Inside 'Legend of the Guardians' with Jim Sturgess and Ryan Kwanten

Zack Snyder, Deborah Snyder, Ryan Kwanten, and Jim Sturgess Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole Press Conference

Jim Sturgess: "Would I? Yeah, of course. I mean, 100%. I think what’s exciting about animation is as an actor you want to play characters and it’s not often in film you get the chance to play a baby owl. Animation requires you to play a variety of really extreme things you wouldn’t necessarily be able to play on film or in the theater. So, yeah, that for me is a reason for why animation would be exciting and why actors are interested in that sort of platform to act in. It’s like what Zack and Ryan were talking about earlier. It’s a different way of acting, and that’s always exciting as an actor to try out new platforms in which to play different characters. So I can see why a lot of people are drawn in by that."

Ryan Kwanten: "I was also thinking that you have different dimensions – the 3D aspect with this – but there’s also more than one dimension in terms of acting. I felt like a lot of these animation films don’t have the character development. It’s very like a one dimensional kind of character where they don’t have the specific arc. Even the smaller characters in this have more than at least one thing to play. There’s a journey that they go through and I know particularly for my character that was a really appealing thing for me, that he starts off as this misunderstood, misguided owl and then it’s this one single decision that changes the course of his life and that tells more about who he is than the whole lifetime moments before that, how he chooses to react in that moment. Yeah, I would also gladly partake in a sequel."

But do owls have nine lives?

Jim Sturgess: "All these owls are alive at the end of the movie, apparently."

Ryan while this filmed over the past three years, did you film during your time off of True Blood to do your part and when you did go in, was it kind of a relief from all the action on True Blood because you were just using your voice on this? And do you see any similarities between Jason Stackhouse and Kludd?

Ryan Kwanten: "Yes, I did go in. Yes, it was a nice escape but this was also incredibly hard. The amount of times that I left the 2-3 hour voicing session with sweat pouring off because you’re doing all the various levels of exertion. There’s that happy, joyful exertion, then sort of exasperated at Kludd not being so eloquent with the way he flies. So, yeah, there weren’t too many times where I left with an abundance of energy after. Just going back, sure, it was a nice relief from playing Jason. I love playing that character but when I’m not shooting, that’s the last thing that I want to dive into, to be honest."

So there are no similarities between the two of them, in terms of emotions of anything?

Ryan Kwanten: "I think there’s a vulnerability to them both and an innocence, but I think Kludd has more willpower and perhaps more mental capacity."

Zack, I would like to know more about the casting process. How does it work when you’re looking for a voice more than a face?

Zack Snyder: "I've got to say I didn’t do like a, 'Okay, let’s shut off the sound' or 'Shut off the picture and just listen to the voice.' I didn’t really do that. With these two (Jim Sturgess and Ryan Kwanten), I was a fan of their work anyway so I thought about it in the sense that, 'Okay, what I’ve seen them do in the past?' And where emotionally I feel like I’ve seen them go just made me confident that whatever I could throw at them with these characters, they would be able to tackle it. Again, it’s like anything, I think that as you develop an idea as to who this character is, you have an idea who they are and then when the actor comes in and does their version of it, the awesome thing that I get to watch happen is that we all in the story department and when we’re making the movie and we’re talking about who the characters are before we have the actors, they’re like they’re here, and in some ways just because it’s so complex, you kind of flatten them out a little bit. You tend to want to flatten them out a little bit, just so you can keep them in your head as far as who they are. You tend to go, 'Okay, this is their journey and this is their arc.' You try and simplify it a little bit more, because I think if I try and think about it in a super complex way, you have this crazy graph that is the character and it’s hard to lock it in."

"The awesome thing that an actor brings is they’ve lived that moment. It’s been my experience and the joy for me in my job is that they come and make it way better than you ever thought it could be. When it’s emotional, it’s way more emotional. When it’s intense, it’s way more intense and when it’s sad, it’s sadder. It’s all those things or more joyful than you can imagine. And then, subtlety, of course. It’s so much subtler than you could ever [imagine]. 'Oh my gosh, that’s so much more complicated than I could have imagined.' And those are the things. And what these guys have done an amazing job with is actually making these guys so much better. I guess as far as when I say casting, you have, 'Oh gosh, I wonder if Ryan would do this.' And then, 'I wonder if Jim would do this.' And then when they come in and they start to make it real, you’re like, 'Wow! Okay! It’s awesome.'"

Deborah Snyder: "What was really interesting that we did on this film before we started the casting process that we haven’t done in any of our live action films was we workshopped the characters, because you were starting from scratch. And because they were a creature, they were owls, we were trying to define what they looked like. Zack and I went to Animal Logic and I think for a week we took every day one character and we sat down with all the animators and we came up with all their attributes. It was really an interesting process so we had an idea of what the character was, and then we went into the casting process."

Zack Snyder: "It was almost like writing a novel, how you might sit down and do a whole essay about a character, a big, long document that supports the character - everything about them."

Was the fear factor for young kids a concern at all in this whole process?

Zack Snyder: "For me, I wanted to make an adventure film like Star Wars or Narnia or Lord of the Rings or something like that, that I personally as a child [would like]. I guess the whole thing for me was that I wanted to take what Kathryn [Lasky] wrote in the books and treat it seriously, because I knew this was going to be a kid’s fantasy film. The last thing I wanted to do is – I don’t want to say belittle but – smirk at their fantasy that they believe is 100% real and they take 100% seriously. Far be it from me to make – I don’t want to say a joke but – like, 'Oh! Owls are wearing helmets! Hilarious!' Where, for me, the thing that makes it strong is that I’m just like, 'No, that’s real. That’s the way I want to approach it.' So, the byproduct of that may be being that the battles are intense or that the reality of the consequences is real. I wanted that to be so that it’s immersive, so the kids, at the end, are like, 'Oh my gosh, that happened!'"

"Look, I was a huge fan of Star Wars. I love that sort of Joseph Campbellean hero’s mythic journey and I really wanted that experience in the movie."

Deborah Snyder: "But also because of this process, I think animation for us was slightly different than making a live action film whereas you tested a lot, because once you go down the line, you’re pretty much down the line. So you’re testing it early on and one of the things that we always were conscious of is what is that tipping point? You don’t want the kids to be afraid. I think sometimes parents are more protective and the kids really seem to like it. We’d be like, 'Okay, what’s your favorite part?' 'We like all the battles. Can you add more?' And I think really we were trying to be very careful of giving them that adventure but also I think giving them something… I think that there’s morality. There’s a lot of really great, positive messaging that balances all of that out. And there’s a little humor that balances out the intensity too."

Zack Snyder: "I think it’s funny when you actually watch the film, I tried to just surf it so that right when it gets super intense, there’s something that happens that lets you off the hook and then it does this."

There’s such a blur now between reality and animation, is there any more than what we’ve seen?

Zack Snyder: "Can it be better? Do it over one more time. Didn’t we say on the last day when we finished, I said if I was like Howard Hughes or someone and I was financing the film myself, I would have said, 'Okay, now let’s do it one more time. I feel like we’ve got it. We can film it. Let’s just start over and do it one more time. I think it’s close.' It’s funny, because even in the books themselves, inside there’s an owl language. There’s owl anatomy. Some of those books, if you open them, there’s all sorts of poetry. It’s crazy. You should definitely do that if you get the chance."

Are you working already on the sequel?

Zack Snyder: "No, not this minute."

The final fight scene is very reminiscent of 300. Are there any homages in the film at all to 300?

Zack Snyder: "I don’t think we have a 300 homage, but there is a Night Owl Cowl. You know where all the helmets are? One of them is the Night Owl Cowl from Watchmen. "

How is Sucker Punch shaping up and has it surprised you how it turned out compared to how you imagined it?

Zack Snyder: "It’s shaping up quite nicely. We’re almost done with it. It has been quite a wild journey just getting that crazy thing into – it’s exactly the same in some processes. You start out with what you feel like is kind of a sketch, and then once the actors are there and now suddenly you’re building Samurai or whatever it is and they’re fighting. It starts and then you have to make choices about where to put the camera and all that. Then it starts to be real."

"I guess the thing that surprised me most was that the girls did such an amazing [job]. They just believed it 100% and even though it was some crazy world that I had come up with that was completely ridiculous, they just put their heads down and said, 'No, it’s real. For me, this is my reality and I’m going to take it all the way.' That’s what really surprised me the most. It goes back to the same thing that I experienced whenever you get to work with actors and they take your ridiculous idea and they make it awesome. It’s an awesome joy for me to have that experience."

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