‘Miss Peregrine’s Home For Peculiar Children?’ Star Eva Green On Playing ‘Such An Unusual Character’

Eva Green is more than just a talented actress. She’s known for her colorful roles, whether she’s playing a cursed demon hunter in Showtime’s Penny Dreadful or taking on the title role in the film adaptation of Ransom Riggs’ Miss Peregrine’s Home For Peculiar Children. As the Tim Burton film draws very near to its September 30 premiere, Ms. Green opens up about what it has been like to play the fantastical Miss Peregrine and what initially drew her to this project.

Eva Green Was Born To Play The Lead In Miss Peregrine’s Home For Peculiar Children

Miss Peregrine’s casts Eva Green in the titular role and, as Film News shares in their interview with Eva, it’s a role that seems custom made for the actress recently brought into the spotlight through her Penny Dreadful role. Now, trading the horrific for the magical, Green says becoming Miss Peregrine came with its own set of challenges, though there was nothing for which Eva wasn’t prepared.

“She’s such an unusual character,” Ms. Green says of Miss Peregrine. “And I love the fact she’s ready to risk her life, to kill, to defend her children.”

One of Eva’s greatest challenges was coming into a setting, where she would have to work with so many child actors and maintain the kind of emotional distance expected of Miss Peregrine, as headmistress of her Home for Peculiar Children. Green says she’s not a fanatical method actor, but she still felt it was necessary to instill a small distance between the children and herself. She adds that, outside of her role as Miss Peregrine, she’s generally something of an introvert.

“I’m just very shy. I’m just intimidated. It’s not an actor thing. But then, of course, I relaxed,” says Green.

Miss Peregrine has many quirks. Aside from her ability of transforming herself into a peregrine falcon, Eva’s character also has the habit of smoking a pipe. While she admits hat it took some getting used to, she reveals the act of smoking the pipe was a very real ritual for Miss Peregrine. Also, Green adds, the scent of the pipe’s smoke was a pleasant treat.

Eva Green Says Miss Peregrine Is On A Journey Of Her Own

Green tells Parade that her character in Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children runs the institution with her own strong sense of duty and a hard devotion to rules and order. Though she’s very militant in her approach, Miss Peregrine deeply cares for all of the children in her charge and is prepared to do anything necessary to protect them. That devotion soon gets put to the test, reveals Ms. Green, when events begin to spiral out of her control.

“All the children have to be on time because if one of them is not on time—it is quite a complicated story with this time loop,” Eva says, alluding to the film’s central plot twist. “Everything has to be on time. It is all extremely organized so she, as I said, is like a general but it is all for the good of the children.”

It might be assumed that these “peculiar” children are already well equipped to take care of themselves, given that they each seem to have special powers or abilities. Eva Green corrects that assumption, though, defending the children of the story as though they were her very own brood.

“They don’t have special powers but peculiarities,” says Green. “They can fly and become invisible, but at the end of the day it becomes quite normal. They are actually like normal children. They can be sad, happy, playful. I don’t think they are weird.”

Perhaps Eva Green bonded with the younger actors of Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children a little more closely than she tries to let on. Eva suggests that she finds it easy to identify with the children, particularly in the sense of not fitting in with the larger community.

“It is beautiful to be different,” says Eva Green. “Be content with what you have and be who you are rather than trying to be like the others, which is boring.”

[Featured Image by Twentieth Century Fox Film Corp.]