leading role
The Huntsman: Winter’s War – Sam Claflin talks us through his rise to fame, from Ipswich to Hollywood via mythical worlds
Tomorrow marks the highly-anticipated release of The Huntsman: Winter’s War, the prequel/sequel to 2012’s Snow White and the Huntsman. Alongside Charlize Theron and Chris Hemsworth, HERO 10 star Sam Claflin reprises his role as the resolute William and re-enters the mythical world of Tabor. To celebrate the film launch we’ve revisited our issue 10 interview with Claflin: talking Hunger Games, Hollywood and chicken diets.
Refreshingly, Sam Claflin is still a humble boy from Ipswich. After our interview, he pops into the corner shop for some gum, a big smile beaming out from under his baseball cap. But life will change drastically in the next few months: the release of The Hunger Games: Catching Fire is set to convert an army of hormone-riddled teens into the next hysterical mob. Finnick Odair, his character, is the tanned, muscled sex god from District Four. Everything, Sam admits, he isn’t.
Fabien Kruszelnicki: So, The Hunger Games, that’s pretty monumental. Did you read the books beforehand?
Sam Claflin I didn’t actually even know they were based on books. I went to go and watch the first movie knowing it was a movie everyone was talking about but I didn’t know why. When I came out of the cinema I thought, “That was amazing.” Two weeks later I got an email from my agent saying that I had an audition the next day, he sent me over a couple of scenes and one of the characters was Katniss Everdeen… I did a bit of research and realised it was a trilogy of books. I kind of left everything to the last minute but before we started filming, I read all three books in five days.
FK: So you knew you were going for the part of Finnick then?
SC: Well, in those two scenes it didn’t have the film title – just the character Katniss Everdeen with a guy called Finnick Odair, and I was like, “Who the hell is Finnick Odair?” I typed it into the internet and all these results came up with all these girls’ pictures of their perfect Finnick. [laughs] I think I disappointed a few people there! I mean the problem is that he’s introduced as a sex god; he’s tanned, muscular, blond, basically everything I’m not. I was a little nervous to say the least walking into that audition room.
FK: So how come you got the part?!
SC: Erm, I don’t know! I’ve been thinking about this a lot. Part of me thinks that the one thing that I do have is a huge insecurity in myself and I think Finnick, despite having this persona and front, is actually quite insecure and vulnerable. I mean everything else was so wrong, I’m not even American, I’m so far away from who Finnick is.
Image credits: Jacket and trousers both by Dolce & Gabbana FW13; shirt by Bottega Venetta SS14
FK: What was it like shooting with director Francis Lawrence?
SC: Amazing, he grabbed the bull by the horns and wrestled it to the ground, I don’t think he ever shot anything quite like this with people like me and Jennifer Lawrence and Josh Hutcherson. I mean the three of us were quite mischievous through the filming… but he was amazing, he was able to have the right balance between fun and professionalism. Visually he’s super talented, I think he’s the best director I’ve worked with so far. I don’t mean any offence to the others but the fact that The Hunger Games is such a huge franchise and he still managed to maintain a family community feel amongst the cast and crew, he made it feel like it was a small independent movie with no money.
FK: And it was his first time working on the franchise as well, wasn’t it?
SC: Yes, he sat me down at the very beginning of the filming process and said, “Look, if you have any doubts or any questions, or anything you need, I am equally new to this so we can be new together.”
FK: How did it feel going into a movie where everybody already knew each other?
SC: As intimidating as it was going in to play Finnick, it was probably just as intimidating to enter a room full of people that knew each other. I was so nervous and anxious, I didn’t know how I was going to fit in, I was the only English guy and I wasn’t Jen and Josh’s age, but then I wasn’t Woody Harrelson’s age either so I thought, “Where do I slot in here?” It’s kind of good that I’m quite immature and I have a very similar sense of humour to Jen and Josh, so immediately we got on like a house on fire, they took away a lot of that anxiety.
FK: When do you start shooting the next one?
SC: Soon, very very soon, so the diet and everything has already started! I’ve got a long way to go to get back to where I was.
FK: Yeah I heard about the chicken and asparagus…
SC: Chicken and asparagus! Yeah three months, I let myself off the last two weeks, because I was like, “Well I don’t need to take my top off any more, it’s nearly Christmas, why not?”
FK: What was the first thing you ate after?
SC: I think it was Christmas dinner, I literally got back to London on the 24th December, drove to my parents’ house, I remember saving myself until then and I was like, “I just want to literally demolish my mum’s home cooked Christmas dinner!”
FK: Were you strict with the diet or did you have a sneaky Mars bar?
SC: No, I was ridiculously strict, I have never been strict before. I never stuck to a diet for more than two weeks – that’s pushing it a bit, maybe about three days. But when I was in Atlanta shooting I didn’t have any distractions. Usually my friends and my family are the worst culprits for going, “Ah come on, don’t worry about it, have a bit of ice cream,” but when I was out there I was literally on my own, and as much as I got to know the other guys they had no idea how strict I was.
FK: Were you swimming a lot as your character is from a water district?
SC: I think having read the book I expected to do a lot more than I did. I was joking with the director actually saying that no one actually asked me if I could swim until the day I got into the water for the first time, and that was three months into filming. So I had shot the majority of my stuff, and then they were like, “Oh yeah, by the way, can you swim because if you can’t this is kind of redundant.” Luckily I can, but open water kind freaks me out somewhat. I got stung by a jellyfish when I was a lot younger, I think there’s so much about the ocean that we don’t know.
FK: If you could go down in a bubble would you want to go exploring in the ocean?
SC: No. I don’t know, it would freak me out. I kind suffer from claustrophobia as well… [laughs] I’m a mess! Argh, no, I couldn’t do it.
FK: Do you eat seafood?
SC: I do, I didn’t for years, basically fish fingers made me sick. I sound like some nervous wreck! You know how kids get bugs? I basically had fish fingers once, which isn’t really proper fish I’m sure, but it made me sick and from that day, I must have been about six or something. I didn’t eat fish until I met my wife about three years ago. We went out for sushi and I was too afraid to tell her. You know when you’re trying to impress somebody? Then I was like, “Oh my god, this is really meaty!”
FK: So you ate it?
SC: Yeah, absolutely. I eat fish now but I prefer meat.
FK: Were there any particularly memorable moments when you were filming The Hunger Games?
SC: We were in the middle of filming an imaginary monkey fight. So we were fighting things that weren’t there, swinging our weapons at nothing and mid-take, mid-action and mid-everything Jennifer Lawrence let out this God almighty scream and everyone was like [chuckling], “What’s, what’s wrong?” She said, “Something just bit me, something bit me in the arse!” and she was holding her bum, and we were like, “Nothing bit you, there’s nothing in this water!” And she was like, “No, no no seriously, seriously something bit me in the BUTTTOCKS.” Later we realised the end of my trident had snapped off and had smacked her in the arse. The only reason we found out was because she took her wet suit off just to show us her derrière and there was this perfect imprint of this winged spike that had just slapped her in the bum. That was quite a memorable day partly because I got to see Jennifer Lawrence’s bum and party because it was my fault, that I branded her. Yep.
FK: Everyone says The Hunger Games is the next Twilight, what do you think?
SC: Well, I think fine, they are based on three books – is Twilight three books? That’s how much I know about Twilight. No they are very different.
FK: But I mean the way they have made household names of actors so quickly.
SC: Well, Jennifer Lawrence had made a name for herself for winning an Oscar at the age of seventeen, Josh Hutcherson has been acting since he was a kid. Liam Hemsworth is Chris Hemsworth’s brother and been in numerous projects before this, Philip Seymour Hoffman equally who is a new edition to this particular cast, Woody Harrelson… they are all amazing amazing actors, not that I’m saying Twilight is anything but that, because they have equally been in previous films.
FK: Do you ever worry about being typecast by doing a movie like this?
SC: Yeah I do, definitely.
FK: I think that’s the clever thing about Jennifer Lawrence, she’s been doing other movies at the same time, independent movies, strong scripts. She didn’t just do a blockbuster and take a break until the next one.
SC: Yeah I know what you mean, it’s important to me that in-between doing those big projects I’ve done other things to keep me going. So each time, whether it be a TV job that’s important to me back home in England, or whether it’s a small independent film… basically what I’m trying to say is it definitely does worry me that it could happen. But it’s very important to me that I need to challenge myself and prove to people I’m more than a guy that falls in love with a mermaid.
FK: Do you think it’s hard being an English actor in Hollywood?
SC: I think with the training we have over here it’s actually easier for us, even Aussies who equally have really good training. Not that I’m saying Americans don’t have good training, but I think especially for kids growing up in Los Angeles, again I’m stereotyping and I’m generalising, not everyone is like this, but growing up in that world and with those boundaries, you turn on the telly and you see Kim Kardashian doing what she’s doing – which is great for her – but it’s not real life, you know? I feel like I’ve worked my way up to get to where I am, I worked really, really hard. I think a lot of people that grew up in the States will wake up and assume they can have that because “That girl’s got it.” Yes we have elements of that here, but I come from a very humble background, I’m not saying it hasn’t been difficult breaking into Hollywood and a lot of it is to do with luck, but I definitely feel I have worked very hard to get there. I was never expecting to achieve that, I left drama school knowing that I’d be lucky to be playing a tree at the RSC.
FK: Would you ever do any of those reality TV shows?
SC: Do you know what? My publicist would probably hate me for saying this, but yes. It would obviously have to be the right one. But a part of me grew up watching this stuff, my mum watches Strictly Come Dancing, I’m a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here.
FK: Can you dance?
SC: No I cannot dance for the life of me. I have rhythm… I got rhythm, but that’s about it.
FK: What kind of scripts do you look for?
SC: I don’t really look, there’s not one particular genre that I try and focus on. If you get a script and the characters all blend nicely and your character is something you want to start portraying and you couldn’t live without, basically then it’s a good thing. You tend to know in the first ten or twelve pages whether it’s any good. I’ve been blessed along the way with some fantastic scripts. Hopefully The Hunger Games will lead to me having a few more doors open.
FK: What kind of directors would you like to work with if you could?
SC: I wouldn’t say no if Martin Scorsese or Steven Spielberg gave me a call, but at the same time I still feel like I’m still at the very beginning of my career – I want to find my Nicolas Winding Refn for Ryan Gosling, I kind of want to find a director who’s fresh, new, and together we can build a career. Tim Burton to Johnny Depp, David O Russell to Jennifer Lawrence and Bradley Cooper… Loads of them have set up these relationships and I believe that I’m still waiting for mine. I know there will be someone along the way that I work with and I couldn’t live without – maybe we need a little bit of time and we’ll find each other.
Image credits: Jacket by Dior Homme SS14; top by Bottega Veneta SS14; watch by Dior
FK: How do you mentally prepare for your characters?
SC: I think mentally Posh was the only time I had to take myself away and try and work out who this character was. I mean, yes Finnick was so far away from who I am, but actually the personality isn’t that different, it was the transformation physically that was so big. In Posh it was a complete mental transformation for me. I was playing a posh kid and I am nowhere near posh, my upbringing was so just ‘normal school’. I don’t even know what a normal school is called. That’s what I’m talking about, my vocabulary is so lacking and I was meant to be playing this intelligent, political posh kid. It was tough. So I took myself away and I was reading essays and historical politics. It was a challenge.
FK: How different does it feel to do a big budget movie compared with TV?
SC: I don’t think you can get more different than doing a big budget Hollywood blockbuster like Pirates of the Caribbean to the TV film I did called United. It’s polar opposites. In one you feel like you have all the time in the world and are treated like royalty I guess is the polite way to put it. They literally give you more things than you necessarily need, the amount food they have as an option when you have lunch is otherworldly and you’re shooting in Hawaii and the weather’s beautiful, the women are beautiful, the men are beautiful, it’s just a dream come true. Then you do United. Something like United we shot in Newcastle in the middle of winter and it was snowing – we shot a lot of it in a warehouse and we were getting changed in these trailers, they didn’t have any heating and the lights wouldn’t work but the cast and crew all clubbed together, it’s a completely different experience but one that I love equally.
FK: Do you feel there’s a big shift towards TV? There are a lot of big name actors doing TV programs now and companies like Netflix are even commissioning their own shows.
SC: I think there definitely is a shift towards the TV market, the reason being that there are less films being made. A lot of people are finding it difficult to get films made now. And it isn’t always the case but most TV scripts I’ve read are able to completely divulge into a character for example over two, three, four, five, six episodes as opposed to playing a character once over a two hour movie. You get to play that character for six hours and really get to grips with him. And there are some fantastic scriptwriters heading to TV now. Also a lot of TV is getting huge budgets, so it’s a lot like making a movie. As much as I’ve talked about the huge difference between Hollywood blockbusters and TV, doing an independent film is not that dissimilar to TV.
Credits: Jacket by Roberto Cavalli SS14; jumper by Burberry Prorsum SS14
FK: Do you feel like there is a new generation of actors breaking through?
SC: I don’t see myself within them, but there definitely is a new younger group. I mean you have the Andrew Garfields, the Robert Pattinsons, Eddie Redmaynes, Douglas Booths, Jeremy Irvines, these are all just English. Then you have the Liam Hemsworths, Chris Hemsworths, there are so many Australians coming out, not even including the Americans. There’s a high amount of competition, unfortunately.
FK: When you go to auditions does it feel quite competitive?
SC: No. I mean, initially when I started auditioning in the first six months of signing with an agent, you kind of constantly bump into the same people and then, all of a sudden, I don’t know how or why or when it changed exactly the transition was very subtle, but basically I’ll go in and meet someone and I’d tend to chat rather than audition. I do audition by all means but it seems to be more like, “Will we get on? OK let’s do it – that was easy.” But I don’t ever seem to bump into people anymore. What’s great about the competition, and yes it is competition and I have huge amounts of it, but basically with Posh there are ten boys all of the same age, all of us auditioning for the same parts, and all of us are involved in the one show still. There’s Max Irons and Douglas Booth who I think for the last three screen tests I’ve done have been names on the shortlist with mine, and it’s kind of like, “Thank God we actually get to do this together and we’re all helping one another,” and that’s the great thing. Especially the English contingency, I’m really behind them and a lot of them are really good friends of mine. When you lose out on a part to people like that, I’m happy for them. I’m glad it’s them as opposed to someone I don’t know, at least I know he can do it well.
Top image credits:
Short sleeved shirt by Paul Smith SS14; t-shirt by John Varvatos SS14; trousers by Burberry Prorsum SS14; watch by Dior; belt by Dolce & Gabbana FW13