“Yeah, sometimes we would do it off the cuff,” says Carter.

The director also encouraged his cast to improvise some of their dialogue when a sequence would allow for flexibility. And that’s comforting, especially because he has lots of experience in comedy.” He had a real grace and was marshalling up the forces well. “And he’s very enthusiastic about what he does, and there’s a perfectionist quality about him.

“He’s such a gentleman,” Carter says of Bobin. He also directed The Muppets and Muppets Most Wanted films. Leading the way on the director front is James Bobin who replaces Carter’s former significant other Tim Burton who is listed as a producer on Alice Through the Looking Glass.īobin, of course, worked as a writer and director with Cohen on Da Ali G Show, and co-created Flight of the Conchords with Bret McKenzie and Germaine Clement. “It’s always great to work with people at the top of their game because you are only as good as the people that surround you.” “You also get to find out why the Red Queen is such a bully,” Carter says.Īnother plus was the reunion with the distinctive cast. New is Sacha Baron Cohen’s Time, a half-clock, half-human entity that allows for some nifty time travel, and a few explanations defining the fantasy world situations and circumstances. So are Johnny Depp’s Mad Hatter, Anne Hathaway’s White Queen and Matt Lucas as Tweedledee and Tweedledum. “And so much of the film is the explanation of why she has such a a big head.”īack for another trip is Mia Wasikowska’s Alice.

“I could show a progression and explain how the Red Queen survives an exile,” says Carter. Returning to play Red Queen was an easy decision for many reasons but especially the attraction of a revamped story based on Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking Glass. She portrayed Elizabeth Taylor in the TV biopic Burton and Taylor and the British actress had fun with the Fairy Godmother role in Cinderella, among other performances. Certainly, Harry Potter film fans remember she played witch Bellatrix Lestrange in the popular franchise.

Who plays the red queen