STACK NZ May Issue #62

DVD & BD

Q&A

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Meryl Streep on playing theWitch in the big screen version of the musical smash Into The Woods .

Tell us what drew you to the project. MERYL STREEP: When I turned 40, I was offered three witches in one year and I realized this was the way my career was going to go: they don’t know what to do with women past a certain age. So I turned them down and I have said “no” to playing witches ever since. However, I changed my mind when this role came along because this witch is quite different. First of all, she transforms. Her whole reason for being is to reverse a curse that has been placed on her; she sets in motion all sorts of devices and causes a dramatic upheaval in everybody’s lives. I believe fairy tales have evolved as cautionary tales. They were told to scare children away from the dangers they would encounter in their lives and to encourage young women to marry rich men. Everybody is encouraged to find a Prince and live happily ever after and sometimes it doesn’t work that way. This is where the Into the Woods fairy tale becomes reality and it gets really exciting, random, weird and almost like real life. For an actor, they are great fun. Were you familiar with the stage production prior to signing onto the film? I went to see the musical when it was on Broadway with the great Bernadette Peters playing the Witch, and I thought it was fantastic. There is no one like Stephen Sondheim. There is no one who writes singable, character-driven music that tells a story. The wit, the intelligence and the daring in his music is unparalleled, so I was really happy to have the chance to work on it. What makes the musical score so special? I really love the music from Into theWoods . I actually love it more every time I listen to it. When you first encounter the music, it’s arresting but on the second and third listening it has more and more to give you. And when you’re in a musical they pump the music that we’ve recorded in a studio beforehand through

the whole set. I remember coming out of the theatre on Broadway and singing No One Is Alone to myself – that song just pierces you when you hear it. The other songs are equally as wonderful. I have a song that is brand new that Stephen Sondheim wrote for our movie. It’s called She’ll Be Back . It turned out good and that was just thrilling. It’s about Rapunzel leaving and The Witch thinking she’ll be back, but she won’t. We can all relate [to that].

visually. He is the ideal guy to do that. He is also extremely gentle as a man and has a soft touch, never over-powering, no big ego…it is all about the work and making it happen.

He has also assembled an impressive ensemble for this movie…

It’s an amazing cast... it’s a real actors’ group of talent. Nobody ever gets a chance to play this kind of heightened reality, fantasy/fairy tale, and it’s a unique opportunity: actors are chewing it up. I was delighted to be working with Emily Blunt as the baker’s wife again, as she’s wildly talented and has a particular warmth and sense of humor that’s perfect for this…and a gorgeous singing voice as well. And James Corden as the baker is legend because of One Man,Two Guvnors , the show he did on Broadway. And Anna Kendrick… Pitch Perfect is one of my favorite movies, so I loved working with her. I had worked with Christine Baranski on Mamma Mia , who is one of my dearest friends, and she’s diametrically the opposite of the evil stepmother, but

What was like working with director Rob Marshall?

Rob has a percussive sense of the movement of the piece, like a conductor. He has got the rhythm of it in his body. He is a former dancer, so I think it is really important for him to keep the incipient heartbeat of the piece beating and pushing forward; musically, emotionally and

she’s having an awfully good time. And Jack’s mother, Tracey Ullman, is one of my oldest friends, I’ve known her since Plenty when she was 21 years old, so it’s a dream that we’re working together again. I just adore her.

What do you hope audiences take away from the film?

This is a musical with a brain. There is an intelligence at work because it is Sondheim and [James] Lapine. It is visually fun and emotionally satisfying but it also has this other element that engages us as artists and makes

us want to bring everything we can to it. Musically, it is challenging and thrilling and so this is what I hope for the audience: that they will be thrilled and challenged.

• Into The Woods is out on May 6

MAY 2015 JB Hi-Fi www.jbhifi.co.nz

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