Nonso Anozie Interview: Artemis Fowl

Screen Rant visits the set of Artemis Fowl and speaks to Nonso Anozie about playing Artemis’ right hand man, Butler, in Disney’s upcoming adaptation.

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Disney’s adaptation of Artemis Fowl debuts this week on Disney+, and in it, Nonso Anozie (Game of Thrones) plays Artemis’ right hand man and guardian, Domovoi Butler. Originally scheduled to release in theaters, the movie is now going exclusively to the streaming platform. An adaption of Eoin Colfer’s novel of the same name, Artemis Fowl sees its 12-year-old, genius protagonist wage war against fairies living underground all while unraveling the mystery of his father’s disappearance. Along with Anozie, the Kenneth Branagh-directed film also stars Ferdia Shaw as Artemis, Lara McDonnell as Holly Short, Josh Gad as Mulch Diggums, Judi Dench as Commander Root, and Colin Farrell as Artemis’ father, Artemis Fowl Sr.

In the role of Butler, Anozie sports a dramatic look of bright white hair and pale blue eyes. His casting is a departure from how the character is physically described in the Artemis Fowl books, but he remains a stalwart ally of the young Artemis. Part servant, part bodyguard, the Butler family has worked for the Fowls for generations, and each is trained in a variety of weapons and martial arts. Following the elder Fowl’s disappearance, Butler helps Artemis in his search, aiding his young charge in anyway he can as they fend off the fairies who come to lay siege to Fowl Manor.

In early 2018, Screen Rant had the opportunity to visit the U.K. set of Artemis Fowl, during which we took part in an interview with Anozie. The actor discussed re-teaming with Branagh, developing his character’s onscreen relationship with Artemis, and the craziest thing he’s ever done for a movie.

Both Josh Gad and Kenneth Branagh talked about working with the new kids kind on the block here. You presumably spend a lot of time with them. How is that working relationship with Ferdia been?

It’s great, you know, I think the kids that we have Tamara and Ferdia, and Laura, they’re all so, they’re really bright. And really, they bring a different energy to the set that, you know, adults have long since forgotten about and I think that makes every day kind of exciting. And that you sometimes forget that you’re not working with adults, they’re so intelligent and so–they think about things in a different way. Ferdia’s done so little before that he’s learning as he goes and it’s really interesting to see the choices that he makes and how he’s exploring the character. And Tamara, who plays my niece, is so bright it’s unbelievable. And Laura as well with her musical theater experience that she brings that kind of almost a classical training to the work, and at such a young age it’s really interesting to see.

Can you explain your character’s relationship to Artemis and how they interact with each other?

Okay, well, I play Domovoi Butler who, whose family has worked alongside the Fowl family for generations. He’s in charge of their security, their well being, general running of the household. And Butler’s relationship to Artemis is that of, I wouldn’t say a father figure but an authoritative keeper or guardian, I would say, someone who looks after him. They can have a joke but after, but when it’s time to be serious, it’s time to be serious. And now that, I don’t know if you know the stories, in the beginning, we find out that his father has gone missing. And things get pretty serious from the outset, so it’s time to buckle down. But because Artemis is such a genius and he’s studied so many different, you know, we both speak different languages and have similar IQ level, we’re quite intelligent. So I think it’s, there are little quips and jokes that we can make that, that shows the relationship.

It’s quite a close relationship. I think he, Butler sees Artemis as someone who he loves as well as someone who has to protect constantly. It’s been the Butlers’ job for generations. As you can see, probably, I don’t know if you’ve looked inside the house, but you can see portraits of all the generations of Fowls and Butlers.

What kind of accent does Butler have?

Butler’s accent is kind of similar to mine. So it’s very RP, quite English as opposed to everyone else who’s quite Irish. But yeah, we made that decision. I think the look is so different that also to speak, maybe, I think, in an Irish accent I thought was taking it even maybe too extreme. But I think the shock of the look of Butler, which is from a kind of a recessive gene that is passed on to his family. Similar to albinos or Vitiligo, where some people lack a certain amount of melanin in different areas of their body.

How familiar are you with the literary source, have you read all the books?

I haven’t read all of them, I’ve read the first one and there are a few changes from the book to the film. But I think what they, what we’ve grasped is it starts an adventure right from the beginning. And I think right from the start it really, really moves fast. And, you know, you have times to breathe but I think it’s gonna be something that could really, really grabs the audience and makes you move right from the beginning. And you know, don’t let you go until the end.

I think there’s so much to explore. We’ve already been to Ho Chi Minh in Vietnam, to film action sequences that with the fairy, with an old fairy in Vietnam. Kenneth Branagh is really keen on keeping the energy going throughout the film. So you might film a sequence where you’re in the morning, where it’s a scene where you’re quiet, you’re talking quite softly. It’s uh, it’s, you know, the energy is quite low. And then if you’re filming part of a sequence where everybody’s running and everything, he’s very good at getting everybody teed up to that level, so it plays in sync with the rest of the film.

You worked with Ken on Cinderella and are re-teaming for this. Can you talk about how it’s different from doing like a fairy tale to a fantasy?

Oh, well. You know, I think working with Ken is just working with Ken. I’ve really enjoyed, I really enjoy–I first worked with Ken in 2003 in play called Edmund at the National Theatre. And he said to me, ‘Whenever I’m doing anything, I’m going to consider you for anything that you’re right for,’ and I was like, ‘Okay.’ And then a few years later, Jack Ryan happens and then Cinderella and now this, and I think, whatever you’re working on with Kenneth Branagh, I think, is, it’s gonna be hard work because he won’t, he won’t stop shooting something until he gets it exactly how he wants it.

I think he’s very clear, he will have a very clear idea of the way he wants the style of the piece to come out. How, you know, if you’re, if you’re pushing outside of the barrier of where he thinks it should be, he would prefer you to go bigger and come back rather than not get it at all. So if it’s this, you know, like in Cinderella, I wouldn’t, you know, it was surrealistic. I think there’s more naturalism in this. Even though we’re in the world of fairies, I think, it’s a more naturalistic style of acting.

How much of the stunts are you actually doing?

Well, I have a stunt double. And I do part, kind of like–there’s a stunt where I get catapulted, well shot out the window. And I’ve done the first bit where I’m just about to hit the window and the bit when I land, but then my stunt double is going to go through the window, you know what I mean? It’s not me, you know, I get paid to act.

Who is your stunt double?

Tom, I don’t know if you’ve seen him on set, he’s quite similar, similar height, build. And I think when you do see him, it’s pretty much a flash. I did a little stunt this morning getting pushed over by the troll. I did that bit. But, you know, I don’t think I should go through a window.

What about the fight scenes, do you train for those?

Yes, yes, we trained for quite a long period. I’m doing a lot of physical training, fitness training. We trained for about a month and a half before we started shooting. I don’t know if you saw a kendo fight, if you’ve seen any of that. But there’s a kendo fight with Julia Butler and I training at the beginning because it’s very much a tradition that we pass down to the next generation. And she’s going to be the next Butler, so I’m training her in self defense and the arts, martial arts. So we had to train for that for what seemed like millennia, to shoot something that only lasts 16 seconds, you know? But that, that’s the level of dedication everybody’s putting into this.

I mean you can see from the house that they built, I don’t know, in less than four or five months and, and just the attention to detail about everything. I think the production design, the costume design are all fantastic, on top of their game, make up and a hair. But then Ken also puts extra pressure on everything because he has such an eye with it. Even down to like the suit that I wear. Like, he doesn’t want, he didn’t want any buttons on it, he didn’t want any–he wanted it to be crease-less. He didn’t want it to have any creases on them. So the tie has to be done in a specific way and the shirt had to be done a specific way. There’s so many little things that you probably won’t notice straightaway. But because he’s so specific with what he wants. And I think it all adds to the final outcome.

No buttons?

There’s no buttons, yeah.

How do you put it on?

It’s kind of a leotard, it’s a leotard, yeah. It goes all the way round. It makes it difficult to go to the toilet.

Obviously you have the books and the script to reference, but when you’re on set, how do you sort of form that chemistry between Butler and Artemis? Especially when you’re working with an actor so young.

Well, I think it’s so easy. I think a lot of the time it’s about the time you spend off screen. And I think I–we always talk about things that he likes to do because he’s very much into Dungeons and Dragons. I was very much into Dungeons and Dragons when I was a kid and, and things like that. And we kind of talk about what he’s done over the weekend. And we’ve got an actual, we actually talk, you know? We actually have relationship off set in terms of the things that we’re interested in. So I think that helps in turn, especially when you’re working with someone so young to have that trust on screen. So when you, you know, when it comes to he might be, you know, mad energy and not really concentrating, I can kind of just say, ‘Hey, come on, let’s get back into it.’ And it’s another helping hand to focus everything.

If this is, you know, the next big franchise, does that bring a pressure on the cast?

Um, I don’t know. I’ve talked to everybody here about it. I’ve talked to Laura and Ferdia about what they thought, you know. ‘You guys, this could be the next thing.’ And they don’t really think about it. They don’t really, we’re just having fun. And you can see they’re really having fun every day. When, I think, it was a couple of weeks ago, we wrapped, we had wrapped on–we thought we were going to be working till the end of the day, but they weren’t gonna need us, they would use our doubles. And they were so depressed at the fact that they weren’t going to be on set because they just love being here every day, which is just, you know, amazing. And I think that’s what they’re focusing on.

I think it’s going to be a big deal because they’re gonna have to talk to you guys and talk to–a lot of people are going to know their faces. I think they’re going to get used to that. To me personally, I feel like it’s my job, it’s part of what I do and, you know, I’ve been part of a few franchises, you know, productions. And I think that part of it just comes part and parcel. I’m a bit long in the tooth compared to them, and I’ve worked on, you know. I’m quite private anyway, I like to do my work and go home.

Was the stuff in Vietnam the first shooting you did?

That was yes, yes. It was the first bit of shooting, it was kind of pre-shooting. So we officially started shooting when we got back. But um, that was hectic. I don’t know if it was the time of year because it was summertime. It was really hot. And there was a kind of smog. So it was, it was really polluted at the time. So that was hard to deal with, but it was a real kind of guerilla style filming, grabbing shots where we could, running down, you know, busy market streets. And they’re not extras. Those are real market streets. People would be looking at, you know, at the camera and then you’d have to start again.

And then we did a scene where I’m riding on a moped through genuine Vietnam traffic, which I had to train for as well, that’s another thing I had to train for. And having Artemis on the back, obviously, you’ve got the star of the movie. You’ve got hundreds of other, you know, mopeds around you and you have to negotiate that with a camera following, you’re following camera on it, and that was probably the most crazy thing I’ve done on a movie. Yeah, definitely. Definitely, definitely. Because you know, he [Ferdia] had to put his trust in me, but I think after the training that we put in before we got out there was great But nothing can prepare you for being on a moped in Vietnam.

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