Sam Riley may not be a household name now, but after his role as the raven, Diaval, in Disney's "Maleficent", I have a feeling we'll be seeing more of him. The new dad sat down with us at the Four Seasons Beverly Hills to chat about playing the part of "birdman", including research, hair and makeup, and getting to work with Angelina Jolie.
If you haven't seen the film yet — what are you waiting for!? — Sam Riley takes as on the part of Maleficent's sidekick, the raven, which was named Diablo in the animated classic "Sleeping Beauty". In "Maleficent", Diaval takes on many forms, including transforming into a human where he becomes more of a conscience to Maleficent than a servant.
Check out my interview with Sam Riley as Diaval, the raven, in Disney's "Maleficent".
What was it like to work on a new, but yet very old, story?
Oh it was, it was really exciting. Most of my films are sort of independent-type cinema that not many people go and watch usually. But the script was really great. I loved it and the lady who wrote it had written the Lion King as well and lots of other big, you know, lovely Disney movies. I thought the way they did this was really interesting. 'Cause, I mean, what would make a woman or a sorceress curse a little baby? It's like one of the worst things you could possibly do. And before everything's so black and white and these days, ladies are still waiting for a prince sometimes, but to just lie there asleep ... it's not really the modern way. And the fact that Angelina was gonna play Maleficent was very exciting.
Was there research you had to do to figure out how to get into your character?
I watched the old cartoon and things, but it doesn't really do very much in that. The raven always looks half asleep or something. They organized it so that they could bring in a real raven into a room. I'd never seen a real raven before. I thought they were like crows, but it could do tricks and stuff, which is pretty scary. I mean, when it gets its wings out it's as long as the table or something. You know, really huge. And they're very intelligent and they're kind of vain as well which I thought was funny. But I just watched this raven in a room for awhile, just to see if anything would rub off on me and, that I could steal something from it while I'm the man part of the thing. And there was a really nice lady who helped me doing a movement coach. We tried to copy bits of his movements— by the end of the session I was actually running around the room flapping my wings.
What's your most memorable scene?
The first one 'cause I was really nervous. I met Angelina before, obviously, we rehearsed and things like that, but I'd never seen her in the full costume. They had this amazing set there, and she was already there so I was worried that I'd been keeping her waiting or something which wasn't a good start... She had her back to me, and the way it was all lit amazingly or something and then when she turned around it was like... It's weird because it looked, you know it's not real, the cheekbones and everything and the contact lenses. But when you look at her in all that stuff it kind of, it looks -- natural is maybe not the right word but it fits. You don't think it looks fake or something.
How much hair and makeup did you have to go through every day?
It's about three and half, four hours something? But I couldn't really complain 'cause there were other people that had been in there since three o'clock in the morning. They have to wake them up that early so that they're ready to work at nine, you know? So the ladies and guys that were putting all this stuff on, they probably work some of the hardest 'cause they have to be there at that time and then the whole day they have to make sure things aren't falling off.
I'm a really good sleeper. I used to be anyway. I've just had a baby, but -- well, my wife. After a couple of weeks I managed to be able to lie down in the chair while people were gluing things to my face — I could actually sleep through it which is pretty impressive.
Did you get to see any of your transformations while you were filming?
No, but the director got lots of beautiful drawings that he'd drawn all the animals that I turn into so I had some idea what it would look like. And I think there's one brief bit of transformation in one of the trailers, but like for a split second. And all my friends are like, "Yeah, that could be anybody, man, you know?" So. No, really, I'm really excited.
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Can you tell us about your audition?
It was pretty classic, really, which is more or less they send you the scenes ... they email you them and then you learn them at home. I flew to London and met Rob and the casting director. And then you do the scene and the lady plays Angelina or whatever. You never really know, you know. Sometimes you think you've done it well and then ... it's still don't call us, we'll call you type of thing.
I didn't hear anything for quite a long time so I just thought -- and my agent who is really nice said, "Yeah, but you're not really Disney material, are you?" Then about three weeks later my American agent rang, which is always at night in Europe, and he said, "What are you doing?" I said, "Oh, I'm in a pub." And he said, "Well, buy yourself another drink because Angelina saw the tape and you're Birdman." So exciting.
For more exclusive MALEFICENT coverage, be sure to check out my Maleficent movie review, interview with Angelina Jolie as Maleficent, Elle Fanning as Aurora, Sharlto Copley as King Stephan and director Robert Stromberg.
Disney’s MALEFICENT is now playing in theaters nationwide!
Special thanks to Walt Disney Pictures for inviting me out to Los Angeles to preview MALEFICENT. All opinions are my own.
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