Narnia's Reepicheep

Comedian Eddie Izzard talks to NG Kids about being the voice behind Reepicheep in The Chronicles Of Narnia: Prince Caspian film

National Geographic Kids: When you were a youngster were you a fan of The Chronicles Of Narnia novels?
Eddie Izzard: Yes I was and I read them all and I didn't really read many things as a kid. The Narnia ones I really got into… I really did like them and I read every single one of them.

NGK: What was it about the Narnia stories that gripped you?
EI: It was the wish fulfilment, you go off and you become adults. You see the these kids get swords and horses and fight battles. Kids want to get these powers and you are hungry for it when you are 10, 11 or 12. So it was that and the imagination … that in The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe in the back of a wardrobe there is a door to another world – that is just amazing! I liked The Magician's Nephew as well…you put on a ring and you go to another place. A magic ring – wow! They just really grabbed me.

NGK: So it was an easy choice for you when you were offered the role of Reepicheep in Prince Caspian?
EI: I didn't see myself as Reepicheep but then I thought that it may be fun to do this and re-looking at Reepicheep I realised that he has always been recorded in a high, slightly camp voice because of this overt language that he uses and his chivalrous nature – but he is a murderous little so-and-so of a mouse.

NGK: So you see Reepicheep as a fierce and feisty character?
EI: Well he is, he murders everyone! He is a murderous and murdering mouse. The chivalry is something that he has grown up with but his entire mouse family and relatives were wiped out by the Telmarines, so Reepicheep just wreaks revenge. He just goes round sticking his tiny sword in places that's going to do the most damage.

NGK: Did you ask Andrew Adamson why he saw you as the voice of a mouse?
EI: I don't think the mouse thing really comes into it. He had considered me for a part in the previous film and then it swung round again and this came up. It was one of the last roles to cast and he had difficulty doing it. I wanted to give the mouse this edge but it is difficult because his language is so verbose and courtly that it almost trips you up.

NGK: How did you record the voice?
EI: I was always on my own. It is more difficult because you lose a whole sense of playing off the other person. You have to warm up a bit and not come from a standing start. You have to get into the mood. I would start unloading things from my pockets and take clothes off and sometimes I even take my shoes off to try and pull the film to me because I would be standing in this very strange room with microphones and stuff.

NGK: Did you start developing rodent-like characteristics as you acted out the voice?
EI: I don't think that channelling a mouse was what I wanted to do. It was his character I wanted to get to as opposed to his species. He is feisty and energetic and always looking for a fight. He obviously has some huge chip on his shoulder.

The Chronicles Of Narnia: Prince Caspian is out in DVD on 17 November
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