UK/FILE: Emma Thompson talks about playing a prickly character in new Disney movie.

Record ID: 564777

  • Title: UK/FILE: Emma Thompson talks about playing a prickly character in new Disney movie.
  • Date: 26th November 2013
  • Summary: UNIDENTIFIED FILMING LOCATIONS (FILE) (WALT DISNEY STUDIOS MOTION PICTURES - MUST COURTESY WITH NO ARCHIVE, NO RESALE AND NO WIRELESS USE) EXCERPT OF FILM TRAILER 'SAVING MR. BANKS'
  • Embargoed: 11th December 2013 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: United Kingdom
  • Country: United Kingdom
  • Reuters ID: LVA5BEQZCCE6J281VKGK79IYXQ7O
  • Story Text: Oscar-winning actress Emma Thompson talks about the challenges of playing "Mary Poppins" author P.L. Travers.
    The story behind the making of "Mary Poppins" is at the centre of "Saving Mr. Banks" which stars Emma Thompson as the author P.L. Travers.
    Studio boss Walt Disney, played by Tom Hanks, has spent 20 years trying to convince Travers to allow his production staff to adapt her books, but to no avail. However, when her finances wither, she is put in a position where she has to be in a position of negotiation.
    Deciding to have final proof of the production, Travers heads to Los Angeles and the film "Mary Poppins" begins to take shape - although Travers' fortified character makes the process incredibly difficult.
    Speaking about what made the spiky writer tick, Thompson said "She was determined not to be defined. That's not what she wanted and it's interesting that she at the end has been defined by her greatest creation and because I think she'd say her greatest creation was greater than her."
    The film sees numerous clashes between Disney and Travers as she stands in the way of the studio's animation and even insists that the colour red can't be used in the production.
    Thompson explained that this was a difficult process for the self-made millionaire film maker. "Because on the one hand she gives these children these extraordinary experiences and you expect her to be like Julie Andrews and of course, Walt needed her to be like Julie Andrews. Walt couldn't cope with her being not pretty and not being sweet and kind all the time. That was something he couldn't deal with for all his own reasons. That was because he was different culturally, he'd had a different upbringing and America's culture so so different to ours," she said.
    Some predictors of award season, like on-line outlet Indiewire, are already suggesting that Thompson could once again be nominated for Best Actress. To date, she has won two Oscars - one for her screenplay of 'Sense and Sensibility' and the other for her performance in 'Howards End.'
    When asked how she prepares to transform into a role, the actress replied "Recent prep is no good to you. It's like revising for an exam the night before in a way for me. I need it all to be inside me in an organic way from very early on and then you just have to let go and you have leap off and you have to say 'you have to have faith' in the fact that you've done it before and maybe you'll be able to do it again. You just have to have faith in that, and that's the only way."
    However, the movie doesn't just focus on the relationship between Disney and Travers. A second story is told in flashbacks where a young girl called 'Ginty' gets enchanted by her charismatic alcoholic father (Colin Farrell) while his wife (Ruth Wilson) suffers silently in the background as his drinking spirals out of control.
    For Thompson, watching the movie was a novel experience as she was able to release the character and watch the film with fresh eyes.
    "You stop being somebody and slowly your psyche morphs back into itself with more or less difficulty depending on how badly you want to get back to yourself, which in my case is not at all ever. But anyway, you slowly leech back into your own character, adn then you start watching it as someone else and I found that really wonderful, watching Colin - this wonderful charming man and the drunkeness - oh God! It's just so painful," she said.
    "Saving Mr. Banks" goes on release in the UK and Ireland on November 29th, and then opens around the rest of the world from late December.
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