Dr. Audrey Evans and her lasting impact on the medical and moral world is the driving force behind ‘Audrey’s Children.’ Starring Natalie Dormer, this feature comes from director Ami Canaan Mann and examines Evans’ work as the first female Chief of Oncology at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia in the 1960s and 70s. Its through Evans’ work and influence that progress was made in cancer diagnosis and treatment in children, which ultimately led to the creation of the first Ronald McDonald House.
Written by Julia Fisher Farbman (who happened to know Dr. Evans personally), this film not only focuses on the actions of Audrey, but the persistence of her spirit that led to lasting change in so many lives.
To chat more about the film, Natalie Dormer and Ami Canaan Mann sat down with Metro to delve into the filming of ‘Audrey’s Children.’
You both were able to meet Audrey before she passed away. What elements of her did you want to make sure came across on screen?
Dormer: Julia is so immersed in the CHOP faculty and the Ronald McDonald House and the Philadelphia of it all—[she had] so many contacts. And just to get to talk to so many people who knew Audrey, who had worked with Audrey—for me, it was really about trying to encapsulate her energy. I watched footage to a certain extent, and you try to affect voice physicality, but you are not doing an impersonation. You’re trying to capture the energy of the human being, the spirit of them.
I was quite nervous that I’d actually managed to achieve that, and I looked to Ami and Julia a lot to sort of check that I was on the right path to do that. You’re aware people are going to watch the movie who had no idea who she was, but also, people who were very close to her are going to watch the movie. So you naturally feel a sense of responsibility to at least capture the spirit and the gait and the energy of them.
Canaan Mann: I would say directorally, it’s exactly that. The idea is to try to understand the essence of the person and then have that essence be relatable to the viewer. That’s something that Natalie was absolutely able to do. The tricky and beautiful part about what Natalie did is that she didn’t do anything imitative…she brought the soul of this woman to life and then imbued her with flaws—very relatable human flaws so that we could watch her brilliance as manifested in Natalie’s work.
Then to also be able to identify and walk alongside her with her journey, that wouldn’t be possible without somebody who was so facile as Natalie is… just being able to capture the spirit, show the tenacity, show the kind of revolutionary spirit, but also show the human behind it all.
There are obviously a lot of scenes with kids, but also animals as well. How was the filming experience in that regard?
Canaan Mann: I love working with children and I love working with animals. They always say don’t work with kids and animals, and I couldn’t disagree more. They’re honest and they’re present and they just give you their vulnerability in a way that is beautiful—if you can create an environment that is safe enough for them to feel like they can be vulnerable. That was again the beautiful thing about working with Natalie. She’s so in touch with children and she’s so in touch with animals.
It was definitely a mandate on set and it was something that I talked to the crew about before any of the cast got there on days when we were working with children. I’d call everybody around and say, this is a day we’re working with kids, and they’re pretending to [have] very difficult moments with the sickness, so to keep any sort of set drama away from them so that Natalie could be with them and help them bring about their beautiful performances. Which she did.
Dormer: It’s another reason why this was a special project and unique. There was no need or no want to take yourself away and hide. There are often jobs where as an actor, you want to be alone in between takes, or you’re learning lines or you’re emoting with yourself. When there were children on set, this was about hanging with the kids. Set days are long days, and film sets can be quite a boring place in between the camera rolling. Jimmi Simpson, myself, Clancy Brown, just hung out with the children and any of the amazing principal characters, but also the supportive artists who are just lining the corridors were hanging with the kids.
Ami was top notch director, and she left the cameras running sometimes and let natural things happen and that improvisation comes out. It’s like she saw something in between takes, made a quick change of plan, and moved the camera, or said we’re going to do that because that just happened naturally whilst Nat was talking to one of the kids in the second bed. To be able to still have that freedom and adventurous spirit when you’ve got [around 21] days….I mean, that’s just incredible that she had had the presence of mind and the calmness and the adventurous spirit to be able to tell the set to respond to that, given those restrictions. It was so unique, it was such a passion project in so many ways and it was fly by the seat of your pants, but it was worth every second of it.
What do you hope people take away from ‘Audrey’s Children’?
Canaan Mann: For me, I feel like the takeaway message would be—if we are lucky enough to be able to convey it— is that sometimes we find ourselves in an environment or worlds where things feel completely disassembled. It’s set in Philadelphia in 1969, and in some respects, it’s not too different than the world that we’re living in today…At least in terms of its demographics, its politics where people are feeling like things are devolving and scary.
It’s easy to be in that environment and think, what am I going to do? I feel futile. I feel like I can’t fix anything. With ‘Audrey’s Children’, one of the messages that would be beautiful is that what Audrey did is just focused on what she could do. If you can have that kind of tenacity and myopic point of view, you can do some amount of good hopefully for people—that might make a difference. So I hope that viewers might walk away thinking, what can I do in my little part of the world to help?
Dormer: If anyone is testimony to the difference that one human being can make, it’s Dr. Audrey Evans. I mean, it’s fable-esque what she achieved, truly. So, my answer is pretty much identical. It’s the power of the individual, which is cliche, but it’s cliche for a reason.
‘Audrey’s Children‘ releases in theaters March 28.
