Jolie on how she's able to balance work, family, and her public life:

Jolie: I'm not the only one on this panel with children. [laughs] I do... this was a two and a half day shoot for me and I was three months pregnant. [laughs] ... You just try to balance, try not to work too much, and take turns working. It's not that hard.

On how familiar they were with Beowulf before they signed on and whether they read the book:

Winstone: Well, I told Robert Zemeckis that I knew the story, but I didn't. Where I went to school we read Al Capone and things like that, so Beowulf was very, very new to me. All I knew about vikings was Tony Curtis and Kirk Douglas. In a way, that was a good thing because I read the script not knowing the story. It seemed to me, when I read it, I spoke to the boys about it when it came down, and it's kind of a modern story as well. It is about ambition, about greed, hate, and then love at the end. Finding what you really wanted was there all the time, right in front of you, your son. It kind of reminded me of Hollywood in a way, the ambition in people, and that's exactly how I kind of approached it from the off really. When I spoke with the two guys, that's how I kind of pitched it. They went, 'That's exactly what we thought.'

Hopkins: No, I hadn't read the original because I'm very lazy. I tried to read it, but I think I'm a little dyslexic sometimes. Maybe A.D.D., I fall asleep very quickly. [laughs] I tried to read it but I read the script and I liked it very much. I was called into Bob Zemeckis' office, maybe I was living out here, I just went in and we had a chat. He said, "What sort of accent do you think you would use for Hrothgar?" I said, "Well, I'm Welsh." It's a pretty old language. We were the Irish who couldn't swim. I said, "I'd like to play it Welsh." He said, "Do you think it will be believable?" And I said, "I've played Welsh before." He asked: "Can you give me an example." So, I did a little bit from Hugh Griffith. He played that horse dealer in Ben Hur: "How dare you treat my horses like animals?" I sort of tole from that a bit and Welshed it up a bit. It felt comfortable because it's my own language. I can understand those fighting, drunk, Welsh people because I was one myself. Can't go outside and fight now when I'm in a temper. All that stuff, I felt comfortable playing this drunken, lecherous, man. Thank you very much.

Malkovich: Where I went to high school it was required reading, believe it or not, and we had to do recitations from it in Miss Berkhart's English class. I'm sure they were splendid, but I don't remember.

Jolie: I had read it years and years ago. I hardly remembered. I think I read it half asleep as well. But ditto, it's one of those great stories that you know the themes of it. The themes you take away and you never forget. But, when I read the script it wasn't fresh enough in my mind to compare it and it wouldn't be at this moment even, I doubt.

Angelina Jolie on women in the 6th century and whether animation roles appeal more to her:

Jolie: I feel it is tough to ask me because my character seemed beyond - certainly not restricted to time. She was quite powerful and capable, even though she was stuck in a cave. Quite a different character, certainly not a woman of the period, so that would be better handled by someone else. I would certainly love to do more. I wouldn't call this animation though, because we were physically doing all of these things. Every single gesture is ours, everything is acted out, even where our eyeballs move, because it's such a new thing, is exactly where we look. They were mapped exactly. It is our performances and we had these scenes together. I do think that is important to state because it's exciting that it's not and it's different.

Jolie on her reaction to how she looked on-screen as an animated character:

Jolie: [laughs] I got a little shy. I really wasn't expecting it to be as real, I didn't expect ourselves to come out as much. Because of - especially the type of character I play, it was kind of funny at first. There were certain moments where I felt actually shy and called home. I explained the fun movie I had done, that was this digital animation, and it was in fact a little different than they were expecting. I was really surprised that I felt that exposed.

Ray Winstone and his reaction to seeing himself as a huge viking:

Winstone: I loved it. Yeah, yeah, there is nothing really more to say about it. It's really weird because, obviously he's 6'6 or something like that, with an 8 pack. My wife loves it, she thinks it’s great. It's funny, you just look at a picture and you go, 'I'm the only one who kind of don't look like me.' Until you see the film move, then you do, you start to recognize yourself. The big thing for me was movement. I'm 5'10, I'm an older man now, and I'm playing a warrior who is 6'6, the way you move, and that kind of bulk on you. That was something I really think about before the film. Then get older without becoming too old. You still have to be a warrior and you've got to fight a dragon. It was that kind of thought. It was like making a film really. My wife pulled out a picture of me, when I was 18, when I was boxing. I didn't have the 8 pack, right yeah, but it looks like me. They had no pictures of me beforehand. I don't know how they brought that out. I'm probably lying about it. It doesn't quite look like me. [Laughs] But it's great, it opens so many doors. You can play someone who is five years of age, and you can play anything you want to play. You can anyway, I always think, but this opens a hell of a lot more doors in a way.

Beowulf Interview Page 3