Paddington Bear—the creation of author Michael Bond who first appeared in the children’s novel A Bear Called Paddington—be coming to the silver screen in the feature film “Paddington” (premiering in the US January 16, 2015) starring Hugh Bonneville, Nicole Kidman, and Ben Wishaw.
And, to coincide with the Brisitsh premier of the film, he was also recently honored in a big way by his adopted city. The Paddington Trail, a series of 50 Paddington statues designed by British celebs (including Bonneville and Kidman, as well as Emma Watson, David Beckham, Benedict Cumberbatch, and many more) placed all over the city to mark must-see landmarks and attractions all with a tie-back to Paddington’s story, launched by London & Partners, NSPCC, and STUDIOCANAL in London earlier this month.
We were fortunate enough to attend the official launch of Trail on November 3 in London and had a chance to chat with Bonneville—known most famously as Lord Grantham from “Downton Abbey” and a dad himself—who plays Mr. Brown in the movie. Read on to get the scoop about why Paddington means so much to the awesome actor.
And for our full Paddington Trail travel itinerary, click HERE and look out for our December 2014 issue!
Why is the “Paddington” movie a meaningful project for you?
It first came to me about two years ago. I was a bit skeptical at first because the character of the bear has been very important to me as one of the first childhood images, really—the lovable bear from Darkest, Peru—and I thought: “They’re not going to muck it up in a film version are they?” I was very relieved when I opened the script and they’d absolutely captured the essence of the bear and kept all his sense of innocent fun and misadventure, and [kept] all the kept characters. So it has this lovely feeling of being a classic but is also set in the contemporary world—it’s not set in 1958. And the stories are, themselves, timeless. So it’s set in our contemporary world but it has a classic feel to it, as a movie. I was very relieved to read the script and find it full of marmalade!
Have you always been a fan of Paddington?
Yes, it was sort of one of the first books I got acquainted with as a kid. My mum and dad read the stories to me and then I read it was one of the first books I read to my son as well.
What would you say to American audiences—who might not be as familiar with Paddington as British audiences—about why the film is a must-see?
Really it’s a story about an outsider coming to a foreign place expecting and being told that he will get a very good welcome—he’s always be taught that the British people will be very welcoming to him—and he finds that’s true in part, but not entirely true. Ultimately, he’s a refugee looking for a home—he’s an evacuee. Michael Bond, who wrote the books, created the character inspired partly by the image of lots of children at railway stations with address labels ‘round their necks during the War—so it’s about people who are displaced and trying to find a welcome, and ultimately it’s a about a bear looking for a home, and he finds it.
Tell us about the design of your Paddington Trail bear.
It’s about marmalade. It’s the story of marmalade. His boots are the trunks of an orange grove and then about halfway up, the oranges are sliced—and there are some peels—and then on the back there’s some sauce and you see the marmalade beginning to bubble away. He’s got jars of marmalade in his suitcase and under his hat is a marmalade sandwich.
