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Transcript: by us.
It's the climactic scene of Snow White & The Huntsman, and Total Film has just walked in on one major bitch fight. Kristen Stewart's eponymous heroine is lying on her back while Charlize Theron's Evil Queen Raveena is standing over her, sword in hand, ready to show just who is the meanest of them all. "By fairest blood it is done," yells Theron, as she plunges the blade towards the Twilight star's chest. Somehow, Stewart stops it going in; Theron, stunned, falls back onto the stone floor. From somewhere in the darkness, a voice yells: "Cut."
A few minutes later, Stewart strides over in full body armour. Her "hair black as night," as Ravenna herself terms it, this Snow White is bruised and battle scarred. So how was that little tete-a-tete?
"Getting the crap kicked our of me by Charlize?" she grins.
"It's been good. She's not afraid to take a hit. And she keeps telling me to hit her harder. We're similar in tat we shut off when the cameras start rolling. I think she hit my stunt double today. Not to blow her cover, but we both go into a zone and it gets fairly dangerous."
That says it all: scratch what you know about Snow White, ditch what you remember about dwarfs called Dopey, for SWATH is all about returning a classic fairytale to its Grimm roots. Gothic, bloody and twisted, this medieval madness is enough to make Uncle Walt blanch. "People think that Snow White is Disney.' says debut director Rupert Sanders, after he steps our of the shadows to join us for a natter over coffee. "Disney really made the [Brothers] Grimms' fairytale very family oriented. But it's actually is a very dark story about so many deeper issues than were in the Disney film"
We're at Pinewoods Studios, day 76 f a four -month shoot. With a week to go, Sanders is looking remarkably calm for a man not only working on his first blockbuster, but making his feature debut. Then again, just take a look at his commercials: the spot for Halo 3, with its eerie tableauz-like scenes of carnage, or the explosive ad of Call of Duty, as school kids, nurse and concierges go to war on a real-life battlefield. "His work's very cinematic, very bold and very cutting edge," says producer Sam Mercer. "We wanted the movie presented in that way."
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"It's cool to play a character who's able to step outside of herself and consider others in an almost supernatural way," she says,
"but at the same time know that she's human and has those struggles and still fights for herself as well. She's the essential leader. The definition of a hero... so many of our heroes are assholes. They find pleasure in hurting people. She doesn't. Yet she can seriously take care of business."
"It's definitely the most action I've ever had to do," she says.
--Charlize
"When people go and see this," she smiles,
"it's going to be spectacular, huge"
What make SW&TH so tantalizing is the prospect of watching this full-on-face-off between two females- a highly unusual dynamic in Hollywood. "It's so rare to have a lead [female] character be proactive and push her own story forward, rather than be affected by all of the outside elements," says Stewart "Hopefully we do that. I'm really proud of it. It's always good for women to feel empowered."
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I'd love nothing more than for this to be so big a success that they're able to make another one," says Hemsworth.
For Stewart, it means starting a new franchise just after freeing herself from the jaws of another one. But she's ready for it.
"Well, I am the fairest in the land!" she says, tongue firmly buried in cheek.
"And I have seriously a good heart, for people that don't know me!"
Scans thanks to
KstewartUK
