At the Mary Poppins Returns red carpet movie premiere in LA, I interviewed Emily Blunt(Mary), Min-Manueal Miranda (Jack), Ben Whishaw (Michael Banks) & Emily Mortimer (Jane Banks), and now Rob Marshall, the director!
After speaking with the cast during their interviews, I couldn’t wait to chat with Rob Marshall. I’ve heard actors speak high;y about their directors, but every single actor had nothing but amazing things to say about Rob Marshall.
Both Ben and Emily couldn’t say enough how director Rob Marshall gave them so much encouragement and made them feel special, wonderful and clever and talented which in turn helped them be all those things.
Emily called him, The great Rob Marshall, an incredible choreographer, an incredible Director and many more compliments. She also felt they were all in safe hands.
Lin-Manuel said having Rob Marshall call you and tell you, it’s Emily Blunt as Mary Poppins and you’re the only other person we have in mind and we’re gonna build from there, it felt like the fruit of the harvest.
MARY POPPINS RETURNS OPENS IN THEATERS ON DECEMBER 19TH
Rob Marshall is more than a director, he becomes the parent of the actors on the set and protects them while letting them grow!
It’s sort of interesting when I work with Actors I really find they need to feel positive reinforcement you know and it’s such a simple thing to do. It’s like being a really good parent you know. And I try and achieve that when we’re working you know.
For instance, I mean as an example Ben Whishaw, who plays Michael Banks, he’s never sung before you know. He was nervous about how do you do that and I always feel that people can do so much. It’s just feeling that they can and knowing that they can.
I like to protect them in rehearsals (we had over 2 months of rehearsal). So it was during that time that you know you can fail and be bad and then learn to get better and, not feel judged. That’s a really important thing.
I like to protect Actors to make them feel they can do things and try things. And everybody was so nervous on this film because we were following that extraordinary film that means so much to me and so much to so many people. I’m sure everybody in this room.
And so we knew we were you know doing the impossible, but I honestly felt like if we did it together from the right place with a great respect for the first film and found our own way at the same time then we would at least have done it in the right way and then you hope that it works.
Rob Marshall on Dick Van Dyke!
There’s no one like him. I was so excited and nervous to even call him to ask him to do this because he’s a hero for me. I mean and that’s the Dick Van Dyke Show for me honestly. Chitty Chitty, Bang Bang, Bye Bye Birdie, all of it, so talking to him he just disarms you immediately. He’s so joyous and it’s just sort of who he is and he said yes so quickly. He was excited to be part of it.
And when he came onto the set he honest to God grabbed my arm as we were walking on. He said, “I feel the same spirit here on this set that I did you know in the first film.” And I thought okay well that’s everything. That’s all I need to hear. That was everything for me to hear that from him.
Was it really Dick Van Dyke Dancing?
“Yes, all of it. In fact, I said to Lin and Emily I said, “If he falls off that desk you’re dead.
Well, I said, “You are spotting him. So if he starts to wobble I want you to jump in.” Of course he was perfectly fine. In fact, he doesn’t even use Lin’s hand.
When you see it the next time, if you see it the next time you see Lin is literally standing there like okay (with his hand ready for Dick) and he doesn’t use him, he just goes right up.
What was Rob’s emotional breaking point with such an iconic film?
Rob told us how he strategically placed Easter eggs throughout the film but didn’t want to over do it. He wanted to earn it from the audience and placed most of them in the last 15 minutes.
I will say when Dick Van Dyke does that monologue to the kids where he tells the story about Michael as a little boy and you hear Feed The Birds. I will tell you now that when I shot that scene, I like to work with music.
So I had Feed The birds, the music, in my ear and I’m watching Dick Van Dyke and I have him in my ear too and he’s delivering this monologue and I honestly broke down. I couldn’t breathe and I couldn’t say cut. I couldn’t say it.
I just couldn’t– nothing came out. I was so moved. I mean I think Emily said cut or something. I think that’s it, that’s it because I just couldn’t believe my life had come full circle. From a 4 year old boy having seen the film with Dick Van Dyke there, hearing Feed The Birds, watching him say that. He’s in our film 54 years later as a 91 year old man. I mean that’s just magic to me. It was total magic, I’m still not over it.
Rob said there was lots of material in the book and there’s 8 books so I asked, Is there enough material for another movie?
Well I’ll tell you that’s such a good question. You know of course I’m just sort of holding my breath to see how this movie’s embraced and how it does. And if people accept it and are excited by it. I think there will be talk about it ‘cause there is a lot of material. You know we walked through it and cherry picked what we thought were the best adventures that we could musicalize and create a set piece to.
But I will say there was a lot left on the table as we were working through that. The question would be, “What’s the narrative, what’s the story” because that’s what’s not in those books.
So do we go backwards? Someone said do you wanna’ find out how she became Mary Poppins and then I thought. I don’t wanna’ know about her too much.
The best thing about her is that it’s mysterious– so that’s not such a great idea.
She definitely can visit other families and there’s other stories there for sure . There’s a lot of Star Wars stories. There can be a lot of Mary Poppins stories. That’s my fill.
Rob was so gracious and humble and at the after party he remembered me which I thought was amazing. He blew me away with his kindness when he thanked me for being at the premiere when he is the person that should be thanked for creating another iconic Mary Poppins film for generations to enjoy!
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