While on the surface it appears that Paul King’s eagerly anticipated fantasy Paddington is a picture aimed at children, stars of the film Hugh Bonneville and Julie Walters believe this is a picture for all of the family, epitomised in the fact that they too, still have teddy bears that mean a great deal to them.
Bonneville, who takes on the role of Mr. Brown in the forthcoming production, admits that he is still closely entwined with an fluffy toy from his childhood. “I still have a teddy bear,” he said. “It croaks when you turn it upside down. I had to send it to bear hospital actually, because his ear had gone a bit wonky. There are genuinely teddy bear hospitals. Anyway, turns out he’s quite a valuable bear and is now looked after, very carefully, in a bank vault. He was very beautifully made and was my best friend as a child.” When asked what he called the toy, he told us, “it was just known as bear – I wasn’t a very imaginative child.”
Walters still has her favourite bears at hand, taking up valuable space in the actresses’ bedroom. “I’ve still got two of them. Tedland, with a withered arm. He’s grey, curly hair, with tiny eyes. Then I have a bigger bear, I got him at two, he’s called Big Ted. His hands have been chewed off by the dog. They hang out in my bedroom, still. Big Ted has a Rasta hat on now and a set of pearls. I don’t know why, but he has.”
But the most important bear in this instance, is the Michael Bond creation Paddington – the focal point for this feature. However it was not a tale Walters was particularly clued up on when a child herself.
“I’ve never read the books, but my husband was brought up on them,” she admitted. “He told me that my character Mrs. Bird was really strict but lovely, and you knew she was kind underneath and loving. I thought, well, that’s hard to play. We’ve made her quite eccentric, and maybe a bit wiser. “
The same can’t be said for Bonneville however, as the Downton Abbey star tells us that his fondness for this iconic bear begun when he just a child, and that it was those memories which enhanced his performance, given he was forced to use his imagination when shooting scenes with the CGI character, voiced by the brilliant Ben Whishaw.
“You can’t stare at thin air for several weeks without having to use your imagination,” he said. “It certainly engages with your inner child and to play such a stick in the mud, as Mr. Brown begins as in our story, is great… We had a sense of what might be there, and there were challenges, but I always felt the bear was quite real. Partly because it’s so vivid in one’s memory from childhood. It’s a multilayered process which certainly technically slows the filmmaking process down. But it’s all worth it in the end.”
“It’s extraordinary, it just takes you to a whole new level. I felt quite emotional. It was a painstaking process and I know how much David Heyman and Paul King have been through to get to where we are with it. Ben’s voice is so perfect I think, that sense of hopeful innocence and you want to protect him and let him free at the same time. That inquisitive nature that he has. Plus to see the quality of the CGI is just mind-blowing. It thrills me to think that this incredible set of skills have brought to this to life.”
Despite the imagination required to fully get to grips with their performances, both Bonneville and Walters were able to relate to the bear on very human terms, exploring the notion of being a foreigner in another country.
“The bear represents innocence, and being different and not fitting in. It’s about him creating chaos to begin with, and almost splitting a family up. He causes people to question who they are and how they relate to one another. The film is about acceptance and inclusion, and understanding people’s differences. That’s the educational message,” said Walters.
While Bonneville can resonate with Paddington on a personal level, in that regard. “When I left school and went to Egypt, and I thought it would be just like going down the Brompton road really. I arrived and my rucksack didn’t, and suddenly I was in Cairo airport at 11pm and I was out of my depth [laughs]. You learn the do’s and don’t’s of any culture, and that’s part of Paddington’s adventure, he’s always trying to fit and often gets it wrong.”
Talking of fitting in to another culture – there have been question marks about whether Paddington will triumph in the States, given the intrinsic Britishness of the tale at hand. But Bonneville is adamant this story can be appreciated anywhere in the world.
“We don’t need to be concerned about an American audience getting it. It’s just a story of an outsider, who happens to be furry,” he continued. “Any world that is true unto itself, if you life, like Amélie – to create a world that is slightly offbeat you totally buy into it if it stays true to that mould.”
Bonneville also had a quick word to say on his co-star Nicole Kidman, who stars as the leading antagonist Millicent. “Nicole is great – she really threw herself into it. She wanted to do the movie because of her affection for the children’s stories and she wanted to make this an introduction to her own children. Then only afterwards did she realise that of course her children are going to hate her, because she’s the one who wants to get rid of the bear!”
It sounds like this will be a film that revels far more predominantly in the more touching, aspects, rather than focus too heavily on the villain – a statement backed up by Bonneville, who had only recently seen the finished product prior to our interview.
“It’s funny and it’s touching. I watched it the other day and I had a lump in my throat two or three times. But I’m an old softie. Plus, the fact that Michael Bond appears in the movie is a nice little blessing from the creator, and it’s great than he’s still alive to see it,” he finished.
Paddington is released on November 28th, and you can read our review here.
