'It's just a kind of instinct.' How Emma Thompson chose her most iconic roles.

Dame Emma Thompson's 2022 films could not be more different.

In the first, Good Luck to You, Leo Grande, she stars as a widowed teacher who has lived a repressed life with limited sexual experience, so she hires a sex worker to change that.

In the other, she plays one of the world's most infamous villains: Olympian turned tyrannical headmistress Mrs Trunchbull, in Netflix's Roald Dahl's Matilda The Musical film adaptation of the stage musical. 

Watch: Roald Dahl's Matilda The Musical trailer. Post continues below video.

How does she choose? How does she decide to go from a film exploring sexuality and female pleasure, to spending three hours in the prosthetics chair daily to yell (and throw things) at children? How does she go from weeping over a Joni Mitchell CD in one of the greatest Christmas films of all time, to the magic of Nanny McPhee?

"It's just a kind of instinct," Thompson tells Mamamia of her many varied roles. "First of all, with the script, it's no point undertaking a script that's not good. And then it's all the people you're working with."

Her new Netflix film, a colourful and witty adaptation of one of Dahl's most loved stories, ticked both boxes.

Matilda is about a gifted young girl whose parents (played here by Stephen Graham and Andrea Riseborough) are outrageously neglectful. She is enrolled at Crunchem Hall, a school run by Agatha Trunchbull, who really, really hates children. Matilda, with the help from some friends, fights back.

There's a lot to enjoy in Matilda The Musical. It is energetic, with very fun musical numbers involving the school's students - some of which have already gone viral.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, Thompson's Trunchbull is always a scene stealer.

She is terrifying and menacing, as well as darkly comedic. Thompson leans fully into the cartoon-like ridiculousness, which is exactly what a Dahl tale requires.

Sitting next to her for our interview is Alisha Weir, the 13-year-old who stars as the title character. She is the lead of a cast that is heavily made up of very talented kids.

"I had no idea I was going to be working with hundreds of children who were all so magical and gave me so much energy," Thompson says, pointing at her young co-star.

"I like working with children just as much, if not more, than working with actors, because mostly, they haven't got any obstacles in the way. That's one of the advantages of not having lived quite as long - you haven't developed as many prejudices as most adults, you know what I mean? And not as many assumptions. 

"You haven't put up barriers, in the way, do you know how some adults put up barriers?" she says, turning to Weir.

Image: Netflix.

Thompson pulls out a scene from the film, where Mrs Trunchbull forces student Bruce Bogtrotter, played by Charlie Hodson-Prior, to eat the entirety of a giant chocolate cake as punishment.

Filming that was a long process, enthusiastically done by its young stars.

"We were so happy even when we working for long periods of time, like Charlie - who we love, he's so brilliant - when we were doing the chocolate cake, it took us a week to film that. A week! Me and Alisha were just standing there watching him do it, saying to each other 'God, aren't they amazing?'"

Weir does a perfect job of balancing Matilda's wide-eyed imagination and boldness. It's an enormous role for any young actor to undertake, made famous across generations - first in 1988 by the beloved Roald Dahl book, then the 1996 fantasy comedy film starring Mara Wilson in the title role, and of course, in stage productions with a Tony-nominated score by Tim Minchin (whose songs transfer to screen with ease).

A video recently shared by Weir's family, of the young actor learning she had won the title part in the film, has gone viral on TikTok, with more than 11 million views.

@katieroseweir ✨The AMAZING moment we found out my little sister was going to be Matilda Wormwood 🥰 Roald Dahl's Matilda The Musical Only In Cinemas NOW (UK & Ireland Netflix Summer 2023) #fyp ♬ original sound - Katie Rose

But Weir says she still hasn't fully grasped the enormity of this experience.

"When I heard that I got the part, I don't think you can really like expect what kind of reaction you're gonna have. And I was shocked, I didn't really know what was going on. And although it's been quite a while since I auditioned, and even now that it's coming out, it hasn't sunk in yet," she says.

"I don't know when it will sink in, but definitely hasn't. I was a bit nervous, but I didn't really feel pressure. I just kind of thought that with my auditions, someone saw something that they liked so all I could do is my best. And I could just try to portray the best Matilda I could."

"I really wanted to sink in at a very inconvenient moment," Thompson jokes.

"Like just as you're about to graduate or say 'I do' in a wedding ceremony, and you'll suddenly go, 'OH MY GOD, I played Matilda!' It's just suddenly sunk in late in life, you know? I really want that and when it does, you text me, okay?"

Matilda the Musical is in cinemas now. It's streaming on Netflix from December 25.

Feature image: Netflix.