James Marsden Interview, Enchanted

MoviesOnline sat down with James Marsden at the Los Angeles press day for his new film, "Enchanted,” directed by Kevin Lima ("Tarzan,” "Eloise At Christmastime”) from a screenplay written by Bill Kelly ("Blast From the Past”) and featuring original songs from acclaimed composer Alan Menken and lyricist Stephen Schwartz ("Pocahontas,” "Hunchback of Notre Dame”).

A classic Disney animated fairy tale meets with the modern, live-action romantic comedy in Walt Disney Pictures' "Enchanted.” Featuring an all-star cast, the film follows the beautiful princess Giselle (Amy Adams) as she is banished by an evil queen (Susan Sarandon) from her magical, musical animated land and finds herself in the gritty reality of the streets of modern-day Manhattan. Shocked by this strange new environment that doesn't operate on a "happily ever after" basis, Giselle is now adrift in a chaotic world badly in need of enchantment. But when Giselle begins to fall in love with a charmingly flawed divorce lawyer (Patrick Dempsey) who has come to her aid -- even though she is already promised to a perfect fairy tale prince (Marsden) back home - she has to wonder: can a storybook view of romance survive in the real world?

James Marsden, displaying an astonishing versatility with a wide range of films, has quickly carved out a distinctive place in Hollywood. He was seen this summer in Adam Shankman’s box office hit "Hairspray” opposite John Travolta, Queen Latifah, Michelle Pfeiffer and Christopher Walken. Marsden plays Corny Collins, the host of the TV dance show.

Marsden recently wrapped production on "27 Dresses,” a romantic comedy that centers on a young woman, played by Katherine Heigl, who always ends up as a bridesmaid, but never the bride. Marsden plays the lucky man who will change her bridesmaid status for good.

Marsden was recently seen in "Superman Returns” for director Bryan Singer. He also starred in "X-Men: The Last Stand” directed by Brett Ratner in which he reprised his role as ‘Scott Summers/Cyclops’ in the hugely successful franchise based on the Marvel comic book series. He will appear in the soon to be released "The Alibi,” playing a man who murders his girlfriend while on a clandestine weekend get-away.

His other recent films include the Nick Cassavetes romantic drama "The Notebook” with Rachel McAdams, James Garner, Gena Rowlands, Joan Allen, and Ryan Gosling; Merchant Ivory’s "Heights” with Glenn Close and Elizabeth Banks; and the blockbusters "X-Men” and "X2” with Patrick Stewart, Rebecca Romijn, Halle Berry, Famke Janssen, Anna Paquin, and Ian McKellen. Additional film credits include "Disturbing Behavior,” "10th and Wolf,” "Gossip,” "24th Day,” "Sugar and Spice,” and "Interstate 60.” His notable television roles include ‘Glen Floy’ on the final season of the Emmy winning, David E. Kelley series "Ally McBeal.”

James Marsden is a talented and versatile actor and an accomplished singer and we really appreciated his time. Here’s what he had to tell us about his latest film, "Enchanted”:

MoviesOnline: When Kevin was casting this, he said he wanted to make sure that the actor that got cast would be able to invest in the character and not be judgmental about it.  Was it easy for you to be that non-judgmental about the character?

James Marsden: It was easy for me.  I don’t want to sound like it was effortless but, when I read the script, it was very clear to me who this character was and how he should be played.  Bill Kelly did a great job of bringing these characters to life on the page.  He wasn’t exactly like the princes from say ‘Snow White’ or ‘Cinderella’ because those princes weren’t really allowed to have that much personality.  He was always written larger than life, a healthy ego but it all came from a place of innocence and sincerity so that, I think, lets his narcissism off the hook.

MoviesOnline: We sense a little bit of the Disney bad guy…

James Marsden:  Gaston, yeah.  It was written that way but without being a villain.  He was always well intentioned.  That’s why when he says, ‘Thank you for taking care of my bride, peasants’, Gaston would say that and you would know that he was making a dig but Prince Edward was just genuine, a ditzy [laughs] genuine hero.  I was not judgmental of the character.  It sounded like a lot of fun and, to me, it just sort of clicked.  I just felt I knew who he was and offered up to Kevin that singing was a hobby of mine and he indulged us and let us go in and practice the songs and then ultimately, we qualified to sing in the movie.

MoviesOnline: How helpful was it to do the animated part first?

James Marsden: Well, it was an interesting process.  Before I started, I was asking lots of questions about movies that require actors to go in and do voice-overs and then there’s the animation.  I said ‘Which one is first?  How does it work?’ and Kevin reminded me that, when we went in and did the voice work which took like two hours, he said ‘You’re locking yourself into a certain degree of your character right now.  So, this is the character’s voice.  Let’s find that.’  And luckily, like I said, Bill Kelly’s script was a great blueprint for this character.  It just felt natural to declare everything that needed to be declared and sung.  It was larger than life.  But, then, even with that, once we got it up on its feet and got into costume and everything, we were allowed to have fun with the characters.  A lot of the burden was taken off of me when I realized that, whatever I do on set, the animation department has the responsibility to match that because none of the animation was done before we started the live action shooting, just the voice over, the voice work.  There were sketches of the characters.  There was a still image of what the character would look like but that was it.  Kevin did show us almost like a flip book.  You know, those animation flip books of like the first twelve minutes, black and white, still images but it was never fully animated or fully alive.  So, it was great.  We actually were given a pretty good amount of creative license to do what we wanted to do within certain Disney perimeters and then the animators would go in and animate the characters.

MoviesOnline: Were you on top of that bus at all or trampled by the cyclists?

James Marsden: Well, I was on the bus for I think three or four days.  I kept thinking, ‘I could be mortified and this could traumatize me for the rest of my life,’ like in the nightmarish way or I could enjoy it and I just kept thinking, ‘When am I ever going to get to do this again?’  I can safely say that I don’t think anyone has ever done this before, in tights and puffy sleeves, stabbing a bus in the middle of Times Square.  I’m the first [laughs].

MoviesOnline: When did you notice the "Superman Returns” billboards?

James Marsden:  As soon as I climbed up on top of the bus [laughter] and, at the time I didn’t know I was doing ‘Hairspray’.  There was also a giant Broadway, ‘Hairspray’ billboard so someone was looking out for me, putting my resume in the background.

MoviesOnline: And the cyclists?

James Marsden:  That was the last shot of the movie for me.  That was my very last shot.  The stuntmen, because they’re told to, are usually very delicate with actors and the first couple of takes, the bicyclist would sort of bump me and I would have to fake a fall and on playback, we watched it back and it just wasn’t that funny.  I said ‘Just take me out!’ [laughter].  First of all, it’s funnier, second, if I get hurt, the movie is in the can so there’s not going to be any sort of insurance claims taken out.  So he knocked the hell out of me but it’s funnier.  My voice squeaks and he just knocks me down but there was a pad in front of me and, actually, the prince’s suit is pretty padded [he indicates the big puffy sleeves] built-in air bags.

MoviesOnline: Is doing musicals going to be a permanent part of your acting future?

James Marsden: Well, I don’t want to overstay my welcome in any genre.  But, I really did enjoy these two films, ‘Enchanted’ and ‘Hairspray’.  They were just completely different than anything I’ve ever done before and, like I said, singing has always been a hobby of mine so to have the opportunity to do it in an acting job was a lot of fun.  Both of them were fun.  I would do it again for sure.  But, in the same breath, I would also say that, to me, creatively, it’s always more interesting to do something completely different which is why I’m doing this dark, psychological thriller starting in a couple of weeks.

MoviesOnline: What is it?

James Marsden:  It’s a movie called ‘The Box’ that Richard Kelly is directing with Cameron Diaz and I.  We play a married couple.  It’s based on a short story that was turned into a ‘Twilight Zone’ episode about a couple that receive this strange box from this very odd man with a button in the middle.  If you push the button, someone you don’t know will die but you get this certain sum of money.

MoviesOnline: What happens next once that is set up?

James Marsden:  [Laughs] I’d be giving away the movie if I told you.  You’ll just have to see.  Richard is really great.  Obviously, I just now got to know him but when I read the script the first time, there were more elements put into the script that existed outside that premise.  I’ll get in trouble here.  I can’t get descriptive, but it works, trust me.

MoviesOnline: Kelly describes it as a mainstream thriller but did he mention any kind of weirdness attached to it?

James Marsden: I can’t without giving things away, really.  I start to think of descriptive things that happen in the movie that don’t seem very mainstream.  A lot of it does but, to me, it’s a lot more intelligent than just your regular, mainstream genres but I guess you can call it a supernatural thriller.

MoviesOnline: Is it a two hander with just you and Cameron?

James Marsden: Cameron and I play the married couple that are basically put through this morality test.  Frank Langella is playing the gentleman who presents us with the box. 

MoviesOnline: Is it safe to say your part is less over the top than your last two movies?

James Marsden: Yes, I would say so.  If ‘Enchanted’ and ‘Hairspray’ are like a nine, I would say this is probably around a five or six-ish.

MoviesOnline: Do you have a start date for the Superman sequel?

James Marsden:  No. I have no idea. 

MoviesOnline: Frank Langella said he was told a start date sometime next year.

James Marsden:  I don’t know.  They haven’t told me anything.  I’ve learned not to even speculate about these movies.  Everything changes and really, the actors are usually the last people to know.  I go online to get my information.

MoviesOnline: You’ve got this romantic comedy coming up with Katherine Heigl. Can you talk about that?

James Marsden:  Yeah, that’s about an eight [laughs] but I get the girl!  It’s a romantic comedy with Katherine that I would liken to ‘When Harry Met Sally.’  It’s a girl who is described as a compulsive bridesmaid.  She’s obsessed with love and weddings and going to weddings.  She’s been a bridesmaid 27 times and she keeps every one of her dresses.  I play a journalist who is trying to get out of the commitments or vows section of the paper to get into the more legitimate newsroom so he writes these what most women think are these beautiful sections in the paper but he’s a very cynical guy and thinks it’s all crap.  He just does it to make money.  He meets this girl and discovers she’s this perpetual bridesmaid and thinks it’s very interesting so he’s planning this expose thing about her for it to be the article to put him into the real newsroom and, in the course of that, they sort of become friends.  It’s a very complicated and very twisty plot.  But, that’s sort of the premise of it.

MoviesOnline: What about dancing in this film.  Were you up for that?

James Marsden:  I was up for it.  I wouldn’t say that I’m that comfortable doing all of the dancing.  I’m more comfortable singing.  The dancing in ‘Hairspray’ was the same thing.  I didn’t have to do that much in ‘Hairspray’ or in this movie but we treated it as though I was going to have to do a lot of dancing so there were extensive rehearsals with John O’Connell, the choreographer who did ‘Moulin Rouge’ for ‘Enchanted’ so we had to learn the proper Viennese waltz and he’s Australian and he said [in Aussie accent] ‘James, the prince is gonna know heritage.  He’s just gotta know how to do the perfect Viennese waltz.  So, you have to be perfect.’  So, I actually had more lessons than Patrick but, at the end of the movie, it’s Patrick and Amy doing the dancing.  I love that man by the way.  That’s why I can do this Australian…

MoviesOnline: You were talking to this Chipmunk that wasn’t there.  Was that Kevin running around squeaking?

James Marsden:  It was Kevin running around squeaking.  First of all, a lot of times, there was nothing there so you were acting to nothing.  When I grab him, you sort of have to imagine there’s something there.  But, they also had a little stuffed chipmunk on the end of a stick. 

MoviesOnline: Did you see a drawing of what it was going to look like?

James Marsden: Yeah, they would come to the set with a laptop computer and show us like a ten second test of the chipmunk and what he would look like so you’d think ‘okay’ and you would just call upon that.  But, it’s standing there acting to nothing.  The prince doesn’t really understand what he’s saying most of the time anyway.

MoviesOnline: You sent a tape to the director to show you could sing.  Why Sinatra and which songs?

James Marsden: They were Sinatra songs mainly because they were the only recordings I had, recordings of me singing those songs for ‘Ally McBeal.’  I think I did thirteen episodes of that show and David Kelly had me singing in the bar a lot so I was doing Dean Martin and Sinatra and I had the recordings on a disc and I just sent them to Kevin because it was the only thing I had that was recorded.  What were the songs, ‘The Lady’s a Tramp’ and ‘I’ve Got the World on a String’ or something.  I can’t remember.  But, very different than this style of singing in this movie.

MoviesOnline: Would you say you are a romantic like your character or more practical?

James Marsden: Kind of hard to pick.  I think I’m somewhere in between.  I am pretty practical and I can be fairly cynical but I also like to think that I can be romantic [laughs] because I’m disillusioned but I guess when I describe it, my romantic acts don’t usually take the form of rose petals on the floor and chocolates, all of those things that seem sort of romance 101.  My wife thinks I’m romantic if I get up with the crying baby and let her sleep in. Thank you ladies, that’s a good one.  But, to me romance is thoughtful acts for someone you love.  That could be filling her car up with gas or making her a coffee.  But, very early on in our relationship, there was lots of serenading on the beach and things like that but once you have kids… [laughter].

MoviesOnline: Do you have anything planned after "The Box”?

James Marsden:  I’m scheduled to do another film after that called ‘The Sex Drive’ with Josh Zuckerman and it comes right after it.  It’s another comedy but it’s in the vein of ‘Superbad.’

MoviesOnline: Are you the guy with the sex drive?

James Marsden:  Well, my younger brother actually has this online relationship with this girl and he misinterprets what she writes to him so he thinks she’s saying ‘If you drive to where I am, I’ll have sex with you’ and I play his older brother who is kind of a redneck, drives a classic car and makes fun of him.
Remember ‘Weird Science’? Like Bill Paxton’s role, Chet.  It’s something very different.

MoviesOnline: Another eight or nine?

James Marsden: Yeah, back up there where I’m comfortable. 

MoviesOnline: Is the writer’s strike affecting that?

James Marsden:  At the moment it’s not effecting that but we’re all going to be effected by it if it becomes a reality and, at the moment it looks like a reality.  I just keep my fingers crossed.  I’m not in on all these talks and negotiations and, hopefully it will be ironed out and everybody will be happy. 

MoviesOnline: You’ve had an action figure before, have you seen your doll for this?

James Marsden:  I haven’t seen the doll for this. I don’t know if they have one.

MoviesOnline: They do.

James Marsden:  Oh, really?  Okay. Well, having gone through that with the X-Men films, it was exciting when that happened and being on the side of Dr. Pepper cans, very surreal.  But honestly, I thought that was going to be the last of it.  When am I going to get to do this again?  I wish I could describe it.  I’m just so honored and it’s very flattering.  But, I’m always thinking ‘How am I going to top this?’ I’ve done the superhero and the iconic Disney character.  I just feel really, really, lucky.

"Enchanted” opens in theaters on November 21st.