Interview: Sam Riley talks ‘Maleficent’

Hello everyone! I had the chance to be part of a roundtable interview with Sam Riley for the Maleficent press day in Miami and other local outlets to talk about his character Diaval and the movie!

What do you think are the themes explored in the movie?

I think in a way the classic Disney themes to some extent, and in some way the original themes of the fairytale and the original film, the idea that there is good and evil is a little bit more complex in real life than how it is described sometimes in the movies. In the original, [Maleficent] she’s just this evil, sorcerous woman that puts a curse in an innocent little baby and what would make somebody do something that horrific? I also loved the idea that true love, without giving anything away, that there are different versions of it. The love of a mother for a child, can’t be said that its less true than a prince’s love.

The arc for your character was significant and you were able to deliver it in such a subtle way, and was there an intentional approach for your character?

It was really a great script by Linda Woolverton, who did The Lion King. When we were doing rehearsals, we talked about it with Robert (Stromberg) and Angelina this idea that he [Diaval] begins the relationship as quite servile, and he’s scared of her and we thought it was funny if you think about it that they’re going to spend every day with each other for sixteen years, and you know, that’s a lot for any relationship *laughs* very long relationship in Hollywood, so I’m the only person that’s more or less a sole companion for that time. We thought it would be funny to develop a certain element of bickering between them or that they get on each other’s nerves, but also the mask that she wears of this coldness, it slips in front of him because he sees her in the moments of vulnerability and over time he can point that out to her with the courage that grows from this long relationship. We didn’t rehearse it so much because when we did we were laughing and so we thought we’d just save the fun of saying for the first time for the camera and maybe it feels quite spontaneous.

What was it like to work with Angelina Jolie and how did you prepare for the darkness of this film and your role?

I’m very dark *laughs* I’ve played a lot of dark people actually, all the darker sides of people and those are the types of things that fascinated me in playing parts in independent films, so I was kind of prepared for that and that’s what Angelina brings, she’s known for her charitable work and everything but she was pretty rock n roll in her youth, and I think she brought an edge to the character as well. Not only the sort of ideas she had with the costume being leather, pushing the boundaries to some extent, I mean, she loved Maleficent as a girl, that was her favorite Disney character, even when it was the evil one *laughs*. She didn’t like Aurora. She’s really born to play it. The first time I saw her, we met in a green room in Pinewood Studios, they arranged a meeting so that I wouldn’t be terrified the first day of shooting, and if you ever interview her, she has a very disarming charm, she has both real star presence and charisma and can also make you feel the center of attention. The first time I saw her in costume it was intense, I hadn’t seen her at all and what she was going to look like, and what’s so strange is that I met her one time in the green room and then more or less for the following four weeks I never saw her in her civvies *laughs* I only saw her as Maleficent, and you know that this is fake, that the eyes aren’t real, but Maleficent fit her like a glove really, and then seeing her as Angelina again it was almost strange.

If you can choose any other movie villain to get the Maleficent treatment, who would it be and why?

Maybe the Sheriff of Nottingham? Alan Rickman in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, that came out when I was 14 or something, so it would have been perfect. Also in the Disney Robin Hood, but he’s such an idiot, Prince John *laughs*. But Shere Khan was probably my favorite villain as a child, but it probably wouldn’t be as interesting as Maleficent.

I heard that you went into extensive training for this character. Is that true? 

In the other films that I’ve done, in the indie films, I’ve played real people before and then it’s more obvious what you have to sort of do to study, or you try to learn an accent, and I watched the original cartoon and the raven doesn’t really do much, he’s half asleep most of the time and I was glad they developed it. They kindly arranged for me to spend time with ravens. We were in a room bigger than this one and the trainer came in and I wish I could remember the name of the raven, I think it was Eddie *laughs* I had no idea that ravens are huge compared to crows, and their wingspan is as long as my arms, I was very intimidated, you can see why they’ve got a bad reputation *laughs* and then you open the cage and Eddie sort of struts it out and then hopped on the table, it was really amazing. I watched them on film and worked with a movement coach and we watched them together, and we talked about him [Eddie], he liked that *laughs*. We wanted to take any elements of his personality or movements that we might be able to incorporate into my human incarnation. Its weird he seemed vain or something and when he got a treat he sort of puffed his chest out. It helped me realized is that even when I’m a man, I still consider myself first and foremost, the bird. The man body and the other animals, they’re all sort of necessary to what she wants, but nothing beats being a raven because he seems to really love himself there.

I wanted to know if you think your character is good or bad and in what ways do you relate to your character?

I think he’s good, I think he would be a great friend, one that you could turn him into whatever you want *laughs* he’s fiercely loyal, and he can be fierce if she’s in danger and he’s very protective of Aurora, I haven’t seen the film *laughs* do I still feed her when the fairies can’t feed her? What’s interesting about it is that nobody is good or evil and that’s kind of the message of the movie. I think he’s a very good and loyal friend.

It’s been said that this is not a retelling, but a reinvention of the story from the original fairytale. Why do you think it was crucial for this story for the raven to take on the man form that kind of takes a different scope from the original fairytale?

I think they needed somebody to be there with her that she didn’t become too isolated, I figure. You’d think that in a Disney film that the bird might be able to talk to her *laughs* I was kind of relieved they made him into a human being. She needs somebody there by her side that questions her sometimes and also is witness to the moments when she softens,and I really loved the part from the first time I read it for those reasons. When you hear that it’s a “re-doing” of Sleeping Beatuy, I was kind of skeptical before reading it because its quite fashionable now to re-do things or to make them funkier or more for tweenagers or something, I mean I hadn’t seen many of the other version and what I liked about this was that it seemed like the sort of classic family film. It’s a bit scary, but kids like to be thrilled, not necessarily terrified, you know they killed Bambi’s mom, Dumbo’s mom. I saw Dumbo with my wife when she was pregnant and she was crying *laughs* it’s so sad! but that’s sort of their thing.

Do you foresee yourself being involved in more family movies or Disney movies or you would continue your work on independent films?

It’s nice to be in a film that (my son) will be able to see before he’s 18. If I’m lucky, it’ll open the door to being able to work in these sorts of films. I enjoy doing this because I have the feeling like I’ve done quite a lot of the other ones. One of the great things about doing films is that you sort of devote yourself completely to a character for a limited amount of time and then leave them behind and move on to the next. I hope I can do more of the Disney films, or Maleficent 2: Diaval’s Delight *laughs*. I want my son to know that his father took roles that really meant something to him rather than just roles for the sake of it.

Maleficent is in theaters on Friday May 30th 2014
Read our Maleficent review here