By Gill Pringle
In The Huntsman: Winter’s War (the sequel to 2012’s Snow White & The Huntsman,), British actress, Alexandra Roach, gets her dwarf on, so to speak, playing Doreena, who becomes caught up in The Huntsman’s (Chris Hemsworth) war with the evil queens, Ravenna (Charlize Theron) and Freya (Emily Blunt), and also finds a little unlikely romance in the form of Nick Frost’s dwarf, Nion, who was in amongst the action in the first film too. Though a veteran of British TV (Utopia, No Offence, Hunderby), Alexandra Roach was not quite prepared for some of the challenges that awaited on The Huntsman: Winter’s War. FilmInk spoke to the actress on the film’s set.
Who do you play in The Huntsman: Winter’s War? “I play Doreena. She’s one of the female dwarfs, along with Sheridan Smith. She’s the younger, naïve, sweet, and very caring female dwarf. As soon as we meet the guys, we’re meant to hate each other, and as soon as I meet Neon, Nick Frost’s character, there’s a romance there straight away which gets explored. It’s really, really sweet, and it seems really lovely. It’s a very gentle relationship between the two of them. Nick and I have worked together before; we did Cuban Fury together. We had such fun on the last project, and we’ve been allowed to improvise, because Nick loves all that, so we’ve been trying different things. He’s a right laugh.”
How difficult is it to keep it together and not laugh? “It’s been alright actually. It’s in between the scenes that’s the problem. Yesterday we went completely, and we had to have a couple of minutes to cool down. We had the guy come in in the blue mo-cap suit, to play The Goblin King, and I’d never done anything like that…this green screen, it’s all new to me. This guy just looked ridiculous. We had to play all serious like we were petrified of him, and Nick and I just cracked up.”
So the technical side of it has been tricky? “That’s been a really big learning curve. They’re like, ‘Okay, let’s get the green screen in.’ And I’m like, ‘Am I meant to know what to do with a green screen?’ So I let everyone else go first and I just copied. I can’t wait to actually see what they do to us, how they shrink us down, and how they use the doubles, who wear masks that look like our faces. It’s so weird. We see them in the morning before they go into make-up, and then they come out as little us. I can’t think of anything to say to her when she’s dressed as me. I talk to her at night when we go for drinks and stuff, and then I see her in this mask with my face and I’ve got nothing to say. It’s really strange. But I’ll be interested to see how they do all of that.”
Did anyone break out in hi-ho, hi-ho? “I know, it was really tempting…”
What drew you to the role in the first place? “I got sent the script. As soon as I read it, I knew that I wanted to do the character, so I went for the audition. I was kinda playing the character before I was playing a dwarf. So I just did my thing. And then it was like, ‘Oh yeah, she’s a dwarf’ so there’s the movement and all of this technical stuff that I had to learn. But essentially, I just went in and knew the character. I knew what I wanted to do with her. She’s very sweet and naïve. I hope people like it. On the shoot, I thought that it would be really technical – with all the green screen and all the computers – but most of the time it’s like, ‘Would you mind getting on your knees?’ ‘Yeah, no probs.’ So yeah, I spend most of my time on my knees.”
Did you ask Nick what it was like? “Yes! He was our leader because he’d done it before. He had this walk down straight away. We took his lead really. The movement training is so hard to start with because this walk felt really alien to us. I’d have to go home and practice. One time I went to Sainsbury’s doing this walk, and my boyfriend was like, ‘What are you doing?’ I was practicing my muscle memory. I’ve got to do it before we go for a take because it’s all new to me. So I do a lap around the set. ‘Just warming up guys!’ Most of the time, we’re on our knees anyway, and I have to remember the upper body stuff. I hope it works.”
What’s next for you? “I’m going to LA for a good couple of months, and I have a few things lined up for when I come home in winter time, but I’m not allowed to say. I haven’t really given it a go out there, so I’m going to go and spend some time there, and see if I like the vibe of it. I’d love to move out there. I’ve lived in London for 10 years now. I’m not over London but I’m just getting fed up with a few things.”
Given that you were in the UK TV series, Utopia, how do you feel about David Fincher apparently doing a US version? “It feels like it’s gone quiet. I haven’t heard much about it lately. It’ll be strange. I’ve never done a project and then somebody else is going to be playing my character. I’ll be watching.”
Unless they cast you? “Yes!! God yeah, I loved Beth, that was a really fun, feisty character that I loved playing.”
And very foul mouthed… “Which I enjoyed. My gran didn’t enjoy it so much, but I really did.”
The Huntsman: Winter’s War is available now on Blu-ray, DVD, and Digital.
