Emma Thompson, Stephen Graham & Lashana Lynch On ‘Matilda the Musical’ — London Film Festival
05.10.2022 - 16:41
/ deadline.com
Emma Thompson, Stephen Graham, and Lashana Lynch passed through the London Film Festival on Wednesday, where they discussed their new film Matilda The Musical, directed by Matthew Warchus.
The musical is a modern take on Roald Dahl’s classic story of an extraordinary girl who discovers her superpower and summons the remarkable courage, against all odds, to help others change their stories whilst also taking charge of her destiny. Standing up for what’s right, she’s met with miraculous results.
In the film, Emma Thompson plays the mean and physically imposing Miss Trunchbull, a role that has historically been played by a male actor. However, Thompson said the film’s producers told her they were trying to push this adaptation of the story away from this tradition.
“I said how much like a man do you want me to play it. And they said, no, we’re moving away from that but I need her to be absolutely real,” Thompson said of her early discussions with the film’s producers.
Thompson added that she began to research the childhood of British poet Dame Edith Sitwell, who she said was tortured as a child, to shape her performance as Miss Trunchbull.
“I decided that Trunchbull was cruel because she couldn’t bare her own childhood. And she just couldn’t bare any vulnerability in children. So we sort of approached it from a very real point of view. It was fascinating,” she said. “I also had a fantastic amount of fun with the prosthetics and creating her shape and her massive athleticism and strength. She was probably physically the most demanding thing I’ve ever done.”
In the film, which opens the London Film Festival on Wednesday evening, Lashana Lynch plays the popular character of Miss Honey, who guides young Matilda through