Robert Stromberg:<\/strong> To be honest with you, as boring as it sounds, nothing. I mean I feel like I\u2019ve been ready to do this for a long time, and it was really a matter of getting the opportunity. I don\u2019t mean it to sound the way it does but, you know, I looked at this film and going into it with excitement not fear. My excitement going in was really about finally [getting] to play with all of the toys, to emotionally attach and work with actors —\u00a0that was really the one thing I was really looking forward to, and then tying that together with the thing I already know which is creating the world, and finally, maybe, working with all the colors, maybe completing a piece of art using all of the elements of making a film. So that was satisfying, for sure.<\/p>\n Question: Did anything about working with Angelina Jolie\u00a0surprise you?<\/strong><\/p>\n Robert Stromberg:<\/strong> No, it was no surprise. She was attached when I became the director. Immediately you look at that and say, visually, \u201cYes, perfect, she\u2019s great, this is ideal,\u201d but it didn\u2019t surprise me. The pleasant thing that I discovered was that she brought this emotional depth to it, and such a deep understanding of what the character should be. And then she brought that to the sort of visual thing and it became all of a sudden this really powerful explosion, it just felt like something special. I didn\u2019t know her at the time, but I know she\u2019s a strong person. And strength is something Maleficent, the character, would need. I also know she works… around the world and has children of her own, so I know there\u2019s a heart there as well. … I mean, the first time I met her I went to her house, and we spent about an hour just talking about life while we watched her kids play in the backyard. …So at that moment I saw the strength and the beauty of what this character\u2019s gonna be and need, but I also saw the heart there as well, and that\u2019s when I knew it was the perfect combination.<\/p>\n Question: What about Elle Fanning — did you choose her?<\/strong><\/p>\n Robert Stromberg:<\/strong> I did. I had seen \u201cSuper 8\u201d and like all of us, you know, I was just infatuated with what I saw. She came in and I loved her immediately because… she sort of defined this bright light, she was what life is, she sort of exuded life itself. And there is this light in the movie, and the contrast of that with this dark character and then the cross-pollination along the way in this film is part of what makes it fun [and] interesting.<\/p>\n Question: Can you tell me a little bit about the blending of CGI and practical effects?<\/strong><\/p>\n Robert Stromberg:<\/strong> You know, well, there are budget reasons —\u00a0there are\u00a0practical reasons that \u201cAlice in Wonderland\u201d costs a certain amount versus \u201cAvatar.\u201d They\u2019re all different prices. But what I\u2019ve learned is to read a script now and to read a scene and immediately know how much of that we should build than not. And it\u2019s all based on what the characters are doing. Because what I\u2019ve found is for very big emotional scenes, you want the actors to feel the strength of the moment in being there, so when it\u2019s all green screen it can sort of get dulled down and you have to explain too much. You can show what\u2019s going to be there but… over time, I guess I\u2019ve learned based on the budget and the script what should be CGI and what should not.<\/p>\n Question: Is there an expanded mythology of all these creatures that are sort of under Maleficent\u2019s control?<\/strong><\/p>\n Robert Stromberg:<\/strong> It\u2019s very hard to invent creatures these days, I\u2019ll put it that way. But I wanted to do a mixture of everything that felt sort of organically based —\u00a0not too [heavy] on animals. But I wanted it to be whole range of things, from things you want to hug to things you\u2019re afraid of.<\/p>\n Question: What sort of stories and books were you read when you were a child?<\/strong><\/p>\n Robert Stromberg:<\/strong> Well, when I grew up my father was a low budget monster moviemaker, so he made classics like \u201cThe Crater Lake Monster,\u201d and there were always creatures around. My dad was a huge fan of Ray Harryhausen, and… one of our neighbors who went on to win several Academy Awards, he and my dad were close friends, his name is Phil Tippett. And so I grew up as a little four-year-old kid, five-year-old kid watching Phil Tippett and my dad make monsters in our garage.<\/p>\n Question: I\u2019m wondering how you settled on the tone for this because as wonderful as the story ultimately turns out to be, you know, there\u2019s pretty dark stuff in a lot of it.<\/strong><\/p>\n Robert Stromberg:<\/strong> Some dark things, yeah. I mean, I think you can argue, though, that\u00a0if you went back and looked at the old classic Disney films … you would find there\u2019s a lot of tragedy there, there\u2019s a lot of darkness in dealing with swords and sorcery and witches and death. You know, look at \u201cBambi.\u201d I mean, there are themes that are dark but it just happens to be a cartoon. You know, we have the tools now to sort of tell the same things in a more photo-real way, which maybe heightens the strength of those things, but they\u2019re the same things. And I think also today\u2019s audiences are probably a bit more used to some more darker things. But basically I wanted to make a movie I could take my, at the time seven-year-old, daughter to see and feel comfortable with that.<\/p>\n
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