Based on Hugh Grant’s account of events, acting in Wonka was a nightmare. The man has described his performance as an Oompa Loompa in the chocolate-maker’s origin story as a “crown of thorns,” bringing to mind famously hellish sets like Apocalypse Now and Mad Max: Fury Road. And yet, crazily enough, there is at least one cast member who thoroughly enjoyed filming a children’s movie about magical candy. Olivia Colman, who plays a character named Mrs. Scrubbit, told People she found the Wonka production “really fun,” and actually, she “loved it.”
It feels safe to assume Colman’s character is a villain, considering she looks like a sickening combination of Miss Hannigan and Mini-Me in the movie posters. Indeed, Colman raved that she “loved being a baddie … and saying all the things you wouldn’t normally say.” Also thrilling: dyeing her fake teeth a disgusting shade of tobacco-stained yellow, which Colman was so amped about that she had to be talked down into making the dentures more “subtle.” Actually, all elements of Mrs. Scrubbit’s appearance were great for her — Colman also said that her huge pair of prosthetic boobs kept her “so cozy” for filming on cold days. As for her co-star Timothée Chalamet? He was “so impressive and so lovely to work with.”
To be fair, being swaddled in a thick blanket of prosthetic boobs sounds nicer than having to stand still for an army of motion-capture cameras, so perhaps Colman and her villain wig just lucked out. Still, it is getting harder and harder to believe that filming Wonka could possibly have been such a drag.