“I joke about how they were always trying to kill me on that movie,” Noah Hathaway, recalling his turbulent experiences playing Atreyu in 1984’s “The NeverEnding Story,” said. “But they came close a couple of times.”
This fantasy epic has since become one of the quintessential kids’ movies of the ’80s, draped in fuzzy nostalgia and forever linked to Limahl’s irresistible tie-in song which recently made a comeback in “Stranger Things.”
Hathway was only 12 when he was cast as Fantasia’s brave young hero. Directed by German filmmaker Wolfgang Petersen, the movie took viewers deep into a storybook world that served as a literary escape from the real-life troubles impacting introvert Bastian Bux (Barret Oliver). Together, the duo are tasked with rescuing the Childlike Empress (Tami Stronach) and saving Fantasia from a mysterious force known as “The Nothing” that threatens to destroy all it touches — from giant Rock Biters to flying Luck Dragons.
Celebrating its 40th anniversary this year, “The NeverEnding Story” these days means a lot of different things to people all over the world. However, for Hathaway, the movie conjures up a completely different set of memories.
“I didn’t have much fear for a 12-year-old,” he told IndieWire, explaining how his energetic personality as a kid helped him to bag the lead role of Fantasia’s last hope. “I was an athlete and had been pretty much my whole life. My mom used to call me the ‘White Tornado’ because I’d come in spinning like the Tasmanian Devil and wreak havoc. I could go forever.”
Hathaway had already appeared in several projects before “The NeverEnding Story,” including an extended stint as Boxey on “Battlestar Galactica,” but this project felt different. “I knew there was something,” he said of his first time reading the script, which adapted portions of author Michael Ende’s book of the same name. “The way they described Atreyu described me exactly, like the kind of attitude [he had] and how he was.”
These similarities helped Hathway easily embody the movie’s young warrior, a character who flew around on the giant luck dragon Falcor and was originally intended to be green-skinned. “They painted me green once, and it looked like shit,” he said, laughing. “I think they wanted just the ‘good-looking kid’ so they tanned me [instead] … I went to the tanning bed twice a week. It was rough.”
Little did Hathaway know, tanning would be the least of his worries. His tenacious spirit was about to be put to the test, with the first trial occurring before cameras had even started to roll. According to the star, Petersen was notorious for wanting his actors to do their own stunts, and this film called for Atreyu to do more than his fair share — from flying a huge, mechanical Falcor to falling out of trees, fighting puppet monsters and enduring gloopy swamps.
“Before we started shooting I was training on a horse. It got spooked, took off and jumped a fence. I did a somersault, and it fell on top of me and broke my back,” said Hathaway. “I spent two months in traction in a German hospital before we even shot a frame. It was a lot, but I still got back up, and we shot for almost a whole year.” Since the accident, Hathaway suffered health issues that continued into adulthood.
As soon as Bastian starts reading “The NeverEnding Story,” Atreyu carries the adventure forward, with Petersen overseeing what was then the most expensive film made outside of America. Did carrying so much of such a big movie add pressure for someone so young? “There was pressure every day,” said Hathaway. “Wolfgang was a maniac. We’d do 30, 40 takes, sometimes [of scenes like] falling out of a tree. They kept hurting me”
He recalled the battle between Atreyu and the Gmork, an evil wolf-like creature summoned by The Nothing. “[It was] on an air cannon, and someone lined me up directly in front of it. It was a big animatronic that was a couple of hundred pounds. It almost killed me. I was like Frankenstein,” said Hathaway, explaining how he was knocked unconscious. “My dad said I was snoring for like five minutes.”
Then there was the infamous Swamps of Sadness sequence where Atreyu’s trusty white stallion Artax sinks to his death in sticky, foggy, muck. Over the years, urban legends have swirled, suggesting that a horse really died during the shooting of that scene but each has been quickly debunked. Still, it was far from a pleasant time on set.
“I think it was the second-largest soundstage in the world; mud from one end to the other, six feet deep with trees and all this stuff… you enter the set, close the door behind you, and you were in the Swamps of Sadness,” said Hathaway, detailing the scope of the scene. “They spent a lot of time with the horse, just getting him used to sitting in the water, then they’d slowly lower [it into the swamp]. It was [on] a hydraulic lift that slowly sank.”
Two horses were used, and, as an avid animal lover, Hathaway insists neither was hurt — but it was cold. “They would get warmed up with me [under] big blowers,” he said. “You couldn’t wear a wetsuit, so I would start to go hypothermic, and they’d have to blast me with heaters.”
The dry ice used to give the sequence an eerie atmosphere also posed a threat, specifically while filming the moment when Falcor rescues Atreyu from sinking. “I was in the mud, and there was no oxygen under the dry ice, and I passed out under the muck. They were pulling gunk out of my mouth,” said Hathaway. “They were bonkers. There’s no way you could ever get away with any of this today.”
Thankfully, riding Falcor was a little more fun — for the most part. “The puppeteering was all done by Jim Henson’s crew, and they were brilliant. Falcor breathed, and his tongue moved when he talked,” said Hathaway. “The flying scenes were really fun. [Falcor had] a big neck and head, maybe 12 feet long. It was attached to a forklift motor to articulate it, and it’d overheat and toss me. They had to add what they called an ‘oh shit handle’ because it was 15 feet to the [floor].”
While these experiences have lingered, witnessing fans’ intense love for the movie and his performance has given him conflicted feelings about the recently announced multi-film reboot. “I think it’s fine that they’re doing it, and I’m trying to be supportive,” he said. “Do I think it needs to be done? No, but I hope they do a great job I want it to be good.”
That said, it seems unlikely that you’ll see him flying Falcor around Fantasia anytime soon. “No, for me, it doesn’t make sense,” he said of returning to Atreyu. “This movie is really important to a lot of people, and I think that would just cheapen it a little bit.”
Looking back with four decades of perspective, Hathaway cited the countless fans he’s met who have each found identity and solace in Atreyu for helping him to reframe such a tricky experience. “The fans love this movie. It’s mind-blowing and heartwarming,” he said.
“The stories of how it changed people’s lives or ‘I was utterly depressed, and then I remembered this thing from “The NeverEnding Story”…’ How can you not be affected by that stuff?” he said, smiling. “I guess I healed a bit.”
