“The BFG” stands for “the Big Friendly Giant.” It’s the Steven Spielberg movie out this weekend. While watching “The BFG,” you’ll most likely LOL and maybe even c-r-y. Deco met with the cast of the film to talk about giants, dreams and even dogs.
A lonely orphan named Sophie discovers a giant who steals her from her world. Little does she know, this giant is actually really friendly, and it’s the others she has to fear.
In “The BFG,” Jemaine Clement plays one of the evil giants, who want to eat Sophie. Luckily, he doesn’t relate to his character in real life.
Jemaine Clement: “No, I don’t. I’m not like that. That’s true, but I enjoyed playing him; it was really fun.”
As for the Big Friendly Giant himself, he’s played by Oscar winner Mark Rylance.
Mark Rylance: “I like his ears; they’re my favorite thing about him. I thought about dogs when I was leaving room for his ears to wiggle waggle.”
Sophie and the BFG try to battle the man-eating giants, and go to the Queen of England — aka Penelope Wilton — for help.
Penelope Wilton: “I tried to get as near to the real queen, the look and the sort of demeanor, that I could. She enters into the whole spirit of saving them from Giantland in a very wholesome way, and I like that.”
The film was directed by Steven Spielberg and based on a book by Roald Dahl, the writer of “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.”
Steven Spielberg: “Roald Dahl just has extraordinary imagination as a dream weaver, and I do think he’s a dream weaver.”
Maybe that’s why, in the book and movie, the friendly giant works as a dream catcher.
Steven Spielberg: “I got to make up dreams that I never had and always wished I did, and other dreams that were recurring dreams.”
And speaking of, the cast of “The BFG” has some recurring dreams of their own.
Rebecca Hall: “It usually involves the play that I did for the longest time, which was “As You Like It,” and I often dream that I have to do it and I cant remember all of the lines. That’s a classic.”
Penelope Wilton: “And I get ones that I was playing Uncle Vanya, which is a man’s part, on the side of the road, and the audience was on the other side of the road, and there was traffic going on in between.”
Mark Rylance: “Bob Dylan comes in my dreams quite a lot, and that’s very nice, because he’s written a lot about dreams in his early work. So the fact that he turns up in my dreams — sometimes he comes and asks me what I think of a new song.”
Ruby Barnhill (as Sophie): “Why did you take me?”
Mark Rylance (as the BFG): “Because I hear your lonely heart.”
“The BFG” stomps into theaters Friday, July 1.
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