VANITY FAIR – If Cinderella’s Richard Madden (formerly known as Game of Thrones’s Robb Stark) could choose between a direwolf and a fairy godmother, what would he pick? Direwolf, hands down. “It’s a massive, giant bear wolf. Why wouldn’t I want that?” So he wouldn’t be swayed by being able to wish for whatever you wanted? Not at all. “That’s good, but the direwolf would stay around a bit longer.”
Both Madden and his co-star Lily James were at Saks Fifth Avenue yesterday, celebrating the department store’s collaboration with Disney on a Cinderella-inspired shoe collection, which features dazzling work from Jimmy Choo, Nicholas Kirkwood, Charlotte Olympia, Salvatore Ferragamo, and more. (James and Madden are also in Saks’s spring catalog cover models). It was a landmark day for Saks Fifth Avenue, said Chief Marketing and Creative Officer Mark Briggs, “for the collaboration with the shoe designers, which I think have excelled in beautiful, beautiful designs.”
James had a strategic approach for what she would ask from her fairy godmother. “I would wish for 100 more wishes,” she told us, laughing. What would one of those wishes be? “I want every single one of these shoes,” she said, eyeing a particularly bedazzled pair of Jimmy Choos.
Cinderella, which opens March 13, is being heralded for a modern take on the centuries-old fairy tale, without sacrificing its traditional roots. James has no problem playing rebellious ladies—her character on Downton Abbey, Lady Rose, flouts societal norms left and right. She certainly wasn’t interested in making Ella seem like a pushover. “I wanted her to be a strong character. I wanted her to have beauty that radiated from within,” she said. “Just because she doesn’t have a sword or she’s not openly strong in that way, physically, she’s just as inspirational.” Does she see any similarities between Lady Rose and Ella? “I think they are both free spirits and they’ve both got big hearts.”
Madden knew his Prince Charming had to keep up with James’s portrayal. “I wanted to bring an equality to it,” he said of playing Prince Charming. “I wanted to make Cinderella and the prince equals and try to make a man that was worthy of the affections of someone like Cinderella.”
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