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Queen Bavmorda
Jean Marsh
by John Sayers & Adam Pirani
"I'm going to be hated by children all over the world," she says with a broad grin. Between her previous film role as the wicked Princess Mombi in Return to Oz and her latest characterization--the diabolical Queen Bavmorda in Willow--Jean Marsh has been giving nasty a whole new look.
But your basic malevolent matron is just one facet of an extensive acting career. Marsh rocketed to international fame in 1972, starring in the BBC television series Upstairs, Downstairs (which she co-created). She has appeared on the stage, television, and in nearly a dozen films.
In fact, Marsh thought her previous villainous role in Return to Oz would keep her out of the running for a part in Willow. "I thought they wouldn't want a witch doubling up," she explains. "But they were testing everybody in London, so I went along and tested."
The Emmy-winning actress read from a scene where Queen Bavmorda confronts the young hero, Willow. "The second I finished, Ron Howard kissed me and said, 'Gee, that was wonderful.' He asked me to read the scene again.
"After I left, the assistant director who had been reading with me chased me into the street. He said, 'I know you'll get it! You're by far the best.' So, it was just one of those wonderful, lucky things."
Although she enjoyed working with director Ron Howard, Marsh didn't have all of the same wonderful luck as the rest of the cast. "For one thing, all of my shooting work was done in the studio. It was so unfair! I didn't get to go on location to Wales, or New Zealand, or anywhere pleasant like that."
The life of a wicked queen isn't always wine and roses. "Since Bavmorda is the very essence of awful, I never got to work in a pretty set," Marsh says. "My first set was this ghastly, underground dungeon, where I kept pregnant mothers. You see, one of them was going to have a baby that would end my reign, so I was going to kill her. I had to rant and rave--I felt as if I was almost supposed to eat the child.
"And it was so terribly hot, with the lights and flaming torches near my hair. Just ghastly! I think I was about as frightened as the mothers were supposed to be." But the real fun was yet to come. "I spent a majority of my part casting a ritual spell on the baby, the Princess Elora Danan. While I did that, the effects men had dust machines, smoke machines, hail, snow and rain going the whole time. I was wet from morning to night. It was horrid.
"As I shouted and screamed above the noise, I took in great gulps of this foul, effects-laden air. When it was all over, I got bronchitis.
"On top of that, I'm supposed to be aging throughout all this," Marsh explains. "They kept putting more and more strange makeup on my face and hands--so much that I was bowed down with the weight of the goop, and the rain on my clothes. It wasn't pretty at all.
"But coping with the heavy makeup was the hardest part. It took three hours to put on, and two hours to take off, pushing your face all over the place. First, they put a layer of soft rubber latex on my face, then the warst, then bits of bad skin, then the stuff close to my eyes. Yuck!
"Then, after everyone else went home, I sat there in a chair for another two hours, feeling depressed. You can't eat, just suck things through straws. And you can't wear it home, you would give the neighborhood a fright. Also, it's not particularly good for the skin, either. What a mess!
"Finally, they asked me to put my hand through fire. I asked them when the locusts were coming. It was all quite an interesting experience, to say the least."
Aside from the special effects, Jean Marsh finds acting the role of a mythically evil woman fascinating. "Normally, film acting is very naturalistic, very minimal," she says. "But both Mombi and Bavmorda were gigantically broad, theatrical roles. You can't be natural. After all, who knows what a natural witch is like?"
Essaying these larger-than-life sorceresses proved an engaging challenge for the actress. "It's very difficult, but quite fun to be so grand and lofty. You know, I'm quite a little person. Some people must think I must be six feet tall and weigh 200 pounds, but I'm only 5'6". I won't tell you what I weigh."
But it is Marsh's powerful portrayal of Bavmorda that makes the character loom large throughout the world of Willow. "Oh, I'm so wicked," she giggles. "At the first scene's end, I order my soldiers to find the missing baby. As an afterthought, I look back and order them to kill the mother, just as if I'm telling them to make sure to close the door tight."
But the depraved empress does show some emotional depth. On of the most riveting ingredients of the film is Bavmorda's complex relationship with her daughter, Sorsha, who eventually denounces her mother's evil.
In many ways, the relationship between Bavmorda and Sorsha reflected the kinship felt between the actresses playing them. "I like Joanne Whelly enormously," Marsh says. "She's a wonderful actress, and it's nice to work with someone whom you both like and respect.
"In one scene, after she has turned against me, we're on the field of battle, and I'm turning their entire army into pigs.
"Sorsha calls out to me, implores me to stop. I see her, and my voice breaks. For a moment, you see that Bavmorda has some good in her, that she might stop it all for her own little girl.
"Then, I say, ' And you, too, my dear'--and turn my own daughter into a pig. It's wonderful!
"After we shot a few takes of that scene, Ron came up and asked if I could do it with tears in my eyes--but not actually cry. So, we shot it again, and I did it. He was amazed. He said, 'Wow, that's funny. I asked you if you could do that, and you just did it.' I told him, 'Well, that's what you're paying me for.' "
Actress and director both profess a warm mutual admiration. "You know, it's very hard for an actor to make the jump to directing and maintain the respect of those around him," says Marsh. "Ron Howard has done a great job at that. He has such great strength of character, and he's very sure of himself.
"And I wasn't quit used to his directorial style at first. He likes to do about five takes, and he likes them all to be different. But you can trust him. He's reliable, he knows what he wants, and he's a very good editor, as well. The fact that he's a very warm and enthusiastic man is just icing on the cake."
Marsh proved just how far she was willing to go for Howard in the final, climactic battle scene in Willow, where the wicked Bavmorda fights the good sorceress Fin Raziel, played by veteran actress Patricia Hayes.
"That scene went quite well," Marsh admits. "We fought it out in my typical environment--rain, lightning, smoke and steam. After awhile, the two witches wear each other down and stop using their magic, and the whole thing becomes a punching, scratching brawl. Patricia and I fought like that for two or three days straight--in the rain.
"You know, Patricia is over 70, and I wanted to be careful of hurting her. But she has so much guts, and was so spunky that I forgot she was 70. She looked after herself very well.
It was quite a vicious fight, and it wasn't entirely scripted. We had a funny time of it. Ron told us to say whatever you like, just shout at each other, and we would dub it in later. Patricia looked at me at one point and screamed, 'Hickory Dickory Dock'--and cursed. I found it difficult not to laugh. It was lovely, her idea of being really unpleasant."
Marsh seemed to enjoy all the "people" aspects of Willow. She raves about the production crew, and all of her fellow actors, including young Warwick Davis, who plays the title role. "You know, he's only 18, but he's a very mature actor--every inch the professional.
"Oh, but the best--and worst--thing was working with the baby, the good princess. Actually, I worked with about five or six different children. And they were all lovely, ravishing babies, with all very old-fashioned baby looks. You know--pink cheeks, reddish hair, blue eyes. They were just the sort of things that you want to pick up, stroke their cheeks, and kiss, kiss, kiss!
"It was hard to consider them my mortal enemy," Marsh confesses. "I didn't want to shout at her and make her cry, or else she would hate me. And you want these adorable creatures to love you.
"Fortunately for any real shouting or cruelty, we used a puppet or a dummy, so the real children were never frightened. And it's much easier to work up a frothy snit against a puppet than it is to growl at an innocent baby." Still, an evil queen has to be on her toes. "I remember looking down at her lying in the basket at one point. Of course, the natural reaction was 'Ahhhh,' and I had to remember to snarl. Hard work for an actress."
Sayers, John, & Adam Pirani. "Queen Bavmorda: Jean Marsh." The Official Willow Movie Magazine. Ed. David McDonnell. New York: Jacobs, 1988. 29-31.
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