In a time of enchantments when legends and magic collide, the sole remaining warrior of a mystical order (Jeff Bridges) travels to find a prophesized hero born with incredible powers, the last Seventh Son (Ben Barnes). 

Torn from his quiet life as a farmhand, the unlikely young hero embarks on a daring adventure with his battle-hardened mentor to vanquish a dark queen (Julianne Moore) and the army of supernatural assassins she has dispatched against their kingdom. Read what “Seventh Son” stars Julianne Moore, Jeff Bridges and Ben Barnes had to say about their latest film out this Friday.

 

This film talks a lot about destiny and fate, how much has this played a role in your life

Julianne Moore: I don’t know that’s a tough one. I do believe in desire and luck. I remember when I was ten years old I said I was going to have two children, a boy and a girl, I lined up my dolls and stuff like that . You know, I had this idea that I was going to have a little boy and a little girl, and I would always say look what I got that I wished for. So I had this desire for something that I wanted and I got, but was lucky that it happened, in a way I could reframe it now and say that it was destiny. Sometimes I think a lot of what we want is sometimes that in retrospect.

Ben Barnes:  I think it’s discomforting to think about the idea living life with everything fated, not having that freedom of choice or freedom of will, that’s kind of an unsettling thought to me, but it’s also unsettling to think of a life that the way you behave and treat other people doesn’t come back around and earn you something  in return which you could certainly put in the category of something other than just chaos. So I think there’s an interesting balance with the question that effects every element of your life  so I think it’s an interesting theme to be exploring .

Jeff Bridges: As the duke master this just my opinion (chuckles) . You got the universe right? And black holes and the whole deal, all that stuff that we don’t know about and we’re all here … Destiny I guess and fate is that here we are and this comes out of all the big bang, it happened, and it resulted in this happening and here we are with all our challenges and all our dilemmas are fate and are lessons that teach us.

Another element of the film is that in your case (Jeff Bridges) and Julianne’s case is that you’re kind of the mentors, the uber directors of your minions and your protégé. Can you talk about taking on this role as mentor or a leader and what you do to manage that role in the film, and do you feel that way in life in general? How was it like having Jeff be your mentor in the film (Ben Barnes)?

Ben Barnes: Well I can’t give the answer that I normally give because he’s sitting right next to me, but Jeff is the reason I wanted to do the film in the first place, that’s not news to him, but I think he was unbelievably generous … that was the day we filmed Urad with the bear. There was a lot of set up time, and we were just sitting there and Jeff was like “you’re my apprentice in the movie, you should be my apprentice in real life, let’s talk about acting. I’ve been so lucky in my life to work with actors who have been my heroes before we started. Jeff was actually the first one to say let’s talk about acting  because no one wants to do it . There’s like this magical secret we can’t really talk about how, why and what we do and why we tell stories the way that we do . Some mystical secret to the world of acting is not just dressing up and playing make believe but Jeff’s the first person to talk me through approaching scenes and stuff like that.

Jeff Bridges: I remember my father and my brother, they count as mentors,  my mom too she gave me some wonderful acting tips, and I was saying to Julie or rather she said to me and I agreed is that the ages you get to work with actors, there’s so many different ages. I found some of my best mentors in animals, dogs, and children; babies. I remember the kid in Crazy Heart was so wonderful to see how he did these things and how he wasn’t result oriented. I could remember from the second film I did called “The Yin and the Yang of Mr. Go,” it was Burgess Meredith directed and written. James Mason played a Chinese Mexican, and I remember James Mason being in awe of him as an actor and there he was taking him under his wing in a very purposeful way.

Julianne Moore: We were talking about this earlier, and one of the great things that happened to me when I became an actor would be when I’m working with someone or people who were my age, who were my parents age, people who were my grandparents age. When I work with someone who is underage like a child I feel very responsible and very maternal, but one of the things that is interesting for me when I work with actors underage is they taught me and treated me as a peer, so that is something that I endeavor to do when I work with people because I remember that feeling of all those years melting away and it’s very exciting.

What were the physical challenges of the roles you played and the costumes that made you feel part of this world?

Julianne Moore: Our costumes were tremendous, not only did I have a tail, I had this bone thing and a spine feathers, extra hair, contact lenses, special makeup big shoes, it was the most daunting part for me … and being able to carry it off … To have that kind of support with the costumes, beautiful sets, that whole classical world they created gave us and allowed us to step into that world very easily.

Jeff Bridges: That’s one of the wonderful things about  making movies is the collaboration of these artists and you get people like Jacqueline West who is focused on how your guy looks and all of that information comes to you. For me that’s really instrumental  in understanding the character you’re going to play . All my high expectations were transcendent.