Miriam Margolyes, Stephen Fry, and Alistair Nwachukwu Share Thoughts on Oscar Hopeful ‘A Friend of Dorothy’: Celebrating Happiness and Truth

Renowned actress Miriam Margolyes expressed her immediate enthusiasm for the title role in the upcoming film, stating, “I immediately knew I wanted to do it. I’ve never made as much money as I have recently, so it wasn’t about that. It was just about love, really. That’s what the film was about in some ways. I was just very taken by it and very charmed.”

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The film, now available on Disney+ in Europe, centers around a young newcomer, JJ, portrayed by Alistair Nwachukwu. The story unfolds after JJ accidentally kicks a football into Dorothy’s garden, where she identifies his hidden acting talent and navigates his struggle with his sexuality. As their friendship develops, they engage in various theatrical activities, deepening their bond. Dorothy poignantly tells JJ, “Perhaps you are the first ever to truly see me,” to which he replies, “You see me.”

Margolyes elaborates on the emotional depth of the film, emphasizing, “That was a moment and Lee’s skill is that he captured it. We don’t, in life, much get the chance to see each other; most of the time we spend hiding. I’ve always been somebody, personally, who came out rather more than people wanted me to.”

Knight’s directorial debut balances heartfelt moments without veering into sentimentality. Margolyes remarks, “Who wants to make something that depresses people? We’re living in complicated times, and this is making people happy. It’s a true story, based on a true event and on a real woman who was Lee’s neighbor. So, there is happiness and truth there; let’s celebrate that.”

The film ultimately portrays JJ’s friendship with Miriam as empowering. Nwachukwu comments, “He’s very guarded at first, I think because of his sexuality. He’s pushing that down, he’s pushing a lot of things down. He’s not his full self, and Miriam helps draw that out of him and bring out who he really is. She helps him to celebrate who he is. Up until that point, he’s ashamed…there’s a lot of shame there.”

Fry succinctly captures the generational bond between Dorothy and JJ, stating, “There is this sense that she is someone who has given her heart to theater and to actors and playwrights and the mysteries and the wonders that they can produce, and she sees this in JJ.”

As Dickie, the executor of Dorothy’s will, Fry reflects on his cinematic influences: “I saw Matthew Lopez’s The Inheritance, and it absolutely knocked me for six. The inspiration is E.M. Forster’s ‘Howard’s End’; there’s a spring from E.M. Forster to The Inheritance, and from The Inheritance to A Friend of Dorothy. It plays as a little silent gift inside the film.”

While Margolyes and Fry boast extensive acting careers, Nwachukwu finds himself at the beginning of his journey. Admitting his nerves, he shares, “I didn’t want to let Lee down, I didn’t want to let myself down, and I didn’t want to let the story down. But then Miriam is so graceful; she just said to me: ‘What you need to do is breathe and listen, and the story will take care of itself. It’s a conversation, soul to soul. We connect my soul to your soul, your soul to my soul. We just breathe together, we listen’. And that’s what we did.”

Nwachukwu’s feelings of pressure were echoed by Margolyes, who noted the supportive environment, stating, “You know, good actors and nice people help each other, and we helped each other. I wasn’t conscious at all of teaching him anything; I just know that I was terrified and thought he was probably quite scared too. But I knew, just from being with him for five minutes, that he is an extraordinary talent.”

Knight, now benefiting from an Oscar nomination buzz, is planning to expand the project. He shares, “That’s what I’m working on at the moment. I know how the [feature-length] story plays out. I really would also love it to be a play eventually because I just think there’s something so theatrical about these characters. There’s just so much more I want to explore. I feel like [the short] is the tip of the iceberg.”