Did you see yourself as Giselle right away?

As soon as I read the script, I loved it. I remember going over it with my boyfriend and playing with different ideas about what kind of person she was and he suddenly said to me: ‘you are going to get this part, it is perfect for you’. And I said: ‘no I’m not going to get it, they are going to cast someone who is much more famous’, so it was fantastic to find out I had got the role. I was so excited.

The singing must have been a challenging, there are a lot of musical numbers in the film, and so you are acting and singing at the same time?

That was not daunting for me because I have always been a huge fan of movie musicals. Julie Andrews was my princess, I thought of her as Disney royalty when I was a kid. I love singing, but I was always more of a chorus singer, I was not a soloist by any means, I was a dancer by trade.

I worked in musical theater before I moved to Los Angeles, so I was very comfortable with the idea of singing, but Alan Menken and Stephen Schwartz just raised the level so much in my mind, that I immediately got into the musical aspect of the film. I really wanted to make them proud and I wanted to use my own voice if I could. And I was thrilled that they were happy with my voice.

Do you sing a lot at home?

I sing all the time, I literally burst into song all the time throughout the day. I love karaoke actually. I have to admit, my most recent favorite, which I think is funny, is Thank You For The Music, by Abba. I don’t think one should ever take oneself too seriously when doing karaoke so my songs tend to have a very self effacing air to them.

How did you tackle playing a fairy tale princess rather than a fully-fledged human woman?

As I was acting, I just treated the role, like playing any other character. She does become a real woman in the real world.

I think now I have to live up to that princess image though, because young girls will see me as a special princess and I will be some kind of role model to them. I see Giselle as someone with a kind spirit and a warm heart. I don’t think I’ll be perfect, nobody is perfect, but I will always be honest and take that responsibility seriously.

Did you grow up with strong moral values?

My parents instilled a lot of traditional values and I think those values are in my fiber now and part of who I am. One of the things I grew up with was the concept: ‘do unto others as you would have done unto you’. That is very important to me. If I am ever mean to someone, I feel really bad about it and I do my best to be kind.

Were there funny moments during filming, when you were dressed in these outrageous costumes?

You have to have a fairly twisted sense of humor to spend several months on a film like this. Nothing is funnier than standing around in a big, fluffy, white princess dress being normal that is ironic enough and we would have a lot of laughs when we were filming.

What was it like working with Patrick there is a great chemistry on screen?

Well if you can’t have chemistry with McDreamy, someone as gorgeous as Patrick Dempsey then I don’t know who you can have chemistry with. Working with him was wonderful, we really got along so well and he was such a good friend to me during the shoot, he was generous and energetic.

How challenging was the very dramatic and romantic ballroom scene, in which you are dancing together?

We took dance classes together before we started shooting, because there is a big ballroom scene and that was very unusual. Usually you can keep a distance from the people you are working with, but learning to dance with Patrick, I had to break down some of my own barriers to learn how to ‘partner dance’. I was already a dancer, so I thought I knew what I was doing, and I was not willing to let him lead me. I was stubborn, I said ‘no you just do what you need to do’ but it did not work out as I had imagined and I lost a couple of toe nails. They were ripped off.

Then a ballroom professional came in and watched us dance and he took me aside and said, ‘Amy here’s the problem: you’re not letting him lead you’. I said ‘yeah I am’ and he said ‘no you are not because you don’t want to surrender, just remember that you are dancing your own dance even though you are being led’ and that was an important life lesson for me. I think that is true with relationships in general.

But working with Patrick it was really important to get to the point at which I trusted him. I had to learn to trust him fully to lead me backwards through a crowd of people and I think really helped us form communication and trust on set, because we were forced to tell each other what we really needed.

What was it like wearing the huge, heavy fairy-tale bridal gown?

Well I was told it weighed 45 pounds, I didn’t want to know. It was really hard because it had a mind of its own. I couldn’t move directly forwards or backwards because if I did, the dress would collapse underneath me either way I went down and I learned the hard way the first night, but it was great, because it helped to inform how I (Giselle) moved in the real world and it actually ended up adding to the character, sometimes things that seem to be challenges end up being gifts.

What was your own fairy tale moment?

Going to the Oscars was definitely one (when I was nominated for Junebug), walking down that red carpet and realizing that the moment was actually happening and I did not lose my shoe.

Have you ever felt like Giselle, when she is so lost in New York, a new world, can you identify with her?

When I first came to Los Angeles, I came from Minnesota where I had been working, I didn’t come from a really small town, but I was very wide eyed, I really did have some Giselle moments. Being in LA made me grow up, I became much more careful about the kind of people I invited into my life. It was definitely hard and sometimes scary. I was scared of myself and scared of success.

It looks like your career is very exciting at the moment with several new films?

I am having such a great time. It was fantastic fun making Charlie Wilson’s War, we shot that last year after Enchanted. I play a congressional administrative aid to Tom Hanks’ character, who is a congressman, working to appropriate funds for the Afghan army, assisting rebels in their war with the Soviets, back in the 80s. Mike Nichols was the director and it was just unbelievable.

Then I made Miss Pettigrew Lives For A Day and that was shot in London, it’s a comedy with Frances McDormand, who has become my personal fairy godmother, she has been wonderful to me, so has Susan Sarandon on Enchanted, I’ve been lucky to work with fantastic role models.

Enchanted is released on 14th December.

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