By KEVIN HOOVER
Of the new characters introduced in WINNIE-THE-POOH: BLOOD AND HONEY II, the most intriguing is Owl. Similar to his depiction in A.A. Milne’s classic The House at Pooh Corner, Rhys Frake-Waterfield’s iteration serves as a guiding light for the merry band of murderous toys. He’s the puppet master of The Hundred Acre Wood, innocent in Milne’s tale yet malicious in Waterfield’s, manipulating and steering his acolytes into war against humankind. And he can fly!
Rounding out a series of press interviews in advance of BLOOD AND HONEY II’s theatrical run, the fellow behind the foul, MARCUS MASSEY, talks to RUE MORGUE about his second go around with the franchise.
You had a smaller part in the first film, playing a gang member who suffers a grisly form of dermabrasion from being slapped to death by Pooh. In Blood and Honey II, you’re central to the cast. How does that feel?
Marcus Massey, the man behind the beak.
It was absolutely delightful! I’ve worked with Rhys and Scott (Chambers, portraying Christopher Robin and serving as a producer) on several films, so they know me very well and know what I can deliver. That first film, which was never really meant for cinema, got a lot of traction with fans, but it had a limited budget. Everything in the second film had to be amped up, so there’s a lot more budget, the locations are more fantastic, there are prosthetics on the face, the story is good and we’ve got one of the great classic British actors in Simon Callow, who was in Four Weddings and a Funeral and countless other things. And the story is a lot darker. It’s likely to make people feel uncomfortable, which is marvelous. There is a good reason why these animals are absolutely incandescent with rage about the way humans have treated them, and Owl is the brains behind the whole situation.
Owl’s appearance seems to be the most intricate, and it looks like you guys took the practical effects approach. Was performing underneath all the costuming and makeup difficult?
It was terrific, but I wasn’t prepared for it. The suit itself was very straightforward because it was just a suit that you zip up at the back. And of course, the arm wings were attached. What was not straightforward were the prosthetics. Pooh, Piglet and Tigger also had full-face prosthetics. It takes 100 minutes to put it on. It’s made of thin latex, which is literally glued to your face, so it moves when you talk. And because it’s glued to your face, you lose the opportunity to breathe through your nose. When you eat, you have to quickly eat, drink, swallow and then breathe, then take another mouthful of food. This is no problem for about the first five or six hours. After about eight or nine hours, because it’s latex and you’re perspiring, it starts filling up your nose cavity with liquid. That gets uncomfortable. After about the twelfth hour … put it this way, I have now an entirely different level of appreciation for people like Michael Dorn in Star Trek who have to wear this.
We have an idea of what kind of brutality to expect from Pooh and Piglet. We can also take a pretty educated guess on how Tigger behaves. But Owl can take flight, opening up the possibility of reigning hell from above. Is there a particular kill that you’re especially proud of?
Owl can kill in various ways, but there is one that is my favorite, and the reason why is because it’s such a surprise for the audience. It’s almost as if you were to write a list of things that you think Owl could do to kill somebody, this might not even get on the list. The camera gives one second for it to dawn on you before it happens.
For more coverage of Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey II, read our interview with director Rhys Frake-Waterfield and Lewis Santer (“Tigger”).
