Greta Gerwig on why she hired Meryl "one of the greatest actors to ever do it" Streep as Aslan

Nearly five years after her zeitgeist-shattering adaptation of Mattel’s wonderful products, Greta Gerwig’s Narnia: The Magician’s Nephew, the first in a series of Lewis adaptations, arrives in—get this—movie theaters next February. However, we have yet to hear much about the film, aside from its atypical-for-Netflix release strategy and the decision to make The Magician’s Nephew her entry point. (While The Lion, The Witch, And The Wardrobe was published first, Nephew is the first book in the series’ chronology.) Still, one specific question remains: Why did Greta Gerwig want one of the world’s greatest actors, Meryl Streep, to play Aslan, Lewis’ feline Jesus stand-in? The answer boils down to a pretty obvious one, but Gerwig does lay out a good case for Streep’s je ne sais quoi. 

“I wanted someone who was profound but not pretentious, who had gravitas but not morose self-seriousness. Someone who could communicate depth and pathos as well as joy and delight,” Gerwig said. “I wanted someone who was older than 70, so there was a wisdom of experience, but who also had the capacity of fresh wonder, like a child. And also to be one of the greatest actors to ever do it. That list is not a long one.”