The NeverEnding Story might not actually be never ending, but the movie’s reach continues with no signs of stopping 40 years after its release. Remember how excited people were about the Stranger Things season three homage to the film’s song? Tami Stronach’s portrayal of the Childlike Empress in particular stands out. And now, she’s returning to the screen again for Man and Witch: The Dance of a Thousand Steps.
The fantasy film, coming to theaters July 28 and July 30 from Fathom Events, harkens back to The NeverEnding Story and other fantasy movies of the ‘80s. It tells the story of a reclusive witch who, for a cost, agrees to help a lonely goatherd overcome a curse from his birth. Stronach plays the witch, while her husband Greg Steinbruner takes on the role of the goatherd. They produce and write the movie, respectively We talked with Stronach about getting back into acting, witches, and what she hopes audiences will take from Man and Witch: The Dance of a Thousand Steps.
Man and Witch marks your return to the big screen. What played into you making this decision?
Tami Stronach: I was acting in plays over the course of my 20s and 30s. I had a dance company and I was dancing in a variety of other companies, but I was also in a theater company for seven years. I kept jumping in and out of off Broadway plays in the downtown theater scene. And dance has a really limited shelf life. You do eventually have to give it up. So, I always had this secret plan to return to acting. It ctually makes no sense with the real world, hence going into fantasy, right? If you ask any Hollywood person, they’re like, well, strategizing about getting back into acting in your 50s as a woman…
This project was an opportunity to get back to acting on a broader scale than I had been doing. To do it on my own terms, to have a seat at the table, to be a producer, to make sure that I love the story, that the female characters felt interesting. For all of those reasons, it felt like something I was willing to give four years of my life to. I could be behind the scenes, in front of the camera, working with my husband, including my daughter, acting, it has a giant dance number in it—I could braid it all together. And I’m a child of the ’80s. I love ’80s movies, and I was watching films with my daughter and we were like, “Why don’t they make movies like they used to anymore?” So, a big motivation was like, “Well, why don’t we try?”
You checked all the boxes! I’d love to hear more about your character. You play the titular witch. Did any other witches in pop culture inspire you?
Stronach: My goal was to take this witch and make the audience fall in love with her. She’s a flawed character. I wouldn’t say she’s really based on other witches. It’s more based on my desire as a middle-aged woman to put a story out in the world that’s about second chances. She’s really damaged at the beginning of the film. In some ways she has this very hard exterior, but inside she’s super soft. That was a really interesting role to play. She’s not what she appears to be and that you learn who she is through time. Having a role with this transformation felt really exciting. I was a little nervous how NeverEnding Story fans would react to my big moment back on screen being this haggard witch. But all of her light comes out towards the end of the film.
This movie doesn’t have CGI. What were some of the rewards, or challenges even, of that?
Stronach: I really love practical effects. This is going to maybe sound a little corny, but I do feel like you can feel the Qi of the puppeteer in the puppet. You’re taking the energy in your body and you’re putting it into that object to animate it. I think that’s magic. I don’t think that there’s never a place for CGI—sometimes CGI can be spectacular. You can suddenly get these enormous scenes, which you could never pay for otherwise, but we just didn’t have the budget for it. Rather than be upset about that, we’re like, well, how can we turn that into a positive? And the positive was to take everything that’s awesome about practical effects and celebrate that. We won’t have an epic battle scene, but instead we’ll do a giant dance number. We just tried to work within the scope of what we could.
Actually we have a really fun featurette that we made for Fathom Events. We made an eight-minute film that you can only see if you go to the theater about the puppets, working with The Jim Henson Company, why we did practical effects, how that all went down.
What do you hope audiences who see Man and Witch walk away feeling?
Stronach: I want their own imagination to be inspired. I want their own creativity to be ignited. Genuinely, I just want them to feel a little bit of joy and feeling a little bit more hopeful. I think we need that. The world’s really complicated right now, and part of what fantasy does so well is it tackles hard problems, but it never gives up hope. Without hope, we’re not going to solve anything.
Man and Witch: The Dance of a Thousand Steps will play in theaters across the United States on July 28 and July 30. Get tickets now.