Tomorrowland’s Athena – Meet Raffey Cassidy

New to the Hollywood scene, Raffey Cassidy was given a big job.  At the young age of 12, she got to yell at George Clooney.  The George Clooney – was she intimidated?  Nah! This wasn’t the first time she was up against some big Hollywood names. She has co-starred in the hit TV show Mr. Selfridge alongside Jeremy Piven and as the young Snow White opposite Charlize Theron, Kristen Stewart and Chris Hemsworth in Snow White and the Huntsman as well.

Born in England, Cassidy followed in the footsteps of her siblings and has been acting since the age of 7. She’s a powerhouse – already receiving terrific reviews from her role in Tomorrowland.

Photo Credit: Louise Bishop of MomStart.com

On our #TomorrowlandEvent Press Junket a few weeks ago, we had the opportunity to meet Ms. Cassidy and hear about her experience filming Tomorrowland. Adorable as a button, Raffey Cassidy has more poise at 14 than I did at 24. She was had the eloquence of an experienced actor, and yet her excitement for this movie exuded from her.

‘I am the future, Frank Walker’

Cassidy plays Athena, who doesn’t age throughout the movie.  And as the movie begins, the young Frank Walker is taken by her.  As Brad Bird explains it, “…it’s more that he’s in love with what she represents. So, while it’s something of a radical idea that that boy grows up and the girl doesn’t, they still have this ‘romance’ – this romantic, idealistic idea of what the future can be, and that’s how they relate.”

Now for those who haven’t seen the movie {Spoiler ALERT!} Athena is a robot.  And Cassidy does an incredible job of playing her so well, you always forget that she is a robot. When we asked her what she liked most about Athena, she said, “I love how wise she is, like she’s like an old soul inside of a young body.“

She goes on to say that the traits she relates to most in Athena was, “...optimism, because I think that I feel that I’m quite optimistic and always look on the bright side of a bad situation.“

Disney’s TOMORROWLAND Photo Credit: Disney 2015

In many scenes, Athena is the “adult” in the film.

“Athena is kind of the mom of the whole going. She looks after Casey and Frank, trying to bring them together to, to help him save the world. And that kind of becomes, through their adventure, they would become like a family.“

Cassidy liked filming the action scenes, with the ‘Blast from the Past’ sequence being her favorite. In preparation for filming, she trained for two months in gymnastics and martial arts, and then did  another month of martial arts when filming began.

One of the hardest scenes for her to film was at the end of the movie, the touching scene where George Clooney’s character, Frank, says goodbye to Athena.

“My hardest scene would probably be my end scene. There was a lot of lines, but once I learned them, it just flowed. George had a lot of eye contact with me, so it made it easy to perform.  It would have been hard if George wasn’t so good.”

She goes on to tell us what it was like working with Clooney.

“I’d seen the Descendants and I really, really liked it. And George is just so down to earth and I learned so much from him. He’s so professional but really fun at the same time.”

And of course, Clooney was the jokester everyone always says he is. Cassidy told us this fun prank he pulled on the set one day:

“There was this one scene when we pulled up on the monorail and the doors would open, and the camera would be there watching us. So George thought it would be funny if we all ran to the side of the monorail and the doors would open and nobody would be there. So we did it, and the doors opened on the camera, everybody went wait, where’re they all gone?”

Cassidy’s costumes were the best in the film.  She told us a little-known fact about the blue dress she was wearing in the opening scene.  It’s covered in algorithms! Look closely!

She spoke about how the movie made her feel so much more optimistic about the future.  This is what she would hope that everyone would take away from Tomorrowland:

“I think everybody should be very optimistic and feel that there’s a way around situations if they’re in a bad situation. There’s always a bright side.”

I was so impressed that this young woman was so wise for only being 14.  As I have a 14 year old daughter at home, I wanted to know what she would say to girls her age about the future:

[dropshadowbox align=”none” effect=”lifted-both” width=”700px” height=”” background_color=”#ffffff” border_width=”1″ border_color=”#dddddd” ]I’d say the future isn’t a place we’re going. It’s something we’re making, so it can be anything that they, that they want it to be. [/dropshadowbox]

Photo Credit: Louise Bishop of MomStart.com

Tomorrowland is now in theaters. It’s the perfect summer movie to take your whole family too.

Want to hear more about Tomorrowland??

Find out what prop George Clooney may or may not have taken from the set of Tomorrowland in my exclusive interview with him.  Also, find out what valuable lesson his costar, Britt Robertson learned from Clooney. And find out what inspired Director/Producer Brad Bird and Screenwriter/Producer Damon Lindelof to create Tomorrowland in my exclusive interview with them.

We visited the Walt Disney Archives to learn how Tomorrowland producers used items from the archives to recreate key scenes in the movie.  Then we headed over to Disneyland’s Tomorrowland- here’s 13 Fun Facts You Don’t Know about Tomorrowland. Visitors to Disneyland can get a special sneak peek at Tomorrowland and see props from the movie.  And check out all the fun that Disneyland has planned for it’s 60th Anniversary, starting May 22, 2015.

Like TOMORROWLAND on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DisneyTomorrowland

Follow Disney Pictures on Twitter: https://twitter.com/DisneyPictures

Visit the official TOMORROWLAND website: http://www.Disney.com/Tomorrowland

Disclosure: I was an invited guest at an all expenses paid trips to Los Angeles for the Tomorrowland Press Junket by Disney Pictures. I was not compensated for any of these articles. All opinions are my own.