Actor Interviews, Disney Movies

How Did Mia Wasikowska Get the Role of Alice in “Alice in Wonderland”?

“Alice in Wonderland” is going to be one of Disney’s biggest, if not THE biggest, film of the year. The movie is coming to theaters on March 5th and Movie Hole sat down with Mia Wasikowska, who plays Alice, to talk about how she landed the role and what it was like working with Johnny Depp.

And how was it working with Johnny?

He was great. He’s a lovely person – and he instantly makes you feel very comfortable. He’s also a very generous actor. And you can totally believe him as The Mad Hatter – the role is tailor made for him!

And in terms of researching your role as Alice, did you back to the original Disney film or…?

Mainly just the books. I like to use Alice from the books as the backbone. That was the framework for which we sort of built our own Alice – though obviously she’s a lot older in our story. But yeah, in terms of research, really it was just reading the books and finding as much material on the character as I could find, and also finding visual references from Alice’s world.

How did you get involved in the film?

I sent over a video audition in February of 2008. I then ended up doing another four auditions with Tim in June. It was a long process of auditioning – but it was worth it!

So Tim pretty much just had you reading lines and seeing if you were a fit?

Yeah, typical audition situation – they give you 2 scenes for the audition, and you go from there.

Did you have to audition with any of the other actors though?

No. The first time I actually met my co-stars was on set.

You can read the full interview here.