Lily James waltzes on to the big screen on Friday in Disney’s enchanting “Cinderella,” and she opened up about the casting process with Access Hollywood.
“I knew that Cate Blanchett was going to be in it and I knew that Ken Branagh was directing it and when I met him I really — I just wanted it so bad,” Lily said. “The moment I spent 20 minutes with him in a room and we worked on the scenes, I just — I just wanted it like more than anything and I had such a long audition process. And by that point, you’ve worked so much, and you’ve really invested in it. And with this, the whole thing was trying to invest heart, and so I was so relieved when I got it.”
It was her director, Kenneth Branagh, who got to make the call letting Lily know she had been cast in the part, and that she keep it under wraps.
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“I remember when we agreed with Disney, ‘I’m gonna call Lily now and, of course, I’m going to say to her, ‘For a second, if you could maybe not tell people for a second, I think officially, we have to talk to your agents and all that kind of caboodle. And you know the world is gonna eat this up in a second,’ so I was kind of, ‘Wait 20 minutes.'”
“I knew she wouldn’t, because I wouldn’t,” the director told Access.
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Lily actually found out the news while she was filming “Downton Abbey.”
“It was like, ‘Downtown Abbey, three, two, one,” he recounted of the caller who greeted him. “And she’s on set and then she came off. So I knew when I was talking to her she was in Lady Rose costume. She was about to go back in.”
Lily told Access that on her end, she was nervous thinking the call was bad news.
“Ken rang me himself, which never really happens, so I was like, ‘Why is he ringing me?’ I was like, ‘Oh no, he’s ringing me to tell me that I didn’t quite make it, but I did a good job.’ So when he told me, he said, ‘I want you to be my Cinderella,’ and I just — my heart melted and I screamed and then I wasn’t allowed to tell anyone. But I did, I told like my mom and my brothers.”
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Another big moment for Lily in the “Cinderella” experience was what happened when she put on the dress, which helped melt away any insecurities.
“Honestly, like we’re so bad as human beings, aren’t we, ’cause you immediately go, ‘Oh no.’ … I mean, you sort of notice all the bad things about ourselves, which is what’s so — so silly. But the first time I put the dress on, that wiped away any sort of insecurity or inhibition ’cause I just was like, ‘Woah! This is a remarkable piece of clothing.’ And I guess more than looking at myself in the mirror it was people’s reactions that [were] so kind of heartwarming ’cause people would just be like, ‘Wow.’ And I think it’s ’cause it so evoked a real image of the princesses we all kind of know.”
“Cinderella” hits theaters Friday.
— Jolie Lash
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