Ella Enchanted is an charming family fantasy adventure starring Anne Hathaway in the title role as Ella and Hugh Dancy as the dreamboat Prince Charmont. I joined Mr. Dancy in Atlanta to talk about his role in Ella. He also will appear as Galahad in the Antoine Fuqua film King Arthur in theaters this summer.

“Prince Charmont, known as ‘Char’ is kind of rock starish which I think is fairly realistic.” Dancy told me. “Nowadays there aren’t very many princes kicking around getting media attention, but the idea was that he has a kind of fan club and where ever he goes he is followed by screaming girls. Then he finds it quite tedious and doesn’t want the fame and the responsibility that goes with it. That was the starting point and made it more interesting to me that the traditional prince story.”

“The beginning of Char’s awareness is meeting Ella.” Dancy said.

I asked Dancy about weilding swords in both Ella Enchanted and King Arthur.

“I had a little training [in the use of weapontry] not to hit someone. And they are real swords, well, they aren’t sharp, but they are metal, a different kind of metal. And in Ella, I was fighting ninjas with a staff which is one of the many ways it is not a traditional fairy tale.”

“There is lots of weapontry in King Arthur, loaded down with weapontry. I used a dagger, an axe, a sword, a spear, and a sheild with blades around the edge.”

Comparing King Arthur to Ella Enchanted and the character of Galahad with Char, Dancy told me, “King Arthur was more gruelling. It is a much more darker version of the story. But [with Ella] there was work in the light comedy.”

“In this version of the story [King Arthur] they are warriors and it gets to what is the root of their heroism. In this version they are very hard men and they are fighting against their will and Galahad being the youngest of the group resents it.”

In Ella Enchanted Dancy had the opportunity to work with veteran Monty Python alum Eric Idle. Dancy told me that he favorite Python film is Life of Brian.

“Of course, when doing King Arthur you always have Holy Grail in the back of your mind but you don’t want to stray into parody.”

I joked with Dancy that everyone on the King Arthur set must have been on the lookout for rabbits.

Ella Enchanted is in theaters now; King Arthur will hit theaters in July.