Emily Mortimer in “Mary Poppins Returns”; Jay Maidment/Disney(NEW YORK) — Mary Poppins Returns hits theaters today, but it’s already been racking up the award nominations.
Emily Mortimer, who plays a grown-up Jane Banks in the film, tells ABC Radio she isn’t surprised the film has been lauded with multiple Golden Globe nods. The film itself received a nomination for Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy, along with Emily Blunt for her role as the magical nanny and Lin-Manuel Miranda as lamp-lighter Jack.
“It’s like people at the very, very top of their profession and the top of their games and then Emily’s performance and Lin’s performance, you know, everything is so pitch perfect that I wasn’t surprised,” Mortimer says. “I think it deserves the nominations that it got.”
The British actress was a fan of the original Mary Poppins as a kid and she says seeing Blunt in character as Mary brought back all of those magical, nostalgic feelings.
“There’s a scene where she comes and revisits me and Michael Banks for the first time and she walks in through the door and there was sort of no acting required at that moment,” she says. “In a way I felt we were Jane and Michael Banks ’cause we were speaking for the whole world and sort of saying, ‘Mary Poppins, you’re back!’”
Mortimer did get to perform in a few of the film’s musical numbers, but there’s one Mary Poppins quality she wishes she had.
“I’d like to be able to sing,” she laughs. “And Mary Poppins can sing very well and I’d like to be able to sing as well as Emily Blunt and Julie Andrews.”
Mary Poppins Returns is from Disney, parent company of ABC News.
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