Narnia Fans » Ilkley

Chronicles of Narnia star Georgie Henley made the switch-on of Ilkley’s Christmas lights a magical evening on Saturday.

The schoolgirl film star, who lives in Ilkley, told the many families gathered on The Grove how the town’s festive lights had always been a highlight of the year for her.

She told crowds that of all the places she had visited on her film-making travels, including New Zealand, Japan and the United States, she still liked Ilkley the best.

Georgie, 11, played Lucy Pevensie in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, the first of Disney’s big-screen adaptations of C S Lewis’ classic children’s books. She’ll return to the Narnia set in early 2007 to start shooting the sequel, Prince Caspian.

Crowds waited in a cold and breezy Ilkley town centre for the young actress to make her appearance and push the brightly coloured plunger to light up the town for Christmas.

The build-up to the lights switch-on began with some festive singing, led by Ilkley singer, Shirley Britton, and a parade of schoolchildren, air cadets. Then Father Christmas aboard a horse-drawn carriage, made his way to The Grove from Springs lane, led by Town Crier Chris Richards.

A few short months ago Georgie Henley’s greatest role was the “loud growling monster” in an am-dram play. How life changes. Now the 10-year-old from Ilkley has been plucked from obscurity to star in the £110m blockbuster family film The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion The Witch And The Wardrobe, based on the classic novels by CS Lewis.

With its London premiere next Wednesday and several sequels in the pipeline the Moorfield School pupil has surely taken the first step on the road to movie megastardom.

“I don’t want to sound selfish or anything, but I kind of like being in the spotlight,” she says as preparations for the big night gather pace.

“It’s nice to be noticed. I got to go to New Zealand and the Czech Republic and London to make the movie, but I do have a kind of balance because I can always go back up to Yorkshire and be my old self.

“You don’t get any of this kind of glamour up there.”

Debatable, but at least the White Rose County did provide the youngster with her first shot at acting.

She was spotted in her school’s Christmas play at five-and-a-half when the rest of the cast were double her age.

Gill Jackson, a drama teacher at the school who has worked with the young starlet for the past four years says: “She has always had a talent. I knew she could do it – she could ad lib and improvise even at that age.”

Georgie’s talent developed further at the Upstagers amateur dramatics society in Ilkley where she appeared in a production of Monster Mash and as a Morris
dancer in a separate production.

Mrs Jackson, who heads Upstagers, brought Georgie to the attention of Pippa Hall, London casting director for the Narnia film.

“I told the casting agent that they ought to come and have a look at some of the youngsters from Upstagers,” the teacher says.

“It took some effort to pin her down, but she ended up coming here.”
Georgie was an instant hit and landed the lead role of Lucy Pevensie – the little girl who discovers the magical world of Narnia at the back of a wardrobe – ahead of 2,000 other hopefuls.

[Read the rest at Yorkshire Today]

A budding Yorkshire actress has been announced as a star of the new Narnia film due to hit cinema screens this Christmas. Ten-year-old Georgie Henley, of Ilkley, will make her professional acting debut in The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, which is set to rival Harry Potter at the box office. She was discovered by a casting director in her home town and was chosen from 2,000 hopefuls.

Posing for her first photocall in London’s Leicester Square, she said: “This is my first movie so it’s quite overwhelming for me, but it’s amazing. “I’m not really a child actor but I would love to do it when I’m older.”

Despite her age, Georgie is taking to the movie star life like a duck to water.

“I don’t want to sound selfish or anything, but I kind of like being in the spotlight. It’s nice to be noticed,” she said. “I got to go to New Zealand and the Czech Republic and London to make the movie, and there’s still Los Angeles and New York to come. But I kind of have a balance. I can always go back up to Yorkshire and be my old self. You don’t get any of this glamour up there.”

Georgie, a pupil at Moorfield School and a member of Ilkley Upstagers theatre group, has kept in touch with her friends back home throughout months of filming abroad. She landed the part in July last year when her mentor at Upstagers and Moorfield teacher, Gill Jackson, contacted the film’s casting director after hearing from a friend that the producers were looking for youngsters to star in it.

Georgie auditioned with dozens of other children at the Tabernacle in Notting Hill and was picked out to play Lucy. Mrs. Jackson, who teaches drama at Moorfield School, has worked with Georgie at Upstagers since she was six years old.

She said: “She has always had a talent – this little girl has a lot going for her and I couldn’t be more pleased. I’m so proud of her. I remember at Moorfield when she was five-and-a-half and she was amazing in a Christmas play that was meant for 10-year-olds. I knew she could do it – she could ad lib and improvise even at that age and she also knew everybody else’s lines as well.”

Georgie has appeared in Upstagers’ pantomimes and has also made regular appearances at the Wharfedale Festival of Performing Arts. Her mother, Helen, has stayed with her throughout filming, while father Mike and sisters, Rachael and Laura, visited her in New Zealand. Jane Disley, headteacher at Moorfield School, said everyone at the school was thrilled at Georgie’s success. She was strong academically and always enthusiastic. “Throughout filming she has kept up with her school work by email and is very level-headed. She understands that part of the film world is wonderful but that it isn’t the normal way of living.”