Domhnall Gleeson wants to go on the record and let everyone know that Goodbye Christopher Robin will not ruin your childhood.

The actor’s new film tells the tragic tale of how AA Milne, the author of Winnie-the-Pooh, decided to turn his young son into a character, which led to a childhood friend for generations of children but ruined the relationship between one father and son forever.

And the Irish actor, sat in a hotel room with his co-star Margot Robbie, catching up as they are reunited for a UK press tour of Goodbye Christopher Robin, freezes when I warn them that I’m planning to bring the mood right down and pose the question.

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‘This film will not ruin your childhood, I would like that on the record,’ laughs Domhnall.




‘I grew up loving Winnie-the-Pooh and seeing this movie and playing this role made it feel more significant to me,’ adds Margot.

Simon Curtis’ new film is a tragedy but one that Domhnall, Margot and Simon all agree is an important story to tell.

‘It’s a privilege to tell the unknown story of a very famous book for me,’ admits Simon.

‘But the reason it does appear to be so emotional a film is that it touches people about their own childhood, and Winnie-the-Pooh is of course the way that people connect with their own childhood, and children grow up to be parents and read to their own children and so on.’

Domhnall Gleeson and Will Tilston (Picture: 20th Century Fox)

Domhnall stars as Milne, the acclaimed British playwright who returns from World War I a hero, but one who suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder and decides to move his family out of London and to the Sussex countryside.

This decision is for the best for Milne but wife Daphne (Margot Robbie) – still not over the traumatic birth of a baby boy after believing she was to welcome a girl – soon heads back to the city.

Stuck in the middle is young Billy Moon – born Christopher Robin but so called thanks to a nickname and his inability to say his real name – whose make-believe world he created with his father soon turns in a nightmare as what was once his becomes the entire world’s, leading to a lifetime of mockery and scorn for simply being the inspiration behind one of the most beloved worlds of all time.

Still, Curtis is hopeful that the dark side of Pooh isn’t one that the audience will take away: ‘God knows Dickens lived a tragic life but you still enjoy the books, and the Winnie-the-Pooh stories are so powerful they will hold their own.’

Watch and weep (Picture: Fox Searchlight)

Domhnall is arguably one of the best actors working in Hollywood right now, able to turn his hand to horror (Mother!), franchise work (Star Wars), and action (American Made) – and that’s just in 2017.

In a recent interview, however, he spoke of being too scared to take on the role of Milne but he ultimately said yes because of the fear: ‘I think Margot makes amazing choices based on the same thing – taking on the things that you haven’t done before, stuff that probably seems like a real challenge and then overcoming it makes it rewarding.



‘With Goodbye Christopher Robin, it was all the stuff about PTSD and the father-son thing. I don’t have a son, I haven’t been to war, those are new things to tackle and big things to tackle, and I just wasn’t sure I was ready, and that was the reason to take it on and succeed.

‘I looked into [the PTSD] a lot, that was what terrified me the most. I read in to the real Alan Milne, and I read his stuff, I bought a book in a second hand store that he had signed to his own father, so I got to touch the page every day where he had written. Then we had someone come in to talk to us about PTSD.’

‘I was intrigued by Daphne,’ adds Margot.

‘I was a little more hesitant – I haven’t played a character like Daphne before and I was always get imposter syndrome anyway, but playing someone so posh and English and so removed from myself… I always think, “am I going to pull this off? I really have nothing in common with her”. But like Domhnall said, it’s the stuff that scares you the most that are the funnest choices to make. I loved playing her and discovering her, and it didn’t take long to understand her.’

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Of Domhnall and Margot’s tough decision, Simon suggests that Domhnall not only had to contend with the PTSD and the lack of experience as a father, but also the complexities of Milne.


‘I think [Domnhall] had to travel a long way, not just an Irishman becoming English or a modern man becoming a man of 100 years ago, but also he is very gregarious and a lovely warm man, and he had to play a very restrained man,’ says Simon.

‘But that’s why I wanted him, because he is so good at playing the complexities of this character.

‘[Margot] loved the script and she had her own history with Winnie-the-Pooh and I think she realised it was an interesting and complex character – Daphne had her own version of PTSD, so traumatised with watching her husband going through the war and she couldn’t bear to see it happen again, but also she is the person who provides the toys and the voices, she contributed a great deal towards this.’

‘My favourite moment in the whole film is when she hands that tiger to him for the first time.’

Will Tilston with Pooh and Piglet (Picture: Fox Searchlight)

Considering recent biographical films on authors – Beatrix Potter, Enid Blyton, JM Barrie – have failed to bring their writers alive off the page, Goodbye Christopher Robin has a lot riding on its shoulders but the stars all admit that the important thing with the story was understanding the film even if you had never heard of Winnie-the-Pooh before.

‘What I loved was the family dynamic, coming out of World War I and all the trauma, and all the beauty in the small moments, and being rescued by those – that is what matters in this film, the fact that Winnie-the-Pooh came out of it is the big bonus on top,’ says Domhnall, and Kelly Macdonald, who plays Billy’s nanny, agrees.


‘I didn’t know the background – I knew the Disney version but I had no idea it was based on books. But Winnie-the-Pooh makes so many people happy but when you realise Christopher Robin was a real little boy and the impact the fame had on him, his personal story being out there for the world to read, it was a real surprise to me.’

‘I think there’s a lot of things going on in it,’ adds Simon, ‘about England, about creation, about the long-term legacy of war but mostly it’s about the importance of family and cherishing the people you love because you never know what happens next.’

Goodbye Christopher Robin is out in cinemas on Friday September 29.

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