Emily Mortimer has spoken about how delighted she was when her new film Mary Poppins Returns met the approval of her Bad Seeds brother-in-law.
The actress’s sister Rosie has been married to guitarist George Vjestica, who performs with Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, since 2009.
Mortimer, who plays a grown up Jane Banks in the sequel 54 years after the original film, told the Press Association: “My whole family came (to the premiere) and my mum can really not be nice about things and my brother-in-law, who is very very cool and he’s a Bad Seed, he’s in a band, and one of my nephews, who is the most discerning person I’ve ever met.
“He’s just so hyper-critical in the most brilliant way and he basically only likes David Bowie and that is it.
“And it got his approval, it got Johnny’s approval, and George was going on and on about the same thing, it just made him happy and ‘Do you realise what a big deal that is? And I was just crying and laughing and so entertained’.
“And my mum is normally sitting there going ‘I don’t know what the fuss is about’.
“‘Much ado about nothing,’ she said after one thing I was in. They were really waxing lyrical and saying it was really amazing and it does feel great to be part of something that is making people happy and excited.”
Reflecting on when she was offered the role, Mortimer said: “I was just thinking ‘Wow this is just huge and so exciting and I really want to be in it’.
“There could have been a lot of reticence about signing on to something like this because the original is so perfect and the thought of tampering with it in any way or muddying its memory was worrying but the minute you met Rob (Marshall, the director) I think that is what made us feel that there was no way we wouldn’t be part of what he wanted to make.”
Mary Poppins Returns is in UK cinemas now.
