While remakes of classic Ips have become the new norm for Disney, this wasn’t the case for Mary Poppins Returns, starring Emily Blunt. Released in 2018, unlike the recent remakes of classic tales, despite recycling the same story to bank on the originals’ popularity, Disney actually delivered something fresh with the iconic IP, which also honored the 1964 film’s legacy.
Set 25 years after the events of the original film, the legacy sequel witnesses impressive performances from everyone involved, especially Blunt, who plays the magical Nanny. However, the production process for the sequel wasn’t easy on Blunt due to her 10-year-old rambunctious costar.
Working With Her 10-Year-Old Costar Was a Taxing Experience for Emily Blunt
Unlike the extremely experienced cast of Mary Poppins Returns, including the likes of Emily Blunt and Meryl Streep, Joel Dawson was unfamiliar with the movie industry. But this didn’t stop the 10-year-old from having extreme fun on sets, and while it might’ve been cute from the outside perspective, Blunt didn’t have an easy time filming alongside him. Joking about the entire matter, the Oppenheimer Star opened up about how difficult it was to handle Dawson, who plays Georgie Banks in the movie.
“That little blonde one, he’s wild. He’s so sweet. He’s called Joel,” She said. “And there was a lot of kind of Joel wrangling on set because he was sort of crazy and had never done a film before. It was all so new to him. He didn’t know how to focus and there was a lot of, ‘OK, we’re rolling Joel.’ We’d be like, ‘Joel, focus. Joel, Joel, please. Joel we’re rolling. Joel. Joel… Clearly in desperate need of a nanny. He’s so dirty that one”
In the end, the trouble of handling an exuberant kid was worth it, as they did manage to craft a successful sequel, which did good numbers at the box office.
Emily Blunt received the Seal of Approval From Mary Poppins Herself
Despite having big shoes to fill, Emily Blunt didn’t disappoint in the iconic role, as her performance left her husband John Krasinski in tears. The original Mary Poppins Julie Andrews also showered the legacy sequel and Blunt with love, expressing she was glad they did their own thing without recycling the original story. Andrews explained,
“I loved it. Yeah. Look, the first film was made over 50 years ago, 60 years ago. I think it’s about time a second one was allowed. But also, this had nothing to do with the first one. It wasn’t as if they were repeating the first story. They had umpteen P. L. Travers books of Mary Poppins in the vault. So they had to make a new one.”
Surprisingly, Julie Andrews was asked to make a special cameo in the Legacy sequel but she refused the offer, as she didn’t want to take the spotlight away from Blunt.
Source: Jimmy Kimmel Live!
