Cinderella star Lily James defends her small waist, saying Prince Charming’s tighty whities were worse

LILY James isn’t living a fairytale as critics take shots at her tiny Cinderella waist. But she reckons Prince Charming was worse off with his costume.

HER starring role in one of the most talked-about TV series on the planet, Downton Abbey, tends to overshadow Lily James’s inexperience. At 25 years old, she has logged just five years in front of a camera.

So it’s fair to say pulling on the glass slippers to become Cinderella — following Disney’s hugely successful live-action do-overs of its Alice in Wonderland and Sleeping Beauty (Maleficent) animations — was rather a big deal.

Belle of the ball ... Lily James floats down the stairs in the scene that marked her Cinderella graduation Picture: Disney

The director of this new, reworked Cinderella, Kenneth Branagh, surrounded the young actor with “first division players” of the calibre of Cate Blanchett and Derek Jacobi. Still, he recalls the moment where James kicked off the training wheels to hold her own.

“Walking down those steps at the ball was a big deal for young girl playing Cinderella, amongst a sea of beautiful women and glamorous men,” says Branagh. “It was a big movie moment, with a big dramatic sweep in the story leading up to that moment, where she blooms and blossoms.”

The way James describes it, too, this ball really was her “Cinderella moment”.

“It was really overwhelming,” says the actor, who began her career on the London stage. “But there was so much beauty that I got really swept up in it. The ballroom was absolutely stunning, it took hours and hours to light the 2000 candles and everything was so luscious and romantic that all the fear and nerves I had as Lily were perfect for Ella. All of it was channelled and fused into the moment and it all felt quite magical and apt.”

Her other role ... Lily James as Lady Rose McClare in Downton Abbey. Picture: Channel Seven

In true fairytale fashion, James initially only intended to audition for one of the ugly stepsister roles in the movie, but her blonde Downton ’do (she has naturally brown hair) prompted the casting director to suggest she take a shot at the title role.

She admits to several crises of confidence along the way, but with a little advice from her on-screen fairy godmother, Helena Bonham Carter (who told her, “Darling, have one breakdown a week!”) and Branagh (“He made me focus on the moment and the story, rather than the pressure”), she pushed through.

So, Cinderella moment nailed, James descended the stairs to the ball ... and the real hard work began: pulling off a dreamy dance sequence with her Prince Charming in white tights, played by Game of Thrones’ Richard Madden.

“The dance was hell on Earth,” James groans. “No, it wasn’t really. But it was very hard to dance in that skirt because there were so many layers. I would turn and five minutes later the skirt would catch up with me. And Richard had to ice skate so that he didn’t step on the skirt.

“There were lots of obstacles in the way of it being a very beautiful, romantic moment,” she laughs. “There were a few times where we did it from start to finish without making a mistake. I couldn’t help but giggle because I just felt so full of adrenaline and love.”

Difficult costumes ... Lily James and Richard Madden conquer the epic dance scene in Cinderella. Picture: Disney

While much has been made about the tiny, corsetted size of James’s waist, she reckons Madden had it tougher — tighty whities are unforgiving on the male form.

“I’m going to firmly say that it’s probably worse for a guy to have that than for a girl to have her waist pulled in,” she laughs.

More to the point, James reckons the hullabaloo around her waist size is “boring” and it’s “sad” that women are constantly asked to justify their bodies. Besides, that’s just the type of thing her thoroughly modern Cinderella stands against — downtrodden though she may be, this heroine isn’t sitting around waiting to be rescued by a man.

“I don’t know whether they tell that story anymore; it’s out of date and it’s not relevant,” says James. “We wanted Ella to be a strong character, someone making her own choices and whose strength comes from within. When she meets the prince, she would enrich his life just as much as he enriches hers.”

If it wasn’t for Downton Abbey, James reckons she may not have even scored an invite to the Cinderella ball. She’s quick to acknowledge playing Lady Rose has “changed everything”.

Fans watching the series at Australian TV pace (episode five of the fifth season screens tonight on Channel 7) may want to look away now: At the end of this season, Lady Rose sets sail for America.

So James’s future in the show now hinges on what creator Julian Fellowes has in store for season six. She hopes to come back and has speculated that Lady Rose could possibly return to England “a ruined woman”.

Whatever becomes of the Lady, it’s shaping like a fairytale ending for the young woman who played her.

At the world premiere of Cinderella in Los Angeles earlier this month, James was already a princess to her young fans.

“I had these Louboutin slippers on, very similar to the glass slippers in the film, and these little girls were wearing plastic glass slippers and there’s a photo of us showing each other our slippers,” James recalls.

“It’s a really beautiful thing to be a part of that magic.”

CINDERELLA OPENS THURSDAY (MARCH 26)

Originally published as Cinderella star Lily James defends her small waist, saying Prince Charming’s tighty whities were worse