Baranski has a ball

Christine Baranski, the unsung hero of summer smash hit MAMMA MIA! THE MOVIE, spoke exclusively to iVillage.co.uk's Gavin Conway about her special relationship with Meryl Streep and Julie Walters, the best four days of her life and James Bond in spandex!

The Emmy Award-winning Baranski forms one part of a formidable female triumvirate in the musical romp, playing the sassy Tanya, a seventies party girl, who returns to a fictional Greek island idyll to be re-united with childhood partners in crime Donna (Meryl Streep) and Rosie (Julie Walters).

As all and sundry prepare for the wedding of Donna's daughter Sophie (Amanda Seyfried), the arrival of Sam (Pierce Brosnan), Harry (Colin Firth) and Bill (Stellan Skarsgard) on the island turns everyone's world upside down, prompting scenes of hilarity, melodrama and riotous fun - befitting of a film based on the toe-tapping classics of ABBA...

There's clearly a great on-screen chemistry between you, Meryl Streep and Julie Walters, as there is between the three leading men. How important was achieving that chemistry when making this particular kind of film?

Christine Baranski: We actually talked about it very early on. I remember having conversations with Meryl and Julie and we all agreed that, with this material, it had to look like it was just 'happening' for the first time, that at any moment we could just start cutting up or goofing off.

While respecting the script, the best we could do was just make it totally (pause) - I hate the word 'fun', it's so over-used it's like 'love', it's one of those words...Fortunately, though, we were genuinely having tremendous fun!

I think it's fair to say that audiences are going to see Pierce Brosnan and Colin Firth as they've never seen them before. Was that element of doing something slightly removed from the norm something that attracted you to the film?

Christine Baranski: I always love to get the chance to sing and dance, in any context. I think it's just a great form of expression. I wish I'd done more singing and dancing in my career.

I did study dance when I was little and I have done some musicals, like Sweeney Todd quite recently, and I'm really glad I did because it was wonderful prep for this movie. Because, let's face it, when you're up on the big screen it's so much bigger than your actual personality and you need as much confidence as you can possible have.