Paul King: Hugh Grant was picked for Oompa Loompas as he embodied their morbidly funny sarcasm
The trailer for the movie ‘Wonka’ has really impressed viewers, but one of the highlights apart from actor Timothee Chalamet has been Hugh Grant’s transformation into an Oompa Loompa. Director Paul King said that the reason he picked Hugh Grant for the role was because he embodied the morbid and funny sarcasm of the Oompa Loompas.
The trailer shows the British actor in the iconic get-up of an Oompa Loompa sporting green hair and orange skin like the one from the 1973 film ‘Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory’, showing him as a 20-inch tall miniature figure trapped inside a glass jar.
According to ‘The Hollywood Reporter’, director Paul King during the premiere of ‘Wonka’ in London explained his reasons for picking Hugh for the role.
He said, “So I was really just thinking about that character; somebody who could be a real s***, and then — ah! Hugh!” he said. “Because he’s the funniest, most sarcastic s*** I’ve ever met”.
As author Roald Dahl had not given the Oompa Loompas much dialogues in the book, the director said that he had to dive into the book to bring the mini-humans to light because the songs he wrote for them when they performed their numbers after each kid’s failure were “incredibly sarcastic and judgmental and cruel.”
Through the use of VFX, Grant was able to transform into the singing and dancing mini-humans known for their penchant for dishing out songs when one of the five kids fails the trip to Wonka’s chocolate factory, having a very dark and morbid sense of humour.
‘Wonka’ will tell the story of the early days of the famously crazy and unpredictable chocolate maker Willy Wonka. The character is based off of the character from Roald Dahl’s famous book ‘Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.’