www.aftonbladet.se/nojesliv/film/article1515745.abTranslation [Taken from ABBA Today]
MAMMA MIA WHAT A FILM
ABBA´s songs. A musical that is successful around the world.
Tom Hanks produces the film and Meryl Streep tops the role list.
Aftonbladet was the only Swedish paper attending the shooting in London.
It is raining in England. But thanks to magic of film the sun seems to shine for us in Grece. There´s a taste of Mediteranen sea when Meryl Streep, Stellan Skardgård, Pierce Brosnan and the others capture the ABBA song on film.
Dancers in bikini run from make up loge in the Stanley Kubrick building out in the British rain. In the background theres Poerce Brosnan with a shining smile.
Pinewood is Europe's biggest film studio and looks like an industrial area. But when I come in to the giant hall which is called as 007, I am suddenly on a Greek island.
Here is complete taverna of Donna, that exists only as couple of walls in the stage version of MAMMA MIA! with Mediteranian sea in the background. Mediteranian sea is played by a gigantic blue screen with a big moon in the corner.
ONE SONG, FOUR DAYS
It is time for VOULEZ-VOUS. The song is filmed for four days.
All the main players are collected together for a round dance. Meryl Streep who plays Donna, Amanda Seyfried who is her daughter Sophie. The three possible fathers.
Stellan Skargård claps his hands and dances around. Pierce Brosnan takes a swing around. Colin Firth smiles for Julie Walters and Christine Baranski, mother Donna´s friends in the film an members in the band Donna and the Dynamos,
They all will doing a round dance. In the camera it looks like daughter Sophie is fainting.
Camera goes and Meryl Streep appears between Stellan Skargård and Julie Walters in the end of the take. She waves with her hands to stop people and rushes towards the camera which is supposed to be a fainting Sophie.
-Stand back, give her a chance to breathe. She is completely flat says Meryl Streep and all start to laugh.
Because " daughter" is a toy mark position on the floor.
Streep plays with the rubber duck. Everybody´s laughing for the toy´s sounds.
There´s a pause when cameras are moved.
Lamps are hanging around the market place, which is full of dancers. It´s a bachelor party. Scene assistants walk around to set fire on them for the next take.
Stellan Skargård in green shorts and blue beach shirt stand and chats with Colin Firth.
-I have never before done something like this, and has been been asked to do, says Stellan Skargård. I have probably during the last four days moved more that I have moved all together during the last four years. It is like boxing and the dancers are 20 years old.
He and the other stars speak how different the film is. And fun.
-It is seldom that I have had so fun during shooting, says Stellan Skardgård. I am completely finished afterwards. One must think about the dance steps and the role and the singing voice and remember the lyrics. Really good actors are good right because they are good in concentrating in one thing and it.
He tells about getting the offer.
-My agent called and and said "stellan, can you sing. " No, I said, what kind of role it is?
"They will film ABBA´s MAMMA MIA!"
-Yes, then I can sing, I said. Because I thought that in film everything can be fixed afterwards in the studio. Folks can fly in a film. So my agent said that I can sing.
Colin Firts is also modest and claims that he really can´t sing nor dance. But it is because of that why he is here.
-It would not be so fun if John Travolta or Kevin Bacon would do the roles. There´s humour because we can´t sing or dance, says Colin Firth. It is funnier to take people who are hopeless and place them on dance floor.
How it felt to record the songs of Benny and Björn?
-A bit scaring. They have high requirements and have reputation to be very strict. Fortunately they were pleased, says Colin Firth. They had booked three days for my vocals, but they let me go after a few hours. It was quite painless. Dear God, if I had seen myself in 1975 and stand singing ABBA song with ABBA when I am 46 years old.
The team has built a a big part of Greece. To the taverna belong several buildings with guestroom and kitchen. I walk to Sophie´s room where are drawings of mother Donna and boyfriend Sky. A sewing machine shows that Sophie is a handy girl.
In the reception there are postcards and poster of the Greek island where we are.
It is called Kalokaini. But don´t search in on the map. It exists only in the script.
Most of it is filmed inside in Pinewood, but a month in the Mediteranian sea gave the real Greek background. They chose the island Skopelos and Skiathos because of their looks.
So here is the signalemnt: White stones, turquoise sea, green vegetation and rose flowers. A chapel where the wedding in the musical takes place. From Donna´s taverna outside London lead stairs down the berg to the sea.
The rest of the stairs lays in the Greek island.
Pierce Brosnan worked often in the big studio when he was James Bond. But now he must also sing.
-I sang a little in the film EVELYN, but it was Irish pub-song. To sing ABBA songs is different. They are crystal clear songs. One must be sharp, says Pierce Brosnan. I needed help from my singing teacher in Los Angeles and we went through all the AB BA songs that I would sing. I have walked through my garden at home in Hawaii and sung and sung.
And you will dance as well.
-Dancing is okay. It is about the same like fighting in the film. That has also choreography, though one must be in rhythm when one dances.
Also Brosnan is fascinated bt the fact MAMMA MIA! being different.
-One of the wonderful things to agree to do the film is that is a role that folks don´t expect me to do.
-Only because I have been James Bond I am a part of a gigantic image, and it is nice to do something completely different. I am an actor. I do the job that I get. And this is a very good gig.
Do the three men sing so poorly as they say? It is best to ask Benny Andersson.
-They can sing. All three. Better than they think, says he.
It sounds like Stellan thinks he is the worse one of the three.
-No, he isn¨t, says Benny Andersson. Stellan thinks he can´t sing, but he can. He has good timing and good voice.
Benny Anderssons has been watching the shooting and produces all the music.
-In the recording studio I am more at home, but it is ...that James Bond and Mr Darcy and Hamilton stand and sing WATERLOO together. It is very funny.
All honour for the three gentlemen. Meryl Streep is the big star.
-She can sing all the ABBA songs, says Benny Andersson.
..in the original songs. Songs that Agnetha sang when she was 25. Meryl has no problems whatsoever with these. She is also very sympathetic person.
Producer Judy Craymer is mother of MAMMA MIA! It is she who has made it possible.
-At first I had a film idea, says she. Björn and Benny said no.. In the end I got together a musical.
It had premiere in London on April 6, 1999., 25 years after WATERLOO´s victory in Brighton.
-We have all the time thught Meryl Strep in the main role if we filmed, says Judy Craymer. She saw the show on Broadway and wrote a letter for the ensemble and thanked them. We got the letter and I heve it at the office. Meryl said immediately yes when we asked her for the film.
-When we had Meryl we could fill the puzzle. Then everyone said yes. Which actor doesn´t want to work with Meryl?
-We knew she can sing, but we did not know that she can sing so fantastically well.
Warnin bell rings. Judy Craymer quiets immediately.
Technician presses the buttom and VOULEZ-VOUS is playing again in the 007-hall.
Actors are ready. Director Phyllidia LLoyd controls that everything looks good.
Scene 290. Take 4.
-Action.
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FACTS:THIS HAS BEEN CHANGED IN THE FILM
UNDER ATTACK is not in the film. It opens the musical after interval, but there is no pause in the film.
KNOWING ME KNIWING YOU has been erased. Instead Pierce Brosnan sings WHEN ALL IS SAID AND DONE
In the film the love story of Donna and Sam has been brought in the foreground. More focus on Meryl Streep and Pierce Brosnan.
In the film the men´s arrival is different. Stellan we see for example first with a motor cycle. Filmed in Marocco.
Higher tempo in the film, everything takes place during 24 hours.
Six years has passed since Tom Hanks asked to be able to produce the film
WHAT IS YOUR FAVOURITE ABBA SONG?
Amanda Seyfried: KNOEWING ME KNOWING YOU..and THE WINNER TAKES IT ALL. THE NAME OF THE GAME is my father´s favourite.
Stellan Skarsgård: Ask me a year later. Every song that has not masde me crazy in a year´s time is a favourite.
Pierce Brosnan: THE WINNER TAKES IT ALL. When Meryl nails me with it, it is very moving.
Christine Baranski: DANCING QUEEN is my favourite song. It praises womanhood , that one must be all what one can be.
Colin Firth: I think they will arrange an ABBA rehabilation course for us. A full 12 step programme.
Judy Craymer: THE WINNER TAKES IT ALL and DANCING QUEEN . When I was younger I was more a Led Zeppelin fan.