Rebel Wilson speaks exclusively to RadioTimes.com about her role in the new tear-jerking film The Almond and the Seahorse.

By James Mottram

Published: Thursday, 09 May 2024 at 16:18 PM


She’s hosted the BAFTAs and starred in Hollywood comedies like Pitch Perfect and The Hustle, as well as the Oscar-winning WW2 satire Jojo Rabbit.

But dramatic roles? That’s something Rebel Wilson is far from used to. “To cry within a scene… I just hadn’t done that in so long, like 20 years or something, from when I did serious stuff on stage in Australia,” the Sydney-born actress muses. “And it’s really challenging… but the writing was so good.”

Sitting in the plush library of a Zurich hotel, Wilson is talking about her time on British movie The Almond and the Seahorse, a tear-jerking drama that sees her play Sarah, an archaeologist whose husband, Joe (Celyn Jones, who also co-directs with Tom Stern), is unable to form new memories after he endured surgery to remove a brain tumour.

A film that co-stars heavyweight performers like Charlotte Gainsbourg and Trine Dyrholm, it’s been a powerful – and taxing – experience for Wilson. “It’s hard to play the partner of the person that’s had the traumatic injury,” she says.

Her comment stems from personal experience. For a while, Wilson dated someone who had previously sustained a brain injury after a fall. “I didn’t know him before the injury. So I didn’t know [what he was like before],” she recalls. “Sometimes, he’d tell me something, and then he’d tell me again an hour later.”

Thankfully, the injury wasn’t as severe as the one seen in the film, but Wilson still drew from her time with this ex. “I used a little bit of that for the character.”

With the film adapted by Jones and Kaite O’Reilly from her own 2008 novel, Wilson credits Jones, as her main scene partner, for helping her through the more dramatic moments. “You just try not to bring the comedic timing into it,” she says. “But you try to be open and play off the other actor.

“And with Celyn and I, each scene was pretty different. And there were long scenes… so it felt improvised, in a way. But it was drama, so you’ve got to bring that same kind of fun and spontaneity – just not in a comic way. It felt very fresh.”

Curiously, Wilson’s move into drama was inspired by a very famous former co-star: the late Robin Williams. “We were working on Night of the Museum 3 and it was a month or two before he passed,” she remembers.

At the time, she was improvising a scene with Ben Stiller, and Williams was watching on the sidelines intently. “It was three in the morning. And he’s like, ‘Can I talk to you?’ And I’m like, ‘Hell, yeah,’ because it’s Robin Williams. And he’s a legend.”

Williams sat her down. “And he goes, ‘You should be doing drama. I can see it in you.’” The iconic comedian, who had made his own switch to dramatic roles in films like Insomnia and One Hour Photo, even told his daughter Zelda about his conversation with Wilson.

“And then, after his death, Zelda said, ‘I just wanted you to know my dad said such great things [about you].’ After that, I was thinking, ‘It would be good to do something,’ but because the comedy stuff was going so well, I didn’t really get any opportunities.”

Fortunately, Celyn Jones spotted Wilson’s dramatic potential and offered her the role of Sarah in The Almond and the Seahorse. “This script came along after I did something at the BAFTAs in 2020. And then I was like, ‘Okay, this could be a stepping stone into more serious stuff.’”

In retrospect, she felt hugely grateful to Williams. “It was one of those chats where I was so glad that I was there on that freezing cold night in London and got to sit with him for 45 minutes and just chat about life. I feel like very lucky that I had that experience.”