A swordfight, a swashbuckle and a nice interview with Thomas Sangster

by Orlando Parfitt, Oct 26,2007

Doug Lefler, barer of Dragonheart: A New Beginning and many a Xena episode directs this epic tale of the fall of Rome and the new kiddy leader Romulus Augustus aka Caesar.

The wonderful Ben Kingsley, who stars as Ambrosia Rice Pudding or something, is joined by Thomas Sangster as obnoxious little oik Caesar and Colin Firth as the beardy and strangely attractive Aurelius. Hooray for a swordfight and a swashbuckle!

We talked to Thomas Sangster about what it was like to play the most powerful boy in the world.

You’ve worked with a lot of well known actors. Do you get nervous working with older more experienced thesps?
I don’t get nervous, no. I see it as an exciting opportunity to work with someone new and different. I’ve never really been star struck about anyone. I’ve been more excited to meet them and excited to see how they work on set.

Who were you most excited to meet?
On the day of the Love Actually read through I had no idea that there would be anybody in it like that. Suddenly all these people started pouring through the door and I thought, Oh my God!

There are some big action sequences in The Last Legion, did you have to do any training for this role?
Not really. I did a bit of horse training. I only had to ride on the back of it but I didn’t do any of the sword stuff. I just kind of pushed people about. It was a bit disappointing; all the guys were going off an doing the sword stuff and practicing on the beach and it looked really cool, but I didn’t get to do any of that.

What was your favourite scene to film?
There were loads of great scenes to film. I suppose one of the most interesting was the coronation scene at the beginning where I’m crowned, just because I walk out into a crowd of hundreds of extras and I raise my hand and they all start going, ‘Hail Caesar!’ I just thought, Woah!

How have you found juggling movies and studying?
I have a tutor on set who teaches me whenever I’ve got a free moment on set. It’s hard for example with The Last Legion I would go from being leader of the Roman Empire to sitting in a crappy little caravan doing maths homework. It was such a contrast. And then when you go back to England and back to school and back to the normal routine of being another school kid it’s kind of strange. But it brings you back down to earth; it grounds you which is good.

You got to keep a model of Emma Thompson’s nose from Nanny McPhee. Do you still have it?
No, it’s disintegrated! It doesn’t last very long. You have to keep it in the fridge and I couldn’t be bothered so it just fell apart.

Did you get to keep anything from The Last Legion?
Yeah, at the end all the main characters got an Excalibur sword, which is hanging above my bed. I was playing with it on the first day and I hit a pillow with it and it just completely bent in two. I didn’t think, Oh this isn’t the real Excalibur sword, so I just bent it back into shape and hung it back on the wall.

You’re 17 now, coming up to 18. Any plans to do more racy, adult roles?
Whatever comes. From the very beginning I’ve just kind of let it happen. I haven’t pushed for any kind of fame or anything. I just started off acting because I was interested to see what it was like and I just kept doing it.

Can you tell us what you’ve got coming up next?
At the end of this month I’m going off to Italy to do Pinocchio. I’m not actually playing Pinocchio but it’s a live film version of Pinocchio, but I don’t know whether it’s a real boy, or a puppet or CGI or what. I play a character called Candlewick who’s very mischievous and gets Pinocchio into trouble. It sounds like good fun and it’s in Tuscany as well so that’ll be nice.

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