Born Georgina Helen Henley on July 12, 1995 in Ilkley, West Yorkshire, England, Henley was the youngest of three daughters born to Mike and Helen Henley. She got her first taste of performing as a member of the Ilkley Upstagers’ Theatre Group, a well-known amateur troupe based in her home town, but had no prior on-camera experience prior to auditioning for the role of Lucy Pevensie in “Lion.” Her naturally precocious nature won over director Andrew Adamson and his casting team, so she traveled to New Zealand for three months to shoot the special effects-laden epic. Henley’s Lucy was largely the focus of “Lion;” it was her excursion into the title wardrobe that uncovers the world of Narnia, and her relationship with the faun Mr. Tumnus (James McAvoy) spurs her to enlist her brothers and sister to help rescue the creatures of Narnia from the reign of the White Witch (Tilda Swinton). Later in the novel and film, Lucy aids the lion Aslan (voiced by Liam Neeson) in rescuing the Narnian creatures that have been turned to stone by the Witch, and saves her brother Edmund (Skandar Keynes) when he is gravely injured in the final clash with the Witch’s forces. In interviews, Henley said that she attempted to put her own spin on the character and make her more independent and active than the version penned by C.S. Lewis in his book. In the film’s finale, where the Pevensie children are seen as adults, Lucy was played by her older sister Rachael.
While shooting “Lion,” Henley was inspired by the New Zealand setting to pen two fantasy-themed books, one of which she sold to benefit the World Wildlife Fund. Upon her return to the UK, she remained active in local theater and continued her education, but the relative calm of her home life was soon interrupted by the worldwide acclaim for “Lion.” Not only was the film a financial and critical hit (it was the third highest-grossing live action film for Disney), but Henley was largely singled out by critics for her impressive debut performance. She earned three trophies for the film – a Young Artist Award for Best Performance in a Feature Film By an Actress Ten Years or Younger, as well as Best Supporting Actress (Youth) from the Phoenix Film Critics Society and a Carnie from the Character and Morality in Entertainment Awards, which she shared with her castmates and the filmmakers. Henley also received several notable nominations for her performance, including the Empire Awards UK and Broadcast Film Critics Association Awards.
In 2006, Henley appeared as the young Jane Eyre in a BBC 1 production of the Charlotte Bronte novel; she also co-starred in a stage production of “Babes in the Woods” with the Ilkley Upstagers that same year. In 2007, she returned to New Zealand to begin production on “Prince Caspian,” the film adaptation of the second “Narnia” novel. Lucy’s role in the sequel was expanded even further to include her in several action sequences (per Henley’s request, according to Adamson). Growing up on film, the actress was even required to wear prosthetic teeth in several scenes, due to the loss of her own natural baby teeth. Henley also signed on to play Lucy again in the third “Narnia” sequel, “The Voyage of the Dawn Treader” (2010), which was scheduled to begin filming with director Michael Apted in Mexico in late 2008. Despite her busy schedule, Henley remained non-committal about her future as an actress, stating in interviews that she would be equally pleased if she became a cartoonist or an author when she grew up.