'Maleficent' Star Sam Riley on Being Angelina Jolie's "Wing Man"

Presenting Sam Riley. Hello.

Hi.

Thanks for coming in. Can I just point something out? There is something on my face. No. You have really good hair. You have that Tom Cruise hair.

Thank you very much.

Is that is that is that a good thing? No. It is. But I mean Tom Cruise from back in the day. Not currently.

I have his teeth from back in the day as well. Pre-braces, Anyway.

Um you used to be a singer.

Yeah.

The name of the band was 10,000 Things. Really? Did you sing on?

Which is part of the reason why uh we weren't very successful.

Do you still?

I sing at traffic lights. I sing while I'm driving in the car and then when we get to a traffic light, I I wind the windows down.

Oh, you do. So people can hear me. See, I've always wondered so you're that guy cuz when I'm driving in L. A. , there's always that that is next to me and I'm like did you just roll your windows down because you and they're always playing the worst song or they play the best song and then they take off and you can't hear it anymore and then you try to find it on the radio.

Yeah. I'm not the wanker that does that. Yeah. I miss singing sometimes and that's how I sort of.

Well, you could sing here for us.

No. No, no. I was trying to. No, no. You'll never get no, no. There's not enough alcohol.

You know what's funny? I read about you that you said because you live in Berlin, Yes. Um that when you're not shooting, when you're not filming, you like to be as far away as possible from the whole Hollywood scene. Is that correct?

Well, yeah, but that makes it sound like Hollywood is chasing after me or something, which isn't strictly Well, true at all actually.

Well, you're in this big Disney movie for gosh darn sake. Yeah, for goodness. Yes. You were Angelina's pet. There are worse jobs. There are worse jobs than that. Have I Am I the first to refer to her of you as her pet? I know you get the question.

To use the word pet you are. Yes. Cuz I.

Wingman for the obvious. That's a good one. I didn't even think about that. Yeah, yeah. She took you under her wing.

Bum bum She stroked you. She did. And she rode me. Actually.

Um you've been to Disney World, haven't you?

Yes.

Didn't you I read you went with your family when you were young.

I did, yeah.

How was that?

It was great. I was just on the cusp of being slightly too old for it, but I had a.

Yeah. You were. Was it slightly awkward?

I was young I had younger brothers and sisters.

But is that you know, being from the UK, is that like one of those things, we're going to Disney. Is it a bigger thing there as it is for us?

Yeah. Well, bigger because we never It was our first sort of foreign or holiday abroad as well, so.

Did I read that your dad That Angie.

Yeah. My mom and dad came to visit on set.

How did they how did they feel about you know the transition between your 12-year-old self taking to Disney World and now you're in this massive.

Yeah. They love that.

I bet they love that. That's really that was really nice. And how did how did the meeting go down with your dad and Angie?

Well, my mom.

In your mom. Yeah. For your mom was.

It was my dad was more impressed.

Well, I read that he was really excited about it though. Oh, I don't mean to diss your mom.

No, that's. Um No, they I mean, she's so charming, you know, and so she makes everybody she makes everybody when you meet her feel special or something, so.

Right. No. I mean they they floated back home after that. They didn't need a plane ticket.

No. It was really it was it was magic.

Um and and playing The Raven. Did I read that you said that he you felt like he had a bit of an ego?

Well, I studied Ravens.

Did you? As as homework. Right. And they brought in a Raven to this uh So you could study the behavior. Yeah. Which is kind of Do I have it? That was pretty good. Yeah. Is that a Raven grave dancing? Um Just before you go, just sort of in general, like the experience of this whole thing cuz it's such a massive production, massive movie, sort of being going from cuz you haven't you haven't done a ton of movies. I mean, this is kind of a.

No. And the ones I've done, no one would ever see them either. So. Uh No, it's it's it's really yeah, it's amazing. I mean, I just looked out of the window out the back and from the from a distance of five miles, you can still see an enormous Maleficent. It's like the whole side of a building or something. It's really exciting.

That's awesome too. That's cool.

It is pretty cool, isn't it?

Yeah. Well, thanks for coming in.

Thanks very much.

It was a pleasure to meet you. Just fly on out of here. I'm going to go. I'm going to tweet.