A new movie promises to bring to life the true story of Dr. Audrey Evans, a revolutionary pediatric oncologist whose advancements in caring for children with cancer have impacted millions. Her story, according to the actress who plays her, is also a story of faith.
“Her faith gave her sort of a superpower to be able to talk to children about mortality,” Natalie Dormer, who stars as Dr. Evans in “Audrey’s Children,” said. “When I spoke to people who had witnessed Audrey firsthand — especially speaking to adults who had been child patients in her care — she seemed to have had a real skill for talking to children on their level.”
Dormer, known for previous roles in “Game of Thrones” and “The Hunger Games,” spoke with Our Sunday Visitor about her latest film ahead of its theatrical release on March 28. “Audrey’s Children” follows Evans’ journey as she joins Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) as its first chief of oncology beginning in the late 1960s.
The nearly two-hour movie, rated PG, follows the British-born physician as she develops a staging system or process for assessing children with neuroblastoma, a type of cancer, and as she helps launch the first of hundreds of Ronald McDonald Houses to house and support families of hospitalized children.
The role of faith
Along the way, the movie shows scenes of Dr. Evans, played by Dormer, in a chapel and a church as well as speaking to a little girl about God and heaven.
“I think that scene very much encapsulates what it was about Audrey that (allowed her to do what) she was able to do,” Dormer said of Dr. Evans, who was Episcopalian. “It was like the magic of her. She was able to give realistic expectation but hope at the same time.”
Dr. Evans’ faith impacted how she spoke with children: “Not patronizing them, not talking down to them, not lying to them, but being very straight, very honest,” Dormer said.
While Dormer herself is not religious, she spoke about what drew her to play a person of faith.
“She was humble and modest about her faith,” she described Dr. Evans. “She didn’t (force) it on people.”
At the same time, “her faith was a massive part of her identity and her life plan,” Dormer said. “She took great strength from it, I believe — and was very much a part of her church community.”
In a teaser for the film, Dr. Evans, before she passed away in 2022, says, “I always knew I was doing God’s work.”
Julia Fisher Farbman, the writer and producer of “Audrey’s Children” who knew Dr. Evans since childhood, is quoted in The Lancet journal as saying that “The pillars of Audrey’s career were faith and science. She believed that god brought her here to care for dying children.”
When Dr. Evans passed away, Fisher Farbman revealed more of her friend’s personality to The New York Times, while describing what it was like to go on walks with the doctor.
Dr. Evans “would literally stop and smell the roses, cuddle strangers’ babies, hand out dog treats (which she always carried in her purse despite not having a dog), and she’d strike a conversation with anyone who seemed like they were having a bad day. If you asked her why, she would say, ‘We just made that person’s day a little better — that wasn’t so hard now, was it?'”
Meeting Dr. Evans
Dormer herself met Dr. Evans shortly before the movie began filming.
“It was a very special moment in my life,” she said of meeting the 97-year-old doctor. “I don’t think I’m ever going to play a real human being again who is with us when I start shooting and … leaves us halfway through the shoot.”
She said that Evans was very ill at the time.
“She left us when we were two weeks into filming … Two weeks after I had sat by her bedside and held her hand and given her a kiss and basically, tacitly asked her permission to play her,” she said.
Dormer admired Dr. Evans’ personality.
“She was very dynamic and she was very determined and she was a very serious woman,” she said. “But she also believed in fun and joy and travel and bringing light and a little bit of chaos into the mix so that the children could play and enjoy themselves as well.”
Her life impacted Dormer in more ways than one: Dormer spoke about cutting her hair for her new role and donating it to the United Kingdom’s Little Princess Trust, which provides free wigs of real hair to children and young people who have lost their hair following cancer treatments and other conditions.
Getting into character
Dormer provided a long list of other actions she took to prepare for the role, beginning with visiting CHOP, which welcomed the entire cast.
“We looked around, we met families, we went into the labs, we saw the research that’s being done today, we visited Ronald McDonald houses, we sat down with oncologists who are the bigwigs now but back in the day they were the residents and the juniors under Audrey,” she said.
She also met with nurses, social workers and others with firsthand stories about Dr. Evans. She learned, among other things, that Dr. Evans enjoyed riding horses, scuba diving and even sheep shearing.
“There’s lots of interviews with her and there’s recordings that she used to do that I was able to listen to, to get her voice, to get her manner, to get her tone,” Dormer said. “Watch stuff to see how she walked, how she talked — and just get the really fun tidbits about her personality.”
While acknowledging the film’s serious subject matter, Dormer concluded that “Audrey’s Children” is a feel-good movie.
“With everything that’s happening in the world at the moment,” she said, “it really is a celebratory movie about what an individual can achieve, about what a fraternity of people can achieve if they put their mind to it.”
