Bully for Emma, she’s going to mash Matilda!
EMMA THOMPSON has signed up to play Miss trunchbull, the horrible headmistress who bullies a super-bright schoolgirl with magical powers, in a film version of the award-winning musical Matilda.
the part has been reimagined for the screen because on stage, terrible trunchbull, a champion hammer thrower who also enjoys swinging girls by their pigtails, was created by Bertie Carvel (below).
‘the best gender to play a woman, should be a woman,’ one executive on the film told me recently.
Dublin-based alisha Weir will play the book- loving title character. Matthew Warchus, who directed the Royal shakespeare Company production and has been developing the screen adaptation as well, said it was a ‘ huge role’ for the 11-year- old, who got the part after an ‘unforgettable audition’.
she has won awards for her singing and appeared in irish TV drama Darklands, as well as an episode of Dancing With the stars. Warchus said Matilda was about ‘a kid who stands up for what’s right, against what’s wrong; and i think those values are very important to all of us’.
ALISHA will be joined by more than 200 other children, though that figure could rise to 250 once filming starts at shepperton studios in surrey in early april for a four to five-month shoot.
Warchus joked that on stage, they had just about enough kids for one class. ‘Here, we’ve got a whole school!’ Classrooms will be built on sound stages at the studio, though some filming will be done at a property in Berkshire that’s being remodelled into the fictional Crunchem Hall Primary school, which Matilda attends. she lives with her rotten parents, the Wormwoods, who ignore their daughter’s obvious talents, and don’t care that she is being bullied.
Her only adult ally is sweetnatured teacher Miss Honey (lashana lynch who, someday, we’ll get to see in the new Bond film, no time to Die).
Warchus, who is also the artistic chief at the Old Vic, said he liked the fact that Matilda ‘ bigs up intelligence, in an age when, sometimes, ignorance is given credibility’. ‘ it feels pertinent,’ he told me. Bullying is an important aspect, too. Matilda is one of those rare examples of broad family entertainment that’s underpinned by themes of real substance. Based on Roald Dahl’s 1988 novel, the film (like the show) is written by Dennis Kelly, with music and lyrics by tim Minchin. the musical became an instant hit when it opened at the RsC’s Courtyard theatre in stratford in november 2010; after which it transferred to the Cambridge theatre, where it is set to reopen once that’s allowed. it also enjoyed a good run on Broadway. Over the past few years, Warchus and his colleagues have been working with tim Bevan and eric Fellner ( of Working title), and Jon Finn and luke Kelly (the Roald Dahl story Company), to adapt it for the screen. tristar Pictures will release it into UK cinemas, though netflix will distribute it worldwide.
Warchus explained that in the theatre, Matilda ‘trades in a kind of colourful cartoon energy’. But film is a more realistic medium. ‘it’s part of that whole reconceiving of the story, that trunchbull can now be played by a woman,’ he told me.
He was preparing to meet with Oscar-winner thompson to chew over ideas about the character’s look in the film. ‘We haven’t had to build the appearance of trunchbull as a woman before!’ he told me. (though in the original 1996 non-musical film version of the story Pam Ferris was much lauded as the evil head.)
and then Warchus was off, to attend workshops, camera tests and casting meetings. Oh, and to stop by a mass children’s dance rehearsal, overseen by choreographer ellen Kane — with everyone wearing masks and adhering to strict Covid protocols.
early last year, before there had been a gender re-think regarding Miss trunchbull, Ralph Fiennes had been considered for the part.