by james Mottram
How was it to reunite with Ken Branagh directly after Murder on the Orient Express?
A little different. Now I wear the giant moustache! Really, truly, Kenneth Branagh – Sir Kenneth Branagh – is one of the greatest directors I’ve ever worked with. Because he understands what it is to be an actor. So, he can communicate directly to you in a way that is very familiar and in a way that speaks to both your strengths and your weaknesses. There’s an understanding there, a shared common ground that make a process really relatable and easy and familiar. Having him strictly behind the camera on this one – and not also my scene partner – is a very strange feeling because I’m so used to him directing in front of the camera, which was completely different. But it’s just effortless for him. He can juggle so many balls and spitball so many things… it’s really so fun.
Is that what drew you to do this film? Because it’s Kenneth Branagh again?
There were a number of things that drew me to the project. Frankly, I’d always wanted to play in a world like this – a high-concept fantasy world. I just think it’s such a fun environment to be free and to be imaginative. I’d read the Eoin Colfer book, and I fell in love with it. And so, for me to play a character that is so unique, and so familiar to so many readers – that was such a thrill. But obviously to get together with the gang again was one of my primary motivations. It’s such a fun playground. It’s very different than Orient Express. Because, one, we didn’t have trolls or goblins on Orient Express – although that’s on the director’s cut, I believe! But [I loved] the idea that so much of the movie is practical effects. There’s a giant puppet created by the War Horse guys, which I think is the coolest thing ever.
What inspired your character?
One of the things that I love so much about the book is that Mulch very much is a loner. He’s like a dwarf version of Han Solo, right? But what’s so wonderful about where the writers have taken the character in this version…is that much like Holly, Artemis, and all of our main characters – he’s an outsider looking for a way to fit in. So, our version of Mulch is, he’s a giant dwarf. Meaning, he doesn’t belong. And that’s something that I think is very personal to him, and something that… again, he’s searching for his place.
Can you talk about the stunt work you’re involved with? There’s some wire work, right?
So, there’s Tom Cruise and then there’s me! That’s the high end of stunt men, and then I’m here and everybody else is in between! I enjoy it – I don’t have what you might call a stunt body. Although I have a lot of padding. I enjoy a challenge. That was much crazier than I expected it to be. Your body leaves the ground, so you’re being shot like a bullet backwards, so it’s a thrill but it’s also like ‘Oh my god, what have I done? I never said goodbye to my kids before they woke up!’ You’re terrified but it’s fun – it’s the beauty of what we get to do.
At one point, we see you singing a soothing song to a troll. Was the song your idea?
Initially, they had ‘Hush Little Baby’ in the script, and it felt a little unspecific, and I started spitballing ideas with the writer. I said, ‘What if…?’ Because there’s this sort of common refrain in the movie where beings like Holly and Mulch listen to contraband human music, which I thought was such a fun, little detail, because you’re not allowed to listen to human music in the fairy world.
What do you sing?
We did [one take with] David Bowie’s ‘Starman’. But it felt like the troll responded best to Foreigner, so that’s what we stuck with.
