Chronicles Of Georgie

'Narnia' Actress Grows Into Her Role

here have been big changes in Narnia. And in the life of actress Georgie Henley.

When last we visited the faraway realm, Narnia was in its Golden Age; the four kings and queens had rid the magical land of the evil White Witch. And Georgie, like Lucy Pevensie, her sweet alter-ego on film, was easing back into life as a schoolgirl in England.

In "The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian," which opens in theaters tomorrow, both Lucy and Georgie are "more action-y" -- older with a greater sense of self-assurance.

Lucy rides a horse and wields a dagger. As the battles of good vs. evil wage all around, she is the one with the most faith in the regal talking lion, Aslan.

Meanwhile, behind the scenes, Georgie wields an ax -- an Epiphone SG electric guitar -- and writes songs. "I'm quite musical," she says in a phone interview, her West Yorkshire English accent shortening some of the vowel sounds. "I love singing. I'm into making music."

Georgie's creativity once tended toward short stories -- she wrote "The Snow Stag" and "A Pillar of Secrets" during the filming of the first Narnia adventure, "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe." Now her writing tends to follow her mood. When she's sad, the tunes are depressing. But when "hyped on marshmallows," she created a song about a land where the hills are made of the sweet treats.

Georgie's musical tastes lean to pop and rock, "but I'm not a metal kind of person. When they start screaming down the microphone, I don't like that."

Current favorites on her video iPod include the Tennessee rock group Kings of Leon. "I kind of go through phases where I really like this band, then I really like that band," she says.

It's a big change since the wrap of the first "Narnia" movie, when, given a new iPod by director Andrew Adamson, Georgie politely asked what it was.

"Well, I was only 8," she protests. "I hadn't been around for a while and I hadn't seen one before. So I said, 'Thank you, thank you,' but I needed to know what I was thanking him for. I really regret it now."

Now nearly 13, Georgie seems largely unaffected by her success. Between the two movies she had a small role as the young title character in a British production of "Jane Eyre," and she tried out for an amateur-theater version of "Babes in the Wood."

"I was really happy that I got a principal part -- I was one of the babes," she says. "The thing about local theater is that it's nice to be in front of your friends and family onstage. I do like going onstage, for that reason, family and friends. You need a completely different set of skills to do theater than you do for TV or film.

"Everybody looked at me the same. They don't take into account, 'Oh, we'll cast her in the main part because she's in a film.' That's never happened, which is really good."

So, she doesn't seek star treatment?

"Oh, no," she says, "I never would want to, and I hope that I don't."

-- Scott Moore