Reece Ritchie Interview – Chatting with The Lovely Bones and Prince Of Persia star

After bagging the small but key role of Moha in Roland Emmerich’s 10,000 BC, young British actor Reece Ritchie certainly got notived in Hollywood, snagging key parts in both Peter Jackson’s The Lovely Bones and the recent Prince Of Persia: The Sands Of Time. With The Lovely Bones hitting DVD and Blu-ray on Monday June 28th, we spoke to Reece about kissing Saorise Ronan, becoming Jake Gyllenhaal’s right-hand man and Judi Dench’s mobile phone ring-tone.

So you starred in The Lovely Bones with Mark Wahlberg, are you a big fan?
I’m more of a fan now because he’s a cool guy and yeah we had fun. I mean everyone was really cool to work with.

Did he give you any good advice?
No, actors seem to not give advice unless they asked for it I guess. And its part of the etiquette when working I suppose not to say could you just come over here and tell me how to do this (laughing). We all just left each other to get on with our own things I guess and if we had a question we’d ask Peter [Jackson].

So you shared that onscreen kiss with Saoirse [Ronan], were you nervous about it?
I was really nervous. It wasn’t because of the performance necessarily, it’s just that Saoirse was quite young and I think there’s an assumption , an easy assumption to make, that it would be more nerveracking for her , but actually, being older… being 21…I felt there was quite a weight on me as well. I needed to be graceful and make sure she was as comfortable as possible, obviously im taking about an Oscar nominated young actress so she was probably thinking the same about me. But it’s quite an alien situation to find yourself in isn’t it.

Did she say to you that she was nervous?
She didn’t voice it but obviously she must have been, bless her. Her mum was on set as well, its just little things like that. Peter [Jackson] closed the set so it was quite private if you like. We had a job to do at the end of the day and we got it done.

So if you could chose any female actress who your next onscreen kiss could be with, who would it be?
There was an actress I spotted the other day who I thought was really hot but I can’t remember her name (laughing). You’ve got me on record anyway, so I can’t possibly divulge that (laughing). There are lots of lovely actresses though…

Go on, give us a top five…
Oh god, there are so many. I really like Emily Blunt. I think she’s really cute and an amazing actress as well.  She’s subtle, quirky and different.

So you star alongside Gemma [Arterton] in Prince of Persia. Were your guy mates ringing you up saying “Aww I can’t believe it”?
(Laughter) Ahh, I can’t believe it, you’re working with Gemma. No, none of my mates gave me that really; I think they were more like “aww Jake Gyllenhaal, yeah, the guy from Donnie Darko”. Donnie Darko’s got a massive following, hasn’t it? But I’ve certainly ranted about Gemma since the film, in every positive way I possibly can because she’s lovely.

Reece in Prince Of Persia: The Sands Of Time

And obviously you’re Jake Gyllenhaal’s right-hand man… sort of.
I guess you could call it that, for the moments he’s on the screen

Did you learn much from him?
I learnt a lot from watching actually, yeah. I’ve said this before, he’s very technically aware of everything.  I guess when you’re training as an actor, you just think about how to create the character and how to be believable. But actually, you realise when you start to get on to sets and things, you start to realise that it’s as much about the technicality of filmmaking, as it is about being believable. Camera angles, the edit, the cut, sound, and all the little tricks you pick along the way. So watching him was great because I got to know a few more bits that I didn’t already know which are invaluable really.

Did you guy, you and Jake [Gyllenhaal], all the cast socialise?
All the cast, we all stayed in this brilliant place in Morocco called the Saudi Palace and when we all weren’t working we sat around the pool. I remember Ben Kingsley, he’s quite a private man, sitting by the pool just kind of having his dinner and then you’d look over Alfred Molina would just be buying a beer. It was really cool there was a real sense of community, we had a great time, Toby Kebbell, Richard Coyle we were all together.

Sounds quite close knit…
Yeah, we just had great times we went to the Madina in Morocco. It was amazing in Marrakech and we got the karts around the market and stuff together, it was great. We spent quite a lot of time on it actually.

So obviously in Lovely Bones, the character you play there is very different to the role you play in Prince of Persia, so what’s next? Is there any kind of role you’d like to play next?
I want to keep changing direction, I guess. I don’t want to catch myself doing the same stuff. Unless the story really pulls me in enough, for me to want to be part of telling that story, I don’t want to be caught in a kind of… Certainly this early in my career I want to keep doing different things. In terms of specifics, you know there are a few different things that could happen but I just want to stay stimulated by the work I’m interested in and the work I’m passionate about.

Is there a kind of ideal role? Are we going to see you as the next James Bond, Spiderman that type of character?
Wouldn’t it be cool, be the first brown James Bond, can you imagine? And do you want to hear my James Bond story? We were in notes with Sir Peter Hall, the wonderful 80-year-old theatre god and he was stood there giving us notes, we were doing A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and obviously Judi Dench was there and all the other cast and everything. Halfway through notes someone’s phone rang, which in the theatre, basically on set it’s bad too, but in theatre it’s a cardinal sin. Not only did the phone ring but it was also the (sings James Bond theme tune). Everybody just went bright red, for whoever’s it was we were red for them, because Judi [Dench] was obviously sat there and she’s in all the Bond movies. Then Judi stood up and said “Hello” (Laughs) and answered the phone. So yeah, Judi has the Bond theme tune as her ring tone, which I thought was absolutely hilarious. I thought it was great. I don’t know. It’s a pity that Edward Scissorhands has already been played so brilliant because I think every actor is like “oh, man wouldn’t that be amazing”. I’d love to do the modern day of an Edward Scissorhands, like a similar character to that, like a completely far-out wacky character.

So if Tim Burton did a remake…
No I wouldn’t touch the remake (laughs). Johnny Depp did it perfectly, but something maybe you can’t recognize me in.

What about music wise, you’re a musician. I know Robert Pattinson plans to make an album, what about you?
I play the piano but only for myself really. I play it kind of privately and I am going to get better at it. I’m going to buy myself a nice one so that everything I walk past it, I feel “I’ve got to get better at that” cause I just think it’s the most amazing instrument in the world and I really enjoy playing it. I don’t read music or anything but I get a lot out of it, a lot of enjoyment out of it. I’ve got a friend actually, who emailed me some songs that she played recently which I thought were brilliant. So I’m just going to sit and teach myself to play them.

Any plans to get into music while you’re acting?
No, my sister’s looking after that actually. She’s doing quite well at the moment; she’s an up and coming solo artist. So yeah, watch this space for Rhea Ritchie, plug plug plug.

So obviously since being on the big screen, you’ve probably had a lot of female admirers?
You reckon? (Laughs) You think so? (Laughs)

What’s that like? Do you get stopped in the street?
No, I don’t get stopped in the street. Locally as well people kind of know me anyway because it’s quite a small town I live in so that’s always nice. Just generally the supports been really good supports been really great actually. People have been tremendously supportive. But I don’t get any Tom Jones syndrome yet; you know what I mean, like people throwing underwear at me or anything, nor do I want it really.

What’s the likelihood of you dating a co-star?
Me dating a co-star?!? I don’t know crikey, it’s like me saying are you going to win the lottery… you just don’t know do you.

Well I know some people are totally averse to it.
 I don’t know. It’s not necessarily the fact that they’re a co-star, you fall for the people you fall for don’t you really. Yeah, I don’t know. It’s like saying will you fall for a colleague, you know what I mean, who knows?

Cool, alright mate, thanks.