8 Things You Didn't Know About Richard Madden
6. He Respects Strong Women
Richard isn't looking for a real life damsel in distress and he doesn't see any merit in teaching little girls to be one either. Go ahead and swoon.
"That old fashion idea of a damsel in distress that needs a rich man to buy her a house and rescue her from a crap life. That’s not the message we should be sending to little girls."
His role as Prince Charming in the recent live action adaptation of Cinderella could have easily been played as the stereotypical prince on a white horse who comes in and saves the helpless princess from a life of misery, but Madden wasn't comfortable playing it that simplistic and outdated. He aimed to create a man that was worthy of Cinderella.
"But it had to be a slightly more complex take than the standard girl-in-distress, handsome-man-saves-the-day thing. We’ve changed the message: he needs her as much as she needs him, and they don’t realize it till they meet."
He was well aware there was very little to no backstory for the Prince Charming character to begin with, so he took it as an opportunity to give his prince his own spin and allow his costar Lily James to play her far from helpless Cinderella as anything but a damsel for him to save.