Millie Bobby Brown: I’m Millie Bobby Brown.
Robin Wright: I’m Robin Wright.
Juan Carlos Fresnadillo: And I’m Juan Carlos Fresnadillo, director of ‘Damsel.’ Here are some things that you might’ve missed in the movie.
Brown: I have claustrophobia. [laughs] That’s the first thing JC was like, “OK. What are you afraid of?” And I was kind of like, “Is this a... like, a loaded question? Like, the... is he gonna use this against me at some point?”
Fresnadillo: [laughs]
Wright: Oh.
Fresnadillo: I did it, I did it.
Brown: Yeah. [laughs] Look at him smiling through it. There was a cave that was probably the size of, like... the only way I can describe it is like an air-conditioning vent. Like, it was that tight.
Wright: Oh, ooh.
Brown: It was... it barely fit my body in it, it was long, but it was very narrow. I went onto set, I saw it, and I said, “I can’t do it.” And you stopped. We left. And then, a week later, we came back. And they were like, “We changed it. We made it better.”
Fresnadillo: [laughs]
Brown: He stood on the other side of the opening and talked to me and was, like —
Wright: Oh.
Brown: “I’m here, Millie. I’m here,” and, like, that helped me so much because I didn’t feel alone in there. And, uh, just having him, like, right when we said, “Cut,” he, like, grabbed my hand in the opening. And, I just felt like, “OK, I’m not stuck. He can pull me out if I need it.” Um, and I remember that being, like, the biggest phobia that I’d ever really overcome. And, and it was... it was very, very moving.
Wright: That was your therapy. I think you broke through.
Brown: It was exposure therapy.
Wright: Totally, yup. It’s done.
Brown: I broke through because of this man right here.
Wright: Yeah.
Fresnadillo: I really liked the idea of connecting the dragon and the queen of this kingdom, so that’s why we decided to use the crown as a kind of signature for that connection. You can see that the spikes of the crown, uh, are kind of mimicking the spikes that the dragon has on — on its head. It’s kind of a visual connection for the two of them. In order to say to the audience that, “Who is the real ruler of this kingdom?”
Wright: The crown weighs, I think, about as much as a Range Rover. Don’t you think?
Fresnadillo: [laughs]
Wright: We had indentations on our forehead for about a month after.
Brown: So we had to put, like, pillows under on them so that they wouldn’t mark our heads.
Wright: The beast left its lair and set upon the village.
Fresnadillo: The number 3 is all over the — the story.
Wright: The three princesses met their end in the belly of the beast.
Fresnadillo: The whole mythology of this movie starts with three princesses sacrificed in the ancient times. We played three horns when the boat is arriving to the area, three bells when the queen is meeting Lady Bayford in the courtyard scene. It’s kind of like a... like a leitmotif in order to remind where this story comes from.
Brown: What I think is so special about JC is that he knows the craziest details of the film. His intention behind everything that, um... those small details, they... if they do get unnoticed, the second time or the third time you watch the film, you see it back.
Wright: Everything was, like, uh, “Th — there’s a metaphor for this.” I was like, “Yes, there is.”
Fresnadillo: [laughs]
Wright: They’re endless.
Brown: Yeah.
Fresnadillo: The first time that you met her, you say, “Arise, Elodie.”
Wright: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. I remember.
Fresnadillo: And then we see you, and you’re looking straight to the camera. Then we show your face as a queen, as a royal presence, which is magnificent. But then the second time is in the sacrifice, that we discover your second face, which is a little bit more esoteric. Both times, you’re looking straight to the camera, which I think —
Brown: Which is my point of view.
Fresnadillo: Exactly. And then, in some ways, you are sensing that this woman isn’t right.
Brown: Isn’t right.
Fresnadillo: And she has, like, two faces.
Brown: The shots that JC and the camera crew created, it makes you feel so uneasy the whole time. Even just as simple as Robin looking down the lens, I think that makes you feel uncomfortable.
Wright: I was just looking at the poster, the — the logline, which is, “This is not a fairy tale.” He turned it on its head, gave it a little twist, and modernized it, I feel, for this very reason.
Brown: To learn more things you might have missed in ‘Damsel,’ go to Tudum.com.
All: Tudum!
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