Amber Doig-Thorne takes the lead in Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey (Picture: Getty)
Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey is one of the most anticipated films of the year – and lead star Amber Doig-Thorne is especially proud of its LGBTQ+ representation.
Reimagining the tale of the cuddly bear we’ve grown up loving, Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey is a unique and controversial take on the sweet classic children’s book, featuring old friends, Pooh, Piglet, and Eeyore,
The live-action slasher film sees a cast of young actors terrorised by the feral Pooh and Piglet, Michael Myers style, after they struggled to survive when Christopher Robin (played by Nikolai Leon) left for university.
Directed by Rhys Frake-Waterfield, the story has made waves online, with Amber (playing Alice) keen to get on board after growing up with a love of all things Winnie the Pooh and ‘fascinated’ by its switch for a whole new audience.
And one point in particular she wants to get across is that Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey has ‘authentic’ queer representation.
Speaking exclusively to Metro.co.uk the 22-year-old star – also known for her roles in BBC Laugh Lessons, Intervention, Demons at Dawn and more – explains why Alice is out to take Pooh and Piglet down.
The slasher flick is one of the most anticipated films of the year, retelling the beloved story of our childhood characters, Pooh and Piglet (Picture: AP)
Amber plays Alice, who’s out for revenge after her girlfriend is killed during Piglet’s murderous rampage (Picture: Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey)
‘Alice is amazing. I’ve tried to learn a lot from Alice,’ she says of her character.
‘She’s very brave, caring, kind, she’s in a relationship with another woman and Alice is out of the closet, she’s very comfortable with her sexuality, but it’s her girlfriend’s first female-female relationship, so her girlfriend is struggling a little bit.
‘Throughout the film, Alice has this underlying anxiety because she’s trying to make the relationship work but doesn’t want to push her partner too much, but she wants to make her feel comfortable.
‘In the first trailer, we saw Alice’s girlfriend, Zoe (Danielle Ronald), was actually killed in the swimming pool by Piglet, he hits her with a sledgehammer and she’s a goner. So, for the rest of the film, Alice has this amazing journey where the only thing on her mind is getting revenge on Piglet. She wants to avenge the death of her girlfriend.’
Amber feels ‘blessed’ to have played a queer character in horror (Picture: James Veysey/Shutterstock)
With Craig David Dowsett starring as the once cuddly bear, now in a menacing mask and out for blood, the film is definitely not for the faint-hearted (Picture: AP)
Amber adds that Alice had ‘finally met someone she’s happy with’, whom Piglet had ‘taken away’.
So, Alice is ‘pretty much set on revenge’, Amber says, teasing that this could lead to the once innocent Piglet’s downfall.
‘There’s one really great scene where Alice has a stand-off with Piglet and she’s one of the only characters to, kind of, successfully take on Piglet during the film – that’s all I’m gonna say!’
Amber feels ‘very blessed’ to have played an LGBTQ+ character, allowing her to bring representation to the silver screen, something she hopes can inspire other creators across the horror genre.
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‘I think a lot of films fall into the trap of having LGBTQ+ characters and that has to be their defining feature, when it isn’t!’, she explains. ‘It’s just another part of someone’s life, it’s just another part of who you are.’
‘What I really enjoyed about this script and what I worked on when I was building Alice as a character is it’s (her queerness) just another part of who she is. It doesn’t define her, it’s not something that she has to project outwards, it’s just something that’s there.
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‘I think it’s really nice that it’s a part of the story but it’s not highlighted or focused on in a way that makes it feel inauthentic – it just happens to be there.’
Amber believes the ‘underlying journey’ her character goes on through the film makes for a plot that viewers can really get behind, alongside the chaos of Pooh and Piglet on their murderous rampage.
‘It made me really happy to bring that to life in an authentic way.’
Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey lands in UK cinemas on March 10.
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She plays Alice, whose girlfriend is killed by evil Piglet.
