Freddie Highmore at the premiere of "The Spiderwick Chronicles" held at the Paramount Studios Theatre in Hollywood, Calif. on January 31, 2008.

Stumbling upon the Unseen World of extraordinary creatures, when he discovers Arthur Spiderwick’s Field Guide to the Fantastical World Around You, Jared meets house brownie Thimbletack (Martin Short), wily but friendly hobgoblin Hogsqueal (Seth Rogen), a pack of dangerous goblins, and the beautiful and mysterious fairies and sprites. Aided by the use of a magical “seeing stone,” or hobgoblin spit in their eye, the Grace children are forced to face the most ominous threat -- the crafty, evil ogre, Mulgarath (Nick Nolte) -- who will stop at nothing to obtain the unbelievable power that is held inside the Field Guide.

To play twins Jared and Simon, filmmakers knew that they needed an actor who possessed real depth, intelligence and soul. They found such a talent in 16-year-old British actor Freddie Highmore (Charlie and the Chocolate Factory). “Personally, I’m somewhere in between the two characters,” Highmore tells MediaBlvd Magazine. “It was great to have the luxury of playing both roles. Jared’s got some anger issues, which I would hope not to have. I’m not going to smash holes in my kitchen. But, I’d like to have the drive that he does, to fight for your family and go for what you believe in.” 

In defining the roles as two separate characters, Highmore took into consideration the things that might have affected them differently, growing up. “Genetically, they’re the same person, so it was interesting to look at how they reacted to different situations. The way they reacted to their parents’ divorce was key. Simon is more internal, but still just as hurt. I altered their body language as well. Also, we worked on the hair-cuts, the choice of clothes and the color schemes that would be used for each of them.”

Because the Graces are an American family, Highmore wanted to make the accent sound has natural as possible. “I tried to talk in it as much as I could, so that it would become second nature,” he says. “That’s important. You don’t want to have to worry about real intrusive R’s, and the vowel sounds. You want to just concentrate on the emotions, which is the important side of the character.”

Sarah Bolger at the premiere of "The Spiderwick Chronicles" held at the Paramount Studios Theatre in Hollywood, Calif. on January 31, 2008.

Irish actress Sarah Bolger (In America), who plays Jared and Simon’s sister, Mallory, was excited to be playing an American character, for the first time. “I work at accents very hard,” says the 16-year-old. “I’ve been studying accents since In America because stuff like that is going to come up. I was thrilled to be able to finally do an American accent in a movie.”

No stranger to family action-adventure films, Bolger admits that The Spiderwick Chronicles was quite a bit more physical for her than her work in Stormbreaker. “Stormbreaker was great and there was some blue screen, but not as much as this movie. With this movie, I was in front of the blue screen, 24 hours a day. The creatures and things were great fun. It was just so unusual to be kicking, slicing and punching things that were nowhere near. It was just air. Or, we would have cardboard cut-outs. But, we would have to do it so many times because we had to give the visual effects people room to make changes with the characters. If we were only looking in a certain direction, then they would only have that certain amount of space to create the character, which is not fair to them. And then, there was the twin thing. There was only one Freddie, there were no goblins and the leaves were added to the forest. It was freaky, and so crazy.”

“It was quite challenging, on the whole, working with CGI creatures and playing twins,” adds Highmore. “I’d have to look at ping pong balls and crosses on the walls, and try to remember which was which. They tried to make it as easy as they could. They showed us various animations of how it would look, so we wouldn’t be going at it without any knowledge at all. But, it was always great fun. If it ever becomes not fun, you should stop doing it and just step aside.”

Bolger also had fencing training, as Mallory needed to be proficient with the skill. “The fencing was difficult. I did five weeks of intense training for it. I would work for three hours straight with the Canadian Olympic fencing coach.” 

Highmore didn’t read the Spiderwick books until he was cast and wanted the help with the characterization. But, Bolger had read them, when they were given to her as a present, after they were first published. “I thought they were fantastic. I really enjoyed them. But, I had to wait to read the last one because it hadn’t come out yet. I was convinced I looked like Mallory.”

Although she does not consider herself a method actress, Bolger loves reading a script and getting into that character, and enjoys experimenting on set. Up next for the young actress is the role of Princess Mary (who was later known as Blood Mary), in Season Two of the Showtime television series The Tudors, about the reign and marriages of King Henry VIII.

“The Tudors is completely different from anything that I’ve done before,” says Bolger. “Mary is a dark character who has been suppressed her whole life. She’s devoted to the Catholic religion and feels that that’s her only escape. It’s the only thing that’s looking after her because she’s forbidden from seeing her mother, and her dad doesn’t want to see her because he’s gone off with Anne Boleyn. It’s such a different role from the feisty, bubbly Mallory. I did so much research for the role. I like history, anyway, but I just think it’s appropriate to do that. Like with school work, if I put a lot of effort in, I feel so much better, when I get the end result. I think it pays off.”

Unlike Bolger, Highmore says that he doesn’t have any acting projects lined up, at the moment. “I have school. There’s these big exams, that we take in England, that I have to take in May and June, so I’m working towards those. They help to get into universities. So, I haven’t got any films planned. Maybe there will be something in the summer.”