Interview with Sam Riley on His Role as Diaval in Maleficent

Did you love Diaval in Maleficent? Check out this Interview with Sam Riley on his role as Diaval in Maleficent.

Now that Maleficent has hit theaters nationwide, I hope you’ve had the opportunity to see it. Today I’ll be sharing the last of my cast interviews, but in case you missed any of them, here they are:

• Elle Fanning Interview
• Sharlto Copley Interview
• Robert Stromberg Interview

And if you are still on the fence about heading to the theaters to see it, I’ve shared my thoughts on the movie in my Maleficent film review.

I had the opportunity to meet with Sam Riley a couple weeks ago at the press junket for Maleficent. To be honest, I’d never heard of Sam but quickly learned it was because most of the work he had done is in independent type cinema. But after seeing his performance as Diaval, a shape-shifting raven, it will be hard to forget him.

Sam has a deep, gruffy voice with an English accent that is quite charming. He was such a pleasure to interview because he was very vocal about being nervous. It made me feel at ease that he was just as nervous as I was during our interview.

Sam talked about what it was like to work on such an old story, what kind of research he had to do for his part, how much time he spent on hair and makeup each day, the audition process and more!

What was it like to work on a new but yet very old story?

Oh it was really exciting. Most of my films are sort of independent-type cinema that not many people go and watch usually. But they’re all great, obviously. But the script was really great. I loved it and the lady who wrote it had written the Lion King as well and lots of other lovely Disney movies. I thought the way they did this was really interesting. I mean, what would make a woman or a sorceress curse a little baby? It’s like one of the worst things you could possibly do. And the fact that Angelina was going to play Maleficent was very exciting.

Was there research you had to do to figure out how to get into your character? Or did you have creative license because it wasn’t something that you knew?

Well I watched the old cartoon and things but it doesn’t really do very much. The raven always looks half asleep or something, so they organized it so that they could bring in a real raven into a room about this big. I’d never seen a real raven before. I thought they were like crows but it’s like this big and it could do tricks and stuff, which is pretty scary. I mean, when it gets its wings out it’s as long as the table or something. You know, really huge. And they’re very intelligent and they’re kind of vain as well which I thought was funny. But I just watched this raven in a room for awhile just to see if anything would rub off on me… that I could steal something from it while I’m the man part of the thing. And there was a really nice lady who helped me doing a movement coach. We tried to copy bits of his movements. And by the end of the session I was actually running around the room flapping my wings. It was horrific. She was like, “We should film this.” So I was like, “Under no circumstances do I ever want to see myself running around a room on YouTube going [SQUAWK].” It was awful. But it helps. Then when she turns me from a bird into a man at the beginning I wasn’t wearing very many clothes, so that was a strange conversation to have for a Disney movie. Like, how much bottom can you show? So once you’ve done something really silly then it makes you more relaxed, you know. I should have done it before coming in here actually.

How much hair and makeup did you have to go through every day?

It’s about three and half, four hours something? But I couldn’t really complain because there were other people that had been in there since three o’clock in the morning. They have to wake them up that early so that they’re ready to work at nine, you know? So the ladies and guys that were putting all this stuff on, they probably work some of the hardest because they have to be there at that time and then the whole day they have to make sure things aren’t falling off. But I managed…I’m a really good sleeper. I used to be anyway. I’ve just had a baby, well, my wife. After a couple of weeks I managed to be able to lie down in the chair and while people were gluing things to my face I could actually sleep through it which is pretty impressive. Until one morning they turned the seat back up and realized they stuck my nose on the wrong way, it was sticking up. So they wouldn’t let me do it anymore after that.

What’s your most memorable scene?

The first one really because I was really nervous. I met Angelina before, we rehearsed and things like that, but I’d never seen her in the full costume. And they drive you from your little trailer whatever on a golf buggy which was pretty cool, they don’t usually do that on indy films anyway. And then they had this amazing set there and she was already standing there so I was worried that I’d been keeping her waiting or something which wasn’t a good start. She had her back to me and with the way it was all lit amazingly and then when she turned around it was like… It’s weird because it looked real, but you know it’s not real…the cheekbones and everything and the contact lenses. But when you look at her in all that stuff it kind of looks natural, maybe not the right word but it fits, you know. You don’t think it looks fake or something. In fact I only really saw her in costume for like the first four weeks of the shooting. It was strange to see her in her normal clothes afterwards. I got so used to seeing Maleficent every morning.

Can you tell us about your audition?

It was pretty classic, really, which is more or less they send you the scenes and then you learn them at home if you’re a good boy. I flew to London and met Rob and the casting director. And then you do the scene and the lady plays Angelina or whatever. Sometimes you think you’ve done it well and it’s still don’t call us, we’ll call you type of thing. I didn’t hear anything for quite a long time so I just thought — and my agent who is really nice said, “Yeah, but you’re not really Disney material, are you?” But he’s got a great sense of humor. I sacked him. And then about three weeks later my American agent rang, which is always at night in Europe and he said, “What are you doing?” I said, “Oh, I’m in a pub.” And he said, “Well, buy yourself another drink because, Angelina saw the tape and you’re Birdman.” So exciting.

When I was watching the movie I kept thinking that you might have been the true love’s kiss and I felt like that’s how they were angling it.

I was always trying to angle in that as well.

Was this the first time that you got to work with small children on the set? And if so, how was it?

I wasn’t there the day that Angelina’s little girl was there. But she told me that two of her kids were big fans of my character. They came for lunch one day on set so I thought, I’ll go and, I got within about ten meters of them and two of them started crying. So I just sort of…pretended it wasn’t me. But I think when they tried to find little girls to play the part, it was very difficult for them when they saw her in costume. A lot of them were terrified. So I think that’s partly the reason why Vivian got the part. And obviously she’s got it in her genes, I suppose.

Since your character is a bird and then a human, did you have trouble transferring between the two?

They had the special effects people there on those days to sort of explain when she clicks her fingers, do I go down or am I going up into the air or something like that? And the first time it was a bit strange because they sort of went, “Well just go something like that.” And sometimes you feel really stupid doing these things. But it was good fun.

I think your character plays her conscience throughout the movie. So was it intimidating to you?

When we talked about it in the beginning she said that at the beginning he’s more like a servant and he’s scared of her because she’s all-powerful and everything. But we were talking about it and if you think about it they spend every day together for sixteen years. She’s isolated herself somewhere, so that I’m the only one who talks to her. So we wanted them to be a bit more like a bickering married couple by the end of it and have these lighter moments. I can sense that there’s good in her, which she doesn’t want to admit or something. When I read the script and realized that I’m gonna have every single scene with her I was like, “Oh, well, this is pretty cool.”

Did you get to improvise much?

A little bit of it. The script was so great, you didn’t really feel like you were forcing things.

Did you get to see any of your transformations while you were filming?

No but the director got lots of beautiful drawings that he had drawn of all the animals that I turn into so I had some idea what it would look like. And I think there’s one brief bit of transformation in one of the trailers, but like for a split second. And all my friends are like, “Yeah, that could be anybody, man, you know?”

The relationship between Diaval and Maleficent is obvious from their first encounter, but I loved watching it develop throughout the movie. If you have’t seen the movie yet, go see it. It’s a really great story and the visual effects totally make this fantasy world seem like reality.

If you’ve seen it, what scene was your favorite?