See Alisha Weir, Emma Thompson & Matthew Warchus Talk About Bringing Matilda to the Big Screen

A big screen retelling of Matilda has already hit movie theaters, and the film arrives on Netflix on Christmas Day. Director Matthew Warchus as well as 13-year-old star Alisha Weir and Oscar winner Emma Thompson, spoke with Broadway.com Editor-in-Chief Paul Wontorek on The Broadway Show about the film adaptation of Roald Dahl's beloved tale.

Warchus also helmed the stage musical adaptation of Matilda, for which he won an Olivier Award. The Broadway production won Tony Awards for Best Book, Best Scenic Design, Best Lighting Design and for Gabriel Ebert's performance. Warchustalked about being asked to take on the movie version, which he did not expect. "I think because I'd lived with the stage show for over 12 years now, it was possible," he said. "I had enough time to reconceive it and to let go of some of the things that I love or even betray some of the things that I felt so passionately about first time. To think of the story in a new light is a gift."

Weir and Thompson spoke about going toe-to-toe onscreen as the title heroine and tyrannical headmistress Miss Trunchbull. "When I first saw her with all her prosthetics and her costume on, I was a bit scared," Weir said. "But then when she started talking to me, I knew that underneath all of it, there was Emma down there."

"I'd be awful to them, and then we'd stop rolling, and the children would just point at me and jeer," Thompson said with a laugh. "To be given the opportunity to be much larger than life on film—it's a fantastic thing."

Watch the interviews below and head here to check your local listings for The Broadway Show. Hosted by Emmy winner Tamsen Fadal, it is the only nationally syndicated weekly theater news program.