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Miranda Otto and Sophie Wilde reveal Portable Door behind-the-scenes secrets

'The Portable Door' stars Miranda Otto and Sophie Wilde sat down with Yahoo Lifestyle to unpack the movie.

Video transcript

- Well, hi, guys.

SOPHIE WILDE: Hi.

MIRANDA OTTO: Hi.

- Congratulations on the film.

MIRANDA OTTO: Thank you.

- Miranda, you love a fantasy project. What is it about these stories that keeps you coming back?

MIRANDA OTTO: I think I've always been attracted to travel and stepping into other worlds. I just love that feeling of disappearing from my own life and going into something else, and just the sense of play and fun in that. And this script had all those elements, right up to the goblins.

- And what was it that drew you both to the film?

MIRANDA OTTO: I was working on a project that we-- I was doing the thing about the bushfires, which was wonderful but very intense. And this script arrived at that moment. It was like, oh, this is the perfect antidote.

I tend to go from one extreme to the other, like doing something that's very dramatic to doing something high comedy. I just like to really switch it up. So when I read this, I just thought it would be so fun to do. And it was such a witty, clever script as well.

SOPHIE WILDE: I'm literally the same. I was working on some intense BBC gang drama. And then this came along. And I was like, yes, I want to be a kid. And I want to play.

And I was in the UK. And I was like, oh, I can come home. And it felt like the perfect project.

MIRANDA OTTO: Yeah.

- Come home to pretend as though you're in--

SOPHIE WILDE: Back in the UK, yeah, exactly.

[LAUGHTER]

- Did it ever actually-- did it feel like you were in London, even though it was Brisbane?

MIRANDA OTTO: Some of the sets did because it just had that old school kind of-- those interiors and stuff. In the upstairs of the building, in particular, felt very like London. But it was funny being in Queensland and going into Brisbane to shoot bits of London. But it looks so good in the film.

SOPHIE WILDE: It does. And it looks legit, yeah.

MIRANDA OTTO: They did so well, yeah.

- I had no idea.

SOPHIE WILDE: Oh, really?

MIRANDA OTTO: No, actually, we went to London.

- Yeah, I was like--

SOPHIE WILDE: Yeah. [LAUGHING]

- I was like, oh, it's a Stan film, but it's-- and then I was like, oh, shot in Brisbane, how cool. Sophie, how did it feel for you working with people like Miranda and Christoph and Sam? Your career's just really on the up.

SOPHIE WILDE: Amazing. They're such incredible actors and people. And I think to kind of get to watch them work and watch them play was a dream come true, really, to work with such incredible people.

MIRANDA OTTO: We were just a big family, we really were. Everyone got on so well. And we just-- because we were all there together at the same time, and we couldn't go back anywhere because Queensland was like a green zone, and everywhere else seemed to be a red zone at that point, we really hung out a lot and played a lot of games and stuff. We were tight. Very tight.

SOPHIE WILDE: Very, very, very close.

MIRANDA OTTO: Yeah.

SOPHIE WILDE: We're a family.

- Those games nights probably be quite fun.

MIRANDA OTTO: They were really fun.

SOPHIE WILDE: Those nights were fun, were fun.

MIRANDA OTTO: That's a signature of Jeffrey, our director's productions. He likes to do the games nights, so it was good. It's a good kickoff.

- I feel like Christoph, he plays such a good villain.

SOPHIE WILDE: He does.

- What's he like behind the scenes?

MIRANDA OTTO: He's really sweet and fun.

SOPHIE WILDE: He's so lovely. He's such a sweetie. I would always force him to give Patrick and I group hugs.

MIRANDA OTTO: [LAUGHING]

Cute.

SOPHIE WILDE: And he was like, sure.

[LAUGHTER]

MIRANDA OTTO: Yeah, he's got such a twinkle you can see on screen. And that's true in life, too. Yeah.

- These sets and costumes, that must have been quite fun to just play in.

SOPHIE WILDE: Yeah.

- What was some of the coolest things that were on set?

SOPHIE WILDE: I feel like that basement set is probably one of the most amazing because there are so many little items here and there. And I feel like every time you walked into that set, you would discover something new.

MIRANDA OTTO: Yeah, definitely. I was in that background of the basement, waiting to do an entry a number of times in the scene. So I was back there a lot, just waiting for them to turn over and everything. So I get to go through all the stuff on the shelves. But there were things like-- I swear there was like a bowl full of eyeballs, like glass eyes, just the weirdest kind of things back there.

SOPHIE WILDE: --spooky things in there--

MIRANDA OTTO: A lot of different phones, like weird phones from places.

SOPHIE WILDE: Yeah, we had like '80s tech.

MIRANDA OTTO: Yeah, we--

SOPHIE WILDE: I was like, what is this?

MIRANDA OTTO: [LAUGHING]

- When I was watching the trailer before I watched the film, I was like, oh, this is set a while ago. And then I was like, no, it's totally modern.

MIRANDA OTTO: No, it's totally modern now. But it's sort of got a little quirk on it, like a little bit of a twist in the costuming and stuff. There's like [INAUDIBLE], who did the costumes, really worked all the patterns, and the doors, and all those kind of emblems into the costuming. So it's sort of slightly off.

- Were you ever tempted in those scenes, like the basement and stuff, to take anything from--

SOPHIE WILDE: Oh, yeah.

MIRANDA OTTO: I wish I had.

SOPHIE WILDE: 100%. So Patrick got Humphrey Wells' soul, like the-- and I stole it off Patrick. And I think he's forgotten. And it's in my room. And I'm never giving it back.

MIRANDA OTTO: You could send a picture of yourself to Christoph, like--

SOPHIE WILDE: I'm going to actually show that to everybody.

- That's so funny. I was going to ask what you would have taken, but that's a great thing.

SOPHIE WILDE: A good one. That was a good one. And I think someone gave me my soul. They gave me my soul contract as well, which I also have.

MIRANDA OTTO: Lucky, that could come in handy.

SOPHIE WILDE: Yeah, that's an important one.

MIRANDA OTTO: [LAUGHING]

- You didn't take anything?

MIRANDA OTTO: No, I don't think I did. I don't think-- sometimes I'll get something from the costume. But I didn't even get the costume on this because it was there last night.

SOPHIE WILDE: Yeah, usually I take costume, too, but--

MIRANDA OTTO: Yeah, I usually end up with something from the costume. I would have liked those shoes. I loved those orange shoes.

SOPHIE WILDE: Yeah, those were banging.

MIRANDA OTTO: Yeah, they were great.

- And maybe just like a baby dragon--

MIRANDA OTTO: Yeah, a baby dragon would have been good. Actually, I never got to see--

SOPHIE WILDE: A towel. I got a towel. Did you get a towel?

MIRANDA OTTO: Oh, yes, we did get a towel.

SOPHIE WILDE: We all got towels.

MIRANDA OTTO: That's right, we got a towel in the mail that arrived, yeah.

SOPHIE WILDE: And then I think my mom started using it as a real towel. I was like, sorry?

MIRANDA OTTO: She better watch out. She could end up anywhere.

SOPHIE WILDE: Honestly, anything could happen.

MIRANDA OTTO: Really, whoo.

- Oh, that's so funny. I thought at first that you were going to say you got a towel. And then you were like, I still didn't get anything.

[LAUGHTER]

MIRANDA OTTO: No, I remember now, I did get a towel. Yeah, yeah.

- Was there anything that happened behind the scenes that would maybe surprise viewers?

MIRANDA OTTO: Sophie jumped out of a plane.

SOPHIE WILDE: I did jump out of a plane with Patrick, yeah, after we wrapped.

MIRANDA OTTO: After the wrap.

SOPHIE WILDE: Yeah.

- What a way to celebrate.

SOPHIE WILDE: It was a good one.

MIRANDA OTTO: That was rather a big door that you jumped out off, didn't you?

SOPHIE WILDE: It was a huge door, yeah.

- There are lots of powers and things in the film. If you could have one of them, what would it be? And would you use it for good or evil?

MIRANDA OTTO: Oh, use it for good.

SOPHIE WILDE: What power would I want?

MIRANDA OTTO: I'd love to time travel. I would love to be able to go other places at other times, go back in history, or even forward in history. That's what I'd like to do. I don't know, is that a power? I guess that's a power.

SOPHIE WILDE: That's a power. That's totally a power.

MIRANDA OTTO: That would be excellent.

SOPHIE WILDE: I feel like-- I always said teleportation. But the portable door is essentially that but in physical form. So I just-- I would just want the door.

MIRANDA OTTO: Yeah.

- Fair. Where would you want to go if you had the door?

MIRANDA OTTO: Everywhere.

SOPHIE WILDE: Everywhere.

MIRANDA OTTO: Yeah, I'd like to, yeah, go back to great moments in history. But if we're talking about a place, I'd like to go to Iceland.

- Nice. It could also be good for when you're working on a set really far away, and you're like, I would love to be--

MIRANDA OTTO: I just want to go home and see my friends.

SOPHIE WILDE: Yes, yes. And I feel like we travel so much for work. And it's so far to get back here.

MIRANDA OTTO: Yeah, yeah.

SOPHIE WILDE: If I could just eliminate that part.

MIRANDA OTTO: Getting back to Australia is far. Yeah, definitely.

SOPHIE WILDE: I don't want to get a 16-hour flight.

MIRANDA OTTO: No, no. It'd be so good if I had the door.

SOPHIE WILDE: Yeah.

- And will there be more?

BOTH: We don't know.

MIRANDA OTTO: There are more books.

SOPHIE WILDE: Hopefully.

MIRANDA OTTO: So it would be fun.

SOPHIE WILDE: I would love to work with everyone again. It would be so much fun.

MIRANDA OTTO: Yeah, we'd love it. We're super fun.

- --more games nights?

MIRANDA OTTO: Absolutely.

SOPHIE WILDE: So many more games nights. So many.

MIRANDA OTTO: Yeah, except I'm going to bone up on all the games this time. I'd be better.

SOPHIE WILDE: I think I lost every game.

MIRANDA OTTO: Did you?

SOPHIE WILDE: Yeah, I'm not very good at games, so I need to improve that.