Nicola Coughlan is known for her role as Penelope Featherington in Netflix’s Bridgerton, but she’s taking on a very different role in The Magic Faraway Tree. Coughlan plays Silky, a fairy who dreams of becoming the fairest fairy of all the lands. She helps a family discover the magic hidden within their new countryside home.
Nicola Coughlan on Finding Courage in The Magic Faraway Tree
Although Silky and Penelope come from different worlds, both characters go on journeys where they discover their courage and become more assertive.
“I quite like being scared of starting a new job,” Coughlan tells Nerd Reactor. “It’s always like I want to do it, and then I have the moment before where I’m like, ‘I can’t do this.’ I feel like I need to go to like the director and go, ‘I don’t know what I’m doing. You shouldn’t have hired me. This is a mistake.’ But also being able to push through that. Because you don’t really ever properly experience something if you don’t challenge yourself a little bit. So I think bravery has to come in there.”
Nicola Coughlan on Embracing Who You Are
One of the film’s messages is about accepting yourself for who you are, and it’s something that Coughlan has explored in her career.
“You’re always going to bring something of yourself, even if you completely transform in a role,” she said. “We love Meryl Streep because the essence of Meryl Streep… she can still transform and be other characters, but something in the middle. So it’s about maybe just accepting that there’s always a base level, but you can add color and you can add an accent and you can add a different type of movement or stuff. But just going, ‘That’s always there, and that’s okay.'”
Nicola Coughlan on Finding Your Inner Child
Fantasy films can help adults find their inner child. We see this in the film as well as in other classics such as Peter Pan.
“I think there’s a lot to it about embracing your inner child because I don’t think we ever really change that much fundamentally at our core of who we are,” Coughlan said. “I think you’ve got to sort of learn to listen to what they want.”
About The Magic Faraway Tree
Synopsis: Adapted from Enid Blyton’s beloved classic novel The Magic Faraway Tree, the film centers on Polly (Foy), Tim (Garfield), and their three children – a modern family forced to relocate to the remote English countryside. As they adapt to their new lives, the children discover a magical tree and its extraordinary and eccentric residents, including treasured characters Moonface (Anozie), Silky (Coughlan), Dame Washalot (Gunning), and Saucepan Man (Dustin Demri-Burns). At the top of the tree, they are transported to spectacular, fantastical lands, and through the joys and challenges of their adventures, the family learns to reconnect and value each other for the first time in years.
The film is directed by Ben Gregor and written by Simon Farnaby. It stars Andrew Garfield, Claire Foy, Nonso Anozie, Nicola Coughlan, Jessica Gunning, Jennifer Saunders, and Rebecca Ferguson.
