I love Josh Dallas as Prince Charming on “Once Upon a Time.” Does he enjoy playing a fairy-tale prince?
—Kate Huschitt, Venice, Fla.
Dallas, 31, says it feels good, but he tends to think of it as just another role, rather than focusing on the fact that he is playing a fairy-tale icon.
“I can’t come into work every day and think that I am playing Prince Charming,” says the Louisville, Ky.-born actor. “The pressure of that would be far too great. What we’ve done with our show is we’ve reinvented him in many ways—not just Charming, but all the characters—their histories and their back stories. We tried to create a Charming who is more accessible and more of an everyman. Yes, he has a great moral compass, he is honorable and he is brave. If those things come across as charming, so be it.”
When Dallas first landed the role and told people about it, the reaction he got was a lot of giggles, but once those same people saw that he isn’t running around in tights and singing at the wishing well, like in the animated Disney version, things calmed down.
“What drew me to ‘Once Upon a Time’ was a chance to take all these characters that we know and love and say, ‘This is what you don’t know about them. We are going to show you a different side of these characters.’”
Growing up, Dallas’ favorite fairytale was the story of Pinocchio, and he was also a fan of Winnie the Pooh, which, while not a fairy tale, was also made into a memorable movie by Disney.
“I came to fairy tales later on in life,” he says. “‘Snow White’ I saw for the first time on the big screen [when I landed this role]. TCM [Turner Classic Movies] was doing this big, classic movie festival in Hollywood. I think they are wonderful stories to go back to.”
