MATILDA movie musical confirmed. — Page 5

I haven’t seen that reported, but I guess I either missed it in one of the articles, or you know this from your undisclosed source.

Either way: I’m not very familiar with the traditional casting timeline, but with only 1 role publicly cast, it seems like if this is a “late stage,” they are in hot water for other reasons aside from Trunchbull. But I guess it will be harder to cast an A-lister last-minute than a less famous actor, which was your point I suppose.


Even so, I don’t necessarily think this film needs to helmed by an A-lister. It’s a very recognizable property being put on Netflix.

brian1973 said: "She is dreadful and would be dreadful in this. The comment about Fiennes just repeating his Voldemort is just bizarre and stupid. Are you saying he has no range? Have you seen all of his film performances?
"

Hey, friend, relax. Sorry, I didn’t realize you were his publicist. I’ll never speak ill of La Fiennes again.

That being said, no, I have not seen ALL of his film performances. He’s not my favorite actor and I don’t thrill at the thought of him playing Trunchbull.

Tag said: "So are we also not allowed a male Edna in future incarnations of Hairspray?"

Well no one in the thread has argued against continuing to cast men as Trunchbull onstage, unless I missed their post. As has been mentioned, that casting of Trunchbull is in the panto tradition of British theatre. Similarly, casting Edna with a male presenting performer in drag is a part of drag history and tradition. I don’t see that changing.


Although, I don’t think a female presenting performer as Edna would be bad either. I read once that Harvey Fierstein advocated for Lainie Kazan, a John Waters alum and costar of Divine’s, to replace him on Broadway. That could have been amazing.


I also think an important aspect of this discussion is the understanding that film is a very different medium and the stage casting might not translate. Both in terms of believability and the conventions of film vs. the conventions of theatre. The Hairspray movie musical has already been made with a man as Edna, Harvey reprised the role in the live television version, and I suspect theatre audiences will continue to expect the role to be cast accordingly.

Baz says Emma Thompson will be playing The Trunch! They have also cast their Matilda already, it seems.

Will never get over that Bertie was robbed, but F**K YES for Emma!!! She can never do wrong

Alisha Weir is the little Matilda!

Leslie Jones would've been great too as Trunch

Globefan said: "Leslie Jones would've been great too as Trunch"

Personally I don’t see that at all, I think she’s a very limited actress.

Not sure about Thompson. She can probably act it but I don’t think she’s a very good singer, and I’m not sure if she has the type of physicality for it, though they’ll likely just use a lot of visual trickery to get around it. I still think if they were going with a mainstream actor it should’ve been Fiennes.

It is pretty sad that Bertie doesn’t get to reprise the role, as it means he’ll never get the kind of widespread acclaim for it that he deserves. To me he’s pretty much irreplaceable in this role, and no matter what tricks they use to make Thompson seem like this incredibly athletic, huge beast, it won’t ever be as thrilling to me as Carvel actually being that big and pulling all that off.

I’m going to guess Mara as the Acrobat. A long ago, she did say that she would love to be the Baker of Trunchbull’s cake.

And speaking of Trunchbull, how are they going to make Emma giant when she’s anything but? That’s mainly one of the reasons why Trunchbull is written for a man.

Updated On: 1/14/21 at 10:29 PM

Great casting, but really was hopeful for Ralph Fiennes.

darquegk said: "Mara’s cameo will be smaller and less showy. She isn’t loud and brash; her whole persona as a podcaster and voice artist is that she’s small, detached, smart and kind of icy in a bemused but sexy way.

They’re not going to cast her in something and then not let her do the Mara Wilson Voice, anymore than you’d cast Mark Hamill (another actor who does most of his work behind the microphone) as a villain and not let him growl and chew scenery in a Mid-Atlantic accent."

I’d love Mara’s cameo to be something like little Matilda is trying to reach a book from a top shelf but can’t quite get to it. Mara comes along, picks it up and hands it to her. Gives her a knowing smile and walks off.