Then on day one when we arrived, it was just the most massive undertaking.
We meet young Donna at Oxford in 1979, as she turns her graduation into a concert.
It was the same setup at Oxford, and Bjorn went, What about When I Kissed the Teacher?
Credit: Universal
Thats how it found its space as the first song.
PARKER:I [wanted] the first track to be something new.
We changed the lyrics slightly.
Universal
And some songs you write yourself into a place and you go, Now what song would fit there?
In this case, that was When I Kissed the Teacher.
ROBERT D. YEOMAN (cinematographer): It was shot at Oxford at [New College].
Jonathan Prime/Universal
It had very dark wood and an old English feeling to it.
PARKER: That was the most fabulously pompous place we could find.
In a good way.
Jonathan Prime/Universal
Fabulously learned and impressive.
It was all the funnier for Lily to rip off her costume and go for it.
JESSICA KEENAN WYNN (young Tanya):I felt like English royalty.
I felt like I was a guest in someones castle.
To be in a place of so much wisdom and history was exceptional and an honor.
YEOMAN:We wanted to give it a certain amount of energy….
Trying to follow the action and keep the energy going as much as possible.
CRAYMER: [It] was setting the tone for those women and where they were going to go.
Oxford could allow Ol to bring all that into that song.
WYNN:You feel tall, regal, and secure because the boots were custom-made for us.
Once we got them in rehearsal, we felt like we finally understood what the Dynamos were.
CRAYMER:Those costumes are, in theory, cut out of the curtains of their rooms.
Thats how they wouldve made their fun clothes.
They would have cut stuff out of the sofa and stuck them on their jeans.
In the dorm room, Tanya has a massive poster of David Bowie.
As the number gets going, the professors behind Donna get kissed and join the dance.
CRAYMER:Thats ABBAs Bjorn [Ulvaeus] as one of the professors.
The row behind in the red robes are all formerMamma Miastage actors.
Theres some of the original cast, and cast over the last 20 years.
VAN LAAST:It was like a huge reunion.
The great thing aboutMamma Miais were like a family.
They came with great spirit and [were] unbelievably supportive.
It was the first thing we filmed.
CRAYMER:They sat there very patiently for three days.
It also gave Ol something extra-special.
Because it wasnt a just crowd scene.
PARKER:Bjorn was baffled by how long it all took and how boring it was….
There was something worrying to me about having a celebrity cameo within the first three minutes of the film.
But it just seemed the right place for him, and he was very funny.
We shot outtakes of him dancing on stage with the feather boa.
It was almost like a baton pass.
Donna and the Dynamos leap into the audience and crowd-surf in an overhead shot.
Hes held aloft above them.
Its black-and-white and much more arty.
I sent that to [Anthony] going, Anything here?
and he was like, The three of them could do it.
VAN LAAST: It was highly, highly choreographed for safety.
Underneath each person, we had about 5 people who were the pivots to move them.
If youre looking at the film, youd never know that.
PARKER:That was take one.
We hadnt got it right once until the first take of the movie.
WYNN:On the day of, those ensemble members were key to the success of that shot.
How can you not feel like the ultimate superstar?
They burst from the hall and cycle into the Oxfordshire countryside.
My main memory of university was riding down country lanes with a bottle of something in my hand.
VAN LAAST:That wasnt in the original script.
All the students in Oxford ride around on bicycles, so we should salute that in the number.
CRAYMER:There was a stage at Shepperton where they were rehearsing with bicycles and the stage and everything.
It was pretty amazing when we actually got to the location.
YEOMAN:We had a camera car with a small Technocrane and a lever head on it.
Its a little uncontrollable, but it gave it a sense of spontaneity.
We just found a little lane out in the countryside there that was very beautiful.
I couldnt really light them, so we backlit them and just had them riding.
That was how we kept it together.
Thats called when Jessica Keenan Wynn is having too much fun and the director ends up putting it in.
PARKER:The girls were just going to dance by the lake.
VAN LAAST:The first time we got on the boat, it was really rocky.
The boat had to be completely reconfigured.
Because when youre wearing platforms, you cant actually feel where your feet are.
We had divers go down and wedge the boat properly.
WYNN:Wed been practicing on a very high wooden platform for a while.
We had to double-check we were very in tune with each other and with our surroundings.
PARKER:They had a crash pad.
PARKER:[In the first film], they went in the water in Dancing Queen.
They all did that jump, so I had this idea to do a freeze-frame.
Lily is doing the bomb, which is a tribute to what Meryl does in Dancing Queen inMamma Mia.
