{"id":292278,"date":"2025-12-01T00:57:16","date_gmt":"2025-12-01T00:57:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/292278\/"},"modified":"2025-12-01T00:57:16","modified_gmt":"2025-12-01T00:57:16","slug":"how-does-the-bear-work-and-who-is-inside-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/292278\/","title":{"rendered":"How Does the Bear Work and Who Is Inside It?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tWhen Paddington<\/a> first waddles on stage during the new West End musical based on the beloved bear, the audience at the Savoy Theatre can hardly contain their excitement. Exclamations of \u201caww,\u201d loud chuckles and enthusiastic yelps ring out from the crowd as Paddington sings, dances and crinkles his furry face to convey happiness, sadness and confusion \u2014 it\u2019s truly like watching the bear come to life.<\/p>\n

\n\tBut how exactly did the team behind \u201cPaddington the Musical<\/a>\u201d translate the Peruvian cub\u2019s likeness to the stage? The answer is one expertly crafted bear suit and two very talented performers: James Hameed and Arti Shah.<\/p>\n

\n\tHameed, whose credits include \u201cGaddafi: A Living Myth\u201d and \u201cJust for One Day \u2014 The Live Aid Musical,\u201d is the voice of Paddington and remotely puppeteers the bear\u2019s facial movements. Meanwhile, \u201cStar Wars,\u201d \u201cGuardians of the Galaxy\u201d and \u201cHarry Potter\u201d alum Arti Shah is inside the suit, embodying Paddington\u2019s physicality on stage for most of the musical\u2019s two-hour-and-40-minute runtime. Both performers have been with the show through several workshops for the past three years, working together to perfect Paddington\u2019s every word, note and move. <\/p>\n

\n\tDirected by Luke Sheppard with music and lyrics by Tom Fletcher \u2014 and co-produced by Studiocanal, which owns the \u201cPaddington\u201d IP \u2014 \u201cPaddington the Musical\u201d officially opens on Sunday night at the Savoy. Below, Hameed and Shah give Variety insight into the work that has gone into bringing Paddington to life, what it was like meeting Prince William and Kate Middleton and the message they hope the audience takes away from the show.<\/p>\n

\t\tWhat were your respective relationships with the character of Paddington before joining the production?\t<\/p>\n

\n\tArti Shah: Being 7 or 8 years old and watching \u201cPaddington\u201d on TV after school with my older brother, that is my first memory. And then obviously, we have the films in 2014. And when my young son was born, he was gifted the \u201cPaddington\u201d books by his aunt. So we were reading them to him as well, and we\u2019ve loved the films as a family. But also, two years ago, I was recommended to work on \u201cPaddington in Peru,\u201d doing a lot of the physical work on the second unit. So Paddington has been in my life throughout childhood and in my adult years, not just family but work as well.<\/p>\n

\n\tJames Hameed: I\u2019m from a mixed heritage, and my mum, being very, very British, had obviously a very different relationship to Paddington than my father, who came over in the \u201970s. For my mum, he represented all the best things about Britain \u2014 manners, politeness, tea. And for my father, he represented leaving a home to find a new home, for whatever reason, and not being welcomed at first and that challenge of coming to a place that has a totally different culture. I think there\u2019s such a duality with Paddington that both exist at the same time \u2014 this idea that everyone has such an individual relationship and all of them are valid, all of them are true. I think that\u2019s probably one of the reasons why he\u2019s so special. He kind of encompasses everything. No matter your political or religious perspective, he just can represent an aspect of you that is so true and vulnerable.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tTeddy Kempner and James Hameed in \u201cPaddington the Musical.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tJohan Persson<\/p>\n

\t\tCertainly, one of the main messages I walked away with from the musical was the importance of kindness, especially with everything happening in the current political climate.\t<\/p>\n

\n\tShah: That\u2019s one thing that we all seem to forget, it\u2019s about kindness and it\u2019s free and it\u2019s simple and we all have it within us. It\u2019s just a gentle reminder that we can all be kind, and this is what the world really needs right now.<\/p>\n

\n\tHameed: It\u2019s a good lens to teach that to not only children, but to adults as well. I think it strips away any preconceptions anyone might have, and makes it the most vulnerable version of that story and I think that\u2019s what allows it to be told without any resistance.<\/p>\n

\t\tHow exactly do you work together to bring Paddington to life?\t<\/p>\n

\n\tHameed: On my side, I start off as a separate character called the Young Man. He arrives with his own story and in order to tell his story, he sort of gifts his voice to Paddington Bear. The Young Man then disappears and Paddington tells his story with his own lens, his own physicalities, but with the voice of the Young Man, which is essentially Paddington\u2019s voice.<\/p>\n

\n\tI also remotely puppeteer Paddington\u2019s facial expressions. In the very early days, there were initially three people behind Paddington. We had the voice, the physical presence and then the remote puppeteer. And we did a test here at the Savoy in early \u201923 I think, but what we soon found was there was always just going to be a slight delay. With this kind of puppeteering, it needs to be as true and as connected as possible, and if you\u2019ve got three different people trying to achieve the same thing, it\u2019s a little harder than if you had two. We got Phill Woodfine, who has been coaching me on remote puppetry, who is a legend in his field. They just were like, \u201cWell, James, do you want to try to make the mouth move to what you\u2019re saying and let\u2019s see what that looks like?\u201d It\u2019s meant that we\u2019re able to blend really well and there\u2019s no delays between what we\u2019re doing. That\u2019s as much as I\u2019m allowed to give without giving away everything else, but I think that we do enough that you will believe you\u2019re seeing Paddington in the room.<\/p>\n

\t\tArti, you\u2019re in the bear suit, bringing physicality to Paddington. What\u2019s it like in there and how do you stay cool on stage?\t<\/p>\n

\n\tShah: It keeps me nice and warm. I take my job very seriously, and before we started rehearsals I sat in a sauna fully clothed every day for a week, just to mentally prepare myself. The mind is a powerful tool. I wear a lot of padding and then the lovely suit, which makes me stand in a certain way and brings the physicality to life. But I also touch on a form of Method acting, drawing on my own emotions because it\u2019s not just about being the bear, you have to show the emotions. But I\u2019ve had a lot of experience in the film industry working on things like \u201cStar Wars\u201d and \u201cGuardians of the Galaxy.\u201d The heaviest suit I have ever worn was on \u201cAttack the Block,\u201d it was half my body weight and I was running on all fours with arm extensions. I don\u2019t think I would do that now because I\u2019m a lot older, but it\u2019s not as tough as doing that. So, it\u2019s bearable. <\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\u201cPaddington the Musical.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tJohan Persson<\/p>\n

\t\tPaddington is dancing and running around the stage for much of the show \u2014 Arti, what is that like for you? What is your vision like in the suit?\t<\/p>\n

\n\tShah: I don\u2019t know what I\u2019m allowed to say\u2026<\/p>\n

\n\tHameed: Maybe I can say it, so you don\u2019t get in trouble. Essentially, Arti\u2019s vision is extremely limited in the suit and that\u2019s where her plethora of previous work really comes into play. Between us, we try to work out ways to get as much vision as possible, but there are times where Arti has literally none. And that really just speaks volumes for her line of work and anyone who does that line of work, because I could not do that. There were times when I would go home and try to reenact the blocking with my eyes closed because I wanted to see what you were experiencing, and I was like, this is terrifying. It gave me a whole new line of empathy for what you were going through. So part of my job is to try and make sure that whoever is performing physical Paddington is safe \u2014 that\u2019s always my priority above everything else.<\/p>\n

\t\tI saw that Paddington got to meet Prince William and Kate Middleton a couple of weeks ago. What was that like?\t<\/p>\n

\n\tShah: Paddington did very well. He minded his manners, he tried to share his marmalade sandwich and he tipped his hat. He was very, very impressed. However, Prince William was trying to ask Paddington a lot of questions as in, \u201cDoes he get hot?\u201d I think he was asking me, but Tom Fletcher did really well and said, \u201cPaddington\u2019s from Peru, he\u2019s used to the heat!\u201d I think Paddington was very excited but very calm at the same time. He\u2019s a professional.<\/p>\n

\t\tObviously, \u201cPaddington the Musical\u201d is just opening in London, but is there hope for the show to travel other places \u2014 maybe New York?\t<\/p>\n

\n\tHameed: I will say that Paddington is well traveled and beloved by all, so I think he would work in any setting across the world. Let\u2019s get through London first, but he\u2019s been very well received so far.<\/p>\n

\n\tShah: He\u2019s very adaptable. And he\u2019ll always have his suitcase packed with marmalade.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tThe company of \u201cPaddington the Musical.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tJohan Persson<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When Paddington first waddles on stage during the new West End musical based on the beloved bear, the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":292279,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[96,59,67435,100705,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-292278","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-gb","10":"tag-paddington","11":"tag-paddington-the-musical","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom","14":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/292278","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=292278"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/292278\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/292279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=292278"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=292278"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=292278"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}