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‘Maleficent: Mistress of Evil’: Joachim Rønning Gets Timely With Michelle Pfeiffer’s Divisive Queen Ingrith
Rønning found a comfort zone with Disney's "Maleficent" sequel by overcoming the politics of hate with inclusion.Bill Desowitz
After helming the underwhelming “Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales,” Scandinavian director Joachim Rønning returned to Disney to navigate “Maleficent: Mistress of Evil.” His creative interest was piqued by the maternal war between Michelle Pfeiffer’s divisive Queen Ingrith and Angelina Jolie’s conflicted Maleficent, along with with the introduction of the oppressed dark fae (led by Chiwetel Ejiofor).
At Disney’s D23, Jolie said that the much-hyped sequel to the 2014 hit is about families “being pulled apart by their differences” and fighting “for the belief that what makes you different, makes you stronger.” Rønning echoed the political relevance with his own assessment of Queen Ingrith as a Trump-like ruler. “I do think that it was so interesting to see Michelle Pfeiffer as Queen Ingrith dictating the narrative of the story and how it resembles a little bit today’s society,” he said in a recent interview with IndieWire.
Trump’s fanatical preoccupation with Twitter also found its allegorical way into Linda Woolverton’s timely script. “Whoever controls the narrative, kind of controls the world, especially now with social media,” continued Rønning. “And with the push of a button with your finger, you can send your whole narrative and control the story, control the conflict. And she’s really using that to divide humans and fae and humans against nature and creating fear and chaos. It absolutely reflects today.”
While the director was often preoccupied with the requisite spectacle of VFX-intensive battles and CG creatures (courtesy of MPC), Rønning pointed to a confrontational early dinner scene in the royal dining hall as a delight to craft. The Queen deliberately provokes Maleficent with racist remarks and the declaration that Princess Aurora (Elle Fanning) will “finally get the love of a real mother.”
“It is one of my favorite scenes because it’s all in camera,” Rønning said. “When you make this movie, it’s a lot of blue and green screens, big sets, and hundreds of extras. It gets very intense. But here we had a week to shoot this whole scene around a dinner table. And suddenly you can really have fun with the characters, and there’s room for drama. And you have these amazing actors playing off each other, and I was able to shoot with many, many cameras. It’s very tricky to do a seven-person [dialogue-driven] dinner scene.”
The other reason Rønning took the assignment, not surprisingly, was because of the chance to explore the ethnographic world of the dark fae, who have been driven underground. Whether directing “Kon-Tiki,” “Marco Polo,” or “Pirates,” Rønning finds himself drawn to unique locales that can’t help but influence his storytelling. “I need that combination of unique backdrops and interesting characters to trigger me,” he said. “It’s world creating. You sit there with a production designer [Patrick Tatopoulos] and everything is possible a year before shooting, talking about what this could be, finding some sort of a system, high up in the mists of the sky.”
The inspiration for the dark fae were bird nests, and they researched how various species build their nests with branches, twigs, and saliva to create the whiteness. “And, of course, the dark fae are very much representing nature in this film with different volumes,” said Rønning. “You have the tundra forest, the jungle, the desert, and all of that is in the nest.”
Yet, for Rønning, it’s ultimately a story about unification as a hopeful message for our divisive times. “At the end of the day, if there’s one word that I want this movie to be about, it’s kindness,” he said.
Boston Herald
From Norway to Mighty ‘Maleficent’
By Stephen SchaeferJoachim Rønning’s 2017 ‘Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales’ might have been the fifth (and presumably final) entry in the blockbuster franchise but it was enough to land the Norwegian filmmaker the director’s seat on Disney’s mightily expensive and ambitious ‘Maleficent’ sequel, opening this week globally. The first ‘Maleficent’ was five long years ago. On ‘Pirates’ Ronning collaborated as co-director with fellow Norwegian and childhood friend Espen Sandberg. The duo’s remake of the true-life sea adventure ‘Kon Tiki’ won them Oscar and Golden Globe nominations as Best Foreign Language Film. Rønning, 47, was interviewed at the Montage Hotel in Beverly Hills as he spoke about a hands-on Angelina Jolie, a years in the making big screen battle and what’s with those iconic Maleficent horns.
Q: What was your ambition for this sequel?
Joachim Rønning: For me, you can have all the spectacle in the world – and we have the resources for that, Disney being Disney – but at the end of the day it’s all about the characters and the emotional core of the story. In the first film I think what surprised audiences all over the world is that they were moved by it. That was a story I wanted to continue telling. But then of course you have to then take it to the next level. I was interested in some sort of origin story for Maleficent and discovering she’s not the only one, making the universe bigger.
Q: Angelina Jolie is such a powerful screen presence, what made you think Michelle Pfeiffer could go toe to toe with her?
JR: Michelle Pfeiffer is one of the few who can go up against Maleficent — and Angelina Jolie for that matter. I felt so lucky to have her there every day on set. Those days were the best days. You really feel so privileged. I’m sitting there, hundreds of people around you, and not only are they playing iconic characters, they’re iconic actors. Some of the world’s best actors and also most famous. There were moments I felt sitting there I was in a movie theater. Angelina Jolie comes in, puts on the horns. Michelle comes in in that beautiful dress and pearls. Elle [Fanning] in the middle of all that. It’s very, very privileged situation as a film director.
Q: Was casting Michelle opposite Angie kind of a black versus white thing because one is a blonde and the other is definitely not? And we think of black as evil and blonde as good and that’s flipped.
JR: It didn’t dictate why Michelle Pfeiffer came onboard. That was a process where we didn’t know what she should look like. She had red hair for a while and then we went, ‘Let’s go blonde.’ I’m happy with that, I think it looks good, a good contrast between them.
Q: What about these three little pixies who fly around and are played by a trio of famous British actresses – Lesley Manville, Imelda Staunton and Juno Temple? Were they ever there with the other actors or simply digitally pasted into the movie we see?
JR: Yeah, everything is shot outside of London in Pinewood Studios. Again, you have these amazing actresses who are playing the pixies. They were shooting on a separate stage. I was shooting on the main stages. Basically, this is very technical, but they were shot by a dozen cameras. They are not really allowed to move or do anything. So they can’t really act. They can only mimic and speak. Then we put them in the movie on their CG bodies. It’s really a complex way of making movies. So Elle talking to the pixies, there’s only puppeteers with rubber ducks.
Q: The battle scene has so many storylines and characters and settings, how did you map that out?
JR: I’m not saying this to sell myself here but I believe I’m the only one who has that [whole battle sequence] in my head. So there’s the best crew in the world, a thousand people there, and they’re trying to help you. Because in order to map it out you plan for a year. You have models. You have miniatures. You have 3D models in the computer. You sit with the screenwriters to be as structured as you can. And then you come and just throw it out the window. [Laughs] You discover it again. Then you start putting it together again. It’s probably the most difficult thing to edit. That was nine months with two editors — to keep the essence and keep a clear storyline.
Q: The film’s message of tolerance and acceptance, can we apply that to the world we’re living in?
JR: I think very much so! My little dream here is to have a message of kindness, you know? Our villain in the shape of Queen Ingrith is very much controlling the narrative, using that as part of her power and dividing people. Yes, there’s definitely some parallels to today in society. What I love is at the end of the day you have your family, you come together, you show an openness. You come to an acceptance of others and show kindness. And that is the message of the movie.
Q: How did you work with the screenwriters? [Linda Wolverton has sole credit for the original and a team shares credit for the sequel.]
JR: Angelina Jolie is very hands on, when we work on the script. I sat with her (pauses) a lot, working on the script. Together with the different screenwriters coming in and out. The producers are involved. Disney, they are involved. But it revolves around Angie and me getting it. That never stops. The script-writing process. That’s what I’m doing on my lunchtime when we break for lunch on any set. I continue working on the script, running it by her. Our days started in her makeup trailer, where she sits here for a couple of hours getting her horns and cheekbones done. I’m there with her, that’s where we work.
Q: At the end of the first ‘Maleficent’ she changes from a villain. Where did you want Maleficent to go here?
JR: What I relate to — although this is a fantastical universe, what I was interested in discovering was a more mature Maleficent. Because her little girl is not a little girl anymore. Aurora is becoming a woman. Any parents fear when that day comes and you’re not the most important person in that person’s life anymore. I was interested in seeing how Maleficent can go to that level. Also as a parent you sacrifice yourself, you try to change as a person in order to make your child happy. Or do the best for your child. In this movie I was interested in how far Maleficent would change for Aurora. And she really tries. She goes to meet the parents [of Aurora’s future husband Prince Phillip, the King and Queen Ingrith]. The in-laws! And then that backfires. But that journey was very interesting for me to explore.
Q: What is the deal with the horns if you haven’t seen the first movie? Were they cut off at one point? Did they grow back? What do they represent?
JR: Her wings were cut off in the first film but they came back. They are kind of mythical creatures, with wings, and also the horns are of course from the original design of the [1959] Disney animated movie [‘Sleeping Beauty’]. Of course, we’re taking it to the next level but the horns are very much a part of the Maleficent iconic look. The red lipstick – which we spent hours and hours talking about: The shade of red. Nothing is left to chance here. It’s all about planning, planning, planning.
Q: What’s next?
JR: Sleeping for the next couple of weeks. No, I love working in America and I love making movies but we’ll see. I feel very lucky to be able to do what I do.
Q: So it’s not back to Norway for a Norwegian language film shot in two weeks?
JR: No, I don’t think so. Not right away. I’m not going to say it’s not going to happen because I’ve had amazing experiences making movies in Scandinavia. One day!
It's movie-making magic! Learn how Director Joachim Rønning brought #Maleficent: Mistress of Evil to life, in theaters Friday: https://t.co/r6p6llyiCM pic.twitter.com/YxmVD5bqDh— Disney (@Disney) October 13, 2019
By Zach Johnson
It’s not unusual to hear Joachim Rønning ask, “What’s next?”
After continuing the adventures of Jack Sparrow in Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures’ 2017 film Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales, Rønning was approached to direct Maleficent’s next chapter. The Disney villain’s origin story had cast a spell on audiences in 2014, when Angelina Jolie played her in the live-action film, and Rønning jumped at the chance to explore the character’s past, present, and future. “This is my second sequel,” Rønning recently confirmed to D23. “I really love working with Disney!”
Feeling inspired, Rønning began by assembling an accomplished creative team to help bring his vision to life. Key players included director of photography Henry Braham; production designer Patrick Tatopoulos; costume designer Ellen Mirojnick; composer Geoff Zanelli; film editors Laura Jennings and Craig Wood; visual effects supervisor Gary Brozenich; makeup designer Paul Gooch; special makeup effects designer David White; and stunt coordinators Simon Crane and Jo McLaren; among others. Jolie had already signed on to star in and produce the film with Duncan Henderson and Joe Roth, and actors Elle Fanning and Sam Riley signed on to reprise their roles as Aurora and Diaval, respectively. Executive producer Linda Woolverton also returned as a co-screenwriter; together, with co‐screenwriters Noah Harpster and Micah Fitzerman‐Blue, they crafted a screenplay that picks up several years after the events of the first movie.
“I was interested in some sort of an origin story for Maleficent discovering she’s not the only one—the only Dark Fey,” Rønning said. “And all of that made the universe bigger.” It helped that Jolie “is very hands on when we work on the scripts,” he added. In fact, he admitted the scriptwriting process “never stopped” on set. “That’s what I’m doing when we break for lunch on set; I continue working on the script and running it by her. Our days started in the makeup trailer, where she’d sit for a couple hours getting her horns and her cheekbones and all that done. And I was there with her; it’s where we worked.”
Rønning wanted to “take it to the next level,” which is why he turned to Michelle Pfeiffer, who was cast to play Prince Philip’s mother, the cunning Queen Ingrith. Early on, the Queen of Ulstead devises an evil plan to divide humans and fairies forever. Pfeiffer was “at the very top of my [casting] list,” Rønning said, as she’s “one of the few who can go up against Maleficent… or Angelina, for that matter!” To his delight, Pfeiffer delivered—and then some! “I just felt so lucky to have her there every day on set,” he said. “Those days are the best days, you know? When you have Michelle Pfeiffer, Angelina Jolie, and Elle Fanning battling it out in front of your camera, you really do feel so privileged.”
Principal photography took place at the iconic Pinewood Studios outside London in the summer of 2018. Most sets were built practically on six soundstages and on the studio’s backlot, which were enhanced with visual effects in post-production. A week was also spent filming on locations in and around the U.K., including Syon House Lake, Burnham Beeches, and Windsor Great Park. “There are always going to be a lot of effects shots…. but we always prefer shooting elements and set pieces,” Rønning explained. “Things that are huge parts of the story, we wanted that on camera as much as possible.”
The Dark Fey nest where Maleficent connects with her clan—led by Conall (Chiwetel Ejiofor) and Borra (Ed Skrein)—is the perfect example of a practical set supplemented by visual effects. “The Dark Fey nest is so vast and so big; there is no way you can build that,” Rønning said. “You build elements, then you put the characters in there—it’s like a little igloo—and the rest is on the computer. The process took a year to plan. We stood on set with the actors, and we’d already built it on the computer, so they could look at the monitor and look around, and then they could ‘see’ what they’re looking at.”
Rønning also estimated he spent about nine months working with two editors on the climactic 20-minute battle scene at Queen Ingrith’s castle. “In order to map it out, you plan for a year. You draw it, you have models, you have miniatures, you have 3-D models in the computer. You sit with the screenwriters to be as structured as you can… and then you begin editing and just throw it all out the window!” Rønning said with a laugh. “Then you discover it again, and you start putting it together again. It’s probably the most difficult thing you can edit—and probably what we spent the most time editing.”
With a production as big as this, no detail is too big or too small—down to the vibrant hue of Maleficent’s lipstick. “We spent hours and hours talking about the shade of red,” Rønning said. “Nothing is left to chance here. It’s all about planning, planning, planning.”
Maleficent: Mistress of Evil opens in theaters October 18, 2019.
