Jennifer Saunders “my daughter got me obsessed!” the actor discusses her latest passion
We travelled to freezing Finland to meet Jennifer Saunders and learn of her passion for the Moomins…
The temperature is minus 10 outside in snowy Finland and a lavish party is about to get underway inside a top Helsinki museum. Some Finnish TV bigwigs are sipping fizz alongside the country’s politicians and all are here for the glitzy launch of Sky One’s new, no-expense-spared animated series Moominvalley. But the biggest buzz happens when big-name British actors arrive, including Taron Egerton and Rosamund Pike. Jennifer Saunders has also breezed in looking Ab Fab as she’s whisked up to the VIP area.
There we find time to chat about Finland’s iconic Moomin characters, created by the late Finnish author Tove Jansson and on which the new 10-part Moominvalley is based… Jennifer’s very enthusiastic about the project, but admits it was a nudge by her daughter Freya which threw her into becoming the voice of Moominvalley’s Mymble as she reveals here…
Many of us have grown up reading the iconic books... so what do they mean to you?
Moomin
I was never really into Moomins. I remember the books being around, but it was my youngest daughter Freya who just took to them and everything was Moomin this and Moomin that, so I really learned about the Moomin world through her. She’s now 28 and she’s overexcited to be here this evening. She’s just so sad that Moominland is closed for the winter! Freya loves everything that Tove Jansson’s ever written, so when this came up I just thought abso-bloody-lutely I’m doing it.
What’s your take on your character Mymble?
Everything in the Moomins represents part of your psyche or part of life, and Mymble is who Tove Jansson used for “great lover”. Mymble has so many children and is the antithesis of Moominmamma (voiced by Rosamund Pike), who’s the great encompassing mother. Mymble has too many children, forgets how many she’s got, can’t count them and she’s always travelling. She’s a sort of bohemian, so she’s really good fun to play. All the characters are just so bizarre and so wonderful.
There are a lot of strong female characters and a lot of feminist messages…
Well I was reading – because obviously I’ve read everything now as my daughter’s got me obsessed – but the whole thing really is about mothers and building a home. That’s because Tove Jansson wrote these books just after World War II, when everything was destroyed around her. When I was young I just thought the books were a bit weird but I think if you start them a bit older it doesn’t seem quite so obscure.
What do you think audiences will take from this new series?
In today’s world most animations are just loud and everything, but I think these stories are charming and I think kids do respond to that. Just to be left to think and look and not have everything in your face.
What did Freya like most about the Moomin books?
I think she liked the character Little My. She’d been a great one for Pippi Longstocking which is very similar… and apparently Mymble was imagined as a grown-up Pippi Longstocking. She’s independent, mad, could do it all herself, no father around, 300 kids, she doesn’t know where they are but it’s… because she has a sort of red top knot, I don’t know.
Because of the state of Europe and the time Tove was writing her stories, do you think people could draw comparisons to today?
Oh maybe.
Just the coming together and creating something nice rather than something horrible, and a nice message, I suppose.
It would be nice to hibernate in winter like the Moomins, wouldn’t it?
I quite like the idea of hibernating, I must say. I think that’s rather a good idea. Have a good old sleep and wake up when the world is in bloom!
Are there any other characters in the series you like? I like Snufkin, a funny little character that comes and goes. He represents lost love or something like that, he’s got real meaning to him. And I do like the one that hangs in the hammock, the grumpy old muskrat.
“When this project came up I just thought abso-bloody-lutely I’m doing it!”
Did you watch the earlier series? Yes, it wasn’t as gentle as this. The director was keen to give it the feel of the books.
Had you worked with any of the other cast before? No, I never see them.
I’ve met Rosamund Pike once but I’ve never met any of the others. You just work on your own really.
Have you read any of Tove Jansson’s adult writing? I haven’t actually but I’m now going to have to read all her stuff. She was a fascinating person really, a real one-off, a proper artist.
Are you going to take time to explore while you’re here?
I’ve never been to Helsinki before, so I’m looking forward to exploring. And I think Freya and I will definitely be coming back to pay a visit to Moominland! w&h Moominvalley comes to Sky One on Good Friday