British teen Will Foster plays the young Prince Dastan. He won the role because of his amazing talent for Parkour – the daredevil sport that involves jumping off things. He talks to First News about his first film role.

 

Tell us a bit about your role in Prince of Persia.

I am a street urchin, who becomes Prince Dastan. Before he is a prince my character is an orphan and when you see him he is running away from Persian guards.

 

How did you get involved in the film?

My friend sent me a link that said the Prince of Persia agency was looking for someone who does Parkour. So I sent them over my video and they sent me an email back saying they would like to meet me. I’d never done any acting before, just Parkour.

 

When did you start getting into Parkour?

I started when I was about ten. One of my maths teachers brought in a Parkour DVD and showed it to us in class and ever since then, everyone who was in that class just loved it. You don’t go out trying to do roof jumps straight away, you just build it up, so you start off with some little jumps. Mum said at first that I couldn’t go out and jump off buildings, but eventually I got her to let me.

And now you’re doing it in a movie. How did you feel when you got the part?

 

I was really happy when I found out because I knew loads of the people who had gone for the part as well, because I met them when I went for the audition in London, so it felt quite good to get it.

How much of the jumping and the stunts in the film do you actually do?

 

Most of it is me. I’d say 90% was me. Some of the stuff the director didn’t want me to because of health and safety, so I had a stunt man to do some of the stuff.

 

What was it like filming somewhere so hot and dusty?

 

It was really hard because it was so hot. But every time they called cut and filming stopped, they would run over with fans and water. It was really good. Morocco was so nice so we did some travelling. Me, my mum and my friend camped out in the Sahara desert. It was really good and we saw a shooting star.

 

What surprised you most about being on a film set?

 

I thought there would be about one camera and a cameraman standing behind it, telling you what to do, but there were hundreds of people there. Catering and everything: someone for everything.

 

Did you study while you were on set?

 

Yes. Because I had about three weeks off school I had to have a tutor and you do just as much work as you would at school. Once you’ve got your adrenaline pumping from doing a jump, they turn around and say that you’ve got to go to your tutoring. It’s like: “Oh, no!” and then you have to start all over again.

 

What was it like watching yourself?

 

It was a bit weird. I wasn’t sure what to make of it. I don’t know, it was just weird seeing myself in the cinema.

 

Have you caught the acting bug?

 

I’d love to do more acting, if I could. I don’t know if the opportunity will come, so I’m just going to see how it goes.

 

Hollywood star Jake Gyllenhaal takes on his first action role playing the grown -up Prince Dastan. Adam Tanswell caught up with him to find out more.

 

How did you enjoy being a full-on action hero?

 

It’s great fun making an action movie. Particularly making something so big where you’re outdoors every day doing great acting with a great director and then jumping around all over buildings. It’s great fun.

 

What made you want to get involved in this film?

 

On a personal front, it was just so unlikely and so unlike anything I’d ever played really, and any type of movie that I think anyone would expect, that I just kind of wanted to do it. And it wasn’t just like your normal video game adaptation. It was an actual massive epic with a real classic story that was emotional and real and filled with just ridiculous turns and twists, I mean, all over the place. Every day, when we work, is filled with keeping in mind where you were and how you got there and what’s happening here and who fooled whom. That makes it intriguing to me, just on a story point.

 

How did you find preparing for a character that is basically a video game?

 

It was fun. I’ve never played video games as research before, so it was different. I’ve read books for research or I’ve hung out with marines for research, but playing a video game is great fun for research.

 

What else did you do to prepare for the role?

 

I had to do a lot of training for the role. I worked out a lot and then I had to listen to a lot of experts. Every day, I’d be horseback riding, Parkour training, gymnastics, sword fighting and all that good stuff.

 

Tell us a bit about your role – without giving too much away!

 

I’m running away from family and I’m running away from bad guys and I’m trying to prove my innocence. There are so many extraordinary elements throughout the movie.

 

The film really is action-packed. What stunts were you allowed to perform?

 

It got a little bit dicey towards the end because everybody saw that I liked doing stunts that were a little bit dangerous, so we definitely pushed it a little bit. There is one fight towards the middle of the movie where my screen brother has an axe and there were a few times where the axe came so close to my face that I almost got cut. Some of the jumps got pretty intense, too. There is a big ten-metre jump I did that got a little hairy a couple of times.

 

What has been the most fun part of making a movie like this?

 

I think that you play like this when you’re a kid. I remember specifically many times I would go outside and be like: “I play him and you play him and let’s fight!” And we were just doing that every day. So that is the best part of it for me because I’ve never done a lot of fighting – sword fighting, hand-on-hand, any type of combat. More than that, what is really fun is being able to get humour and performance in the middle of it all, which I find so difficult. I actually enjoy the heat, so I did enjoy that and I think Morocco was unreal.

 

Did you work with a dialect coach to get your English accent?

 

Yes, I did. I worked with a wonderful dialect coach called Barbara. The entire cast of Prince Of Persia is British, so I was always around the accent on the set. We had a pretty international crew but there were a lot of Brits there, so I was surrounded by it all the time. In fact, I would move in and out of different regions sometimes.

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time is in cinemas now.