Entering into theaters July 1 is Stephen Spielberg’s newest film, “The BFG.” A retelling of the Roald Dahl book, it follows the adventures of a precocious young orphan named Sophie whose curiosity results in the acquaintance of the Big Friendly Giant, and a potentially one-way trip to Giant Country. Although they initially regard each other with some suspicion, the two lonely souls eventually become fast friends and work to bring about a happy ending for themselves and children everywhere.

[All non-attributed photos and video courtesy of Disney.]

At a recent press junket, some of the film’s distinguished talent–old and new–gathered to talk about the experience of bringing “The BFG” to life.

Penelope Wilton (“The Queen”) on playing a child’s version of Queen Elizabeth: “I think you have to start from trying to catch the person…if you don’t have a real person, then it wouldn’t be fun. If I made a fantasy queen in a fantasy, that would…cancel each other out. So it has to be based on reality so you do a double take all the time: “Did she say that? Did she say that?” And then it makes it interesting, and that’s what Roald Dahl does. That’s why he uses the queen, ‘cause in a little girl’s mind the person who is on all the stamps and all the money in England is the person who will be able to…if they have a problem, she will fix it. And so in a 9 year old’s mind, that is what she does.”

Mark Rylance (“The BFG”) on the movie’s appeal: “I hadn’t thought of it before, but I like the fact that here’s a man in a very difficult family, isn’t he? It’s his brothers who are doing this–they’ve got very degraded, they weren’t always like this, and he’s kind of given up on it. And he goes around behind to blow dreams, like we might give money to peaceful charities or something to compensate…But the young girl comes in and she’s so marvelous, in that she says ‘no, we can do better, we can change this. It doesn’t have to be like this.’ I was very impressed with that because increasingly I think well, maybe it all is just a jungle, just a dog-eat-dog jungle and there’s nothing you can do, but the younger generation always comes through with either foolishness or hope that things can change, and in this case she actually does succeed and change the situation.

“At least, until they do a sequel.”

Ruby Barnhill (“Sophie”) on what she learned from working with Stephen Spielberg: “I think I’ve just learned from Stephen that…it’s ok to make mistakes. I was at Parent’s Evening, and my art teacher said ‘every time you make a mistake in lessons, you start panicking, and you need to stop doing that because everybody makes mistakes and it’s absolutely fine.” And I learned from Stephen that making mistakes is ok and to just…everybody does it and you learn from them and it’s fine. And so that was one thing that I really worked on.”

Steven Spielberg (Director) on why he was drawn to make this film: “Because I…what really appealed to me was the fact that…the protagonist was a girl, not a boy. And it was a very strong girl. And the protagonist was going to, you know–the protagonist was going to allow us at a certain point, to believe that–four feet tall can completely outrank 25 feet of giant. And I got very excited that this was going to be a little girl’s story, and her courage, and her values, was going to, in a way, turn the cowardly lion into the brave hero at the end…which is what she turns BFG into. And I saw all kinds of Wizard of Oz comparisons when I was first reading the book, and I said, “Oh, here’s a real chance to do a story about Dorothy and the Cowardly Lion – just the two of them.”

Spielberg on Walt Disney: “I was really influenced as a kid, growing up, by Walt Disney. Walt Disney did two things for me: For one thing, he scared me more than anybody else ever scared me, then he rescued me from the fear that he instilled in me five minutes after he terrified me. And he did that like a sine wave pattern again and again and again until there was complete memorable redemption at the end. The other thing Walt Disney did, was he extolled the virtues of strong women characters. He did that throughout his entire career, through his animated films.”

“The BFG” will open in theaters July 1, 2016.