She was the first female Chief of Oncology at the world-renowned Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia whose whose groundbreaking contributions have profoundly impacted the field of medicine, particularly in the treatment of childhood cancer. In 1969, Dr Audrey Evans battled skeptics, medical conventions, and the subterfuge of her peers to develop the first Neuroblastoma Staging System (now called “Evans Staging System”) and co-found the first Ronald McDonald House for families of patients, and, ultimately, impacted the lives of millions of children and families around the world. Her discovery provided a more accurate framework for staging cancer, leading to improved treatment protocols and better outcomes for children. When Dr. Evans started her work, only 10 % of children with cancer survived, now nearly 80% survive.
Bringing her enduring legacy to screen, The Tudors and Game of Thrones star Natalie Dormer embodies this foremost figure in the medical community. We talked about the incredible work of this women, the boldness needed to trailblaze, and the hope and innovation she brought in the field of pediatric oncology. Dormer also shares about taking the role after having her children and the impact it has on her she select project to join.
Interviewed for Family Entourage
Family Entourage: Thank you so much for taking the time this morning. I thoroughly enjoyed getting to see Audrey’s Children. It was so fascinating to me, her fortitude and her resilience. I actually couldn’t believe that I wasn’t more familiar with Dr. Audrey Evans or her story since it is rooted in truth. Talk to me a little bit about this incredible woman.
Natalie Dormer: Oh, it’s so rooted in truth. So much of what you see in the film is exactly what happened. Even the stuff that seems a little bit crazy, the animals that she brought into the hospital to cheer the children up, putting the rabbit on the scanner to say, look, bunny can do it, so you can do it. All of that is completely true. She was such a wonderful, big personality, pioneer, trailblazing personality. And I had the same reaction to you. I could not believe I did not know who she was, and that Dr. Audrey Evans was not a household name, and especially as a Brit, I almost felt a responsibility that I was like, how do I not know? So when I was given the opportunity to play this role, I’d done the Googling and realized that she really was as impressive as the script was implying, especially with co-founding the Ronald McDonald houses that are now in 62 countries around the world and helping tens of millions of families. I was like, for one woman, for one human to have achieved all this. I have to tell this story. What an opportunity.
FE: And especially even just thinking of when it took place, you mentioned the co-funding of the Ronald McDonald Houses, and she was a woman at that time and couldn’t even do it alone, even if she had the money. It’s
ND: Yeah, it’s completely that all these things we take for granted now, we take for granted a woman’s position socially. I mean, the reason she was in America is because she could not be a doctor in the uk. It’s that simple. And this is where the opportunity was for her. When she wanted, she was adamant she wanted to be a doctor ever since she was a child. And this is where the funding was, this is where the groundbreaking research funding was. And still to this day, which is very timely, if you’ve been watching the news this morning, all of that stuff is true. The animals is true. The Evans staging system that she created and her walking down the street and finding that first Philly house that was going to house seven, eight families, a mere seven, eight families, holistic care that we take. So for granted now, a sick child is a sick family. They need emotional support, financial support, practical support, all those things we take for granted. She was spearheading that cultural, that cultural understanding revolution.
FE: She since has passed, but before production, you were able to at least have a conversation with her. What impact did that leave on you?
ND: Oh, it was massive. I met her two days before we started shooting, and she was very sick at the time. She wasn’t strong enough to speak that day, but I sat by her bed, I held her hand, I gave her a kiss, and she looked at me, she smiled. We were just together for a while, and I kind of quietly asked her permission to play her and she gave it. She gave it with a smile and a nod and a look. And Julia was with me and Julia, our wonderful writer producer who was close to her, like an honorary daughter. And we all felt like she was just holding on long enough to know we were in production. And then two weeks into the shoot she passed, went to be with her beloved Dan Danio, played by the woman called Jimmy Simpson.
FE: For you, you’re coming back and taking this role and it’s your first one that you’ve done since you’ve become a mother. How does that kind of change the lens, especially surrounding yourself and immersing the immaterial, as difficult as this can be…
ND: When you become a working mom, I think a lot of your viewers, listeners will understand this. Obviously, it’s like the rules change for yourself of what is worth taking me away from my child. And I am now a mother of two beautiful girls. And so when I took Audrey, I had my first daughter and I was like, it’s going to take something really special to get me back in the saddle, to not be 24/7 with my beautiful child. And so I think you’re just naturally more discerning about what you take and what you say yes to. Now it’s obvious why I took Audrey, but then the other opportunities that I’ve had since, I think it just shifts the lens and it shifts the focus and your priorities on what you take and why. And I mean, I genuinely believe becoming a mother has made me a fuller, a fuller, more textured actress. Definitely I do. It is had that effect on me personally. But Audrey didn’t have children. She said, the kids are my children, which I just find amazing that a woman dedicated herself to life when she had, not that children’s lives when she had not had that immediate maternal experience, but she was like, I don’t need to do that. These are my children. These hundreds of thousands of children that she treated over decades and decades of her career. She’s like, these are my kids. Hence the title of the film.
FE: In a way, that was her sacrifice. We sacrifice as moms every day, but she did it for the greater good, which is for the greater good, that ultimate sacrifice. Right. Well, the thing that I loved about her is that she was willing to take risks. They talk in the movie about the fine line between being reckless or doing greatness type of a thing. All of us in all of our careers, and even in just life, can relate to times when we’ve had to take a bold step or we might’ve done something that borderline reckless, but it turned out amazing for years there something that immediately comes to mind?
ND: I think it’s exactly what you say. I think if you’re a working parent, not even just a mom, let’s not be sexist about it. I think if you’re a working parent, you literally have that conversation with yourself every day. Yeah. But it is about, as Clancy Brown says so beautifully, as you say, as see Everett Coop in the movie says, find the line Audrey, find the line. And I think that’s in what we fight for the world can be quite a scary place. Now when we turn on our news, it’s like we have to find our passion, find what we believe in, but maybe not do it in such an aggressive way. Take a leap out of Audrey’s book. It’s like, we don’t need to be aggressive. We don’t need to be enemies about this. We just need to be reasonable and maybe come at it from a different angle so that the people that we’re trying to persuade hear us in a different way and start listening. Audrey was very good at not coming in too hot and heavy and too aggressive if she got a no, she went back, she recalibrated and found another way to ask that was more appeasing to the people. She was asking it of hundreds of millions of dollars of funding or whatever she’s asking for. So I think we can all take a leaf out of her book there.
FE: Yes. Because everything that she did was rooted in some sort of care and justification rather than a self-promotion, which I thought was so great.
ND: And she had the stats. She had the stats. She literally spent hours and hours in the lab and writing those cards for the, finding the information, getting the hospital to talk to each other. So she had the stats for her argument. And if you can prove, if can empirically prove what you’re saying, I mean, where’s the argument?
FE: There’s a mic drop there. But having to play her, I did think that there was this, you did a fantastic job with the balance of remaining poised when she needed to kind of stay that way, but then also showcasing her drive and her desire to want and to do more, but wasn’t able to do that. Did that come in? How do you portray that through body language and through your acting skills?
ND: I mean, she was just a wonderful human being who was this dynamo. But with the children, she was soft. She was gentle. She never wore a white coat. She didn’t want to frighten them with the white coat. So I think in my interaction with the children as well, that was very special. We had incredible child actors and supporting artist child actors. And to be able, just to finish off by giving a nod here to those younger actors is what I’d like to do. Because they gave me, they’re so present. Children are so honest in their make believe. You just got to riff off them, play with them. They give so much. So it was a very special job in that way too.
Audrey’s Children releases nationwide in theatres on March 28
