Can you tell me who or what Maleficent is? Who is she?

She is a- I think she was described in the original book as an ugly fairy.

That's not really you though.

Well thank you.

So you had to ugly yourself up?

She's a little- She's not pretty. She's something. Yeah, she's somebody who, in our story, she

was born to quite an- She's quite on fire and aggressive about defending her land but

all for good reasons. She kind of had a lot of good in her and she faces abuse and she

turns and she becomes Maleficent as we know her.

She's scary but she's also quite alluring as well. So, I don't know how much of that

you wanted to come across. I know you had quite a hand in the costume. You were quite

passionate about the way she looked. So were the horns and things your idea?

Well the horns are from the original. So much of her was just from the original and I think

we just wanted to make sure- My big note to wardrobe and costume was to not basically

turn her into somebody else and to give her new costumes. And we found these great men.

We went online and found great leather-workers and people you did these more elegant fetish

clothes and brought them in so they could play with her.

That was the first and last time you went to those kind of websites, as well I'm sure.

Well, for ten years maybe.

Now, the accent. You've done English accents before but this one is very, very Downton

Abbey and quite wonderful.

Oh, thank you.

Now, how much of that did you do when you were, like ordering pizza. 'I'll have a meatball

marinara' at Subway.

I studied great English theatre actresses and I just listened to the way they just enjoy

words so much. The American voice is so flat and we don't really, we don't really enjoy

language and so it was nice to have an accent for her that just indulges in everything she

says and the way she says it as well.

Absolutely. Did you try to get into English traditions? I'm talking about Earl Grey tea

or Radio 4's Today program or Midsommer Murders. Have you seen that show?

- Or Johnathan Creek? - No. No, should I?

I think you should. I think you'd like British TV, yeah. It's funny.

- I like BBC. - It's idiosyncratic and stuff.

When you're making a big Epic like this and there's lots of special effects, I was asking

Elle, do you cringe a tiny bit when you're trying to act all epic when you're surrounded

by just a green screen in the background. Becasue it just feels very mechanical-

I think one of the funniest things for me was that I couldn't see my magic. So you kind of

do this but you don't know what you're doing because you don't know what's coming

out of your hands and they could put, like, little rabbits if they wanted to, so you don't

know. So that was weird, because you have no idea what's-

And it's silent, as well, isn't it?

It's silent and it's empty and you're whirling around a bunch of green something or, well,

nothing really. You're playing with nothing.

And, of course, your daughter Vivienne's in it as well. Spectacular. Do you think she'll

get a bit diva-y in her next movie? Do you think she'll want a trailer and-

Yeah, I think she was heading in that direction.

Did all your family come down and support you?

-Was it quite nice to see mummy and daughter? -Yeah, yeah, they were there.

Well they're there on set basically everyday anyway, so. They home school so they're there

when I'm working and they have fun. But they find her very funny. Her siblings have seen

it and they think she's the funniest thing in the film.