Sandy Kenyon chats with Meryl Streep, Anna Kendrick at 'Into the Woods' premiere
NEW YORK CITY -- A lot of people have tried to make a movie out of the iconic Broadway show "Into the Woods," but the man who succeed is director Rob Marshall, who won an Oscar for the musical "Chicago." He led his cast into the Ziegfeld Theater for an only-in-New-York kind of night Monday.
Before they could go "Into the Woods," the stars of the movie had to walk down the red carpet. But given the fact the famous members of this cast were bringing to life one of Broadway's most beloved musicals, not even the best among them seemed to mind.
"Acting in a movie is wonderful, but when you add music, it just lifts the whole proceedings up, and that's what this did for all of us working on it every day," Meryl Streep said.
The legendary actress and mother also agreed that the movie was a good one for families to go to in the holiday season.
In the movie, Streep plays a really wicked witch who gets her wish not to look so ugly, but what's truly beautiful is the way she sings.
The music is by the legendary Stephen Sondheim.
"It's a gift," Streep says of the music. "It's a gift from us to you."
Dropping into this distinguished company is Johnny Depp, who has a brief role as the wolf opposite Lilla Crawford, who plays Red Riding Hood.
"Somebody accidentally dropped a bucket of leaves on my head, and he volunteered to pick every leaf one by one out of my head," Crawford said of Depp. "And I mean, that put me at ease because Johnny Depp is picking leaves out of my hair. Um, awesome. I mean, he was just so sweet."
Sweet is also a word I could use to describe James Corden, who plays the baker.
He took a selfie with me and proclaimed that it was the only selfie he was going to take -- not with Streep, Depp or anyone else.
But there's nothing saccharine about this movie that puts an adult twist on fairy tales we first heard as children.
Anna Kendrick's Cinderella is not how I remember her.
"She's so neurotic," Kendrick says of her character. "She's such a weirdo. I love it."
Kendrick also told me that working with Streep was a lot easier than Streep's many achievements might suggest.
But when I reminded Streep about her 18 Oscar nominations, more than any other performer, she told me she just didn't want to talk about that. She wanted to keep the focus on the film, which is from Walt Disney Pictures, owned by the same parent company as ABC 7.
