Come Away star David Oyelowo spoke about why Angelina Jolie was a natural choice to play the mother of Peter Pan and Alice, and some of the magical moments working on the movie in this uInterview.

The actor described the new movie as a “reimagined origin story that places Peter from Peter Pan and Alice from Alice in Wonderland as brother and sister.” He plays their father opposite Jolie.

“Our family goes through a very challenging incident and you see how that incident becomes the jump off for the creation in a sense of the worlds of Neverland and Wonderland as our children use their imaginations to cope with what we’re going through,” Oyelowo said.

He explained that Jolie was perfect for the role because being a mother is such an important part of her real life.

“Angie and I have been friends for quite a while and I know her mostly as a mother, a mother to six kids, and as someone who is very invested in that part of her life,” the actor said. “And I’ve never really seen her play a mother on film and so many of our discussions over the time I’ve known her have been about family and our kids, I have four, she has six, and the film Come Away really deals with some of the themes and situations that she and I have discussed. So it felt very natural to sort of approach her with the film.”

As a parent, Oyelowo said the part of the film that most resonated with him was the challenges and mistakes you make while raising children.

“One of the things I really loved about the film is that it juxtaposes reality and fantasy, and for mine and Angie’s characters we’re going through a very tough time in the movie,” he said. “And, you know, I think that when you’re raising children it’s not an exact science, you make mistakes all the time. And I think for us, the moments that really resonated with us is when we’re trying to sort of just muddle through and do this job of being a parent well. That’s something she and I really connected over and connected with.”

The most magical part of working on the movie? Oyelowo says it’s his little costars Keira Chansa (Alice) and Jordan A. Nash (Peter), calling them “balls of energy, balls of light.”

“Working with these kids was just truly magical,” he said. “The energy, the light, the joy that you see bursting from the screen is just who they are and how they were as well.”

He continued, “It was just so nice to be around them day in, day out and to play with them, to act opposite them, but to also just absorb their energy was my favorite aspect of doing this film.”

 

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