Starring Logan Lerman, Matthew Macfadyen, Ray Stevenson, Luke ...

“Casting the Three Musketeers was something that I paid very close attention to,” says
Anderson. “I felt that they really had to have a unity. You have to feel that these men
have kind of lived in each other’s pockets for a long time. They actually live together in an
apartment. It's three big guys in this tiny little apartment. And when they go to war, they
go to war together. So you have to really feel this intimacy that they have. And of course
that's very difficult when you cast roles and you hire actors, sometimes, who’ve never met
one another before. And then they're thrown together on a movie.”
Matthew Macfadyen was chosen as the talented but heartbroken Athos. Producer Robert
Kulzer says of the actor, “He plays the role of Athos brilliantly - with elegance and dignity,
but also with a bubbling undercurrent of violence and brutality."
Macfadyen appreciates his role, especially the depth, “Athos has been betrayed by his
lover Milady, who sold him and his friends out to the Duke of Buckingham. As a result,
Athos is quite grumpy and uncommunicative. He is quite a dark character and drinks to
cover his heartbreak.”
But when D’Artagnan arrives in Paris, Athos recognizes in him all the ideals of his own
youth. “He instinctively warms to D’Artagnan because I think he sees echoes of himself
in this young man – I think all the Musketeers do. D’Artagnan is full of life and
exuberance, which Athos is not anymore because he has seen it and done it all – he is in
the doldrums. The relationship he develops with D’Artagnan becomes very paternal – it
is a heart warming story.”
Anderson adds, “Athos is very much the leader of The Three Musketeers. He’s the first
amongst equals because they're a group. But he’s definitely the one they look to for
leadership. He’s also probably the most troubled of the Musketeers. He’s a man who
was deeply in love with a woman who then completely betrayed him. And that has made
him lose faith in not just life, but life, to a certain extent. So when D’Artagnan meets him,
Athos is a cynical, burnt-out man.
“And it really is D’Artagnan's job to re-energize Athos and bring back that flame that
maybe Athos thought was extinguished. And by the end of our movie, D’Artagnan has
given the Three Musketeers and particularly Athos a new sense of drive and purpose.”
Although they are the closest of friends, each of the Musketeers has very individual
personalities. Luke Evans, cast as Aramis, and fan of the story since childhood, talks
about the Musketeer characters and how they relate to the young D’Artagnan in the
movie. “We all have our separate relationships with D’Artagnan. My character, Aramis
becomes like an older brother to him. He sees this young whippersnapper who believes
he is invincible and can rule the world, and watches him make his mistakes. Aramis likes
and cares about D’Artagnan in very brotherly way, even though at times D’Artagnan’s
youthful bravado grates on him. Athos is the father figure, a lovelorn, heart broken father
who sees himself in D’Artagnan. And then we have Porthos, who is a like the bighearted
uncle, always ruffling his hair and slapping him on the back a bit too hard. We all
have our place.”
“Having arrived in Paris and met up with us Musketeers, D’Artagnan starts to develop.
He comes a long way through the course of the movie – it is his rite of passage. A young
boy who has his sight set on big things and he gets knocked back. He falls in love and
he realizes he has to make some big decisions, so he grows an awful lot. We all grow in
the film. D’Artagnan revives the sense of camaraderie, brotherhood and pride in who we
are. At the end of the day D’Artagnan earns his place – he works hard for it but
eventually he becomes the fourth Musketeer.”
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