves, centaurs, and, naturally, a certain lion. But he says he was undaunted by the process. "You just be the character, you use your imagination," he says. "When you imagine Aslan [the story's benevolent lion], you just see some highly individual perception-- I saw a majestic creature. I enjoyed being able to create my own Aslan instead of someone else putting it there in front of me."

The finished film delighted Moseley, who turned 19 in April. "We all had very high expectations," he says, "and it actually went beyond them."

Moseley credits the film's success to director Andrew Adamson's adherence to his artistic vision. "We're so lucky that we had someone who said what he wanted, did what he wanted, and didn't let anyone push him around," Moseley says. "He's so quiet, yet he's so strong"

A sequel, The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, is in the works, but its producers are keeping details under wraps. "We're going to shoot in January, and that's going ahead," Moseley says, and shooting is slated to continue through the summer. "I haven't seen a completed script yet," he says. "They're keeping it really hush-hush. Whether it's even finished, I don't know."

After achieving notoriety as The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe's valiant hero, Moseley says that much as he enjoyed his heroic role, he hopes to play more morally ambiguous characters in the future.

"I'm kind of a nice person, in some ways-- I don't like to do nasty things, I don't like being that rebellious," he says. "But when you get to act, you can be completely opposite to who you are. And sometimes when you're so opposite, you can almost play it more truthfully, because you relish being able to do that."

Still wearing the white hat, William Moseley hosts a screening of The Chronicles of Narnia: the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe at the Regal Downtown Mall theater on Saturday October 28 at 10am.