FREDDIE HIGHMORE: No, I don't mind it too much. I wouldn't sort of go and watch it over again and again and again and get it out and rent it on DVD. But I don't mind seeing it once or twice and seeing how it turned out — especially with this one. It was really interesting to see the twins come and actually work together and see myself in two places at one time.

Q: What did you think when you saw the finished version, especially after all the special effects were put in and the CGI that was done afterwards?

FREDDIE HIGHMORE: You've just got to trust the people when you're shooting it and just go along with what they're saying and see how it comes out. And I think it was great and I think they did a fantastic job and it looks believable, you know, all the goblins and trolls.

Q: What kind of music or musical artists or bands are you into?

FREDDIE HIGHMORE: Lots of different types. There’s no particular band or artist. I mean maybe I tend to listen to sadder songs some of the time, you know, more emotional ones perhaps. I'm not a sad person. I don't go and cry every [time] but…

Q: Do you like ballads more?

FREDDIE HIGHMORE: Yeah, I guess. It just seems more emotional, but it depends on your mood. I'm sure everyone has many types of music that they enjoy. It depends how I feel.

Q: What do you have coming up next?

FREDDIE HIGHMORE: There's school and stuff like that. [Laughs] There's these big exams I've got to take in May and June of this year so I'm working towards them and revising for that. But there's no other film that I've got planned for the moment, but maybe something in the summer.

Q: Are these O Level exams?

FREDDIE HIGHMORE: GCSE’s (General Certificate of Secondary Education). I guess they're kind of big exams that we take in England. They help to get into universities and stuff like that, and then we take another two years for A levels which are only four subjects. So you want to do well in this one as well.

Q: How do you handle your schooling? Do you have a tutor on set and then you go to a private school in London when you’re not working?

FREDDIE HIGHMORE: Yeah, I go to a normal school in London with my friends and near my home. I can go and walk in the morning which is nice. I guess I'm just a normal kid apart from the acting. I mean school's important. You've got to keep going at it. Yeah, we always have a tutor who comes out from England to help us.

Q: You’re on record as saying you’re not sure whether you want to continue acting as an adult. How do you feel about that?

FREDDIE HIGHMORE: No, I mean, I guess what I really said was that you can't be sure when you're very young what you want to do exactly when you're older. I’m sure I can change my mind and wake up tomorrow and think I'd love to try something else, love to do this sort of thing I didn't realize I wanted to. So you just keep your options open and at the moment it's great fun doing acting, but don’t set everything on doing it.

Q: What do you enjoy most about acting?

FREDDIE HIGHMORE: I really like the people that you meet. They’re really interesting I think, and the top guys, the ones I've been able to work with. Also, you know, it gives you the opportunity to travel a lot and that's been fantastic. I've been to so many places in the world and I guess the one that's perhaps been the most amazing place [is] Cambodia and working in the jungles there with baby tigers. You'd never get that experience or opportunity.

Q: You’ve worked twice with Johnny Depp. Do you have any plans to do anything else with him? I’m sure you’d like to work with him again?

FREDDIE HIGHMORE: Yeah, no, definitely. He's a fantastic actor and a great guy so I'd be lucky to do more stuff with him.

Q: Who else out there would you love to work with some day?

FREDDIE HIGHMORE: Maybe just the same people again. They've all been so nice. There've been some pretty top people and it would be great to do the same stuff like that.

Q: Holly Black and Tony DiTerlizzi have talked about this book as being sort of their American version of a lot of British stories such as Peter Pan, Harry Potter, and Alice in Wonderland. Since this is an American story, do you approach it from a universal standpoint or do you have to change your perspective to see how Americans would see it?

FREDDIE HIGHMORE: No, I guess we're not too different. Apart from the accents and stuff that I had to work on for the film, you know, I didn't have to go and live in America for ages to realize how to play the character. I think it's more important about their personality rather than where they come from in the world.

Q: What was the strangest direction that Mark gave you because everyone has had a story so far about some bizarre direction that he’s called out? Do you remember anything in particular that he said to you?

FREDDIE HIGHMORE: No. I'm the only one to disappoint you in this way. No, he was always great. He’s a great director. He'd tell you what he wanted, so in that way at the end of the day, you knew what you'd done would be good.

Q: Was he funny when he was doing the Mulgarath’s voice? He said he acted out some of the ogres?

FREDDIE HIGHMORE: Yeah, he did. He had the water’s whale.

Q: Water’s whale?

FREDDIE HIGHMORE: Yeah, this sort of big, loud, booming noise over everyone else on the loudspeaker as Mulgarath. [makes a sound imitating Mark’s version of Mulgarath’s voice] so he was interesting. But yeah, he was really fun, and he just made it a good atmosphere on the set.

Q: When you found out you’d be working with Nick Nolte, did you watch any of his movies?
FREDDIE HIGHMORE: No, I didn't go specifically for that to watch any of his films. I mean I think he's a really powerful actor and he brings a lot to the film. He's got that sort of edginess about him and that makes it a little bit more scary.

“The Spiderwick Chronicles ” opens in theaters on February 14^th.

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