As if listening to Meryl Streep, Christine Baranski and Tracey Ullman laugh and joke about their respective roles for the Disney’s Into The Woods was not the highlight of the Into The Woods press event, James Corden (“The Baker”); Emily Blunt (“The Baker’s Wife”); Anna Kendrick (“Cinderella”); Chris Pine (“Cinderella’s Prince”); Producer Marc Platt, Director Rob Marshall and Screenwriter James Lapine were equally delightful and funny.
I bet you are wondering how the Into the Wood original story came about. Screenwriter James Lapine, remarked that he had a fascination with fairy tales and tried to write an original fairy tale but discovered that it wasn’t that easy because “fairy tales are really short.” He then went onto write The Baker and The Wife story and then weave in existing fairy tales.
Tween fave Anna Kendrick (star of Pitch Perfect) is certainly not playing your stereotypical Cinderella. She spoke about “how Director Rob Marshall was very interested in having a modern sensibility for these characters.” She compared her character to the notion that women don’t listen to their gut and “have to look at everything from every angle.” Noting that Cinderella allows herself to get into a better situation with the Prince but then realizes it’s completely fake and “the Prince is so vacuous.”
Speaking of Cinderella’s Prince played the Chris Pine (yes, Star Trek’s Chris Pine), the Prince says during a key scene “I was raised to be charming, not sincere” of which Pine spoke about that one line informed his character. The Prince is given the opportunity to reflect on his effect on Cinderella but only for a moment and then chooses to get back on his horse and ride off. I loved that Chris Pine auditioned for the role not knowing anything about Stephen Sondheim or the play but best of all he only had a night to prepare a song for his audition with Rob Marshall. And it was after the audition finding out how iconic and popular the play was is when he got nervous about the role.
One of my favorites during the press event were Emily Blunt (The Baker’s Wife) and James Corden (The Baker), maybe it’s because they have that English humour about them. Emily jokingly wondered if Chris Pine was okay when she first saw him at the beginning of the press event because she had only seen him with a tan during the filming. And she’s right, in the movie, Pine is the perfect prince, handsome, perfectly coiffed and tan.
The one revelation that will stand out for movie goers is James Corden who plays the Baker. James Corden, you say who is that? Trust me, this famous Brit is about to break huge in the U.S. One of my favorite moments during the interview was Corden’s speaking about how “terrifying” it was to walk on set on the first day and how during the first week, he went home to his wife and said “Babe, honestly, I’m deadly serious. I think I might get fired.” But then he went on to talk about how Meryl Streep puts you at ease “because she leads from the front and makes you feel like a company of actors.” Who doesn’t love Meryl more after that comment?
Emily Blunt best known for her role in The Devil Wears Prada also starring Meryl Streep is a great actress but a singer. She did in fact have to audition for the role but was reluctant to go in for the audition because of the singing. Director Rob Marshall called her agent saying he wanted actors who kind of sing not the other way around. So after getting the role and getting over the fear of singing in front of other people, she did take lessons to prepare for the role. And in the end, she realized “how joyful it was to sing and be around music and then one day be able to sing with a 65 piece orchestra with Stephen Sondheim in the next room.” That is career defining moment in my opinion.
Fun factoid of the day: Emily Blunt would like to be Princess Jasmine because she always wanted a pet tiger and Anna Kendrick wants to be Ariel because she wants a flounder and a pet crab.
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James Corden (The Baker); Emily Blunt (The Baker’s Wife) and Director Rob Marshall
Anna Kendrick (Cinderella) and Chris Pine (The Prince)
