Marc Forster says Ewan McGregor brought a "Chaplin-esque quality" to ‘Christopher Robin’.
The 48-year-old director – who previously worked with Ewan on the 2005 thriller ‘Stay’ – has hailed the actor’s performance as the iconic fictional character in the new live-action film, saying he’s "comedically brilliant".
He explained: "Ewan and I did a movie before, called ‘Stay’, and we knew each other very well and had been friends for years. I knew him very well, as an actor, ’cause we worked together. I knew that he’s comedically brilliant, and he is also brilliant, as a dramatic actor, but he doesn’t get to do much physical comedy.
"Peter Sellers’ performance in ‘Being There’ was a physical comedy reference that I used for the animators. When Peter Sellers walks around, his facial features are so calm while he just takes in the world. That’s Pooh, walking into the world. Ewan has a Chaplin-esque quality with his physical comedy."
Meanwhile, Marc admitted he was fortunate that the British weather remained good for the outdoor scenes in ‘Christopher Robin’.
Reflecting on the challenge of shooting Winnie the Pooh and his friends outdoors, the German-born filmmaker told Collider: "I’ve done a couple of movies in England. My first one was ‘Finding Neverland’, which was tricky because, in London, it rains, and then it’s sunny, and then it rains again. There’s no continuity.
"Everybody got a headache thinking about it because we had exteriors in the woods. Somehow with this film, we were so blessed. The clouds were there when we needed them, and the sun was there when we needed it.
"On the log where Christopher and Pooh meet, we had the perfect cloud situation. We woke up in the morning and it was cloudy, but when we had shot on the log, the sun was setting and it was a sunset that I had never seen before. You could wait weeks for a sunset like that. I was very blessed."
Ewan McGregor has a ‘Chaplin-esque quality’
