The trailer and preview answered many concerns that fans had about both the casting and tone of Snow White and the Huntsman. We had the opportunity to sit down with Sanders in a small roundtable discussion at WonderCon this weekend to discuss his aesthetic approach to the story as well as the backstory for the characters in the film.
Outside of the magic mirror, how much do you play with the magical elements of the tale?
RS: "There’s quite a lot. There’s a great sequence in the dark forest, which is really a forest that plays on the mind. Snow White runs in and she falls into a patch of spore-like puffball mushrooms that are hallucinogenic. She falls into that and instantly the trip starts to take her and she’s like trying to run away but then the whole forest starts to turn in on her. To me, as a hallucinator, when you do watch Snow White and that forest scene, they’re very hallucinogenic and I think we really tried to actually say that the forest is dangerous because it’ll play with your mind.
The first five minutes in the forest is quite a mental acid trip but designed to kind of protect itself. The forest protects itself. There’s a lot of magical realism in there, there’s a lot of great symbolism in the enchanted forest. We created a world that was protected by the dark forest where the Evil Queen’s poison hasn’t reached and that’s where the magical fairy tale exists, where there’s still fairies and strange creatures. So it’s a very rich journey, you go into so many different worlds and see so many different things and hopefully every scene you go to there’s a new discovery of something else that is happening.”
Can you talk a bit about casting Charlize Theron as the Queen and also just exactly how evil is she?
RS: “When you’re playing an Evil Queen you can go into pantomime very quickly. I think what she did so well and what really we all felt was the best kind of root for the character was that she wasn’t playing pure evil. I don’t think anyone’s born pure evil. Things happen to them growing up that make them who they are and I think that’s very true with her backstory that you see later in the film. She’s a very disturbed character who’s desperately got to find this heart because she needs to live forever. It’s as simple as that. She’s dead on the inside but she’s determined that she will avenge her family and the tribe that she was with that was constantly brutalized by kings and other kingdoms. She’s determined that the world will feel the suffering that she felt and she will stop at nothing to do that. She’s driven by some dark machinations but she’s also incredibly wounded and fragile underneath that. You can relate to her, because we understand the things she’s gone through and why she’s become evil. She’s not just sitting around with a white cat on her lap and hacking people’s heads off. Her evil comes because of how distorted the character has become. So she plays it very real and I think that’s really the success of the character. She’s incredible to watch.”
People were very skeptical when Kristen Stewart was initially cast in this film. But now seeing the trailer and all the footage, you really get why she’s perfect casting.
RS: “Yeah, I think we were looking for someone who was obviously a great actor first and foremost but also someone who’s incredibly physical. Everyone thinks she is Bella from Twilight. I think she’s such a good actor that she encompassed that role so well that people think that’s how she is. When you meet Kristen, she’s so far away from that character. I’d first seen her in ‘Into the Wild’ and I was really blown away. I remembered that she was the girl from ‘Panic Room,’ ‘Welcome to the Rileys,’ ‘The Runaways,’ and now ‘On the Road.’ She’s one those actors who does these smaller films and then she does these big movies and she’s really managed her career so well in that way. She’s incredibly spirited and very kind of wild and also she’s got this kind of this alchemy to her. You’re not quite sure what it is about her but on screen she’s just incredible. And when you see her act you
realize why she is such a huge movie star and why she’s going to continue to get bigger.”
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Thanks @FierceBitchStew for the heads up!