Some of the cast and crew of new musical INTO THE WOODS were at the London press conference this week to discuss what went into bringing this film from the stage to the big screen.
*warning: contains spoilers*
The impressive cast includes Meryl Streep, Emily Blunt, Anna Kendrick, James Corden and Tracy Ullman and director Rob Marshall was quick to sing (not literally!) their praises. ‘I always feel that if you do your work [with the casting choices], you actually have to do no work at all,’ he said.
Tracy Ullman, who plays Jack’s mother in the film, had plenty to say about her experience filming in the UK. ‘The woods that we built in Shepperton Studios,’ she explained, ‘I remember going in that first morning . . . the trees and the moss and Chris Pine galloping past on a horse . . . Little robins were living in the trees . . .’ Turning to director Rob Marshall, she added: ‘You created this magical world for us. To think it’s not there anymore just breaks my heart.’
After laughing about what happened when Meryl Streep was ‘summoned’ to the house of Stephen Sondheim, things got pretty serious, as the actress talked about her daughter’s very intense reaction to the film.
‘My daughter, who is 22 and doesn’t really like musicals,’ she explained, ‘watched it very seriously and I thought “she hates it, she hates it”. At the end, she said “I love everything about this movie and after the world falls down and there’s debris it reminded me of when we lived in New York and 9/11 happened”.’
Streep explained that her daughter’s school bus stop was at the World Trade Center and ‘she didn’t get to come home for a day and a half because they wouldn’t let people back in Manhattan’.
She continued:
‘She remembered that time and that was her immediate association watching this film. Children know bad stuff happens and I think that ultimately that little potchkey, together family [in the film] is very good news for humanity.’
Streep went on to discuss the struggles for older actresses. ‘It’s good to live in the place where you are,’ she said. ‘This witch was created by a very, very young woman. It was easier to make the transformation. You can put old age on. It’s a lot harder to take it off [laughs]!’
So why did she turn down witch roles when she was offered them in her forties?
‘I had a political reaction against the concept of witches, of old women being demonised and age being this horrifying, scary thing. I didn’t like that. I didn’t like it when I was a little girl and I don’t like it now.’
After director Rob Marshall gushed about the ‘creative force’ that is Johnny Depp – who has a tiny part in the film as the Wolf – James Corden chipped in that he was ‘really cool’.
Corden added:
‘I felt like I was back at school, trying to hang out with the cool guy [laughs]. You’re just hoping a bit of [his coolness] will just land on you for like an hour . . . I was pleased just to be in his orbit for an afternoon – and then I got to kill him!’
INTO THE WOODS is in UK cinemas from today
