Goodbye Christopher Robin Film Premiere & Director Interview

By 10/12/2017 03:44:00 PM ,

The GOODBYE CHRISTOPHER ROBIN film premiere after party happened this week at the Gottesman Hall at The New York Public Library and it was amazing.


Note: I was invited as media to the movie screening and premiere after party. This post was written in partnership with the Role Mommy Writer's Network. However any personal views expressed are always 100% my own.

Since I'm covering the film, I was excited to attend an advanced screening to interviewed the director, Simon Curtis, then attend the premiere after party and meet the cast!


I first met Domhnall Gleeson, who plays children's author A. A. Milne and father of Christopher Robin in the film. He was super nice!


Then I tried to meet Margot Robbie, who plays the wife and mother of Christopher Robin. But as you can guess she was very popular. So I settled for just taking a photo. It was still nice to see her in real life.


Then I met Will Tilston, who plays Christopher Robin. OMGosh he's SO sweet! And just as adorable in real life as he is in the film. The dimples!


Lastly I met Kelly Macdonald, who plays "Nanny" to Christopher Robin. She was also really sweet.


Simon Curtis, the director of GOODBYE CHRISTOPHER ROBIN, was also at the premiere. I thought about asking him for a photo but since I had already met him for the interview, I thought I should just let him enjoy the party. LOL.

Speaking of the interview, here are a few things I learned.



photo credit: David Appleby. © 2017 Fox Searchlight Pictures

After screening the movie, I wanted to ask the director, what is his favorite scene?


SIMON CURTIS: “I love the sequence when father and son play together in the summer. Those images of childhood that we are lucky we have. And you can see him almost falling in love with the idea of being a father and I think that is the heart of the film.

We were lucky because the two actors bonded really well in the film. When we were filming in the forest, which actually was the Queen’s special woods. It wasn’t actually a forest. One of the crew found this frog and handed it to him and suddenly Will just walked in with a frog. It was totally improvised. I’m quite proud of that.”


photo credit David Appleby. © 2017 Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation All Rights Reserved

Ironically, my son, who I took to the screening, also had a question to ask.

My son asked: Why doesn’t Billy like being called Christopher Robin?


SIMON CURTIS: “It’s quite a complicated idea, but in the family they think the character in the book is Christopher Robin, and their boy at home is called Billy. So they were able to make the distinction between those two. But the world didn’t see it like that. They just assumed they were one and the same. That was part of the problem. The books became famous and he got all the attention that he didn’t want.

Other questions Simon answered included


photo credit: David Appleby. © 2017 Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation All Rights Reserved

What made you decide to film this?


SIMON CURTIS: “I just loved the script when I read it. So many films this day and age are absolutely about nothing. This (script) seemed to be about so much. And so many things that are important to us. Noticeably, family actually. And it has a message, as the nanny says on the bridge ‘pay attention to the people who are around you as they are not going to be around forever’. And I think that’s a good message to be reminded.”

What was filming like at the original place where A.A. Milne lived with his family?


SIMON CURTIS: “I think it’s kind of moving that we were thinking that if they would have sat on that actual rough foot bridge, the bridge, the pooh sticks bridge, is the bridge that the father and son would have invented that game on. It was meaningful for us to go back.”

Were there parts of the movie that were added to bring more interest?


SIMON CURTIS: “Well our objective is to tell the true story, but you can never be absolutely be sure. But the woman who is an expert in AA Milne, who wrote his biography, was very much on the side. So she approved everything we did. But obviously we can’t say every conversation was exactly what it was, but it is our intention to tell the true story.”

And what an amazing true story GOODBYE CHRISTOPHER ROBIN turns out to be. There's so much about the film that will both surprise and delight you about the family that brought us the world of "Winnie the Pooh".

I'll be sure to share my full review in another post. But I encourage you to plan to see GOODBYE CHRISTOPHER ROBIN when it opens in theaters

To learn more, visit - www.foxsearchlight.com/goodbyechristopherrobin

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