'Artemis Fowl': Tamara Smart says she added 'a little spice' to the many book traits her character Juliet has
The highly anticipated 'Artemis Fowl' Disney+ movie is finally arriving and it brings with it a host of great actors. One star in particular who you need to keep an eye out for is Tamara Smart. Smart, who plays Juliet Butler in the movie, spoke to MEA WorldWide (MEAWW) in an exclusive interview about the road to becoming Juliet and what viewers can expect from the young adult movie.
"I actually originally auditioned for Holly and I sort of did quite a few auditions," Smart revealed. "I think I got to be in something called a screen test, and I actually met Lara [McDonnell] who now plays Holly Short. And a couple of weeks later I found out that I didn't get the part but I found out that Kenneth Branagh wanted me to play Juliet instead. And I was really grateful he gave me another opportunity cause that doesn't really come around very much."
Smart's character, Juliet, comes from a long line of bodyguards and is something of an expert in martial arts so the young actor had to go into stunt training to prepare for the intense action required of her. "Two weeks prior to filming, I actually did stunt training because my first couple of scenes were really, really big, stunt sequences," Smart explained. However, as it turns out, stunts were a lot harder than Smart initially thought they would be, even though she did get the hang of it soon enough.
"I went in there really, really confident. And I came out and I was just not comfortable," she revealed. "I was like, how do people do this every day? And so I did it for two weeks and it was super fun and I've seen the scenes and they look amazing. So it was totally worth it."
One thing that fans have picked up on early on about the movie is how different it appears to be from the books. But according to Smart, there are a lot of similarities between book Juliet and movie Juliet. "I think I did trace a lot of her characteristics from the book into the movie but the best thing about filming something that isn't a reboot and being able to start a new project is that you can develop your own characteristics," she said. "So a lot of it did come from the book but I brought a little bit of spice into it myself."
Juliet goes on to become a pretty important character in the world of the books and Smart is very excited to see where Juliet's journey takes her if the budding franchise does get sequels. "I think it's going to be really exciting when we start to hopefully film some of the new movies," she said. "I'm just excited to see where her path goes and I'm excited to play with it."
So what can fans expect from this movie? Well, according to Smart, "There's gonna be a lot of action. There's going to be a lot of adventure. I think there's going to be some really happy bits. There's also going to be some really sad bits but then I think you're all definitely going to grow to love Artemis. He's not very lovely but I think people are going to love that. I think people are gonna love it."
"I think that Artemis Fowl is honestly not like any other child," she added. "I think he's super smart, he has really good wits. And I think he has this sort of brain-set where he thinks of everything. So I think he overcomes these challenges by thinking of everything but I also think that he could never do it alone."
'Artemis Fowl' will arrive on Disney+ on June 12.
