--- title: Emma Thompson on Playing Mary Poppins Author P.L. Travers | TIME description: Emma Thompson talks with TIME about P.L. Travers and her troubled past. canonical: https://time.com/video/GqJRoHxQ/ og:title: Emma Thompson on Playing Mary Poppins Author P.L. Travers og:description: Emma Thompson talks with TIME about P.L. Travers and her troubled past. og:url: https://time.com/video/GqJRoHxQ/ og:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/GqJRoHxQ/poster.jpg?width=720 og:type: video.other twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Emma Thompson on Playing Mary Poppins Author P.L. Travers twitter:description: Emma Thompson talks with TIME about P.L. Travers and her troubled past. twitter:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/GqJRoHxQ/poster.jpg?width=720 --- # Emma Thompson on Playing Mary Poppins Author P.L. Travers > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription. ## Video: Emma Thompson on Playing Mary Poppins Author P.L. Travers [Watch (HLS stream): Emma Thompson on Playing Mary Poppins Author P.L. Travers](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/GqJRoHxQ.m3u8) (1:31)  _Published 2013-12-04. Emma Thompson talks with TIME about P.L. Travers and her troubled past._ --- Jul 27, 2023 3:59 PM UTC --- ## More From This Series [All Videos](https://time.com/video/) [Emma Thompson on How She Would Change the World](/video/taBc4O2l/) ### Emma Thompson on How She Would Change the World [Emma Thompson on the Darkness of Disney](/video/4XHUmWfX/) ### Emma Thompson on the Darkness of Disney [Emma Thompson On Her Past Loves](/video/iczw6dp1/) ### Emma Thompson On Her Past Loves --- ## Transcript >> So in this movie you play P. L Travers, who wrote Mary Poppins and who was like you, an actress and a writer. Did you feel that there were similarities? >> No. She was an extraordinary woman born into the early part of the 20th century in Australia-- >> That far away. >> and immediately, well, what's so interesting is she just didn't want to be Australian and it's odd because she was fascinated with story and myth later and you think, well the aboriginals are the best storytellers of the human tribe. If she had that connection maybe she would have been more willing to accept her Australian heritage which she was very snobby about it. As she said, I wanted to get out of there as soon as I possibly could, although before she left, she told Australia with the theater group and they were fantastic pictures of her looking very dramatic with grapes in her hair and things. She was very troubled. Her father was an alcoholic. Her Mom tried to commit suicide when she was about eight and she had to stop her really, actually [ unk ] when she was 10. 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