Anna Friel Q&A

16 November 2009

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Anna Friel has taken Hollywood by storm in recent year with hit TV show Pushing Dasies. But now the British actress is back working in film with a big screen adaptation of Land of the Lost.

How aware of the TV Land of the Lost were you growing up?
 
I wasn’t aware of it. I read the script and laughed out loud many times and then met the director Brad Silberling. He told me to read the script first and then watch the series because while I could play younger than my age, trying to be fourteen might throw me a bit (laughs).

Once I got the job, I was given the entire DVD boxed set and it has become one of our favorite things to watch in the house. My daughter, Grace, is obsessed with it.

It is one thing to see the show as an adult, but how did watching it with your daughter open your eyes to things that you might have missed?

She was actually scared of the dinosaur even though in our film we have a much more intense version of Grumpy. She also found Chaka quite creepy.

As you mentioned before, the character of Holly does get transformed from the TV series to the film version. She is no longer Rick Marshall’s daughter. Now she is a colleague that develops a bit more.

The same is true for Will in the show. Holly and Will are brother and sister but if we did that it would have defeated the whole purpose of Danny and Will as this comedy duo. I think it is a way of moving it on.

The whole point of a remake is to stay true to the original story but to add something new and different to surprise the audience. Here we get to utilize 2009 effects.

What did you find interesting about Holly as a character?

I liked that she seemed sweet and innocent on the outside, but on the inside she is a ball of fire. You wouldn’t want to cross Holly’s path. She is the logical one in the film. I liked the scenario that she was put in and I really liked how she fit into the story.

She is also the only woman in the film.

That was a bit of a bonus to be the only woman (laughs). I don’t mind being surrounded in the desert with Will on one side and Danny on the other. That will do me.

How does that dynamic lend itself to filming? Are the guys more protective of you? Do you become more like them?

I was a little more boy’sie. I wasn’t as girlie as I might have been. I got all of them drinking this weird colored juice by the end of it. I was chewing their ears off trying to tell them about the health benefits of my juice drinks and by the end of filming, they were like 'Okay Anna, we will have the juices.' They couldn’t have been warmer or nicer. Not only was I the only girl on set, I was also the only Brit. They were very nurturing and kind to me.

Audiences have seen you before in more demur roles, dressed a little more refined. Here you were down and dirty and right in the middle of the action. How was the physical aspect of the film for you?

Since I have been in America, I have worked on becoming stronger and fitter just because you have to. Your competition is so strong and everyone here is so health conscious.

I was doing Pilates at the time and was using this thing called a power plate, a vibrating machine that helps to tone your muscles. I worked on that in between scenes because it would help me get tone, but not sweaty. Being a mother keeps you very fit. I loved the whole action aspects of it.

At first, I loved being in the harness; although by the end of the week I was not saying that (laughs). As we were being pulled up in those vines, it got very uncomfortable. But after a while, it was all fun. It was like being a kid at an amusement park. We would helicopter into the sand dunes and then I would try and find the faster driver of the dune buggies that would take me to set.

When you guys were swinging form the vines, it did remind me of Peter Pan and everyone flying.

That was the whole idea. The movie was all about being inappropriate. Everything you were not meant to do, you did. One would think that the last thing you want to do when you are running away from a dinosaur is cover yourself in their urine, but Marshall thinks that is a good idea.

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