By Beth Deitchman
Disney’s Godmothered is a holiday wish-come-true for anyone with a penchant for fairy tales with a modern twist, hilarious comedies that star talented and wickedly funny actors, and a super-sized sprinkling of Disney magic. The Disney+ original film debuting Friday, December 4, stars Jillian Bell as Eleanor, a fairy godmother-in-training who is determined to save her profession by proving that the world still needs these wand-wielding makers of magic. She leaves The Motherland—the far-off place from which she and her brethren hail—to create the ultimate happily-ever-after for Mackenzie (Isla Fisher), who as a 10-year-old, once sent a letter (that ultimately was mislaid) in which she requested the services of a fairy godmother. Now a 40-year-old single mom, Mackenzie no longer believes that she needs such a fantastical being in her life, but, as Bell suggests knowingly, “Maybe she does…”
Recently, Bell and Fisher were reunited virtually with some of their fellow Godmothered cast members, including Santiago Cabrera, who plays Hugh, Mackenzie’s on-air reporter partner; Jillian Shea Spaeder and Willa Skye, who play Mackenzie’s young daughters, Jane and Mia, respectively; Emmy® winner Jane Curtin, who plays Moira, The Motherland’s estimable headmistress; and Artemis Pebdani and Utkarsh Ambudkar, who portray Mackenzie’s colleagues at the Boston-based TV news station where she works. During the spirited press conference, the actors shared favorite memories from the film’s Beantown location shoot and discussed the film’s unconventional take on the beloved world of once-upon-a-times and happily-ever-afters. Here’s what they had to say:
Isla Fisher has a decidedly more optimistic outlook than Mackenzie does at the beginning of the film.
Fisher, a versatile actress who is also an accomplished author of children’s stories (and a mom herself), says that she views life as “an open book” and she tries not to pin her hopes on any specific paths. “It’s nice to let situations in life guide you into new beginnings or openings that you might not have envisioned for yourself and push yourself out of your comfort zone by being open to doing something potentially that wasn’t necessarily in your wheelhouse,” Fisher shares.
To help get into character, Jillian Bell made sure she was dressed for success.
“It started with a corset,” the actress says with a laugh, recalling a trip to a bridal store where she tried on a host of wedding dresses. She remembers, “They were all huge ball gowns. I remember seeing other women there who were trying on dresses to be married, and they were looking at me and I was in the poofiest thing, falling out of the dressing room, and they were all like, ‘Congratulations!’”
That fateful shopping trip enabled Bell and Godmothered director Sharon Maguire and costume designer Renee Ehrlich Kalfus to home in on the princess-inspired pink dress that Eleanor wears throughout the film. “I actually really liked it… it really helps get into character, stay in character, and it helps the posture,” Bell explains, though she confesses she was also glad to change into sweatpants at the end of the day. She adds, “I wish I could’ve kept one [of the dresses] because I like to keep one costume for everything I do, but this was a pretty massive costume to ask for.”
Jane Curtin also loved her own character’s dress… but it was her character’s hair that had an extra-special effect.
“It was the only tall character I’ve ever played,” Curtin laughed. “It was a momentous thing for me to actually tower over other people.” Curtin credits the makeup, hair, and costumes as one of the keys to fleshing out The Motherland’s exacting headmistress. “They forced you into a certain posture and a certain way of being, and it really suited the strictness of Moira. I liked the whole outfit,” she says.
Cabrera, Pebdani, and Ambudkar spent time at a local news station as part of their research for their roles.
“We were taken around by real news people and field reporters,” Cabrera explains, and he notes that a professional from a local Boston station was also on hand to offer expert advice while they were filming. Pebdani also received help learning how to look like a natural while operating the news camera. She adds, “[They] taught me how to hold it and look tough and really what you would do, you know, how close your eyeball would actually get—that sort of thing.” Ambudkar teased a different approach to realizing his character: “I have to play a news boss who has no idea what he’s doing, so I didn’t have to do any research and it worked out just fine,” he says with a laugh.
Jillian Bell was able to share a few fairy-godmother moments with her young co-stars.
Jillian Shea Spaeder, who sings and plays guitar in her real life, enjoyed having the opportunity to perform in the film… but she admits to being a little daunted at having to do so in front of a large audience. She remembers looking out at the background actors and thinking, “Wow, there’s a lot of people here.” And while she deftly conquered her nerves over the two days of filming the performance scene, she looked to Bell for inspiration as she faced singing in a chilly airplane hangar while wearing a sleeveless dress. “Jillian Bell taught me a wonderful trick, to breathe out the shivers, and I took that with me the whole movie,” Spaeder shares.
The cast was aware that the film continues Disney’s enduring legacy of fairy godmothers.
“The Fairy Godmother from Cinderella—she’s the O.G. She’s the original godmother… That’s the one to try to beat,” Bell stresses, though she deliberately avoided channeling the enchanted icon so that she could create her own character in Eleanor. Curtin revealed that she was able to draw upon some personal experience making Disney magic. “I played the wicked queen just one night, overnight, in Disneyland,” she shares, recalling her appearance in the 1987 TV special Golden Anniversary of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. “We shot it from midnight until six o’clock the next morning, and I had the cape and the things coming out of my fingernails when I go to the mirror. Oh, [it was] awesome,” she recalls.
The modern idea of “happily-ever-after” that’s featured so prominently in Godmothered is extremely meaningful to the film’s cast.
“For young girls watching, you know, happily-ever-after doesn’t necessarily include a castle, a prince, and a dress. It can be blessings you have in your life with your family or work,” Fisher says. Curtin agrees that the vision of happily-ever-after in Godmothered represents the world we live in today. “It’s what you believe and it’s a goal that you can achieve on your own,” she emphasizes. “If you want it, if you believe that you can get it, it’s something that’s not reliant on magic, it’s reliant on you and your spirit. I think that that’s really something that we all have to remember, that we are capable of such amazing things and such positive things for ourselves and for others—and that’s happily ever after.”
