Sharlto Copley Interview for 'Maleficent' #MaleficentEvent

You may know Sharlto Copley from his breakout role in the sci-fi thriller "District 9". Since then, the up and coming South African actor has made quite a name for himself— so much so that he's now starring alongside Angelina Jolie as King Stephan, father to Aurora, in Disney's new feature film MALEFICENT.

After seeing MALEFICENT, I can confirm that the character of King Stephan is drastically different than in the original "Sleeping Beauty". Without giving too much away, the tables are reversed and the relationship between Maleficent and King Stephan is much deeper, bringing a whole new dimension to the story. Sharlto Copley was gracious enough to sit down with us to discuss his role in the film and how he got into character — the transformation of King Stephan from the beginning of the film to the end is quite remarkable ... and just one of the many reason you need to see MALEFICENT!

How did you step into the role of King Stephan?

I really don't enjoy playing villains. Like, I find it quite unpleasant in some ways. My way in with Stefan was to take a very, sort of, male trait, which is ... most men have sort of ambition, they want to kind of be the king of their castle. You know, in this case he literally does become the king of his castle. And so it was, for me ... I felt like there was a chance to almost play like a male, a cautionary tale for men with Stefan, of what happens your male drive, ego and ambition get carried away with itself.

Did you audition? Did you go in really wanting this role?

I did really want this because I'd met Angie before and really felt she was very complimentary about District 9. She'd seen my performance in there and she said how we should work together some time. That was about two years before. And so when this came around I was really looking for a fantasy film. I was looking for something that I could show my seven year old nephew, you know? 'Cause most of my films are like R-rated movies. I was like, come on man. Gotta do something with some sort of positive message. So, I went after this quite aggressively. I shot a tape for it, a bunch of scenes, and I actually was saying to my agents, "Guys, get my tape to Angie." And they're like, "Oh, we can't. She's on a boat. We don't know where she is." I'm like, "Just get it to her" ... She did say she was interested to work with me — I was very grateful to get this.

How much training did you have to do for all the fighting you did in the film?

I didn't do, for example, as much in this as I did with ELYSIUM. But you always have to, you know, when you do something like this, you have to be ready -- it was one of my biggest surprises going into acting and then getting into action films. You really just have to keep yourself conditioned, almost like an athlete does.

The scenes, for example, in this film, what was actually the hardest is you end up in Pinewood Studios, the sound stages, and everything's relatively luxurious around you and then all of a sudden you find yourself on a stage where there's not good air con systems and you're burning. We had real fire in there all the time because of the dragon. And there wasn't enough oxygen. And people constantly having to go out to just try and get enough air. I found myself almost passing out two or three times in the action sequences just from lack of oxygen. It's quite challenging physically and mentally sometimes on this stuff. But it's enjoyable. It helps for the character, for me.

Do you have a favorite scene in the movie?

A favorite scene? No, not really. There was a lot of scenes that I liked. I really enjoyed all the stuff with the pixies. I thought that they were -- it's like watching the Three Stooges. I love comedy, so that was always, what's always fun for me to watch the comic relief characters in a movie. But I think there's a lot of really, really cool scenes in the film.

MALEFICENT comes out right before Father's Day. Do you have any messages that you can give dads who may want to take their little girls to see the film?

Yes. Spend time with your children so you don't end up like Stefan. I have people like, "What's the message for my child?" I was like, "Well, the message is for you, dude ... don't fall off your castle." It's like, "Well I was making money for my family." It's like, they didn't want money. They wanted time with daddy. You know?

For more exclusive MALEFICENT coverage, be sure to check out my interview with Angelina Jolie as Maleficent, and Elle Fanning as Aurora.