Jamie Bell's adventures on the set of Tintin

MANILA, Philippines - Jamie Bell talks about some of the pleasures and challenges of making The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn such as working with performance capture and getting over the Spielberg effect.

He also shares about his experiences of picking up injuries on-set and working without a dog, as well as how his career is shaping up and what he has learned from working with the likes of Spielberg and Clint Eastwood.

Below are excerpts from the interview:

Does it seem like quite a while ago now that you actually filmed Tintin?

“Yeah, I can’t remember when it was. I was a child back then I think. I don’t think I had chest hair either. So, it feels like a while ago. But that’s the process with a fully animated film. It takes a damn long time in post-production. It’s crazy. Just to complete a shot takes hours, days… and there’s lots of shots. So, the process is very long.”

One of the first film experiences you had in the cinema was Jurassic Park. Now, years later you’re working with Steven Spielberg himself. Was that a pinch me moment when you got on-set?

“Yeah, for sure. Steven Spielberg has a direct line to the nostalgic part of your heart that is usually more closed off and somewhat unwilling to open the door for anyone to get in. But he’s in there. So, I’ve had that experience as an audience member with a lot of his movies. And then knowing that you’re going to work with him is the same kind of feeling. It’s like: ‘My God! I feel like Elliott (in ET). I feel like all of these characters who just get touched by something and have this profound experience.’ So, I felt like I’d kind of won the Lottery for a second.”

You watched a lot of Tintin as a child?

 “Oh yeah, I started watching Tintin as an eight-year-old. I loved it, vicariously wanted to live through it and travel the world and be heroic and courageous. I wanted that lifestyle of not necessarily danger but the travel, the adventure, the friendships… So, I would switch on Channel 4 on a Sunday and just be taken to wherever it was he went. And so I want to give back that experience because it was great to leave my bedroom in Billingham for a second and just go wherever he went. So, I want to give that back to any demographic really. The synergy in all this movie — the fact that it’s me playing Tintin, it’s Spielberg, it’s all kind of wild.”

So, what did you look to bring to the character?

“I wanted to make sure that his physicality was definitely portrayed correctly, his kind of youthful driven enthusiasm, his intelligence, his weird blend of boy-man that he has, which I think I can play really well, and the correct portrayal of a European sensibility in a hero. I think that is very important as well. But I also didn’t want to answer any questions. I didn’t want to say: ‘This is why Tintin doesn’t have any parents! Or this is why Tintin’s only friend is a dog!’ I think answering those kind of questions removes the layer of mystery that surrounds him constantly. And I think the reason that I live vicariously through him so much is that I didn’t see him as Tintin, I saw him as myself. I think that was important.”

You’ve said in the past that you enjoy learning from some of the great directors you’ve worked with. So, how much do you feel you learned from Spielberg?

“Dude, I mean how do you take one layer of character and through visual reference make him myth and make him legend? I love telling this story… there’s a scene where we’re in this row boat and we’re escaping the ship and I’m already going to Haddock. There’s something about the scene… the iconography, the man with the bottle, the reveal, and then the way you shoot it, the timing of the comedy, everything about it is so Spielberg! That’s it! And I was doing that for most of the movie (laughs). It happens all the time.”

The Adventures of Tintin is released and distributed by United International Pictures through Solar Entertainment Corp.