Into the Woods IN-HOME RELEASE March 24th on Blu-ray and Digital HD! Plus Meryl Streep Interview!

From the director of “Chicago” and the producer of “Wicked” comes a modern twist on the beloved fairy tales you thought you knew. Academy Award®-Winning actress Meryl Streep (Best Actress, The Iron Lady), leads an all-star cast in this enchanted adventure about daring to venture Into The Woods.

Iconic characters, such as Cinderella, Little Red Riding Hood, Jack and the Beanstalk and Rapunzel, find their fates intertwined with a humble baker and his wife, whose longing to have a child sends them on a quest to reverse a witch’s (Streep) curse. With an all-star cast, this spellbinding adventure is everything you could ever wish for! 

With the Digital, Disney Movies Anywhere (DMA), Blu-ray™ Combo Pack, DVD and On-Demand release of the spellbinding adventure about to be released, we talk to actress Meryl Streep to learn about her enchanting journey Into The Woods…

Into the Woods was one of my favorite movies last year! It was so much fun! Plus, the music is amazing and the actors were great as well. If you have not seen, you need to. Luckily, you can buy it on March 24th because it will be released!

To celebrate the in-home release, I have an interview with Meryl! I did not interview her but this was made available to me. Since I LOVE Meryl, I wanted to share it! First watch this great clip!





Tell us what drew you to the project.

When I turned 40, I was offered three witches in one year and I realized this was the way my career was going to go: they don’t know what to do with women past a certain age. So I turned them down and I have said “no” to playing witches ever since. However, I changed my mind when this role came along because this witch is quite different. First of all, she transforms. Her whole reason for being is to reverse a curse that has been placed on her; she sets in motion all sorts of devices and causes a dramatic upheaval in everybody’s lives. I believe fairy tales have evolved as cautionary tales. They were told to scare children away from the dangers they would encounter in their lives and to encourage young women to marry rich men. Everybody is encouraged to find a Prince and live happily ever after and sometimes it doesn’t work that way. This is where the “Into the Woods” fairy tale becomes reality and it gets really exciting, random, weird and almost like real life. For an actor, they are great fun.

Were you familiar with the stage production prior to signing onto the film?
I went to see the musical when it was on Broadway with the great Bernadette Peters playing the Witch, and I thought it was fantastic. There is no one like Stephen Sondheim. There is no one who writes singable, character-driven music that tells a story. The wit, the intelligence and the daring in his music is unparalleled, so I was really happy to have the chance to work on it.

Tell us about Rob Marshall as a director.
Rob has a percussive sense of the movement of the piece, like a conductor. He has got the rhythm of it in his body. He is a former dancer, so I think it is really important for him to keep the incipient heartbeat of the piece beating and pushing forward; musically, emotionally and visually. He is the ideal guy to do that. He is also extremely gentle as a man and has a soft touch, never over-powering, no big ego…it is all about the work and making it happen.

Talk to us about the singing the film required.
I really love the music from “Into the Woods.” I actually love it more every time I listen to it. When you first encounter the music, it’s arresting but on the second and third listening it has more and more to give you. And when you're in a musical they pump the music that we’ve recorded in a studio beforehand through the whole set. I remember coming out of the theater on Broadway and singing “No One Is Alone” to myself – that song just pierces you when you hear it. The other songs are equally as wonderful.

What do you hope audiences take away from the film?
This is a musical with a brain. There is an intelligence at work because it is Sondheim and Lapine. It is visually fun and emotionally satisfying but it also has this other element that engages us as artists and makes us want to bring everything we can to it. Musically, it is challenging and thrilling and so this is what I hope for the audience: that they will be thrilled and challenged.

What can you tell us about the new Stephen Sondheim deleted song “She’ll Be Back”, which is exclusive to the in-home release of the movie?
I have a song that is brand new that Stephen Sondheim wrote for our movie. It’s called She’ll Be Back. It turned out good and that was just thrilling. It’s about Rapunzel leaving and The Witch thinking she’ll be back, but she won’t. We can all relate [to that].