Never one to let inhibitions stand in the way of a great creative opportunity, Emily Watson put aside her equinophobia for a while to join up with Steven Spielberg’s new War Horse. Along the way, she also got to know the film’s irrepressible goose, its neophyte leading man and its legendary filmmaker’s one-of-a-kind facility with epic storytelling. Watson explained more recently in a chat with Movieline.

I don’t know about you, but I am War Horse-d out,
Can we talk about something else?

What else is going on?
What else is going on?

I was interested in a comment you made in the press conference about how everyone on a set should have a T-shirt that says, “It’s not about you.” Can you elaborate on that?
I just mean that as a storyteller, when you get out of the way, that’s when the magic starts. If you’re paranoid about your performance or your status or how you look, or if there’s something stopping you from giving yourself over to a story? Actors, directors, cameramen — if everybody’s just there to tell the story, then you can get some great work.

And so it’s not about Spielberg on the set?
No, it’s not. He is one of those rare creatures who is compelled to tell stories. He’d be like a fish with no water — he’d be deprived of air if he wasn’t telling stories. Robert Altman was the same. Paul Thomas Anderson was the same. It’s like a muscle that has to be exercised. Everything he’s saying and everything he’s about is, “How can we best deliver this moment in time?” Now, everybody has a different way of doing that, but it’s all from the utter urgency of being a storyteller.

What about a guy like Lars von Trier, who’s perceived as almost inseparable from his films?
[Long pause] Yeah, I’d say. I think the stories that he’s compelled to tell are quite… You know, in a way, all storytellers are philosophers. They’re searching for meaning in everything. He’s quite close to the edge and extreme, but in the same way, he’s really searching for meaning somehow.

Are you really afraid of horses?
Mm-hmm. [Laughs] But I didn’t let on. Yes, I am. I’m not good around animals, generally.

Oh — at all?
I don’t mind dogs and cats and all that, but…

What is it about horses?
They might kick me! They’re big, powerful creatures? I think it’s my own ignorance. I don’t know what to do, and I don’t know how to read the signs of a horse. But if I’d been on it… I love the sound of the boys’ training camp. To be able to learn to do something like that? It sounds amazing. And I love the whole cavalry charge. It’s stupendous! I love it.

Have you ever had to learn a skill for a role?
I had to learn the cello for Hilary and Jackie, which was a big deal. It was a difficult thing to learn.

How long did it take?
Well, I say I learned the cello. I was miming to playback in the film. But I did learn pretty accurate fingering and the right bowing and the sense of expression. If you actually heard what I was playing, it would be excruciating. How long did it take? Two months? Two or three months? I think I had about 20 different pieces of music that I had to play, and I sat down and meticulously learned the tune for each one. And then I learned the fingering for each piece, and then I learned the bowing. Then I put them together. It was very scientific!

Back to the animals: Was the goose in this movie as bad-ass as it looked?
[Laughs] Yeah, it was.

You were totally afraid of the goose, right?
No, not really. I did sort of a photo op with the geese at one point, and they were really sweet. I just kind of held them. They had brilliant handlers as well, the geese. They could run and hit marks. It was mindblowing what these animals could do. But the goose is from the play. Have you seen the play?

I haven’t.
There’s a fabulous goose puppet. It’s great.

I mean, War Horse is great and everything, but I’m really holding out for War Goose.
“A miraculous goose.”

Right! Anyway, this is Jeremy Irvine’s first screen role. What kind of relationship did you have behind the scenes?
I felt very protective towards him. Just being a proper grown-up; he’s say, “I’m fine, I’m fine,” but you could see how terrified he was — how much he was having to absorb and learn every second. But he had a great attitude. He had a great sense of humility and a great sense of wanting to learn and be as good as he could be, which is lovely to watch.

Do you remember the first Spielberg film you saw?
I think it was E.T. I loved it. I wept.

What your relationship with Spielberg films as a viewer? Are they must-see theater viewing?
Not always, but yeah — it’s an event, isn’t it?

What else is out that you like?
I liked Warrior very much. Have you seen that? I thought the fight sequences were absolutely brilliant — so committed, so real. You always tend to go, “Yeah, yeah — they’re faking it.” And that didn’t look like faking it. I love Tom Hardy. I think he’s wonderful. I loved Beginners. I loved it. I found it very affecting and real. When you know somebody like I know Ewan [McGregor], whom I’ve known for a while, it’s quite difficult to forget and be transported by them. And I really was. I thought he was wonderful. What else have I seen? I liked Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy. It’s classy. It’s classy.

Oldman’s amazing in that. Have you worked with him before?
No.

It’s interesting you say that about McGregor versus someone like Oldman. Does that always tend take you out of the experience?
Absolutely. You know their ways of doing things; you know them as a person. Like Phil[ip Seymour] Hoffman: I’ve worked with him several times, and he’s in so many things and I just… [Pauses] Now, having said that, he’s brilliant. He’s absolutely brilliant. But it does make it harder to suspend your disbelief when you know somebody.

What are you up to next?
I just wrapped on a film called Little Boy, which is directed by Alejandro Monteverde; it’s about a little boy in California during the second World War who thinks he can bring his dad home from a Japanese prisoner-of-war camp using his magic powers. And I play his mom. It’s kind of a grown-up fairy tale. And I’m doing a few days on Joe Wright’s Anna Karenina. I’m playing Countess Lydia — a nasty piece of work.

Ohhhh. Are you looking forward to it?
I am. I’ve already done one day. Oh, yeah.

You sound like a fan of the book.
I am. I’ve read it a few times in my life. It’s a very interesting book, because you see it very differently when you’re young. As your age changes, you read it very differently. I was shocked when I read it the last time.

What was different?
Well, when I was young, I think I really identified with Anna and wanting to be that in love and the terrible tragedy of it all. I don’t know if I wanted to kill myself at the end of it. Then you read it now, and you realize the decisions she makes about her children– to leave her children — for the sake of this affair is… [Winces] I have children of my own, so… Anyway, it changes.

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Drew Barrymore. Christian Bale. Bruce the Shark. It’s an elite class of young talent that has found launching pads in the films of Steven Spielberg. And while Jeremy Irvine is a little older than those actors who preceded him, you can go ahead and add the 21-year-old to the list thanks to his breakthrough in Spielberg epic Oscar hopeful War Horse.

Irvine plays Albert Narracott, whose bond with a thoroughbred named Joey persists from hard times on his family farm (his parents are played Emily Watson and Peter Mullan) through the devastating conflict of World War I. It’s not only Irvine’s biggest film role to date — it’s his only role, with at least three more to come in 2012. He spoke with Movieline over the weekend in New York, just ahead of War Horse’s world premiere.

Congratulations on surviving your first foray into press-junket madness. How are you feeling?
Shattered. [Laughs] No, no. I was told a lot of stuff about how difficult doing this kind of thing is, but actually it’s all new and it’s all exciting to me. Maybe a few years down the line, it’ll be a terror. But for now, it’s new and exciting. It’s great.

Fantastic. Is there a question you haven’t yet been asked about War Horse that you wish you had? Or something you’ve wanted to note about the experience but haven’t had the opportunity?
[Pauses] God, I don’t know.

I am totally putting you on the spot.
Yeah, you are. But there are a few things. I mean, yes, we were making what was essentially quite a serious piece of work, but we had such a huge amount of fun doing it. There were so many funny moments.

Like what?
You know — trying to wind up other cast members. Robert Emms, who plays my rival, is a very good friend. And Steven Spielberg would come in with handwritten scenes every now and again. He’d maybe write it down in the car, and we’d get it and think, “Oh, OK, great, we’re doing this.” So we tried to get Peter Mullan, who’s very established in Britain, by writing a fake scene between him and Emily Watson, who plays my mum. we wrote a fake, raunchy love scene between them and tried to get Steven Spielberg’s assistant to give it to Peter in his trailer. We thought we could convince him that he was doing a love scene where we see them kiss through the barn doors, and Joey, the horse, nudges the barn door shut, blocking our view.

We thought we got him; we thought this was brilliant, you know? That night we’re in the restaurant, and we go, “So, Peter, did you get the new scene?” He says, “Boys, haven’t you heard?” We go, “No, what?” He says, “Oh, well Steven’s gone ballistic. Apparently somebody forged his signature. They’ve got security down there; they’re trying to figure out who’s done this. Shit, whoever’s done this… It’s not funny. Someone’s gonna lose their fucking job.” And we’re shitting ourselves. “No, no — Steven didn’t know! It was us! It was us!” And Peter’s like, “Of course I knew it was fucking you boys! Who the hell else was it going to be?” [Laughs] So that was cool.

Earlier today in the press conference, you claimed that you had no idea how or why you got this part. All modesty aside, how or why do you think you did you get this part?
It’s quite true: I have no idea. I don’t know. I think that among my friends I’m known as being a hard worker; I think if you want to be an actor, there can’t be any compromise. You have to work all day, every day. It’s not a 9-5 job. There’s always something to learn. I’ve always been of the mindset of, “What if there’s someone working harder than me?” That means I have to work even harder. For me, I went to drama school for a bit; I thought, “This is great, but I’m with the crowd here. I want to get out of that. I want to be kind of graspy. I don’t want to wait for somebody else to be in control of finding me an agent; I want to do that myself.” I didn’t want to have to wait until I got a showcase. Instead, I got my best friend as a cameraman; I went out and I filmed and made my own show reel so it looked like professional work. I went to agents and was probably a little bit cheeky and told them it was professional work, but that worked. I put thousands and thousands of hours into it.

That doesn’t mean that it should pull off; a lot of actors put vast amounts of work in, and it still doesn’t pull off for them.

That’s obviously a huge risk. What did that kind of spirit or initiative come from in your background?
I never particularly enjoyed school, and I think I was looking for a challenge. I didn’t want to do what everyone else was doing. I wanted to do something different. I had a great drama teacher, and he sort of made out drama school as this incredibly difficult thing to get into: 6,000 people apply every year, and some of the schools only have 12 places. It’s a phenomenally difficult thing to get into. And that excited me — I wanted that challenge.

But you didn’t finish?
No, I didn’t. I was offered to go back and do three years at different places, and decided… I just didn’t want to put that in the hands of other people. I wanted to be in control. I wanted to do it myself.

Would you advise other young, up-and-coming actors to do the same thing?
Yeah. Yeah, I would. You’ve got to get away from the crowd. If you stay with everyone else, then you’re just going to be another one. But there’s no set way. At the end of the day, what it all comes down to is being in the right place at the right time.

And, I guess, being ready to deliver when opportunity calls.
Yes. And you’ve got to be right for that part. In some respects, you’ve got to be the best you can be at that time. But you can be the world’s most amazing actor, and if you’re not there at the right time, and you’re not seen by that rot casting director, then it’s not going to happen for you.

Another thing you mentioned earlier was getting accustomed to actually being on camera and the way moves are made. One frustrated director told me once that filmmaking doesn’t even feel like you’re creating art at a certain point. Did it ever feel that way for you, especially coming from the stage?
No, never. And I think that if it begins to feel like that, then you’re doing something extremely wrong. Your job as an actor is to keep that [alive]— it’s solely up to you. No one else can do that for you. You have to keep present and be in that moment. If you lose that, at the end of the day you’re not going to be in character and what you’re doing is not going to be real. That’s going to show; there’s nothing to hide behind.

And you already have a number of things lined up for the future, right?
I’ve got a film called Now is Good, with Dakota Fanning, coming out in May. I’m filming the last couple of weeks on Great Expectations at the moment. Next year I’m doing The Railway Man with Colin Firth and Rachel Weisz, which I’m beyond excited for.

Who do you play in that?
I play Eric Lomax — Colin Firth’s character when he’s younger. We kind of split it. It’s one of the best scripts I’ve ever read. I can’t wait.

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