RACHEL HURD-WOOD & JEREMY SUMPTER
Rachel - Would you stop hitting me? Don’t do the hand thing. Please - he’s gonna do it. Oh, he’s not. Is it OK if we slap each other?
ER… sure, you can slap each other all you like - fight, punch, kick, it’s absolutely fine.
Jeremy - You don’t want to slap me.
Rachel - Yes I do.
Jeremy - No you don’t.
Rachel - Yes I do.
Anyway, how did you find the shoot in Australia?
Rachel - Oh my gosh, it was incredible, it was amazing. Beautiful one day, and perfect the next. It was incredible. I loved the weather, I loved the beaches, I loved everything about it.
Jeremy - And they had these fruit bats that flew out every night, these huge-
Rachel - You’ve already told them that!
Jeremy - Well, because it’s so interesting! These bats are huge, man - one wing is that long [spreads arms wide in a hugely hyperbolic gesture]! And they fly out every night, thousands of ‘em, they like blanket the sky and they fly, like, a foot from your head, and it’s awesome.
"It was incredible. I loved the weather, I loved the beaches, I loved everything about Australia."
Indeed
Jeremy - Yeah. [squeaks] Weee! Or something - I can’t remember how they go. Ever heard of a… er, kookaburra?
I’ve heard of them, yes.
Jeremy - Well, the noise they make is they go “woo-hoo-hoo-waa-haa-haa”.
Rachel - Not quite like that.
Jeremy - “woo-oh-wa-ah”. I can’t do it - PJ can!
Rachel - The director.
Jeremy - So they make this weird sound. They have a whip bird there that goes [whistles] “ooh-whip”. It’s like that, so it’s really funny. Strange animals.
Going from bats and birds to acting, as one does, you’ve never acted before, have you Rachel?
Rachel - No. You’re right there. No, I’ve never acted before. First film, first acting experience.
Jeremy as a pretty experienced actor, you must have been quite impressed.
Jeremy - Oh god, you would not believe. I was expecting to have this girl come on set and just show her around a bit, but instead she just blew me away.
Rachel - Thank you.
Jeremy - No problem.
But this is quite a change for you, going from Adam Meaks in Frailty, which is a film which quite frankly freaked me out…
Jeremy - Did you like it though?
Yes. Did you actually get to see the film, seeing as it's rated R?
Jeremy - I got to watch that one cause I got fake Ids.
Rachel - Cause he’s in it.
Jeremy - I don’t know why they’re rated R-17 though - I think if you're ready to watch a rated R movie, then why not go watch it, you know? Especially if you’re in it. I think if you’re in a movie you can definitely go in and watch it. They don’t have R in Britain do they? They have like, you know, mature, rated M. Or N-15, right?
Well, we have 15, 18, PG...
Rachel - Yeah, 12, 15 and 18.
But there’s no messing about with ours - you’re either 18 or you’re not going in. It doesn’t matter who you’re accompanied with. You could go with the Prime Minister and you still wouldn’t get in.
Jeremy - Really?
Well, no, probably the Prime Minister could probably get you in.
Rachel - People can. People can get in. I mean, I’ve got in to 15s and stuff before.
Jeremy - Really? ‘Cause if you go in America - a rated R movie is like an 18 here, right?
Rachel - OK, whatever, let’s not talk about-
Jeremy - No wait, 18 is porn here, right?
Ah...
Rachel - Can we say that?
Jeremy - Well then I can’t watch that, because you don’t have that in America. In the theatres you don’t have that.
Rachel - Can we say that?
Oh why not? You can say what you like.
Rachel - OK. Because Jason told me-
Jeremy - They’ll bleep it
Rachel - Shut up! Jason told me that if we ever mess up completely on camera, and we really don’t want them to use something, just say a really bad word again and again and again so they can’t just bleep it and they have to re-do it.
"Everyone dreams about being a pop star or an actress or whatever Jeremy wants to do - you know what I mean? Being James Bond."
That only works for the BBC.
Rachel - Yeah true.
So let’s go leave the porn and swearing and go back to Peter Pan.
Jeremy - (laughs) That’s good.
Yes, a natural progression. Playing Peter Pan is one of those things that people dream of doing. It’s an iconic role as he’s been around for a hundred years…
Jeremy - He’s the oldest kids’ story there is I think.
Rachel - Definitely not. One of them.
Jeremy - Well, one of them. But he’s been around for a whole century, and he’s just the amazing boy who every kid looks up to, and I’m just, I’m just proud of myself and very excited to be part of this and be the first boy to play this character, and Peter Pan is just a wonderful thing.
Rachel, you kind of stumbled into the role didn't you?
Jeremy - Yeah, she got it by accident.
Rachel - Oh, shut up Jeremy. slaps him alarmingly hard across the back of the hand] We have this thing about slapping each other’s hands.
That’s okay. Slap away.
Jeremy - It’s really cool though, see? [A flurry of exchanged slaps follows and Empire Online fears lives - or extremities at any rate - may be lost] Anyway, back to the conversation.
Rachel - Well of course everyone dreams about being a pop star or an actress or whatever Jeremy wants to do - you know what I mean? Being James Bond. But of course I had dreams about getting the part, of course I did. But I didn’t logically think that would happen. I didn’t. I just went along for the fun of it and was blown away when I got the part. I couldn’t believe it.
Jeremy - And by the way, when she hits me, it’s only because she loves me
Rachel - Yeah. Right.
So Jeremy how did you get your part then?
Jeremy - I auditioned for PJ Hogan, the director. I was bummed out because they thought I was too small. Then I came back again and I’d grown about an inch since and then they flew me to London to audition with Jason Isaacs. We were supposed to be learning this routine out in Hyde Park. We’re working with each other hard and fast with these sticks in the park and these cops run over because it looks like this grown-up is beating this little kid with a stick.
Rachel - [laughs]
Jeremy - They’re like “Hey, watcha doing?”, about to tackle Jason. I’m like, “No, don’t tackle him; he’s just teaching me how to swordfight”.
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