Flicks chats with Enchanted producer, Barry Josephson…
FLICKS: How did you first get involved in the project?
BARRY JOSEPHSON: I first brought the script to Disney over ten years ago. It was just a script that I loved because of the idea of the fish-out-of-water character of a two-dimensional princess in a 3D world. I just liked the idea of her journey and her growth throughout the movie and I just thought that the concept was very funny. You know, it was heartfelt but it also really made me laugh. I’d worked on Men in Black and I’d realised that audiences enjoyed that movie because the aliens were treated as people amongst us. When I read this, it felt like a similar tone.
Tell us about the casting process.
We’d read over a hundred actresses when Amy Adams came in to audition. We’d all seen Junebug, and loved it, but you never know if somebody could do this, and what we were hoping for is that somebody could just walk into the room and just be Giselle. And the first thing about Amy that Kevin Lima [director] clued in on was her eyes. He thought that she had these big blue animation eyes. Even right down to her hands; how she held them was right out of Snow White. Yet she made it very real.
We read lots of actors for the Prince and James Marsden was so caught up with himself, the way that a Disney prince is. And yet it didn’t put you off. That was where some of the other actors didn’t deliver – you’d watch these guys play a prince, and you’d go ‘I wouldn’t want to spend five seconds with that guy’. The way James played it, you kind of feel good for him and bad for him at the same time. He was inventively funny. Tim Spall (Nathaniel) – the same thing. He understood the character so well – he knew what it was to be subservient.
We couldn’t have imagined a better wicked witch than Susan Sarandon. The unique thing about her story is that she came to me three and a half years before the movie was made. She had read the script, and said ‘I want to play Narissa’. She’d always check in with me. She’d give me notes about the script. She was very committed. So when Kevin Lima came on to direct, I introduced them right away.
Lastly, Patrick Dempsey. We were looking for a leading man, and we really wanted to find a guy who was reluctant to be involved with a fairytale world. Patrick had to come in and do a chemistry read with Amy, and you could see these two were going to be fun. When I read it, his character Robert was always a little bit like me. Always just the guy who would be reluctant, maybe, to see this movie. And so he’s a character that you really enjoy watching. You can experience the movie from his point of view.
The animated characters at the beginning of the film look just like the real actors.
Correct. Kevin Lima, who has been an animator, drew what the Prince would look like. Once we cast Amy and James, then he would change it to match those actors. The animators would look at early tests of Amy’s movements; particularly how she moves up the steps at the beginning. And they based a lot of animation on what Amy did in live-action. The characters in the animation were very much informed by the actors.
Was the computer-generated work expensive?
Yeah, it was expensive, but we were a very reasonably budgeted movie. It’s not a movie that has thousands of shots; it has a few hundred shots. But the ones that we have, I think we used quite wisely. Pip [the chipmunk] was something that the director wanted to play throughout the movie. It was important to him that Pip shouldn’t speak, because there are rules in animation and different rules in live-action. Chipmunks don’t speak! So that was a lot of fun because we were able to have that character always trying to tell the Prince what to do, with the Prince struggling to understand.
The CG sequence at the end, with the witch transforming into a dragon, was our most expensive and most complex sequence. That and ‘Happy Working Song’ – where they clean up the house. There were real rats and pigeons and cockroaches. It’s also computer generated rats and pigeons and cockroaches. So it’s a combination of the two.
What was it like working with the director, Kevin Lima?
I had been looking for a director for years. I’d met with many directors but nobody had come with the complete vision that Kevin had. He loves Disney movies. He knows them backwards and forwards, and can recite them chapter and verse. This movie pays homage to those movies, and you can see many things that are reminiscent of Snow White or Prince Charming. That’s something that Kevin really wanted to imbue and put into the movie. It’s a little bit ironic. I’d say it’s more of a homage and a little bit ironic, but it never spoofs.
And Kevin knew how to shoot all these very complex sequences. There’s the Central Park sequence; a big musical number. As a producer I put together that sequence for him, but he created it. Literally, shot for shot came right from his head. He had a great collaboration with John O’Connell, our choreographer, who has done Baz Lurhman’s movies. And they laid out exactly how they wanted that sequence to progress. I can’t wait to work with him again.
What were the logistics of filming big sequences in Central Park and Times Square?
Very difficult. The Times Square work was really hard because you’re stopping traffic. I mean, when we get to four, five, six in the morning, it’s late evening or early morning so it’s a little bit easier. But doing all that stuff in the day – James Marsden on the bus – it was a lot of work. Very complex shots. And when Amy first arrives there are so many shots, so many pieces. We go from one place in Times Square to the next, to the next, and so on. And we shot that all in segments over sixteen days.
Was Alan Menken the first choice as composer?
Yes. He came to me interested before the movie was made. And if you look at Alan’s credits – Academy Award-winner [Aladdin, Beauty and the Beast] – he was the perfect choice. He not only wrote the songs, but he wrote the score. He really understood the movie; he collaborated with Kevin about where the musical numbers would lay out in the script. I think he nailed it. Especially in that Happy Working Song, how it all comes together. And the ballad, sung in the ballroom, he wrote all of it.
What are your favourite Disney movies?
I love Snow White. I love Cinderalla. I love Mulan. I really like Pocahontas. Snow White was really the classic for me. Many things in this movie emulate Snow White. Kevin Lima directed Tarzan, which is just a beautiful film. I loved Beauty and the Beast, as well – there’s a bit of that in our movie. In the ballroom scenes, there’s a similar costume and some similar swooping shots.
Why has this film been such a success in the States?
People want to find a movie to escape and our movie is that. I’ve found that word-of-mouth is very strong. I’ve found that kids go immediately and want to see it more than once, and that young adults go to the movie and find they enjoy it more than they thought they would. So I think the reason why we’ve done very well in America is that we’re building word of mouth every week. I know, for example, a really close friend of mine told me: “I saw the movie, and I’m taking my mom, because I really want to see this movie with my mom.” When you get that kind of movie – joyful, fun and a good experience – you attract audiences.
