Revealing My Epic Interview With Penelope Wilton And Rebecca Hall

You rarely get to talk to royalty.  Granted, my royalty is the queen in the movie The BFG, but it still counts in my book!  While in LA, I interviewed Penelope Wilton, who plays “The Queen,” and Rebecca Hall, who plays Mary.  They both were a delight to talk to and get good insight from.  

Penelope Wilton

Rebecca Hall

One of the first questions we asked the ladies was how they got involved in the project.  Penelope told us:

Well, I got a phone call and my agent got a phone call and said Steven Spielberg wants you to do this film, “The BFG,” and I said yes.  If Steven Spielberg wants you to do a movie, you do it. Wouldn’t you say?

Now, she was laughing as she told us that, but she did have a point!   Then Rebecca told us:

I had exactly the same thing. I got a call saying it’s not a very big part but he has asked specifically for you to do it.   I’m like well, I’ll do it, of course I will. Also, BFG is a book that as a child I loved, so even before I’d read the script or knew what the part was, I was like yes, certainly I want to be a part of that!

Penelope also recently got named a dame, so we asked her about that.

Well, it’s rather surreal actually, to be quite honest with you, being a dame.  They write to you and they sent it to the wrong address!  Then another one went out to my agent and then it said priority because obviously they  hadn’t heard. They asked if the Prime Minister puts your name forward to the Queen, would you accept it?  I said I would.  Then they said you must not tell anybody until it’s released which was six weeks after.  Then there was a total silence, and of course, then I thought I dreamt that.   It wasn’t until a week last Sunday that it came out in the papers and it did actually say my name so then I thought oh thank God. 

We also asked both women what it was like to work with Ruby Barnhill (she plays Sophie).  Penelope told us:

Oh, she’s a darling. Well, we both loved working with her and Rebecca will tell you, she’s got the most wonderful sense of humor and she’s a lovely girl. She also takes direction very well, and she concentrates.  When you’re young, repetition is really boring. I mean, you do it twice and then why would you ever want to do it again? She sort of managed it, didn’t she?

Steven worked tremendously well with her and worked very fast.

Rebecca added:

She was, she was a consummate professional.  She was also brilliant at just being a person on the set.  I remember her knowing everyone’s name, the crew and like coming in in the morning and being like all right how are you doing, Jim, all right? You know, that sort of thing just really made me laugh all the time.  We did all sorts things. She made me work out dance routines. She gave me a nickname because of my purple dress. I was Purple Swan for some reason.

Next, we asked them what their favorite scene from the movie was. In reply, Penelope shared:

I like the dreams, because it’s written in the book that they catch the dreams.  Steven made the dreams so beautiful and then the angry dreams ( the red dreams) when they get caught in the bottle, when they go under the water then, I loved that. I thought that was a lovely sequence but there were so many. I mean, I loved the giant.

Rebecca added:

I did too. Actually, I’ve got to say, it’s when when you have a problem with the wind is probably my favorite.  

Once you see the movie, you will understand what she meant there!  It is an awesomely funny scene! We then asked what they wanted people to walk away with from this film.  Penelope said:

On the very basic level I want people to enjoy being taken to that world because it’s a wonderful story written by a great storyteller meeting another great storyteller and a visual storyteller.  If you get those two together, it’s a wonderful combination, but also it is people learning to understand themselves and learn that you have to just believe in yourself.  Little Sophie, who doesn’t have much, but when she meets somebody who has even less than she does and he’s 20 foot tall, they sort of work as a good team and they both of them understand that they are outside the norm.  They give each other confidence and when you have confidence in yourself you can take on the world.  I think that’s the overall message of the movie. 

We then asked about the fact they are playing a kind of childhood literary character change the way that they wanted to portray that character on screen. Rebecca told us:

I couldn’t, because Mary, in the book is very much a maid. She’s drawn by Quentin Blake in a maid’s outfit with even a feather duster. It’s a very different sort of character that Melissa Mathison and Steven sort of created.

Penelope told us:

I think that you can’t always do exactly what’s written and it’s a disappointment to some people because they have made up their own minds as to how they see that person when they read the book.  I thought the best way to play the Queen was to try and be the Queen as best I could.  If I had made a fantasy Queen in a fantasy, they would have cancelled each other out, but if you have a real Queen in an extraordinary situation, then it’s a much more interesting story, wouldn’t you say?

We’ve played them very straight and then we were put into this extraordinary situation and then it works better.

I was helped a lot by Joanna Johnson with my wig and my clothes.  I had the Queen’s glove maker make my gloves and the Queen’s bag maker made my bag.

We asked what makes the film special to both of them. In response, Penelope shared:

I’m lucky Steven Spielberg has done great things in my life, in my career actually, so that was special. Also, this is a wonderful story, wonderful to be part of something that, well I hope a lot, a whole generation of young children will remember like they did “E.T.” because it will be a stand up moment in the film so for all those reason.  Also I met and worked with Rebecca here so that was lovely, too.  I worked with Rebecca’s father, Sir Peter Hall, when he ran the National Theater so I remember when she was born.  

Rebecca added:

I remember a figure who I’ve always admired and loved from a far so it was a real treat to get to work properly with Penelope.  It’s the combination of two such hugely influential people in my childhood, Roald Dahl and Steven Spielberg, as a child those were, the creative output of both those people really influenced me and I loved and so  to have both of those together was wonderful.

In conclusion, we had a great time with this interview with Penelope Wilton and Rebecca Hall.  I mean, how often do you get to interview the Queen?  They were both so fun and so lovely.  

The BFG opens July 1st.  Make sure you go see it!