The Into the Woods Movie

The life of an 'Into the Woods' prince can be pure 'Agony

"I was raised to be charming, not sincere" is certainly a pathetic way to explain one's caddish behavior, but when Chris Pine speaks the line as Cinderella's Prince in the new film adaptation of "Into the Woods," you almost feel sorry for this deep-as-a-bottle-cap guy. "Oh, the poor fella," you think, "no one ever taught him how to care about anyone but himself." The Prince, who has surely not suffered rejection before, then gets dumped.


Well before this highly anticipated adaptation of the 1986 Stephen Sondheim-James Lapine fairy-tale mashup opened on Christmas Day, reviewers noted Pine's performance as a strong point. His voice, especially, has drawn notice, even surprise. We seem not to have realized that the actor, best known for his turns as Captain Kirk in the 2009 "Star Trek" reboot and as the sexy title character in "Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit," could sing.


Pine and Billy Magnussen, who made his mark on Broadway as Spike, the hot, dimwitted boy-toy in Christopher Durang's Chekhovian comedy "Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike," play Cinderella's Prince and Rapunzel's Prince. They've also been praised for a scene they share, their duet "Agony." Frustrated because they can't be with the women they desire, the brothers bemoan their fate very dramatically - climbing on rocks, sloshing around at the base of a waterfall and ripping their shirts open to bare pained, heaving chests to the skies as they try to outdo each other for self-pity. Even in a story that is hardly realistic - it merges well-worn tales with an original one about a baker, his wife and a witch's curse - the number provides the most over-the-top comedy in the film. It also offers a glimpse into some of the challenges of this stage-to-film adaptation.


For starters, a filmmaker needs actors who can sing. The filmmaker in this case was Rob Marshall, who cut his teeth as a choreographer ("Cabaret" on Broadway, among other credits) and went on to direct the film musicals "Chicago" (2002) and "Nine" (2009). Though there are more movie musicals today than when he did "Chicago," Marshall said in a recent telephone interview, "they're still few and far between, so you're not aware of all of the people who can actually sing." As a result, actors, even accomplished ones like Pine, had to audition.

Pine, who has plenty of stage cred - he's performed at the Williamstown Theater Festival and the Mark Taper Forum - said he was nervous about the tryout, having never done a musical.

"I hadn't really auditioned in quite awhile for anything, so I had to get my chops back for that. And then on top of it you have the layer of auditioning musically for the first time for Rob Marshall, whose pedigree speaks for itself," he said.
Clearly, it worked out.
"He sang 'Fly Me to the Moon,' and he was great," Marshall recalled. "I thought, 'You have a real voice.' "
And though Magnussen said that he sings "off-key and out of pitch," he, too, was able to pull it off, perhaps thanks to a bit of luck: "It was one of the only songs I worked on in college, actually, the 'Agony' song," he said. "How funny is that? Me and a dude had to do a duet, and 'Agony' was it."
Two good-looking guys who can carry a tune? Check.
But a big part of what makes "Agony" stand out is surely the location. Not only does it serve the scene well, allowing the men to frolic in water, but it's also "very nice to get out of the woods for once," Sondheim said in a phone interview.

The waterfall may seem like an elaborate set or a long-planned location, but it was neither. Windsor Great Park, about an hour west of London, had been chosen for many of the film's outdoor scenes, partly for ancient stately pine trees that offer a sense of regal grandeur. But Marshall was struggling to visualize "Agony" in this forest. He thought the dueling narcissists needed a more open environment.

Searching for options, he went online and discovered the waterfall in another area of the park and thought it was perfect. "As soon as I saw that waterfall, I saw the whole number," he said. The waterfall even turned out to be artificially made, so the water could be controlled to some extent, making the filming process easier.

Still, the shoot was not without challenges. "Everyone was nervous because they thought they'd be slipping, and the rocks were incredibly slippery," Marshall said. "We had to put some chicken wire on some of the stones that you don't see so they'd have a grip to them."
So, great location? Check.

Lastly, a vital ingredient for good comedy is character, and though the humor in "Agony" is largely based on the narcissism of the princes, the scene won't work if the actors don't give their roles some serious underpinnings. For Magnussen - who sounds more like a surfer than a prince - this meant focusing on royal sibling rivalry: He tried to emulate Pine's prince, while not quite being able to pull it off.

"I really feel like your character is defined by the other characters around you," he said.
Pine also took a serious approach. "I figured out pretty early on that I had a very specific role to play in the structure of the piece," he said. "From the get-go, Rob was, I think, turning me to a volume that was just a bit more exaggerated than real life, tonally just a bit broader than some of the other people in the film."
The relative silliness of his prince helped him work out the physical behavior, he said.
"I wanted it to feel as if he'd been telling the same story over and over and over and over for centuries, so every word he spoke was premeditated and every move he made was premeditated," he said.
In the end, the team felt not only that it pulled together but also that it was a fun scene to create, Marshall said, adding, "I can tell when the crew is laughing or the crew is humming the song after, when you have grips walking around doing 'Agony.' "

 

Photo By Disney 

Billy Magnussen, left, and Chris Pine performed the "Agony" scene of "Into the Woods" on a real waterfall. The film crew had to lay down chicken wire on some stones so the actors didn't slip while performing. 

 Cinderella is played by Anna Kendrick and Chris Pine is Prince Charming in the new movie, "Into the Woods."

  

This photo released by Disney Enterprises, Inc. shows Meryl Streep as the Witch in a scene from the film, “Into the Woods." The movie opened in theaters Dec. 25, 2014.