'Willow' Interviews with Ellie Bamber, Tony Revolori, Jon Kasdan And More
The cast and creators of “Willow” on Disney+ including Tony Revolori, Erin Kellyman, Ruby Cruz, Ellie Bamber, Amar Chadha-Patel, Dempsey Bryk, Jonathan Kasdan, and Michelle Rejwan discuss the new Disney+ series in this interview with CinemaBlend's Mike Reyes. They discuss their memories from boot camp, growing close with each other on set, making a sequel 35 years later, and much more!
Transcript
00:00 I'm like CinemaBlend, that's my morning right there.
00:03 That's my coffee and someone's asking me
00:06 for an answer to a question, usually Michelle,
00:09 and I'm looking at CinemaBlend going like,
00:11 uh-huh, no, I totally hear you.
00:12 Right, I'll call you right back.
00:13 You realize who's directing Blade, I'll say to her?
00:16 (laughing)
00:18 (dramatic music)
00:29 What was the one factor from the original
00:32 that you both wanted to preserve,
00:34 and at the same time, where did you think
00:35 the greatest change could have been had?
00:38 Well, I think though it's not the most exciting answer,
00:41 the first question answer is obvious to us, it's Warwick.
00:44 It's that he grounds this universe completely,
00:48 and something about the sort of,
00:51 the silhouette he struck in 1988
00:54 and the presence he brought to that movie,
00:57 it just screams fantasy, credible,
01:01 the world is real, the stakes are real,
01:03 and the opportunity to bring that character back
01:06 was at the heart of why we wanted to do this.
01:09 And then the flip side of that question,
01:12 just as important, was Elora Dannon,
01:14 because for both of us, it seemed like
01:17 this was the unusual thing that,
01:19 because the movie had been focused on this child,
01:22 and we're told at the start of the movie
01:24 that this baby is going to be an empress,
01:27 almost unique among all IP, it begs for a sequel.
01:31 You have to know what that journey is,
01:34 and we as people who grew up in these stories
01:37 know it's not gonna be an easy journey,
01:39 and it's gonna be fraught and probably pretty scary.
01:43 Well, that's the thing, it's so tempting
01:45 when you get to play with some of your,
01:47 inside some of your favorite worlds
01:49 that you have such affection for from your own childhood,
01:52 but as John's saying, you have to,
01:54 we always begin with that question
01:56 of why are we telling this story?
01:57 And we were so lucky because Willow,
02:00 the original film, left us with this incredible question
02:04 and journey we wanted to see of Elora Dannon.
02:06 What happened to that baby?
02:08 What happened to that baby?
02:09 Did she become the empress?
02:11 Was Willow able to train her and teach her,
02:13 and what are they up against next?
02:15 So we had a natural jumping off point for this story,
02:17 and John had an incredible take on where to go with it.
02:21 Oh, it means a lot, it truly does,
02:24 and I think that the experience
02:26 that I had shooting the show with everyone,
02:30 it just means the world to me,
02:31 and the relationships, like the friendships
02:33 that we've created on set were just really wonderful.
02:38 I was a fan of the original movie,
02:39 and I watched it as a kid,
02:40 so being a part of this was exciting,
02:43 and I'm honored to be a part of it.
02:47 And then beyond that, I just,
02:50 I had so much fun on set with these guys as well.
02:52 It was so fun.
02:52 And, you know, I just can't wait for people to see it.
02:56 I think it's a very surreal experience and feeling.
02:59 I think you don't think about this part of it
03:02 when you're actually filming it,
03:04 and so it feels kind of like a dreamlike situation.
03:08 I was certain all the way through filming,
03:10 and actually now, that I was gonna absolutely
03:12 screw this up and crash and burn,
03:14 and then my career would be over.
03:15 So the fact that we're here and people are enjoying it
03:18 is still a surprise to me.
03:19 But it's a joy to be part of this,
03:22 not just Willow, but the fantasy,
03:24 adventure world which I grew up with,
03:26 and to be able to play one of my favorite
03:29 archetypes within it, and deconstruct it,
03:31 and do it with, you know,
03:33 the biggest sword in the world
03:34 that was written for me by our showrunner,
03:36 John Caston, was like the little child inside me.
03:39 It was his dream.
03:41 - I was reading,
03:42 there was a pretty intense boot camp experience
03:45 that went into getting all this together.
03:47 Everyone trained and bonded as a cast.
03:49 So I wanted to start off with
03:50 what your favorite memory or proudest moment was
03:53 after going through that experience.
03:55 - First day of boot camp,
03:57 the production gave us a hat that said,
03:58 "I survived boot camp."
04:00 - Oh yeah.
04:00 - I was like, "That's really preemptive."
04:02 And like very naively--
04:03 - They had no idea what was coming, even.
04:05 Well, that's what it was.
04:07 - I loved it.
04:08 (laughing)
04:09 I loved the stunts.
04:10 It's hard to, you know what,
04:11 there was a, I won't say specifically what,
04:14 but there was some things from the original movie
04:16 that they were like, "You know what?
04:17 "You should learn this exactly,
04:18 "and it'll be a little Easter egg."
04:20 And maybe I'm saying too much,
04:22 but whatever, I started it and I can't stop.
04:24 And then the moment that I got it,
04:27 I was like, "Okay, that's pretty exciting."
04:29 - Yeah, I think it was how rewarding it was
04:31 to train our bodies to do something,
04:33 and then suddenly they could do something
04:34 that they couldn't do before.
04:36 I think that was really cool.
04:37 And me and Aaron, our characters were trained together a lot
04:41 and we fight together a lot.
04:45 And we did this one fight
04:48 where we had to get everything in sync,
04:50 and it was so hard.
04:52 And then we just did it all day, every day,
04:54 for a week and finally we got this whole,
04:56 I think they cut it, honestly.
04:58 I think when I watched it, we never even touched.
05:00 - My best memory during was
05:03 there were these cardboard boxes
05:07 that kind of separated areas in this big warehouse
05:12 that we were doing the boot camp in.
05:14 - The stunt team was also training in.
05:16 - Yeah, and so they had these boxes up
05:18 to kind of, I suppose, separate from the PT area.
05:22 And one day, I think it was you...
05:25 - Amr.
05:26 - Amr, Tony, no, not Tony.
05:28 - I'm Tony.
05:29 - You, Amr, Dempsey and I.
05:30 - Dempsey, yeah, yeah, yeah.
05:31 - We just decided, we were like,
05:33 "Should we just run through them and see what happens
05:35 "and if we get in any huge trouble about it?"
05:38 So we literally pelted ourselves at these cardboard boxes
05:42 and it was possibly the best thing.
05:44 - We all did it separately.
05:46 - We didn't do it at the same time.
05:48 - No, we didn't, we all did it separately.
05:49 - And it was like, they were having a big conversation
05:51 about fight scenes and fight choreography
05:54 and what it was gonna look like.
05:55 - Super serious.
05:56 - And Amr just dive rolls through the boxes.
06:00 Dempsey just flat back goes back.
06:03 Ellie just walks like it's nothing and goes,
06:05 "Sorry, where's the bathroom?"
06:07 (laughing)
06:09 I don't remember what I did,
06:10 but I do remember what you all did.
06:12 Oh, I think I might've put on the VR goggles
06:14 and just walked through.
06:15 - I think that was it.
06:16 - And like pretended.
06:17 Anyway, that was a very fun moment.
06:19 - That was a great memory.
06:21 - We, on the very last day of bootcamp,
06:23 we went back to Tony's and actually we played video games.
06:28 - Played VR.
06:31 - Yeah, I guess that's how we celebrated.
06:33 - Yeah.
06:35 - But it felt so relaxing to just be like, "Okay."
06:37 And we're done and Tony has these recliners too,
06:39 which are just, they're so much more enjoyable
06:41 when you know you don't have to wake up
06:42 at six in the morning and work out.
06:44 - Was that the night with the red LEDs?
06:46 - No, that was one of the first weekends.
06:48 - Yeah.
06:49 I mean, I actually learned to horse ride
06:50 and that was such an achievement for me.
06:52 And there was one horse riding session
06:54 towards the end of the bootcamp that Ellie and I went on
06:56 and they were like, "Do you guys wanna try flag riding?"
06:59 And we're like, "What's that?"
06:59 And they just gave us massive flags.
07:01 So we'd learned to like joust and ride around
07:03 with these flags and it looked insane.
07:05 And I was like, "I can't believe I'm doing this.
07:07 I grew up in East London.
07:09 There are no horses there."
07:10 - How did you both go about building
07:11 not only the sibling chemistry,
07:13 but the twin sibling chemistry?
07:15 Because there's just that little extra twist
07:17 when it's a twin.
07:18 - So it was crazy.
07:19 I mean, the first time we,
07:20 we didn't honestly do anything.
07:21 It was immediate.
07:22 And I wish that I was like,
07:24 the secret acting technique
07:25 that makes you a twin with someone.
07:26 But we just got on FaceTime and it was immediate.
07:30 It was like, "Oh, I know you."
07:31 Like, I think we literally said that to each other.
07:32 And then, do you remember what happened?
07:34 Like the second day that we hung out with the cashier?
07:37 - Of course I remember that.
07:39 - Oh, do you wanna tell?
07:39 - Okay, yeah, sure.
07:40 Well, we were with, we were together.
07:44 Yeah, it was like the first or second time
07:45 we were hanging out.
07:46 And this guy asked us if we were twins.
07:48 And we were like, "Yeah, we are."
07:50 And he was like, "Oh, I would know 'cause I have a twin."
07:52 And we were like, "You're so smart."
07:54 - And he was holding our IDs,
07:55 which had our different names and birthdays.
07:57 So it was just a bit like, cool.
08:00 - Either he's a plant for the production
08:01 or he's just really into the TV.
08:03 - Oh, that's so,
08:04 Disney was making us feel like twins the whole time.
08:07 This is a Truman Show moment.
08:08 - No, it was definitely just like hanging out together
08:10 and like discovering our twinnergy
08:14 to just translate onto screen.
08:16 Like that, it was so easy, honestly.
08:19 - To become the twins, as we call it.
08:22 - Aaron, you've worked with the MCU and Star Wars
08:24 and Amar, you've been part of the Wheel of Time series.
08:27 And those are obviously big deals in and of themselves,
08:31 but Willow's no slouch either.
08:33 How would you say your experience on this project
08:35 differed from those previous projects?
08:38 - I think the size of the production is quite similar,
08:41 but for some reason, Willow felt way more,
08:44 I think maybe because we were on a smaller,
08:48 in a smaller studio,
08:51 it felt way more intimate.
08:54 Like, I feel like everybody knew everybody
08:55 and it became like this gigantic family.
08:59 Everybody got really close really quickly.
09:01 - And it was just us at the studio,
09:02 there was no other production there.
09:02 - Yeah, there was no,
09:03 I think that makes it like really like enclosed
09:05 and it feels very intimate.
09:07 - Yeah, it felt like a campus.
09:08 I mean, I think Wheel of Time, the scale again,
09:09 is humongous and it was a joy to be there.
09:11 And it was just so much more,
09:13 bigger story than what we were doing.
09:15 And we were just really creating this motley crew,
09:18 like a Breakfast Club, John Hughes vibe,
09:21 and then just throwing them into every situation possible.
09:23 So it's almost quite insular in a way.
09:25 - Tony, just a quick note,
09:26 this is your second big Disney project.
09:28 We gotta get you in a Star Wars now.
09:31 Or maybe we should just get everyone in a Star Wars now.
09:34 - I would love it.
09:35 I would love it.
09:35 I mean, Aaron has already done it
09:37 and Warwick already has done it,
09:39 but I could see, you know,
09:42 Umar as a big, you know, storm trooper kind of guy.
09:45 Dempsey as a, you know, rag tag type of rebel.
09:49 You would be destroying the empire slowly,
09:52 but by building like an Andor series.
09:53 - I'm really desperate.
09:54 I love Andor so much.
09:56 Like I passionately love Andor.
09:59 - I would love to be like a little like guru
10:02 out in a far, far, far planet that like speaks like Yoda,
10:05 but doesn't look like him and has the force.
10:09 That would be fun.
10:10 - That would be fun.
10:11 - Just be like sitting in a corner going, hmm.
10:13 - One thing that I think we're both fantasizing about
10:16 as the future of this whole business we're in
10:19 is that maybe there's the possibility
10:21 that the train can go the other way a little bit.
10:24 And sometimes these series can culminate
10:26 in theatrical experiences
10:28 that you need to see in a theater.
10:30 I think, you know,
10:32 Benioff and Weiss wanted that with Game of Thrones.
10:34 I think there's lots of opportunity to do that.
10:37 And we'd love to see that happen.
10:39 I think Disney would too, ultimately.
10:41 - There's so many cool new storytelling possibilities
10:44 out there.
10:45 So it's been, we feel very lucky
10:47 that we got to do this as a series, in fact.
10:50 - Yeah.
10:50 - Right, I mean, there's just so many
10:52 more creative opportunities that afforded us
10:55 over the eight chapters and just incredible imaginative,
11:00 like endlessly imaginative ideas
11:02 that come out of my friend, John here,
11:04 that we got to do in just one season.
11:06 So it's pretty cool to, you know,
11:08 record that in our office. - But we're, you know,
11:09 both Michelle and I come from the movies.
11:11 So like, you know,
11:13 I'm counting the days till "Avatar" comes out.
11:15 I'm a devotee of the cineplex.
11:17 And "Willow" for me was, you know,
11:19 it was a very formative movie-going experience
11:22 because it was so big and so epic.
11:24 (dramatic music)
11:26 - Ride!
11:27 (swords clashing)
11:28 (dramatic music)
11:32 (water splashing)
11:34 (dramatic music)
11:37 you