Angelina Jolie fought for Sam Riley for Maleficent

Maleficent , the Angelina Jolie-starring revisionist Disney fairytale that’s set to pull a Wicked on Sleeping Beauty , is shooting right now.

And joining Jolie in the cast is a considerable amount of Brit talent, including Juno Temple, Imelda Staunton, Peter Capaldi and one Mr Sam Riley.

We caught up with the On The Road actor for the latest issue of Total Film magazine (out now) , and as well as chatting about adapting Jack Kerouac’s Beat generation classic, Riley also spilled on being cast alongside Jolie (Angie, to some)…

Tell us about Maleficent ...

“I’ve been calling it ‘Male-li-fic-cent’ but I keep getting corrected by my dialect coach because of course I’m not doing my own voice in this picture as well!

“That was another thing I sort of fell into because I wasn’t working for a while and I couldn’t find anything I like before they said ‘Do you want to audition for a Disney film?’

“And I thought that I couldn’t just sit and wait in Berlin for job roles, so I auditioned for it and then I heard that I wasn’t really Disney material which I could fully understand. About two weeks after I heard that she’d seen the tape and I was back in the running so I guess I owe her a pint.

Do you mean Angelina Jolie?

“Oh yeah, my mate Angie.”

You don’t call her that do you?

“I didn’t at first. I heard she doesn’t mind and I kept hearing everyone on set called her Angie and I thought I could never get away with that so I called her Angelina. Or avoided her name altogether. But I did get a quiet moment and she did say she doesn't mind being called Angie. But Maleficent looks great. A role where I don’t die and I don’t smoke. I love it.”

On The Road opens on 12 October 2012, with Maleficent expected to arrive in 2014.

For more from Sam Riley, pick up the latest issue of Total Film magazine , which is out now (and comes with four incredible free posters!)

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