PHOTOS: Cast of Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory reunite 44 years on
They share secrets from the movie
The child cast and an Oompa Loompa from the classic 1971 movie Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory have reunited 44 years on.
Six stars from the movie – Peter Ostrum (Charlie Bucket), Julie Dawn Cole (Veruca Salt), Denise Nickerson (Violet Beauregarde), Paris Themmen (Mike Teevee), Michael Bollner (Augustus Gloop) and Rusty Goffe (an orange Oompa Loompa) – all got together for a special interview with The Today Show in America.
Reminiscing about the much-loved Roald Dahl adaptation, the sextet revealed a string of secrets including what the chocolate river was made from. According to Rusty Goffe “it was disgusting.”
Veruca Salt herself was full of praise for Willy Wonka actor, 82-year-old Gene Wilder, saying he had a lot of patience with his excitable co-stars.
“Five kids clambering all over you, wanting his attention. There was never any ‘Please don’t follow Mr. Wonka,’ and we must have been pretty tiresome,” she joked.
Amazingly, nearly half a century on all six say they still have a very close bond, with Mike Teevee actor Paris Themmen explaining: “We think of ourselves as part of a family. Maybe a bit of a dysfunctional family, but a family really.”
Roald Dahl’s 1964 book Charlie and the Chocolate Factory was also made into a 2005 film starring Johnny Depp.
Watch the full Today Show interview here.