Child stars of new Narnia film unveiled

The four child stars of the new Narnia film were unveiled today.

The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe is set to rival Harry Potter at the box office this Christmas.

Adapted from the classic tale by CS Lewis, the big budget movie features Tilda Swinton as the White Witch and Liam Neeson as the voice of Aslan the lion.

The four youngsters play the Pevensie children, who discover a wardrobe which is a gateway to the snow-bound land of Narnia.

The two Pevensie boys are played by William Moseley, 18, from Gloucestershire, and Skandar Keynes, 14, from London.

Skandar, who counts Charles Darwin amongst his ancestors, attends the same school as Harry Potter star Daniel Radcliffe.

Youngest of the four is Georgie Henley, 10, who makes her professional acting debut in the film as Lucy.

She was discovered by a casting director in her home town of Ilkley, West Yorkshire, and was chosen from 2,000 hopefuls.

“This is my first movie so it’s quite overwhelming for me, but it’s amazing,” she said.

“I’m not really a child actor but I would love to do it when I’m older.”

Despite her age, Georgie is taking to the movie star life like a duck to water.

“I don’t want to sound selfish or anything, but I kind of like being in the spotlight. It’s nice to be noticed,” she said after posing for her first photo call in Leicester Square.

“I got to go to New Zealand and the Czech Republic and London to make the movie, and there’s still Los Angeles and New York to come.

“But I kind of have a balance. I can always go back up to Yorkshire and be my old self. You don’t get any of this glamour up there.”

At 16, Anna Popplewell is already a screen veteran.

The Londoner has appeared in the BBC costume dramas Love in a Cold Climate and Daniel Deronda, and played Colin Firth’s daughter in Girl with a Pearl Earring.

She said: “We actually did a lot of our snow scenes in a studio in New Zealand.

“It was pretty weird pretending to be freezing in these huge coats while we were in a boiling hot studio.”

Anna, the daughter of a barrister father and doctor mother, is not the only acting talent in the family.

Her sister Lulu appeared in Love Actually and her brother Freddie was in the recent Peter Pan film.