So for her, it was a game.Īnd when she’s like reaching for me, and we’re touching each other, it was a great experience, but magic of moviemaking, and knowing – the audience knowing what the situation of the story is, would feel like the animal’s under distress, but it wasn’t.Īnd that probably was the most fun I’ve had, because I had to be so trusting. And so when you see her with the trunk going all over me, she was looking for the apples. And I hid them under my foot, or whatever. So I’d hide them under the puppet we had a puppet, which was the baby. And then I would have, like, more apples, and I’d hide them around me. And so right before ‘Action’ I would say, “Lily, Lily,” and I would give her some apples. I mean, she loved apples – that was her treat. The scene that we did with the elephant, it feels in the film that it’s very anxious, and like, the elephant is really concerned. Well, speaking of the elephant scene – the elephant (Lily) might have been my favorite animal to work with… One early scene has her helping a mother elephant after a difficult birth. Jessica Chastain was asked about working with the animal cast, and which animal was her favorite. I wanted them to feel safe, and to know that I wasn’t going to try to force them to do anything.” Working with the animal cast of The Zookeeper’s WifeĪnimals are central characters in The Zookeeper’s Wife, and provide a real heart to the movie. I wanted them to be happy when they saw me. And so I spent some time, when we got to Prague, being with the animals before we were even on camera. It means, they didn’t – they weren’t ready for me to be in their space they didn’t invite me in. It’s not the animals’ fault – it’s my fault. And I knew, on this film – if I were to ever get hurt on this movie, it’s because I’m doing something wrong.
It’s a spiritual being – just, I guess, what this film is, too – like, whether human or animal, they are not ours to possess. And then I met with a lot of people who spend their lives dedicated to animals.Īnd that was so helpful when approaching this film, because the thing that I learned most from everyone was not to impose your energy onto an animal not to treat an animal as though it’s your possession, or it’s an object. Of course, Antonina wouldn’t have known what was happening there, but I just wanted to feel the energy of the space. So all those little things.Īnd then I went to Auschwitz. She’d be a little puma.” Which is why Jan (Antonina’s husband) calls her “Punia” – that was a nickname which means little cat – little – yeah.
Like, just these strange – and she said, “Oh, definitely a cat. Things like – if Antonina was an animal, what kind of animal would she be? She took me to the Warsaw Zoo, and I got to ask her secrets that weren’t in the book. I went to Warsaw, met with Theresa (Antonina’s daughter). So just – to the research – of course, I started with the book, because the film is based on the bestselling, incredible novel, which is then based on Antonina’s journals. It definitely is the first time I’ve ever held a lion cub. Jessica Chastain stars as Antonina Zabinski Credit: Anne Marie Fox / Focus Features
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