The ‘Wonka’ Cast on Recording "Pure Imagination", Favorite Candy, and More

[Music] you see I'm something of a magician inventor and chocolate maker so quiet up and listen down nope scratch that reverse it congratulations on the movie loved it loved it loved iten it four times already one thing that four times yes one thing that is as sure as sugar you Timothy every film that I have seen you in you have such a natural way on camera where you don't see the acting thank you very understated very natural very few actors can do that this was the total opposite it required something very different of you singing dancing something more outwards what was that adjustment like for you in becoming Wonka it was a tonal adjustment because um the movies I've been in even something like Dune that's 8,000 years in the future they have a very naturalistic quality and this was very much like old school storytelling sort of like golden age of of musical MGM musical as you put it before so that was a shift you know um and a sort of like a stamina um adjustment to always be on you know um because the character as opposed to Willy Wonka and the Tim Burton version and the Gene Wilder version who's sort of intaking what's what's going on I think in the Gene Wilder version he shows up maybe 30 45 minutes into the movie this is really like the Willy won is the uh he's propelling his own story here cuz it's a it's a different story uh so it was a new challenge yeah yeah let it all your inhibitions have to go in absolutely which sort of felt like um even when I remember seeing uh Daniel de Lewis at a Lincoln Q&A in high school and he said uh how important failure is letting him go and that always stuck with me cuz he's probably the goat he is the goat yeah and so definitely having to let go of inhibitions here and then I shouted do a sequel it was the greatest I'm going to show that to you at the end of this that that was the greatest that was one of my top high school moments oh my gosh a sequel to Lincoln well from goats to Gods cuz I don't know if you're aware of this but Timothy called you an athletic comedy God did you call those exact words oh my goodness so I want to know from you because this you've done theater you've done obviously you have your comedy Roots I want to know for you this was almost like a balance in a sense right like sketch comedy CU there was so much there's like one shot of you through a keyhole where I'm like the facial expression alone comedy God so creating this cop I want to know how you did that first of all to be quite honest a lot of it was done for me through that amazing hair and makeup team and the amazing wardrobe team they they were unbelievable they they were like half of it so they were I was putting the character on it was a lot it was very outside in and um there was some inside out elements as well like the dialect so I I got to really hide in a character which was really fun I I don't always get to do that sometimes it's just you know sometimes you're in a movie and it's just it's just a version of you whereas here I felt that I got to I got to really hide in inside of something and that and that was what propelled the character forward it was really great it was so much fun through the whole movie in my brain the first time I watched it I was like please sing Pure Imagination please sing it please sing it I'm wondering for you what was the process of recording that like it was it was different than the other songs the other songs were really pre-recorded at Abby Road which was a trip in and of itself the beginning half of Pure Imagination was live you know uh which was a huge help because uh you know James Taylor our musical supervisor he was there with the piano and had a little earpiece that was playing but there was no rhythm I to stay within in fact I don't know how they'll do it on the on the soundtrack or whatever but it's not it wasn't in Rhythm when I did he has to come with me and then you know it could take the Beats necessary seeing noodle walk away and you know um I totally butchered it there but uh that was the that was the scariest one to tackle but the rest of it when he's no spoilers once he's gallivanting with the oal Loompa that was all pre-recorded in the role that he was born to play by the way the role he was born to play um I talked to Paul and Paul told me cuz I said you've left a lot of room in between cuz it's 25 years between the end of this film and the next one and he told me he wants to take you so dark in the next one would that be interesting to you obviously you're not doing a SE you're not confirming you're doing a sequel but do you think that would be interesting play that part of something happens and you know the sort of family friend screenings we we've had her that Keegan has set up that's my favorite sort of um kind of conclusion from this movie because I had that thought too finishing the script because he's such a joyful character we don't really get the seeds of his you know you lose Charlie like that that that quality so something happened I'm curious about it I don't I don't know if Paul knows Paul King knows but uh what happened to this young young man that you know curdles his Spirit but would that be something you would want to do yeah I'd be so curious what that story is could be anything it could be anything it yeah it could go in so many different directions yeah yeah I have something real quick for you because I've heard you in other interviews I've watched every interview you guys have done for this what is your favorite chocolate my faor that's a huge gift C forut that's crazy I'm Canadian are you kidding me Canan Nikki and because if you have nut allerg allergies no I don't I brought one for you too try it my God I mean you got me a fruit N I got your a fruit n by the way you can buy them in the United States I don't live there anymore so you can you can get them here you can get them here but I wanted you to know and have it cuz I heard you talking about it so that's so oh thank you every good thing in this world started with a dream so you hold on to yours here we go Mama this is such a wonderful film and I I think we all will go into this film with the outside world sort of the influences positive negative and I know the exact moment where I completely abandoned myself and gave over to the joy of this film because there's not a cynical bone in this film's body so I'm wondering for you you've also made these wonderful Paddington movies what is it about you that you want to make movies of pure joy and and just complete innocence because you're you're taking a Wonka story and you've made it something totally new oh well thank you very much I mean for me the I I love going into to when I watch a movie to go to feel like a fallen into another world or another place and it's a great opportunity in that dark room just to feel the Troubles of the world melt away and go go into a different place so something that can transport you especially a family movie I think which you might be seeing with parents or grandparents or kids and uh to have to go on a journey together is just the most special thing you make movies that are so positive I mean I love Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and and and obviously the the Willy wonu meeting that is very you're not quite sure who he is and he's very enigmatic and a bit sort of unknowable and then at the end there's this moment where you realize uh that he's the whole purpose is to give his life's work away to a child and it's just extraordinary act of kindness and generosity and that's why I'm a blubbering wreck when I watch you know watch the movie or read the book and when I read it again as a grown up I was in pieces in a way I think as a kid I responded to the Vivid colors and the umpalumpas and all the kind of the bells and whistles but there's such a strong heart at the the to it and uh for me that's the the best sort of movie Q Grant this is the role he was born to play forget nodding Hill yes this is he's finally found something he finally found but this is my favorite role he has ever done oh good yes good I want to know though obviously he's not OA size I want to know on the day cuz you were the person there on the day and you know what all that looked like cuz he sort of alluded to the fact that there were dots on his head and what did Hugh Grant what was his performance like before it was put into the film what did it look like well he was onet with Timothy so obviously yeah so he's obviously not 18 in high which is the one drawback he's so funny and he's so good at being sort of sarcastic and and sort of mean kinly sort of figure and when I was reading the the the poems in the book I just kept having his voice in my head and then once you've imagined him this high with you know orange skin and green hair there's no getting it out of your head it traumatizes you it's a deeply traumatic image I can imagine there was a lot left on The Cutting Room floor um yeah you've you made with Paddington probably the greatest sequel of all time and I know you're not going to answer whether or not you planned on making a sequel but I feel like there's so much room between the 25 years and where we leave off is it something you would like to do and if so have you already sort of mapped it out in your head we really wanted to make a movie with the beginning middle and end cuz I find it so frustrating when you've sat in a cinema for two hours and then they go we'll see you next year and you go that wasn't the deal I made coming in and uh it's so hopefully our movie does that and works on its own terms but we also didn't want to take him all the way to the Chocolate Factory in this kind of slightly broken strange Soul because it didn't feel like that would be a particularly happy end to a movie and uh so there's there's loads of material in that D wrote and in in the books and the movies of like things that happened to him in the middle so I think think absolutely there could be a sequel but it relies on many millions of people seeing the movie so fingers cross you could change her life this Oran change all their lives run away I've watched this movie four times already I love it so much you guys look amazing you are amazing in the film I'm going to start with you Kayla um I I haven't heard you talk about how you got cast like how long a process was this was it a Timothy shalam chemist Myst read was that involved I actually never auditioned with anybody from the cast I never did I only I did a director session with the director but um I did four auditions including a screen test and I think by like the third audition is when I actually realized it was for Willy Wonka so I I got like I did two auditions just regular self tapes cuz this was during Co I think yeah it was during Co and then um I was at um Universal Studios when I realized that I was going to England to do a screen test for the movie and so I got there did the screen test and all that and I got to sing and dance and um Anda and do different scenes on set but then after that I um met Timmy on zoom and he was filming another another movie during that time so I met him on zoom and we talked and then and then I got the movie um that was um that was in my room with my mom and we were sitting in there and the director called me himself and he was like so I think that I mean like I would love for you to come back to England and all that stuff and then I was like so does this mean we coming back for another screen test or something and he was like no you got the part and we just screen to the top of my lungs and all that oh my gosh well this is and this is kind of for the both of you but I feel like there has to be a point when you film this movie where you just have to turn yourself over and abandon yourself because there's a lot of performances where you have to be smaller you have to be more contained I'm thinking of your character from White lootus she was very contained and wanted to burst but can you talk about the actual process of filming those musical numbers and how how much do you sort of have to just like be not self-conscious and just let it all go well I think 100% of like any actor's approach is to lose yourself in the character but what helped with this particular film more than most it's the realistic sets I mean when you walked on set it was a city that they had built and so there's nothing that can make you forget about you know your you know actor's apartment and like you know the your emails than walking into a world from a different time and it really allows you to escape into that you know that the space and the character yeah cuz I know the moment and I told Paul this the moment in this film where I I abandoned myself like you forgot about everything that you were thinking about before um I kept thinking to myself as I was watching a couple of your scenes you must have been on wires at some point yes I was on wires I was on wires I was on wires when I was um on top of the ladder and I was also on wires when we were doing the big balloon scene flew up into the to the air but most of that was done in green screen but there was one scene at the very end when we're like coming down at the end and then we start dancing that was real we were like at least 60 ft high in the air and we like came all the way down and then we had to start dancing on wires and all that yeah wild wow it was fun though it was so fun what was for each of you the moment where you would say this was my most joyous moment on set oh my goodness we had so much fun the scrub it and bleacher gang um that song's stuck in my head scrub scrub scrub stuck in my head until 2024 that's where we have a text message thread called scrub Scrub but it was just so fun I mean I just remember we were waiting in between takes and all the actors were there and Olivia Coleman had us playing this like word game and it was just the people like for me it's not just one moment it was just being around some just amazing people that understood what we were trying to accomplish what was your favorite song to sing ooh to sing like in the film or just to sing in general like well you can do both I mean like um I feel like a world of your own is probably my favorite song in the whole film I mean like it's at the peak of when he gets his shop and all of that and he's enjoying himself so yeah that's probably my favorite song and I got to sing at that in that just a little bit at the end real quick who's more evil Mrs scrubb it or Jennifer kage's character from White oh boy I think they have to be first cousins it's in the DNA it's in the DNA but they're both beautifully wonderfully evil and so not like that in real no that's why it's amazing it's their antithetical yeah

Channel: Rotten Tomatoes

Views: 125,340

Keywords: willy wonka, charlie and the chocolate factory, willy wonka and the chocolate factory, hugh grant, wonka movie, timothee chalamet, gene wilder, olivia colman, paul king, wonka trailer, wonka 2023, Timothée Chalamet interview, Timothée Chalamet, Keegan-Michael Key interview, Natasha Rothwell interview, interview, Keegan-Michael Key, Calah Lane, Natasha Rothwell, wonka interview, rotten tomatoes, rotten tomatoes wonka, wonka

Id: xa2lfhSzeY4

Length: 13min 46sec (826 seconds)

Published: Sat Dec 16 2023