The 1988 film “Willow” turned Davis into a “proper actor,” he said, and changed his life. A new series on Disney+ picks up the story decades later.
Send any friend a story
As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. Anyone can read what you share.
By Simran Hans
LONDON — In a hotel suite overlooking a darkening Leicester Square, the actor Warwick Davis picked up a pair of opera glasses and pointed them in the direction of the Empire Cinema. In 1988, he was there attending the London premiere of “Willow,” a swashbuckling comedy-adventure movie directed by Ron Howard with a story by George Lucas, who executive produced. It stars Davis and Val Kilmer as sorcerer and scoundrel, the bickering protectors of a baby princess with magic powers.
Davis remembered being seated next to another princess, Diana, sandwiched between her and Prince Charles.
“I was holding the popcorn,” Davis joked, adding: “Diana said to me, at the end of the movie, ‘You give us princesses a rough ride.’”
“Willow” remains a standout role for Davis, 52, who is a stalwart of sci-fi, horror and fantasy franchises including “Star Wars,” the “Leprechaun” films, and “Harry Potter.” He has been immortalized in plastic many, many times. “I hold the record for the most mini figures of characters I’ve played,” he said with mock seriousness, dressed that day in a tailored blue velvet blazer.
As this newspaper reported upon the film’s release, “Willow” was not a hit despite its illustrious pedigree. It received middling reviews and was perceived as a rare misfire by Lucas, the architect of the “Star Wars” and (with Steven Spielberg) “Indiana Jones” franchises. But it left a mark on a then 8-year-old Jonathan Kasdan, the creator of a eight-episode TV sequel that premiered last week on Disney+.
In a phone interview, Kasdan, whose father, Lawrence, co-wrote some of Lucas’s most celebrated films, including the original “Star Wars” trilogy and “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” described “Willow” as “a giant, very tactile adventure, with this small person at the center of it.” He added that Davis, as the kind, clearheaded Willow, a farmer who learns sorcery, was “an incredibly relatable movie star.” The TV series, set roughly 20 years after the events of the movie, sees the return of an older, wiser and altogether more reluctant Willow, this time shepherding a found family of ragtag misfits (portrayed by Ruby Cruz, Erin Kellyman, Ellie Bamber, Tony Revolori and Amar Chadha-Patel) in search of a kidnapped prince.
Source: Read Full Article