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Emily Blunt, Lin-Manuel Miranda and other cast members talk about ‘Mary Poppins Returns’
Los Angeles — When news broke that Disney was making the musical fantasy film, “Mary Poppins Returns,” questions arose: Why a new story? Why not a a sequel instead? Why was Julie Andrews not in this new film? How did the new cast make it the characters own?
We spoke with director Rob Marshall and his cast – Emily Blunt (Mary Poppins), Lin-Manuel Miranda (Jack, the lamplighter and former apprentice of Bert from the original film), Ben Whishaw (Michael Banks, Jane’s brother), Emily Mortimer (Jane Banks, Michael’s sister) — who shed light on some of our questions.
Rob Marshall (director):
On why Julie Andrews was not in the movie, “Mary Poppins Returns”:
Julie is a friend, because I worked with her on Broadway in “Victor Victoria,” years ago, when I was a choreographer I spoke to Julie and first of all, I told her we were doing this, and she was very excited about it.
She said, “It’s so great, there’s so much material.” She’s so supportive. She said, “It’s been 54 years. Please! There should be a sequel.”
I think there would have been, with the exception of the fact that PL Travers was famously very protective of the material. So finally that door opened. So I told her who was playing Mary Poppins, and I remember her throwing her arms up in the air, saying, “Oh, I love her so much!” So that was like, “Whew!” You know? A blessing from her.
Then I opened up this idea, “Would you want to be part of it in some way? Should we create a cameo for you? A role?” It was just a discussion, we hadn’t written anything. She said, “You know what? No.” She said, “This is Emily’s show, this is Emily’s film, she should run with it. I shouldn’t be around it, saying, ‘Oh there’s the Mary Poppins…’” She said, “This is Emily’s moment.” I thought it was so generous and smart.
On why they didn’t do a sequel:
Because of the Travers Estate. I think in the '80s, they tried to do a sequel when Jeffrey Katzenberg was at Disney. I’d read about that, I think with Julie. But the Travers Estate was so protective.
I mean, we know from “Saving Mr. Banks,” even just the film and the stories, she wasn’t a huge fan of the first film anyway, because it departed from her books. So, it was really about finding that moment where they thought it would be okay.
It gave me a great deal of support and confidence that, because I said I would do it, they felt confident to let it happen. So that was a nice vote of confidence. Like, okay, that felt good. But I think they also knew of my great love of the first film, too.
On how Emily Blunt made it her own Mary Poppins:
It really was a challenge in the filming. Emily and I worked very hard to find her own way through this role. The first thing we did was we went right back to the books.
It’s a very unique character in the books, and slightly different. She’s a little brusquer, a little tougher. Kind of strong, in a way, but also kind of a little bit quirkier, almost batty.
It makes her more modern. She treats the kids kind of in a tough way. She’s also very vain. So it’s like this odd combination of things, which I loved about her. She’s always looking at herself in the mirror and she’s more interested in herself. But what’s great is that it’s such a delicious character to play because it’s so layered. Because there’s a façade of sternness, but then you peel that back and Emily brought such warmth to it, and humor.
It’s a funny character, too, and I thought Emily could bring that. So we kept looking to the books. That’s what we really did the whole time. I will say that the balancing act of this film, for sure, and I like said, I did use myself. I thought, “What would I want to see?” As an example, Cherry Tree Lane, I felt, should be on a curve. I would be so disappointed if it was on a straight street, you know? But that was important to me.
At the same time, I knew that I wanted to create two different worlds, a real world of the '30s in London, the Depression Era, so our Cherry Tree Lane has cracks in the sidewalk, has runs down the houses, the paint sort of chipping away. It’s not the pristine fantasy of Cherry Tree Lane. There’s no cherry blossoms at the beginning, you know? It’s that kind of thing. So it was really always looking for our own story, our own way in.
On at which point Emily Blunt came on board:
Well, it’s so interesting because she came on board right away. I knew we would have to build because it’s an original musical, we would have to build something for somebody and their strengths. So, we cast Emily and we cast Lin-Manuel Miranda, very early on. We cast Meryl Streep early on, also Ben Whishaw. Those characters, because we were writing for those characters and it was very helpful to have them when we were writing songs for them.
Emily is such a collaborator. We worked together on “Into the Woods,” and I fell in love with her then. She’s just such a great person, she’s such a joyous person to be around; funny, but she’s also such a great actress. We get each other. Like I see what she’s playing. I don’t know if you notice in the film, those little moments, human moments, glimpses into her, and those little private moments where you feel the beating heart underneath. It’s very easy to make this a two-dimensional character. But it’s really important to find those glimpses, those moments.
There’s a moment when she’s in the bathroom after the kids have gone under the bathtub into this wild adventure. She’s alone. She sits on the tub and she says, “Off we go!” And she’s more excited than the kids. She can show that sort of childlike sensibility, how excited she is for these adventures, even more than the kids. Because that’s what she brings underneath this façade, is this joy of adventure.
What’s so great about the character, then the adventure is over, she denies it ever happened, which I love. I love that about her. That character, it’s so mysterious. Who is she? Underneath, it’s like a coat of many colors, underneath she has this child inside. She’s trying to bring it to this household specifically, the kids of have grown up much too fast, they’re taking on adult responsibilities. They haven’t had that moment to be children. I love that line where the little boy says, “You know, we’ve grown up a great deal in the past year.” And she says, “Yeah, we’ll have to see what can be done about that.” Because they need to experience that wonder, it’s missing in the family and it needs to be righted.
Emily Blunt
On her reaction when she was first offered the part:
I was shocked. I think there was a bit of a stunned silence when Rob said I want you to play Mary Poppins. Honestly, even the phone call to me was filled with ceremony and a sort of energy behind it, so I knew something big was coming down the pipe.
When he said Mary Poppins, I was like oh my goodness, I felt like my hair blew back, I was so stunned. Terribly excited at the same time, and yes I was nervous, but so excited to play her.
On which parts she was most afraid to do:
Probably trying to find courage enough to make her my own and take a big swing and block out all the gasps that I heard from people when I said I was going to play Mary Poppins.
People were gasping and the reaction was so intense. I was like, 'oh my God, everyone is making me very nervous!' So I just needed to let that be like white noise and approach her as I would any other role and just dive into this exquisite script with my exquisite director and everything else became like background noise. So I would say that was the thing I had to overcome. Once I was past it, it really was just a joy.
On her first experience watching the original “Mary Poppins”:
It was one of the first films that I ever saw. Probably at a really young age, six maybe. And because I decided before I played her not to re-watch the original as an adult, I did have this searing memory of her that I wanted to honor yet this was going to be my version of her and I didn’t want to just impersonate Julie Andrews, who is so beautiful and what she did should be treasured and preserved and not butchered by me hopefully.
I knew if I was going to take on this role, I just had to completely carve out new space for myself as this is the next chapter in a different time, a darker time, a darker backdrop, during the Great Depression. I wanted to take a big swing with her, really.
But I do remember as a child, my lasting memory and a lot of kids do feel this with her, is because she is a bit of a disciplinarian and stern, she brings order to chaos and makes everything right again. I remember feeling really protected and safe with her as a child. She is very healing, and then she leaves at the end and I remember feeling very full of grief actually that she goes.
On why she kept her ability to sing a secret from husband, John Krasinski:
He found out on “Into the Woods” that I could sing, I was always quite embarrassed singing in front of people and it was so personal and I just much prefer singing alone in the car or the shower or by myself in the house.
It was never a public thing, I was never that person at a party who would want to sing in front of people. And even in Karaoke, I need a lot of Tequila to do it. So I think he was very surprised on “Into the Woods” and I certainly feel I got over my nerves on that film.
When I embarked on “Mary Poppins,” not only was I working with the great Rob Marshall again, who was such an emboldening and incredible man to be around, I was in safe hands and these songs were not Stephen Sondheim, who really requires all of you. Those were really challenging songs, these were songs that were tailor-made for me and my strengths and workshopped for months and months and months in advance.
On her first job:
I was a babysitter. I babysat from 14, and then I also worked in a catering company, which I was usually washing the dishes in the kitchen. So it was a combination of babysitting and the catering company work.
On her reunion with Meryl Streep, who portrays Topsy, Mary Poppins’s eccentric cousin:
We always seem to play people who are contentious with each other and I feel like all the movies that I have done with Meryl, she is not very nice to me in them.
So I am wondering if maybe we could play friends in the next one and I will try and pitch it to her and she will probably turn around and be like, dream on.
But I adore being around her and I love breathing the same air as her all day and she is so exciting to work with as an actress, completely unexpected and surprising and she throws curve balls at you all day. She is absolutely bonkers in this role and she is so funny.
That’s actually her swinging around the chandelier, she is completely mad. She said to the kids who were doing the scene and everyone was hanging around between takes, 'kids, you ever seen a pratfall?' The kids were like no, and she goes 'watch this.'
She stood vertical and just went like that and just hit the deck. I thought she was dead and like that’s it, that’s how Meryl Streep dies. It was just extraordinary, she fell flat on her face and everyone gasped and the crew were like gasping and ran forward and she stood up and she was like, I learned that at Yale. She is so awesome and she is just the best and the kids were like, she is my hero after that.
On hubby John Krasinski:
He’s a great helper. I have to say I have hit the jackpot with him as a dad. He is incredibly involved and completely devoted to them and it’s a juggle as it is for every parent and any parent who is working and to be honest, we consider ourselves very fortunate because our family, certainly my sister Felicity who is a literary agent, she has two very young children and her job is all encompassing, all consuming, she doesn’t get the luxury of time off, she’s consistently on all the time and wakes up to a thousand emails a day.
That is a real juggle and I get the chance to be like I am not going to work for six months and I am just going to be with the kids. I do find that sometimes it can be a bit all or nothing, like I am either with them all the time or I am working a lot, because the hours are crazy on a movie.
But I don’t think it’s more of a juggle for me than it is for any other mother out there or any other father and John should be brought into the loop with this as well. It’s often women who get asked like how do you juggle it, but actually it’s hard for him to juggle it, too. We try, I have never been away from them for longer than a week, he’s never done longer than two weeks, so it’s just time really isn’t it? If you can fly back for 24 hours, then you do.
On what she is afraid of:
Loss probably. Losing people I love and that is something I worry about. Other than losing my grandmother, which was devastating, I haven’t experienced that yet. I have had a lot of people recently around me who have sort of lost a parent and you get older and your parents get older and you start to get those big thoughts and those big questions come into play. The more you have, the more you have at stake to lose and that is probably what I am scared of.
On who put magic in her childhood:
I would have to say my mother’s mother, my nana we called her. She was kind of like a Mary Poppins for us. She was a very magical person and quite eccentric and bizarre. So she reminded me of Mary Poppins: Funny, warm, loving. She was the kind of person who could rustle up an incredible feast with a few items in her fridge. She was an amazing artist and she would make up stories for us and was endlessly loving. So I would say my nana was a huge influence on all of us.
Lin-Manuel Miranda:
On attracting the younger audience in the new “Mary Poppins Returns”:
We are born poets, we are born with imagination, and some of us choose to specialize in that and some of us grow up and move onto other pursuits. When I am writing music, I am putting myself into what would I want to see in a musical, what happens in my dream musical? And that sensibility was formed when I was a child and when I was growing up.
I can’t account for why teenagers love “Hamilton” so much. It has something to do with the fact that Hamilton and Burr are both wrestling with what do we do with our time on this planet? Teenagers are just getting that sense of mortality. That’s what we wrestle with for two hours and forty-five minutes and we kick every angle on it.
What’s wonderful about “Mary Poppins Returns” is it’s all about regaining that sense of wonder and it’s a family that has very firmly lost it, and Mary Poppins brings it back into their life, but not in a sledgehammer way. She just has these adventures and by the end of it, they have changed and it’s really a kind of sleight of hand. It’s really magical.
On bullying and how it has touched his life:
Bullying has touched my life. I don’t know a person who hasn’t been affected by bullying and I think that it touches all of our lives and how we respond to it and how it marks us, determines how we grow.
And I think that it’s been heartening to see over the past few years how much attention we pay to it and how we increasingly don’t dismiss that as 'boys will be boys' or 'girls will be girls,' but we address it.
And I think that again, to bring it back to “Mary Poppins Returns” which is why I am sitting at this table, I think that there’s something about being a child and that innocence that is so hard to hold onto. It’s so hard to hold onto because life is the way life is and the world does what it does. And what’s wonderful about this movie is that I think it takes us to a place where we maybe forgot about and it’s a joy to be there for two hours.
On his most memorable audition:
The most memorable audition I had was auditioning for “Shrek the Musical,” to play the Donkey. I auditioned because I loved Jeanine Tesori and she is a good friend and this is before we were good friends and I just wanted to hear that material, like what does a Jeanine Tesori Shrek musical sound like? So I did an Operetta version of “You Lose Yourself” by Eminem for the audition and I got called back and I learned some of the Donkey’s material.
It was actually a beautiful song that didn’t make the final cut of that musical, but I really did that audition not thinking I would get the job, but I wanted to hear Jeanine Tesori’s music. But no, you have not seen me in that musical. Although the guy who got it is Daniel Breaker and he is Aaron Burr on Broadway right now.
Ben Whishaw
On the most exhilarating moment for him on set:
There were very many because we had grown up with that film. It was magical to suddenly be back in your childhood imagination on Cherry Tree Lane and you could feel it and touch it and everything. There were really amazing moments, like seeing that incredible dance sequence for the first time that accompanies, “Trip the Little Light Fantastic” and that was amazing, seeing Emily Blunt for the first time all made up was amazing.
On being like his character a little bit:
I am an introspective person. I realize that more and more and I need a lot of time on my own and I don’t know why I do, but I do. So maybe I am kind of in my head and my dreams a lot, but it’s just the way I am and I can’t really seem to change that. I do see that sometimes it’s really odd being an actor which is such a social thing. But I realize that I do need quite a bit of time on my own.
That is maybe one of the reasons why I started to act. I definitely felt like such a freak as a child. I am a twin, and my brother was the kind of person who you expect a boy to be and he came out of the womb, and he was this lovely pink chubby fleshy thing and I came out feet first and I was squashed and weird looking. I always felt like that. I always felt like the squashed dark one. I suppose everything is in relation to him. So he was outgoing, sporty, extroverted and I was the opposite of those things.
On the encouragement he received to be an actor:
I don’t come from an artistic family. We never went to the theater and there weren’t even books in the house, it wasn’t that kind of home. But it was a very loving place, they were very, very supportive and I will forever be grateful for my mom and my dad for that.
They never said, 'oh you better be careful' or 'it’s an unpredictable profession' or 'you better do something more slightly secure.' They just said go for it. I have always thought that is the only way to approach anything, particularly acting.
Then there was a person in my life, a man called Rory Reynolds and he ran a Youth Theater that I went to when I was 13 and I am very grateful for him because he introduced me to writers and theater directors and playwrights and art and philosophy and all sorts of things that I wouldn’t have necessarily come into contact with.He really opened my mind. So he’s an influence for sure.
On whether he would be in the next James Bond movie:
I don’t know yet, they haven’t told me. I love who is going to direct it, Cary Fukunaga. I haven’t seen “Maniac” but I heard it’s brilliant.
Emily Mortimer
On the most exhilarating moment for her on set:
What one starts to feel like at the end of it, was Rob was really invested in making it a magical experience for all of us. So right from the very beginning, he was putting on a show for us as much as he was putting it on for the audience that he was making the film for.
It was all ceremonious and we all walked down Cherry Tree Lane for the first time together and he wouldn’t let us in the studio until it was completely ready and perfect and he wanted to give us the perfect experience all the time.
So it was like you really were in the movie often and you were getting the same kind of thrill that the audience is getting from watching the movie just being on the set.
He would play music from the score that we were recording or else from the original movie and bits of “Feed the Birds” or something as we were about to start an emotional scene.
It’s in his bones and blood, the need to entertain and put on a show, and he was giving us this amazing show every day. Then more and more crazy things happening, suddenly there was Dick Van Dyke dancing on a table and Angela Lansbury handing out a balloon and Lin and Emily being so beautiful and it was just full of wonder, the whole experience.
On Ben Whishaw:
Working with him as an actor is an amazing thing, because he’s so humble. He doesn’t take up any space. I mean before you get on the performing of it, in the rehearsals, he doesn’t present himself as this huge talent that he is. It’s just very beautiful watching him act because I mean, it’s just something happens and there he is and everything feels right. Considerate isn’t the right word because I mean I know that he thinks a lot about things and worries a lot about things and puts huge amounts of thought and effort into everything that he does and every performance that he gives. — LA, GMA News
