Ava DuVernay, Oprah Winfrey, Reese Witherspoon, Chris Pine, Mindy Kaling, Zach Galifianakis and more on A Wrinkle in Time
This weekend, we got a chance to attend the press conference for the Disney film A Wrinkle in Time, based on the novel by Madeleine L’Engle. Attending were writer Jennifer Lee, director Ava DuVernay and actors Oprah Winfrey, Reese Witherspoon, Mindy Kaling, Chris Pine, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Storm Reid, Zach Galifianakis, Rowan Blanchard, Levi Miller and Deric McCabe.
“We’re living in a chaotic time as adults, so imagine if you have only been on the Earth for a few years or 11 years or 12 years, the tension that you feel,” DuVernay told the crowd. “[The film] gives a little breather and to say, ‘Who you are is enough and this is how you’re going to make it through, by finding something in yourself,’ because we all have that little voice inside of us and, a lot of time, we don’t listen to it.”
During the press conference, Galifianakis got choked up, talking about meeting with DuVernay and spoke about how it was important for boys to see A Wrinkle in Time and not feel wrong about following a girl. Later, we spoke to him one-on-one. “I don’t know what it is about this project. The couple of times I talked to Ava, I’ve gotten chocked up. When I first met her… when I talked to her about the movie a week or so ago. There is something about her eyes. Also, the fact that the film it’s in this moment. It’s good. I also think that it’s just really about balance. I can sit here and I say I’m a feminist and stuff, but just step back from it. People should be represented. It’s real simple. It has nothing to do with ‘women want to take over the world.’ They just need to be heard. Period. It’s mathematical. And that’s the frustrating thing about the times we live in now. The lack of common sense that we’re living in. The timing of this is good.”
Pine spoke about his character: “…what I enjoy about this character is just his brain is just hungry… and explorative. Obviously his mission to do great things propels him forward… but unfortunately the shadow side of ambition is disconnection with what is important in his life.”
“I loved science fiction and fantasy growing up,” said Kaling, “but it was a genre that largely did not love me back. I never saw any representation of a dark-skinned Indian woman, Indian girl in anything that I saw. It’s a really peculiar thing when you grow up loving something that shows you no love back. It’s such a pure love, because you’re not getting anything from it.”
She continued, “To be part of this, to be on a green screen stage in harnesses because you’re doing a science fiction/fantasy movie, it’s so fun because I finally feel love with open arms from something that has ignored me completely. And so that is so profound, and if that can be something that the miniature version of me could watch and be excited by, I think that’s such a huge thing.”
Witherspoon spoke about the timeliness of the film and its influence on young people. “What would we impart to a young woman today? Right now. I discussed that with Ava. I discussed that with Storm. It was extraordinary.”
DuVernay referenced Oprah Winfrey being asked to run for President. “A friend of mine had a tremendous, tremendous episode of peer pressure of gigantic proportions that I’ve never experienced or seen just a couple weeks ago when the whole country, or a lot of the country, was saying, ‘You should run for president…She said, ‘The voice inside of me says, I am not your president. I can do good in the world in a different way.'”
Winfrey said, “Oh, yeah. For sure. I think the darkness is there to help bring out the light in all of us… If we turn out all the lights in this room and one person just held a candle, we would start to dissipate the darkness. Look at how much darkness it would take to actually envelope all the light that every candle we’re holding in this room. It just takes a little bit of light… If everyone can get that message, that’s how we have hope in the world. We’re looking for warriors who can bring out that.”
“There’s love in every frame of this movie,” said DuVernay. “There’s love in everything that I do. I don’t have children. I won’t have children, by choice. These films are my children; they’re what I leave behind. They have my name on them. They have my blood in them. And so I’m proud of that. And, from there, you offer it up to the world and hope they can see our intention.”
Are you guys excited for the film? Let us know in the comments. A Wrinkle in Time will hit theaters on March 9.
