Almost every scene Sam Elliott had in The Golden Compass involved CGI, and the actor says without a question this is the most effects-heavy movie he’s done to date. “Absolutely. Without a question. You know, they were CGI’ing that hawk in Ghost Rider, but for me personally it was almost every scene I was in there was CGI. I think it was every scene that I was in, because the daemon’s there.
It’s kind of an acting exercise. It becomes determining number 1, before you get going, ‘What it is that you’re gonna be seeing? You’ve got to assess that out. Otherwise you’re really going to be lost if you haven’t got a clue what’s to come, what’s the audience going to see because that’s what you have to react to in order to kind of blend into it. It’s a real odd thing to be speaking and reacting to a spot on the wall or something in your arm or whatever. It’s a test, but that’s what we do. We’re the great pretenders, some not so great probably, but that’s what we do. We pretend for a living. It’s a real exercise in pretending.”
Other than having to act with a rabbit who wasn’t there, the set wasn’t physically challenging for Elliott. But he’s ready for the next one to be much more difficult and demanding. “The next one he’s on his feet on the ground. When you’re standing in an airship, the biggest physical challenge was not getting nauseated. The big sound stage that we were shooting…this gondola on the ship was on a big gimble, a big arm that could be moved around. It’s about, I don’t know, 30 feet off the floor I’d say in a really particularly large sound stage at Shepperton Studios.”
A healthy dose of Dramamine would have helped, but Elliott got used to it after a while. “You just get used to it. I got used to it after a couple hours, but initially it was kind of heady. The floor was green, the ceiling was green, and all four of the walls were green. It was like kind of being in a bubble or something.”
Elliott never shared any scenes with two of his famous co-stars: Daniel Craig (Casino Royale) and Nicole Kidman. In fact, Elliott didn’t even meet them until after filming was complete. “We didn’t have any kind of a rehearsal period or any of that,” revealed Elliott. “I’m sure the first time I met Daniel was at the Cannes Film Festival. The first time I met Nicole was this year when we went back for the 40th anniversary that New Line had in New York a couple of months ago.”
Asked for his take on Craig and Kidman, Elliott replied, “Oh they’re huge stars, particularly Nicole. I happen to be a huge Nicole Kidman fan, period. My take is I don’t have a take yet because I’ve not really spent any time sitting down and having a conversation with either of them. It’s always been a group of people that we’ve met. You know, kind of a social thing. I’m lucky and happy to be in a film with them. Happy to be billed behind Nicole, you know, thanks to New Line. But I’ve got to say it’s a bit of a misrepresentation. There’s no truth in advertising, that’s for sure.”
