A Wrinkle in Time: Meet the Cast!

By Erin

*We attended a screening/press conference as a guest of Disney*

I am beyond thrilled to see one of my all time favorite books turned into a magical adventure on the big screen. What makes it even more special is the cast! Oprah Winfrey and Reese Witherspoon? Both amazing women I’ve looked up to since I was a little girl. Then you add in an incredible visionary director, Ava DuVernay who is from my home town of Long Beach, California. You can bet I am more than excited to see this film come to life. Disney’s “A Wrinkle in Time,” is an epic adventure based on Madeleine L’Engle’s timeless classic that takes audiences across dimensions of time and space, examining the nature of darkness versus light, good versus evil and, ultimately, the triumph of love. Through one girl’s transformative journey led by three celestial guides, we discover that strength comes from embracing one’s individuality and that the best way to triumph over fear is to travel by one’s own light. A Wrinkle in Time comes out in theaters on Friday, March 9th.

I had the pleasure to meet the cast a couple weeks ago at the press conference in Holllywood, California. Here is what they had to share with us about the film, it was full of magic.

The talent in attendance was:

Oprah Winfrey (“Mrs. Which”)
Reese Witherspoon (“Mrs. Whatsit”)
Mindy Kaling (“Mrs. Who”)
Storm Reid (“Meg Murry”)
Chris Pine (“Dr. Alex Murry”)
Gugu Mbatha-Raw (“Dr. Kate Murry”)
Zach Galifianakis (“The Happy Medium”)
Rowan Blanchard (“Veronica”)
Levi Miller (“Calvin”)
Deric McCabe (“Charles Wallace Murry”)
Director Ava DuVernay
Jennifer Lee (Screenplay by)

For all of the Wrinkle in Time loyalists from the 1960s, what is the greatest shift that you made to adapt it to 2018?

JENNIFER LEE: I think we talked a lot about what makes Wrinkle so amazing and has resonated for decades and decades is because there is a timeless quality to the themes she’s dealing with. But we did look a lot at what are those themes today, what do they mean today? And how do you stay true to that, but re-interpret them in a way that we all say this is our world? This is what we understand. So we just had a lot of conversations about what we were inspired by and then what that meant to us growing up and to children now and to the world now.

Love is a huge through-line in this movie. They are a modern family, an interracial couple, a beautiful 2018 family. Chris, what was it like for you playing a scientist in this very complex story about wanting to move the narrative forward as a culture but the culture’s not ready for it?

CHRIS PINE: Well, I had so much fun with this guy, Dr. Alexander. He is so cool. This book, Jazz of Physics, I love jazz and I love John Coltrane. He opens the book talking about the music of the universe and how music and John Coltrane and physics and stars are one of the same thing and I just fell in love with this guy. I could talk to him for hours. The poor guy was having emails all the time asking him the dumbest things of all time. Something he said that I thought was really interesting and this may be part of the movie or not, but he was talking about how in what he’s doing now, it’s like we are all part of the same thing and in his studies, in his academic studies, he not only studies physics but he studies music, and then he studies painting, it’s like this incredible hive of a bursting mind. So I think that’s what I really enjoyed about this character is that his brain is hungry and searching and explorative. Obviously that ambition to do great things propels him forward to do some wonderful things scientifically, but unfortunately that kind of shadow side of him, ambition, it disconnects from what is most important in his life and what requires his daughter to reintroduce him to, which is the spirit and the beauty and regenerative quality of being next to human beings, touching and feeling and holding and kissing. All those things that make us human.

Ava Duvernay was asked how she felt about how the film turned out.

AVA DUVERNAY: I feel like I tried and gave everything I had to a film again. So if that’s the it, then yes. There’s love in every frame of this movie and there’s love in every frame of everything that I do. I don’t have children. I won’t have children by choice. These films are my children, are what I leave behind. They have my name on them, have my blood in them. And so I feel I did that. And from there, you offer it up to the world and you hope that they can see our intention. But this was an extraordinary experience for me. It’s emotional to sit here with all of them because we really held hands on this and became a family, trying to just give a little bit of sweetness to the world in these dark times. It’s a tough time right now. This film really saved me in a lot of ways from kind of going down dark holes and kept me in a really light-filled place so I’m grateful for the past few years working on A Wrinkle in Time.

Oprah was told that her role was absolutely perfectly tailored to her, Mrs. Which. It’s like art imitating life. Did you feel that when you were playing the character?

OPRAH WINFREY: Yes, I did. As a matter of fact, I actually did. No, you all have heard me say this before and it’s so true. Ava and I are talking on the phone and when she went to New Zealand and posted pictures of scouting for New Zealand, I had been in New Zealand the year before, in Auckland and did not get to the South Island. I had wanted to do that. And so wanted to do that. Everybody says, you didn’t get to the South Island, you haven’t really seen New Zealand. So when I heard that she was going to be filming in New Zealand, I said, I’m going. I’m going. I’m just gonna go. She goes, what do you mean, go? I go, I’m just gonna go hang out with you for however long it takes, I’m gonna block it on my schedule, I’m gonna be there, I’m gonna watch you shoot and say action. Do that, and you know, because I can. Ava said, well if you’re serious about that, you’d actually come to New Zealand? I go, for sure I’m gonna be there. And she said well, why not take a look at the script? I’ve been wanting to ask you to do this, but I didn’t want to pressure you because of our friendship. I go, okay, I’ll do it. I didn’t even know what it was. I’ll do it.

Reese is sassy in this movie. Tell us about playing your character.

REESE WITHERSPOON: Just being in the movie, I had a version of Oprah’s story, too, where my agent called me and said, Ava Duvernay wants you to be in a movie—Yes! Great, when do I show up? They were like, oh no, she has to take a meeting. I was like, oh, okay, has to take a meeting. Oh yeah, I’m sorry. So I sat across from her, I was like, really you want me? It was very flattering to be chosen to be part of Ava’s movies because she doesn’t just make a movie, she makes an experience for everyone. She cares about what happens in front of the camera and she cares about what happens behind the camera. And everybody feels like they are important. Special. Honored. Valued for their contributions. And I feel like this was a masterclass in how to be a very thoughtful filmmaker. A real visionary. In so many ways. So it was a privilege and an honor, and I got to be this amazing celestial person, who hangs out with Oprah and Mindy all day. It really was truly a delight. Extraordinary.

It was at this moment Oprah said, “There’s our picture. Delight!” and I was able to capture this moment of “Delight” below!

Mindy was asked how she felt about being one of the Mrs.’s?

MINDY KALING: It’s absolutely incredible. It feels, I can’t believe that I was selected to do this. It’s such an honor to act with all these incredible actors. I’m a sitcom actress and Ava saw something in me and we actually met at a party. It was for Malala. Ava, Malala and I were the only three women of color at this big party. After I finished talking to Malala, Malala was seated to my left and Ava was seated over there and once I finished talking to Malala, I was like, I really want to talk to Ava. After I finished talking to her, we had a great conversation and I thought, you know what, our genres are so different, we’ll never cross paths, and then this happened. I feel so blessed to be part of it. To wake up every morning and spend four hours in the makeup trailer with these two was great. Zach I knew because I took his online acting course.

This is Deric McCabe’s first film. First of all, welcome to your first film. You smashed your role, sir. And for Ava to search all over the world for your character and you were the one that won. How did you even process that before you started filming?

DERIC MCCABE: Well, the first thing that she told me when we started rehearsals, she said, I had seven casting directors all over the world and the person that we picked is just around the corner. I said, well, tell those casting directors that they did a good job. Ava put us to a test during rehearsals. We were in a hallway, and I was with Levi and Storm, and she made us walk down and say our lines, and pretend no one was watching. And I was like, that was easy. And she’s like, really? Hollywood. Pssshh.

Before the press conference ended Oprah was asked: You say in the movie that we need to restore hope. That’s a beautiful talk. But do you think it’s possible to be hopeful in times like this?

OPRAH WINFREY: Oh yeah, for sure. I think the darkness is there to help bring out the light in all of us. And if you think about it, if we turned all the lights off in this room, and you just held one person just held a candle, you would start to dissipate the darkness. You would banish the darkness. And look at how much darkness it would take to actually engulf all the light that every candle would hold in this room. So just, it just takes a little bit of light. Just a little bit of light. That’s what we’re hoping for. A little bit of light. And if everybody can get that message, that’s how we have hope in the world. We’re looking for warriors who can bring hope back. Thank you.

After the press conference we had the chance to view some of the gorgeous costumes from the film.

I am a huge Alex and Ani fan, so if you are too, you will LOVE this! Alex and Ani has come out with some gorgeous pieces for A Wrinkle in Time! Which one do you want most? Can I just have them all? 🙂