Trailer for Netflix's MATILDA musical. Starring Emma Thompson as Trunchbull, dir. Matthew Warchus. — Page 2

ErmengardeStopSniveling said: "Come on, folks. Casting Trunchbull came down to name value. Bertie Carvel was never going to be offered that part in a midbudget studio film. This required a Thompson/Fiennes level name to get it greenlit."

We can still say we would have preferred someone else. I get how this industry works, and I’ve seen it destroy many stage to screen adaptations.

Does anyone know why Trunchbull has traditionally been cast as a man? I saw an article that said they originally auditioned both genders for the stage musical but I think every subsequent cast has had Trunchbull as a male actor. That being said, i agree that a man playing a woman on film wouldn't necessarily work as well, since there's just an added level of expected realism on film.

ATerrifyingAndImposingFigure said: "Well I think there’s more to it, but one big part of it is that they wanted Trunchbull to be a towering figure. On film you can use tricks to make Emma Thompson look well over six feet, but onstage you can’t hide an actor’s height."

I think that's a big part of it, but I think British theatre tradition also came into play. Trunchbull is very much like a panto villain, and there is a long tradition of men playing that type of role as women in the British theatre. This is similar to the witch in RSC's Wizard if Oz being played in drag years ago. The British also don't seem to get as internet offended over such things as Americans do.

Casting a (very famous, very capable) woman in the role of Trunchbull was a totally sensible decision for the film (and I believe regional productions also cast women in the role fairly regularly). Let’s not make this a stupid culture war issue.

....orrr maybe film is a more literal medium and casting a male would be cheesy.

I don’t see how this is the result of anti-drag rhetoric, either- which would be pressure from the Right, not from trans folks.


What, exactly, is lost here if the role is played by a woman?

Because your point is ill-defined. I’m not seeing any evidence of a major push by anybody to get this role cast with a woman. I’m not seeing any evidence that this casting is in response to such a push.



It’s worth noting that Ralph Fiennes was never officially announced in the role- it was a Deadline article that reported they “understood” he was attached that was the source of that. And that was in May 2020. The production was then delayed for a while due to COVID, at which point Emma Thompson was formally announced- in January of last year. We have no idea what caused that change.

Equating a man playing Trunchbull to transphobia is a bit of a stretch.

That said, Bertie Carvel did something really special with the role. He played it as a woman and was totally believable. Conversely, when I saw Christopher Seiber do it, he totally played it as a gay man in drag. It didn’t work. It was like Edna in Hairspray - total camp, when the material demands something a little closer to realism for the role to be as funny and scary as it was meant to be.

I think that in general, it’s just a hard role to cast, and on stage, it can be done by either a man or a woman as long as they have the chops (and height) for it. On film, I agree that a woman is probably the better choice.

Updated On: 6/16/22 at 10:14 AM

I wouldn't be bringing this up had Emma Thompson been cast outright, but she's a replacement after a small controversy surrounding a man being cast in this role. Fiennes was originally approached.

I think there should be more roles that allow actors to play characters outside of their own gender identity.

I also do not think film is or should be a more "realistic" medium than theater, but that's a different conversation.

Updated On: 6/16/22 at 10:31 AM

I've felt the conversation has been more aligned with "a man wearing a dress trying to decieve someone else". Trunchbull doesn't fit that.

The Distinctive Baritone said: "Equating a man playing Trunchbull to transphobia is a bit of a stretch.

That said, Bertie Carvel did something really special with the role. He played it as a woman and was totally believable. Conversely, when I saw Christopher Seiber do it, he totally played it as a gay man in drag. It didn’t work. It was like Edna in Hairspray - total camp, when the material demands something a little closer to realism for the role to be as funny and scary as it was meant to be.

I think that in general, it’s just a hard role to cast, and on stage, it can be done by either a man or a woman as long as they have the chops (and height) for it. On film, I agree that a woman is probably the better choice."

It's interesting to compare the part to Edna in Hairspray. Obviously, the drag element would have been grandfathered in (so to speak) by Divine having played the part initially on film, but I remember some people didn't appreciate how John Travolta didn't camp it up in the 2007 film, but basically plated the part as a woman.

Sally Durant Plummer said: "Was about to make this point! Travolta was earnest and sincere in his portrayal of Edna. And a camped-up portrayal of Edna likely wouldn't have worked. Travolta's sincerity fit the sanitized tone of the musical. And I'm saying this as someone who loves the movie. I saw it three times in the theatre. But John Waters' Hairspray it is not."

I also don't think the problem with Travolta wasn't whether he was camp or sincere, but he just played the role so small and meek (and saddled himself with that awful Baltimore accent that made him sound like he was doing a bad Ed Sullivan). Divine radiated strength in the original film, and also played the absolute truth of Edna's womanhood, and Harvey in the original production had a great arc from shut-in housewife to finding a voice between "Welcome to the 60s" and "Big Blonde and Beautiful," also while maintaining the reality of Edna's femininity. I've seen subsequent Ednas play with that constant winking to the audience indicating "look, it's a man in a dress, isn't that funny?" and it just doesn't work.

See, I feel like Travolta's performance in the Hairspray film didn't work because Edna IS written to be played as camp/a man in drag. By trying to make Edna grounded in realism - while wearing very strange and unconvincing makeup - Travolta just fell flat in the role.

Trunchbull, by comparison, requires that the role be played straight (no pun intended). Matilda is a pretty dark musical as far as "family" shows go, and if Trunchbull is played with too much "wink wink, nudge nudge, I'm actually a man in a dress and aren't I FABULOUS?" like Seiber did it, the role loses its teeth and it's just silly, nothing more.

Matilda is one of my favorite musicals and perhaps I am biased in my opinion because Trunchbull is definitely near the top of list of musical theatre roles I'd like to play, and if men aren't going to be allowed to do it anymore, that would make me very sad. Conversely, as a high school drama teacher who will likely direct the show at some point, I will almost definitely cast a female actor in the role as I imagine very few teenage boys would be willing to do it - or be able to do it well, and god knows with the current obsession the right has with "transing the kids," that is a land mine I would definitely avoid stepping on.

BTW, in the handful of audition notices I've seen for it recently, in the breakdown for Trunchbull it usually says "gender: any."