Denise Gough Cast in Greta Gerwig’s Narnia Movie, Teases a “Mean” Role
And just like that, another actor has been confirmed for Netflix’s Narnia project.
Irish actress Denise Gough revealed on the We’re Not Kidding podcast that she has joined the cast of Greta Gerwig’s upcoming adaptation of The Magician’s Nephew. The exchange begins at the 44:19 mark in the episode.
Interviewer: Have you got any movie projects coming up?
Gough: I’m doing a film with Greta Gerwig called Narnia. So that’s, I’m playing someone mean in that, but it’s fine, it’s to children, it’s okay.
Gough is best known for portraying Dedra Meero across 20 episodes of Disney’s Andor series. She also recently appeared in the mini-series The Stolen Girl alongside Beatrice Campbell, who is set to play Polly Plummer in Narnia.
Which “mean” character do you think Gough could be playing? Share your thoughts in the comments, and then join the discussion in our Community Forum.
Wow! She’s so great in Andor so this will be fun! A mean role in MN besides Jadis?
Jadis’ sister?? Or maybe Godmother LeFay? They would be awesome!
Those are the only two mean female characters I can think of… unless they show Jadis siding with the hags or something. LeFay might not be mean but she could be portrayed as such.
I feel like that’s probably got to be Aunt Letty?
I wouldn’t say Aunt Letty was especially mean to Digory but could see how they might play that up. And Gough’s right in between Carey Mulligan and Daniel Craig in terms of age so it’s there’s a decent chance of her being Letty.
Could be a new minor character as well though.
My first thought was Mrs Macready even though that’s likely the second film Greta makes.
I really like the direction the casting has taken so far. Daniel Craig, Emma Mackey, Carey Mulligan, and the child actors all seem well-suited for their roles. Hoping for the one actress rumored, who shall not be named, is actually for another role.
In “The Stolen Girl,” Denise played Beatris’s mother. It will be interesting to see how their characters interact in this film. Although, if Denise plays Godmother LeFay, she and Polly won’t have any scenes together.
Oh she’s good in Andor!
@Silvia A Daniel Craig was never confirmed
I really don’t know who she could play. There aren’t any mean characters in the book except for Jadis and uncle Andrew. Maybe she could play a teacher at Digory’s school? Or a neighbor?
@Impending doom once again, Daniel Craig was never confirmed
We need to remember that this film is not sticking very closely to the book, so it could well be an entirely new character, such as a teacher — perhaps a mean one who forces Digory to swim even though she knows he’s afraid of water or something.
My guesses are pretty much the same… probably Aunt Letty or Mrs. Lefay (although the latter might imply a flashback where she intimidates a young Uncle Andrew?)
Maybe I’m reading into it to much (actually, that’s often sort of likely with these sorts of things!) but I wonder why she made the comment about playing somebody “mean”. Isn’t Dedra Meero mean? And what does she mean by saying it’s okay, because it’s “to children.” I’m wondering if either she misspoke the word “mean”, or meant something entirely different by it (i.e. small – though that makes little sense when paired with her last clause). Or if she meant she is playing someone unimportant, but it’s a children’s film so she doesn’t care how little a role she plays.
I find it interesting that she said the movie is titled Narnia and not The Magician’s Nephew.
@Col Klink, I agree! But maybe she’s not sure whether she’s allowed to give away the title yet?
I was directly thinking of Mrs LeFay! Who was certainly not nice… Guess we’ll see!
She looks like she could be Emma Mackey’s sister, so I would guess Jadis’ sister.
I like the idea that she’s playing the Macready, but that seems further in the story. Maybe, if she’s not Jadis’ sister, maybe she tattles on Polly for “jumping in puddles.”. Then she’d be mean to children for tattling, but she’d justify it? I don’t know, that comment is confusing.
The first person I thought of was Aunt Letty maybe? I don’t think of her as ‘mean’ but more strict or harsh.
Yes!! Posted about this on Reddit after I listened to that podcast episode with Mehdi Hasan. Glad someone else listens to that podcast too because I hadn’t seen any news about it anywhere. She is an incredible actress. Whether she plays Jadis’ sister (strong possibility considering she was in the running for Jadis herself) or even a character created for the adaptation, I know she’ll be fantastic.
It could be one of the frozen people when Digory and Polly turn up in Charn. I’m gathering they will try and give Jadis at least a flashback as to why she says the deplorable word. For memory it’s something to do with a power struggle with her sister..
I think she looks most like Jadis’s sister, but I don’t see how that would involve being “mean” to children. Mrs. LeFay would make more sense, I think. It’ll be really fun seeing that character portrayed! She’s one of the minor characters in the series that I wonder most about. What is her backstory? How does she have fairy blood in her? Where does she get the magic dust from? How does her attachment to young Andrew play out? She really doesn’t like other people, but I always thought she would be nice to Andrew, if still a bit irritable and angry with the rest of the world.
On another note, what does it mean when Denise Gough says that she is “playing someone mean… but it’s fine, it’s to children, it’s okay”. Does she think it’s alright to be mean to children? Because if so, that worries me. However, I have never heard of her before and don’t know anything about her, so I may be missing something here.
@Col Klink
So this is starting to make my theory that they are *shudder* combining the Narnia books together into two films. We keep hearing about two films and now we’re seeing them change the time period and there are characters who might not even be in the story with this version. Whatever they do, it’s not going to be what people want to see in a Narnia adaption. Greta mentioned that she was going to break the lore – that is not a good thing. This is going to be a disaster.
This cast is becoming stacked very quickly… really excited to see who they get for Helen and Frank!
@Rosenquartz, if I remember correctly, the Netflix producers talked about breaking the arc of the series, not the lore.
@Col Klink
Exactly. I’m starting to worry that they are going to break the whole series down into two films and smash it all together and add characters and who knows what all. This is going to be a disaster.
She might be going to play Polly’s mother who grounds Polly for jumping in puddles. That’s sort of mean
@Rosenquartz Netflix is on the record as saying “seven or eight films”. It would be impossible to compress all those books into just 2 movies. However, Greta does seem to be taking the films in a different direction to the books.
@GH I highly doubt Netflix will get anywhere NEAR finishing the series. They never finish anything they start, especially book-to-movie adaptations. Also, with the changing climate in film and audiences’ growing disgust with everything being a re-boot, I can’t imagine this movie is going to be well received by anyone in a year’s time. So much can change and I imagine that projects like this will go the way of the recent “Snow White” disaster.
How do you set it in 1955 when the whole basis of its sequel Lion, Witch and Wardrobe is that they are evacuees in World War 2? This does not look like it is going to work out sorry to say. Modern day for the sequel I presume? Something I remember all Narnia fans on here were against a decade or two ago.