In what most are calling pure serendipity, the star of ABC’s newest hit show, “Once Upon A Time,” Ginnifer Goodwin, is the hugest fan of Snow White. Now she plays her on the hits series.
On the show she’s playing her all-time favorite fictional character, Snow White. The actress was one of many fans who met at Grauman’s Chinese Theater, for TCM Festival’s Restoration screening of Walt Disney’s “Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs.”
Movie Critic Leonard Maltin hosted a mini Q & A with Ginnifer before the movie. She said that Snow White is her all time favorite movie and character. Snow White has been a part of her history for so as long as she could remember, in fact she doesn’t remember exactly when she first began following Snow White.
“I don’t,” the actress said when asked how old she was when Snow White first entered her life. “My sister Melissa is actually an animator because Disney feature films… her passion for them is what got me hooked. Our mother raised us on these films. I was into this one for many reasons…she’s a brunette and I could relate to that. As I grew older and learned a lot more about Walt Disney and what he did for entertainment and I truly think of him as the Steve Jobs of storytelling. I really fell in love with the movie on a whole new level as an adult.”
Being on “Once Upon A Time” gives the actress a chance to play her dream role. “I got a phone call and I was told that there was this script by [creators and executive producers] Adam Horowitz and Ed Katsis, who I was huge fans of,” Ginnifer shares on how she got the role of Snow White/Mary Margaret. “To play two roles on a television series and one of those roles was Snow White. I said ‘I’ll take it’ and my rep said ‘you need to read the script first,’ and I said ‘no really I’ll take it and I did read the script but I took it.”
The actress sees the movie in its full glory every chance she gets. “I go to the El Capitan every time it plays there,” she says. “…and then D23 has that relationship with the Arclight so yes, I’ve gone to see it many times. [Seeing it on the big screen] it’s the way it’s meant to be seen.”
How does she see Snow White, who is often described as truly pure and innocent?
“I see her as compassionate and … a completely innocent incarnation, but when creating the series we wanted to explore some darker sides and sort of exploit some flaws. We felt that that was what would make the character more relate-able, which was very important to us; and really were all very flawed, none of us can really be Snow White.”
As shown in the series, Snow’s darker side is explored on the show. It was something that Ginnifer and the producers worked hard to make sure it was shown through.
“I think the idea was what if Snow White really was a very real human and over time the story that Walt Disney was telling was based on this woman who thorough a game of telephone over time the story morphed itself into a very pure thing. We made it a little more modern, a little darker in some ways.”
“This is a story about vanity,” Ginnifer continues. “It’s not just the evil queen’s vanity. It’s Snow White’s vanity too because she can’t resist the curse that lies ahead. She can’t resist the beautiful comb in the Grimms version; she can’t resist the beautiful apple in this one and I really liked the idea that we forged, that fantasy.
“I think its all of it together, the fact that the comedy really is funny and the tragedy really is heartbreaking,” Ginnifer says when talking about her favorite scene from the movie. “My favorite scene though, I think is the scene in which she’s singing in the well and the Prince shows up and she’s seen running off really terrified. I think that probably the one I like the most.”
“Once Upon A Time:” airs Sundays on ABC.
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(photo credit: Mark Hill courtesy of TCM)
