Four of the original cast members of the original film adaptation of Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory chatted with HollywoodLife EXCLUSIVELY about where their iconic characters would be today. The former child actors — Peter Ostrum (Charlie Bucket), Julie Dawn Cole (Veruca Salt), Paris Themmen (Mike Teevee) and Michael Bollner (Augustus Gloop)– made their predictions while celebrating the film’s 50th anniversary and the release of its 4K Ultra HD edition this week.
Paris, 58, who recently made an appearance on the March 13 episode of Jeopardy!, told HollywoodLife EXCLUSIVELY that his television obsessed character Mike Teevee would “hopefully have gone into film production, and probably would have been basically Ted Turner. He would have run an empire of entertainment properties. Chewing a cigar and basically ruling the world from his desk.”
And when it comes to her spoiled character Veruca Salt, the actress, who published a memoir titled I Want It Now! in 2016, made a Kardashian connection. “What would Veruca do? She never did anything herself, she got everyone to do it for her. She liked the best of everything, and she got bored very quickly. I think she would have her own YouTube channel, she’d have her own reality show and she would be giving the Kardashians a run for their money!”
Michael, 62, predicted a much more low key future for his character. “Augustus would be running a beer garden selling beer outside restaurants and enjoying the best of the Wonka chocolate and selling beer and Wonka chocolate!”
Sadly their co-stars Gene Wilder — who played reclusive candy tycoon Willy Wonka — and Denise Nickerson — who played gum-snapping Violet Beauregard — are no longer with us. Gene passed away in 2016 at the age of 83. Denise died in 2019 at the age of 62.
In 2014, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant”.