Rebecca Ferguson Had ‘Loads of Crazy Ideas’ for Her Magic Faraway Tree Villain | Director Interview

(Photo Credit: Vertical)

Rebecca Ferguson’s wild ideas about her villainous character in The Magic Faraway Tree changed the new fantasy movie. The Magic Faraway Tree director Ben Gregor discussed the adaptation, working with Rebecca Ferguson, and more. Also starring Andrew Garfield, Claire Foy, Nonso Anozie, Jessica Gunning, and Jennifer Saunders, it arrives in theaters nationwide on August 21.

“Adapted from Enid Blyton’s beloved classic novel The Magic Faraway Tree, the film centers on Polly (Foy), Tim (Garfield), and their three children – a modern family forced to relocate to the remote English countryside. As they adapt to their new lives, the children discover a magical tree and its extraordinary and eccentric residents, including treasured characters Moonface (Anozie), Silky (Coughlan), Dame Washalot (Gunning), and Saucepan Man (Dustin Demri-Burns). At the top of the tree, they are transported to spectacular, fantastical lands, and through the joys and challenges of their adventures, the family learns to reconnect and value each other for the first time in years,” says the official synopsis.

Tyler Treese: Ben, congrats on the movie. I found it a lot of fun. I’m a bit of an ignorant American, though. Can you tell me a bit about your relationship with the book? Is it one of those foundational kids’ books in England? I was not aware of it until I watched this film.

Ben Gregor: Yeah. It’s an imaginative, universal fantasy adventure. Enid Blyton is known. She’s great. This is quite an obscure book of Enid Blyton, as Enid Blyton goes, but it’s part of a kind of galaxy of things that I grew up reading in beanbags with my sister, like Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Lord of the Rings, Narnia. These are big-hearted adventures that combine a kind of domesticity, whether it’s Hobbits in the Shire or Arthur Dent being quite normal in Hitchhiker’s, and Narnia as well.

It’s all grounded and then suddenly goes crazy. It’s a way that we like to tell stories in the UK. I think it really chimes with the US, like Spielberg and the amazing work on big movies like Hook and E.T., and that adventure and danger and making new friends that makes it so appealing.

It definitely has that Amblin quality to the film. The original story came out in 1939, and I thought you guys added so many small modernization elements that were so smart, like the whole tech element and the kids being glued to their phones. What did you like most about adding these small tweaks to the story that keep it faithful but also update it and make it relevant to modern times?

It’s really funny because Simon Farnaby, the writer of Paddington 2, is great at adapting stuff. He wanted to have kids who didn’t want to go on an adventure to start with. In the books, they’re like, “Oh, goody, let’s go to the woods. Let’s do our chores. Yes, thank you, Mommy.” They’re amazingly dutiful kids that just don’t exist anywhere anymore.

These ones are just like, “Oh, God, no.” That’s an exciting place because then the transformational power of adventure and imagination and risk changes them. They get into it.

In a way, we used it in a playful way. We didn’t want to do a preachy anti-tech film. Everybody needs to give their kids an iPad now and again so that they can answer emails from work that they’re getting on a Sunday night.

We live in this expectation. For parents, you’re not a bad parent if your kids are on screens. Everybody’s got a longing. Everyone’s got a longing as a parent to go, “I just want that family moment.” When you see a family out to dinner and everyone’s just on their phone, it is like, “Oh, come on.” I feel their pain.

I think coming together, going on an adventure, and making it seem fun, that’s what we wanted to do.

Those are wonderful points. The true fantasy in this film would be if the kids wanted to do their chores.

Ben Gregor: That’s correct. They do end up doing it. They’re doing it by the middle to the end of the film. They’re helping on the family project.

It doesn’t look like a chore. They’re having fun doing it. I think it helps if you’re doing tasks as a family. I think it’s nice to do projects.

I want to ask you about working with Rebecca Ferguson because she’s just having the most fun as the villain. She’s going all out. I can tell she was just having a blast. How was it workshopping that character with her?

I adore Rebecca. I adore her. She is one of the best. She’s so great. She really wanted to come in and play. She had loads of crazy ideas.

She was like, “I want to see her happy. I want to know what she wants. I want to do a lesson where she’s happy.” I’m like, “It could be a music lesson.” We sang this song. Rebecca’s actually Swedish, so she’d never heard “Teddy Bears’ Picnic.” I had to teach her this old English song.

It was fun. She had a crazy tooth. She wore a wonky costume. She was delightful and so rock and roll. What a great person. I love her.

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Thanks to Ben Gregor for taking the time to talk about The Magic Faraway Tree.

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