VARIOUS: Director Zack Snyder and cast including Abbie Cornish and Vanessa Hudgens, attend the UK premiere of Sucker Punch in London

Record ID: 1534159

  • Title: VARIOUS: Director Zack Snyder and cast including Abbie Cornish and Vanessa Hudgens, attend the UK premiere of Sucker Punch in London
  • Date: 31st March 2011
  • Summary: LONDON, ENGLAND, UNITED KINGDOM (MARCH 30, 2011) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (English) ACTRESS ABBIE CORNISH, SAYING: "The costumes kind of became like a second skin. The outfits that we wore in the action worlds, they became like our armour, like our identity. So I actually really enjoyed the costumes and putting them on in the morning. It was kind of like gearing up for battle." ACTRESS VANESSA HUDGENS TALKING TO THE MEDIA HUDGENS (SOUNDBITE) (English) ACTRESS VANESSA HUDGENS, SAYING: "Well, Blondie is, I feel like all the characters represent a certain trait of Babydoll, since it is all her imagination, and Blondie represents the fear, you know, and when you do things out of fear, they're usually not the smartest. For Blondie, unfortunately, it was just bad timing."
  • Embargoed: 15th April 2011 04:40
  • Keywords:
  • Location: United Kingdom
  • Country: United Kingdom
  • Topics: Arts / Culture / Entertainment
  • Reuters ID: LVA512IXCX62BQARZHLAZZG5M74G
  • Aspect Ratio: 4:3
  • Story Text: Visionary director of "300" Zack Snyder took to the red carpet in London for the UK premiere of his latest, self-penned fantasy film, "Sucker Punch", on Wednesday night (March 30), joined by his all-female cast, Emily Browning, Abbie Cornish, Jena Malone, Vanessa Hudgens, Jamie Chung, Carla Gugino and male cast member Oscar Isaac.
    Described as an epic action fantasy the film, set in the 1960s that also co-stars Jon Hamm ("Mad Men") and Scott Glenn, takes the viewer into the vivid imagination of a young girl called Babydoll (Browning) whose dream world provides the ultimate escape from her darker reality. Following her mother's death, Babydoll accidentally shoots dead her younger sister while trying to stop her step-father's abuse and gets sent to a mental asylum.
    Unrestrained by the boundaries of time and place, Babydoll is free to go where her mind takes her, and her incredible adventures blur the lines between what's real and imaginary. Locked away against her will, but determined to fight for her freedom, she urges four other young girls -- Rocket (Malone), Sweet Pea (Cornish), Blondie (Hudgens) and Amber (Chung) -- to join forces and try to escape their terrible fate at the hands of their captors, 'brothel owner'/asylum orderly Blue (Isaac) and 'Madame and dance teacher'/Dr. Vera Gorski (Gugino), before the 'High Roller'/Doctor (Hamm) comes into town to take her innocence/perform a lobotomy.
    An overwhelmed Browning greeted fans in London's Leicester Square, and was asked why we never get to see what a good dancer Babydoll is.
    "You know, the idea is that the dance takes you into this other world. I meant I think the fights sort of represent her dancing, but also. I meant I think if you saw it, it could never be quite as mesmerizing as what your imagination can make it. You know what I mean? It's kind of like the suitcase in 'Pulp Fiction', you know, it's more mysterious if we don't see it," she said.
    Man of the moment, Snyder tried to explain what his visual, Japanese manga-based concept was all about, what with the different layers of existence, even admitting that the original version seen by the MPAA that had to be toned down because of the even greater link between loss of virginity and the lobotomy.
    "I really want it to have an experience that reminded you of, sort of genre films, even though like you'd never seen it before, and like somehow had like resonance. That was kind of like the, that's why all that crazy stuff," said Snyder.
    Asked how physical it was on set with all the action scenes and intense training, Malone said it was tough, but rewarding.
    "Incredibly physical. I was dead-lifting 235 pounds by the end of it. I mean I was completely ripped. It was kind of incredible. I've never worked as hard in my life, but I've never felt... I felt so rewarded, you know, pushing myself to such limits," she explained.
    Cornish explained how she saw the different worlds, and how that helped her play her character, Sweet Pea.
    "Yeah I mean, I kind of saw the psychiatric ward as reality, and then the burlesque brothel world as through Babydoll's eyes, and then the action world as a dream world, as a fantasy, like the spirit world, and so for me, it was just a matter of kind of looking at my character in a three dimensional way, and letting each world be a different aspect, or a different way of looking at it," she said.
    She also didn't mind the sexy costumes they had to wear, and admitted them were kind of empowering.
    "The costumes kind of became like a second skin. The outfits that we wore in the action worlds, they became like our armour, like our identity. So I actually really enjoyed the costumes and putting them on in the morning. It was kind of like gearing up for battle," said Cornish.
    Hudgens defends her character, Blondie, in the film, even though she gives the girls' plans away to the 'brothel' management:
    "Well, Blondie is, I feel like all the characters represent a certain trait of Babydoll, since it is all her imagination, and Blondie represents the fear, you know, and when you do things out of fear, they're usually not the smartest. For Blondie, unfortunately, it was just bad timing."
    Chung said things got very physical indeed, and there was no room for slacking.
    "You know, they kicked our butts, like there was no excuses. You couldn't get out of the workouts, like you just did your best and you finished, no matter how long that it took, and you know, [it] really built this amazing team camaraderie -- more like a sisterhood, I would call it," she said on the red carpet.
    The actress is also starring in the much anticipated sequel to "The Hangover" and said the guys were great to her, and she reckons this is a better film than the first.
    Snyder also caught up with the star of his new Superman film, "Superman: Man of Steel", Henry Cavill, on the red carpet. Asked what Snyder 'trademarks' we can expect to see in the new film in the series, the director didn't give too much away.
    "I think that, you know, what we want to do is just try and figure out a way to make him [Superman] relevant, make him modern, you know, make him cool. That's our main focus," he told Reuters Television.
    Snyder made his feature film debut with the 2004 remake "Dawn of the Dead". In 2007 he gained widespread acclaim with the box office hit "300", adapted from writer-artist Frank Miller's Dark Horse Comics miniseries of the same name. Snyder direct the 2009 superhero film "Watchmen", another adaptation of the comic book of the same name.
    "Sucker Punch" is the first film Snyder has co-written (with Steve Shibuya) and directed. Snyder's next project is the new Superman film in the series, "Superman: Man of Steel", set to be released in December 2012 in the US, and starring Henry Cavill as Clark Kent/Superman.
    Australian actress Browning's big break came with the 2002 film "Ghost Ship". She replaced Mia Wasikowska in the haunting and erotic fairy tale "Sleeping Beauty", set for released this year.
    Cornish, another Australian actress, recently starred opposite Bradley Cooper in action thriller "Limitless", and is set to play a young Texan mother who loses her child to foster care and begins smuggling Mexicans across the US-Mexican border in "The Girl" (2012).
    Up-and-coming actress Malone begin as a child actress, with her first claim to fame performing in the title role in "Bastard Out of Carolina" (1996). Malone, whose career path has been compared to that of actress/producer/director Jodie Foster who was also a child star, has co-starred twice with Foster in "Contact" (1997), and later in 'The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys" (2002). Malone stars in "The Wait" and "Jack and Diane" in this year, and So Yong Kim's "For Ellen".
    Hudgens is known for her role as Gabriella Montez in the hit TV show and musical film "High School Musical", opposite ex-boyfriend Zac Efron who played teen love interest Troy Bolton in the franchise. Hudgens will also be starring opposite Josh Hutcherson in "Journey 2: The Mysterious Island" this year, a story about Sean Anderson (Hutcherson) who partners with his mom's boyfriend on a mission to find his grandfather, who is allegedly missing on a mythical island.
    Chung will be starring in "The Hangover Part II" as Stu's (Ed Helms) fiancee that sees the lads travel to Bangkok for Stu's wedding. The film co-stars Bradley Cooper, Zach Galifianakis and Justin Bartha.
    "Sucker Punch" was released on March 25 in the US, and hits UK screens on April 1.
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