The Big Picture

White Bird
follows Julian as he struggles to fit in at a new school while his grandmother tells stories of her childhood in Nazi-occupied France.
The film educates and entertains, emphasizing the importance of sharing history and stories with younger generations.
Director Marc Forster creatively used film for exteriors and digital for interiors to enhance the emotional quality of the film.

Having directed films like Christopher Robin, Finding Neverland, and Stranger Than Fiction, Marc Forster has proven himself time and again to be an earnest and emotionally centered filmmaker. By adding the beautiful presence and elevated skill of Dame Helen Mirren to his latest project, White Bird, Forster has assured audiences of a story rich in depth and heart.

A spin-off of the author R. J. Palacio’s 2017 Wonder adaptation, White Bird follows young bully Julian (played by Bryce Gheisar, reprising his role) as he struggles to fit in at his new school. While Julian’s grandmère Sara stays for a visit, she tells him stories from her childhood as a young girl growing up in Nazi-occupied France.

In this interview, Mirren and Forster spoke to Collider’s Steve Weintraub about their new collaboration. Together they chatted about adapting the graphic novel into a feature, recognizing the rich, full lives of older characters (and in turn, audiences), as well as the unconditional importance of remembrance, especially through times of turbulence. In addition, Mirren talked about The Thursday Murder Club and 1923 Season 2.

Is the EGOT Helen Mirren’s Destiny?
Image via Associated Press

Helen, you have won so many awards in your amazing career, but I believe you are short a Grammy to have the EGOT. I’m just curious, how much does it mean to actually try to get one of those? And do Marc and I need to make any phone calls to any musicians for a collaboration?

MIRREN: [Laughs] If I was truly shameless, I guess I would be pursuing a Grammy. Unfortunately, I absolutely cannot sing. I have no musical ability whatsoever. So it would have to be a spoken word thing that I would do. But actually I think one of my pieces, a Sherlock Holmes drama that I did last year, I think has been nominated for a Grammy. So, who knows? Maybe it’s in my destiny.

If I could vote, I would vote for you. I really hope that happens.

MIRREN: That would be funny.

FORSTER: We might do a musical together.

MIRREN: It would be the end of your career, Marc, if you did that.

‘White Bird’ Illustrates a World of Magic, Love, and Important History
“Even taking the very necessary history lesson out of it, you’re still left with something really wonderful to watch.”
Image via Lionsgate

I thought The Princess Bride was so brilliant with the way it brings you in and out of the story. I’ve wondered why more movies don’t do that, until I saw White Bird. I think it’s in the graphic novel, obviously, but talk a little bit about the way you get to be pulled in with the story like this and how it will help younger audiences get invested in the story.

FORSTER: I feel it was very smart how R.J. Palacio, in the graphic novel, started with the Grand-mère. She’s taking the bully from her book Wonder, and from the movie, Wonder, and uses him here in a redemptive way. He comes home and he meets Grand-mère and, ultimately, Grand-mère shares her life with her grandchild. It ends up with an incredible speech at the end of the movie Helen gives, which is this bookend. I feel like because of that structure, you have then the freedom to go into this love story, this teenage love story. Then go into this magic-realism and really explore the dark and the light of these two young lives and the world that surrounds them.

One of the things about this film is that it both educates and entertains. Movies like this, I love supporting because we all take for granted that young people know all these stories, but they don’t.

MIRREN: They don’t.

Can you talk about how this is one of those rare films that educates and entertains?

MIRREN: Yes. And moves. You go on a wonderful emotional journey. Even taking the very necessary history lesson out of it, you’re still left with something really wonderful to watch, a journey that you’re taken through in a magical way by Marc. But personally, I absolutely agree with you, and it was one of the reasons that I really wanted to be a part of the film, that all-important history lesson to a younger generation. As we get further and further from that terrible time in human history, people do forget. They forget, and they take steps down the same road. They’re going down the same road and not understanding what actually is at the end of that road, what they are marching towards. It’s important, so important, to remind. Not remind — well, yes — but show the young.

Oh, 100%. You can turn on the news now and see, but that’s a whole other thing.

Why Marc Forster Shot ‘White Bird’ on Film and Digital

Marc, one of the things I wanted to touch on is that you shot the exteriors with film and the interiors with digital cameras. Can you talk about why you did that for the filmmaking?

FORSTER: I still love shooting on film. When I shoot on film, especially the exteriors, I feel that it gives me a quality that is somehow very, in a subtle way, more emotional, has more warmth. I’m using digital interior because I need less light. If I’m on a tighter budget, and shoot in tighter spaces, which we often used real locations here, I need less lights, and then I can balance in the final product. I can add grain to the digital cameras and balance it to the exterior of the film I’m using outside.

Helen Mirren Connects ‘White Bird’ and ‘The Thursday Murder Club’
“Older people have had a life.”
Image via Giles-Keyte/Netflix

Helen, I’m really excited for The Thursday Murder Club. I wanted to know what you can tease about that, especially working with that great cast. Also, 1923 Season 2.

MIRREN: I’ve been blessed. I’ve been blessed by working with the wonderful young cast of White Bird, wonderful young actors, but I’ve also been very blessed working with actors of my age group — the great Harrison Ford, Pierce Brosnan, Sir Ben Kingsley, a wonderful British actress called Celia Imrie, who are all in The Thursday Murder Club. We had just a marvelous time. We’d all worked together over the years. It was a great coming together of professionals. Yes, it was really fun.

Funny enough, there is sort of a connection, I’ve been thinking today, between White Bird and Thursday Murder Club, and indeed, 1923, now I’m getting into that world of older people — I’m definitely in that world — is just to remember that older people have had a life. They’ve had a complicated, interesting, passionate life. A demanding, difficult, wonderful life, just the way you young people are having right now. Just constantly remind people if you look at an old person’s face. I know it’s a simple thing to say, but I think we sort of think, “They’re all old. We’re not really interested in you anymore.” But actually, there are these amazing lives that these people have lived.

FORSTER: That’s what I love, actually, about White Bird, that the Grand-mère is telling her story and sharing her story with her grandchild. When I look back at my grandmother when I was young, I only listened with one ear. I wish I would have listened more because, as you just said, people have been here on this earth longer, had more experience, had more insights. It’s beautiful to hear their stories and share them with the younger generation.

White Bird is now playing in theaters.

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