I have a photo of me with a clapboard of 46 takes from one scene, where my dad had to say, “Not till you’re 12, son.” Simple line, uncredited. Themmen: Not only was Mel sort of screamy, but he also did a lot of takes. Ostrum: Mel didn’t do a lot of directing. You can watch the whole process going on in my little brain. I’m looking at Gene blowing the pipe and calling the Oompa Loompa and talking about sending him off to the fudge room, and it’s dawning on me. It’s just about the time that Mike Teevee is figuring out that maybe not all is well at the factory. Paris Themmen (Mike Teevee): I’m playing some of that in the lower left hand corner of the frame right around the time that he’s going in. Peter Gardner Ostrum (Charlie Bucket): When I saw Michael do take after take after take of falling in the cold river, that cold, dirty river, I just thought, “I’m glad that’s him and not me!” So he had to really be specific on where he was going to tumble and hit that spot. But, of course, you couldn’t see that because the chocolatey water masked it. There was a trough there that he could fall into. So I was very scared that I would not hit the square meter, and would punch my head in the ground of the chocolate river.Ĭole: I remember watching that and being quite afraid for Michael because they were very adamant that, you know, “Not 6 inches to the left, not 6 inches to the right.” Those were the shallow bits. And there was a hole about a square meter that I had to hit.
It had the lights on it, and people were emptying their coffee cup dregs into it.īollner: The river was just 10 centimeters deep. Julie Dawn Cole (Veruca Salt): Michael had to fall into this disgusting stuff that had been sitting there for three weeks. It was stinky water! And it was all day long, jumping in and jumping out, and being around with wet clothes. Michael Bollner (Augustus Gloop): It was actually not chocolate. On the occasion of the film’s 50th anniversary and recent release on 4K Blu-ray, I spoke to the cast about one scene that has always haunted my memories, and that only became more fascinating as I learned how movies were made: Augustus’ ill-fated slurping from Wonka’s chocolate river. Forty years later, Peter Gardner Ostrum (Charlie Bucket) is a veterinarian Julie Dawn Cole (Veruca Salt) stuck around the acting world Paris Themmen (Mike Teevee) is a bona fide entrepreneur and Michael Bollner (Augustus Gloop) went back to Germany to become a CPA.īut they all have clear memories of making Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory. Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory captured the pure imaginations of countless generations, but for the kids of the cast, it was a demanding extracurricular activity that sent them off in every occupational direction.
#CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY MOVIE#
Opposite him: a bunch of preteens who had never set foot on a movie set, let alone one as extravagant as the lollipop lands built for the film. In the lead: Gene Wilder, one of America’s biggest comedic talents. Under the direction of Mel Stuart, whose previous credits included the JFK assassination documentary Four Days in November, and with financing from the Quaker Oats Company, which hoped a box-office smash could sell a few candy bars, Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory took a look at the British class system through the whimsical lens of a fairy-tale musical. In 1971, an unlikely cinematic classic was born out of one of Roald Dahl’s stranger, more colorful children’s novels.