Exclusive: Rebel Wilson Shares Personal Connections to JULIET & ROMEO Role

With Juliet & Romeo, Rebel Wilson is back onscreen in a new movie musical. In the film, the Pitch Perfect alum stars as Juliet's mother, Lady Capulet, a character who is given further depth in this version of the story. With the original song, "The Mask I Wear," audiences are allowed a look into Lady Capulet's background, which may have more in common with Juliet than it appears at first glance.

"Traditionally, Lady Caplet is portrayed as outright villainous," Wilson explained during a recent interview with BroadwayWorld. "Even though... she's trying to make Juliet marry someone that she doesn't love, 20 years ago, that was me. That was the struggle that I faced... In a way, that song kind of becomes anthemic for a lot of the female characters in the movie, and that's something that Romeo and Juliet never had."

The movie comes out on Mother's Day, and Wilson noted significant mother figures in her own life that she thought about when bringing the character to life."I was looking at my grandma and my mom, and... how often they seem to pass these things on to their daughters, often thinking it's for the best. I really related to Juliet because she's the non-conformist in the family, and I'm the non-conformist who completely broke free of all traditions in my family."

She also shared how becoming a mother herself allowed her to feel that she could take on this character: "It made me go a bit deeper, I think, than what I would've before, and I'm not sure I would've taken the role." Watch the full conversation above. 

In addition to Wilson, the twist on the Shakespearean classic features a star-studded cast, including Jason Isaacs, Rupert Everett, Rupert Graves, Tony Award-winner Dan Fogler, and Derek Jacobi. Clara Rugaard and Jamie Rugaard play the star-crossed lovers, and Ferdia Walsh-Peelo, Nicholas Podany, and GRAMMY Award-winners, Tayla Parx and Ledisi also star.

Juliet & Romeo is the first in a movie-musical trilogy based around the real-life 1301 story that inspired Shakespeare’s greatest tale, with the world’s most famous lovers finding themselves central figures in an epic journey of battles and betrayal, the iconic duo turning the tides on history as we know it.  

Set in 1301 at the end of Medieval times, the Juliet & Romeo Franchise finds our most famous Star-Crossed lovers turning the tides on the history Shakespeare based his own story on, as they reveal the truth to the very future of the Empire. But the biggest twist in this most beloved of tales, is leaving the poetry of Iambic Pentameter in the past, for the original Pop Music that rockets these ever-present themes right to the heart of our characters in the most surprising, and perhaps most powerful way that has ever been seen, or heard, before.

Writer-director Timothy Scott Bogart, three-time Oscar-winning production Designer Dante Ferretti, and original songs and music from GRAMMY, Evan Kidd Bogart and Justin Gray, all breathe new life into this theatrical classic.

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