Why Emma Thompson won't give an 'inappropriate' interview answer | ENTERTAIN THIS! #Shorts

Emma Thompson chats with USA TODAY's Patrick Ryan about her role as Trunchbull in "Roald Dahl’s Matilda the Musical," which hits theaters and Netflix.

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For young readers, few characters loom quite as large as the Trunchbull. In Roald Dahl's 1988 children's novel "Matilda," Trunchbull is the formidable headmistress of Crunchem Hall elementary school, where she swings a "naughty" student by her pigtails and forces another to devour an entire chocolate cake. She's brawny, brutish – and precisely the sort of challenge Emma Thompson was looking for as an actress.

Thompson disappears into the role of the tyrannical Trunchbull in Netflix's "Matilda the Musical" (streaming Christmas Day), a film adaptation of the 2013 Tony-winning Broadway show directed by Matthew Warchus. She recalls her first time seeing herself in full makeup and costume.

"It was quite shocking," Thompson says. "But my main concern was that it would work for Matthew and the team. They had had 12 years of brilliant Trunchbulls (on Broadway and the West End) – the first one of whom I'd seen and admired so much, I'd written him a fan letter: Bertie Carvel. He's very tall and muscular, and I thought: 'Gosh, that's a big ask. How am I going to live up to that?' "

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