Director Kenneth Branagh's “Cinderella” is a delightfully un-ironic retelling of the classic Charles Perrault story with Lily James as the titular girl, Cate Blanchett as a Joan Crawford-inspired wicked stepmother, and Helena Bonham Carter as a woozy fairy godmother who bears more than a passing resemblance to Madeline Kahn.
Prince Charming, meanwhile, has own interest arc of self-actualization that makes “Cinderella” a wiser version of the familiar tale. Richard Madden, who's best known for playing Robb Stark on “Game of Thrones,” plays the sharply uniformed prince who sets out to find the mysterious girl who fled his magnificent gala at the stroke of midnight.
We asked Madden about whether he got to keep the portrait of himself in the film, whether there's a downside to playing Prince Charming, and what he learned from observing Cate Blanchett on set.