A CNN interview with Marc Forster, “The Magic of Neverland,” contains a charming story about Luke Spill, the actor who portrays Michael, the youngest of the Llewelyn Davies boys. After a long day of shooting, Forster struggled for a way to tell the boy that they still had more takes to shoot. CNN reports that “Luke looked up at him and said, ‘I just can’t do it any better,’ to which Forster, feeling bad for the young actor, explained that it wasn’t him but Depp who required another take.” Luke marched over to Johnny and said, “Can you do it right next time, Johnny?”

TIME Magazine (November 29th issue) has a brief Q&A with Freddie Highmore, who plays Peter in FINDING NEVERLAND and Charlie in the currently-shooting CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY. Asked if it was “difficult” to show so much raw emotion, Freddie replied, “It was really tough doing the funeral scene because it was right under a flight path, so we’d have to stop everything halfway through and then start up again. But with the other scenes, you just think that your mom’s dead and your dad’s dead, and it’s really upsetting.”

The twelve-year-old is enjoying filming CATCF, and finds Charlie Bucket a “more lighthearted” character than Peter Llewelyn Davies: “Peter is really a quite unhappy, sad child.” Asked how he heard about the CATCF role, Highmore replied, “I heard the role was coming up, so I read the book again and went along to the auditions. And then I got the part, which was a dream come true because I was quite sad when I left FINDING NEVERLAND because I thought I’d never see Johnny again.”

Thanks to Emma for posting the TIME interview and DeepinDepp for the CNN story on Luke Spill. There are many more FINDING NEVERLAND articles and reviews on the News and Views forum . . . .