As we wait on a third movie, the Mamma Mia star Christine Baranski revealed in a recent interview that there was one co-star on set who ‘hated’ integral parts of the filming process.
It follows the story of a bride
Set in the fictional Greek island of Kalokairi, the 2008 musical movie follows the story of a bride, Sophie (played by Amanda Seyfried), who secretly invites three men to her wedding in the hopes that she’ll find out which of them is her father.
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The three men are Sam (Pierce Brosnan), Bill (Skarsgård) and Harry (Colin Firth).
The musical is based on ABBA music
The musical movie is based around ABBA songs, with all the music used in the movie being songs by the Swedish band.
Meryl Streep played Sophie’s mother, Donna, and Baranski played Tanya, who is one of Donna’s best friends.
Baranski recalled the filming experience
Remembering how it all went down, Baranski revealed that Skarsgård, who played Bill, one of Sophie’s potential fathers, didn’t enjoy the dancing part of the musical.
She shared he specifically ‘hated’ filming the end of the movie where the whole cast dances to ABBA’s hit track Dancing Queen.
She spoke about it in a recent interview
In an episode of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Baranski said, “I don’t think he’ll mind my saying he hated having to do the dance stuff.”
Meanwhile, she shared that Pierce Brosnan “was game” with his part, saying, “[He would] skip down the hill multiple times.”
Colin Firth didn’t mind the dancing either
Baranski added that while Skarsgård didn’t like the dancing, and Brosnan didn’t mind it, even Colin Firth “meant all of his moves ironically.”
She added, “When we finally went down the hill in Dancing Queen and landed on the dock, the camera would move around and it usually would avoid Stellan.”
The movie became a box office success
Despite this, the movie went on to become a major box office success with a sequel coming later in 2018 titled Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again.
Baranski shared that the director, Ol Parker, made dancing non-negotiable for the sequel.
He told the cast to get the moves down
Early on, Parker made it clear that the cast should learn the dance moves even before doing their close-up shots.
“You have got to do the moves now — you have simply got to do the moves,” he said.
Skarsgård didn’t like that
According to Baranski, Skarsgård would respond to Parker’s remark by letting out “a string of expletives.”
“It’s as if l had asked him to read Arabic poetry while jumping rope. He was like ‘I can’t do that,” she said.
A third movie is in the works
Baranski had also revealed in August 2024 that a third movie was in the works.
She told the Hollywood Reporter at the time, “I was in London with [producer] Judy Kramer at our favorite watering hole, [and] she is planning Mamma Mia 3. She gave me the narrative plot line of how it’s going to happen.”