What Was It Like Growing Up with Atticus Finch?
Mary Badham (Scout Finch in "To Kill a Mockingbird") and Cecilia Peck reflect on Gregory Peck as an on-screen father and a real-life one ahead of their new play, "Growing Up with Atticus." Catch its debut at the Virginia Samford Theatre this month. Image: Virginia Samford Theatre
Harper Lee’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, has inspired generations of readers — not just in the South but throughout the world. This month, Birmingham’s historic Virginia Samford Theatre celebrates Alabama’s most iconic literary work with the world premiere of Growing Up with Atticus, a new theatrical production featuring Mary Badham and Cecilia Peck.
The book was released in 1960, and two years later, the film adaptation became an instant classic. Much of the movie’s success stems from actor Gregory Peck’s captivating portrayal of Atticus Finch, a character who would later be named the American Film Institute’s Greatest Movie Hero of the 20th Century.
Exploring the legacy of one of the South’s most inspiring characters and the man who brought him to life, Growing Up with Atticus is a new play written and performed by Atticus’s on-screen and off-screen daughters: Mary Badham, who played Scout Finch in the film, and Cecilia Peck, Gregory’s youngest child and only daughter.
The play kicks off Virginia Samford Theatre’s centennial season, and is a full-circle moment for both the theatre and To Kill a Mockingbird. Not only was it the first integrated theatre in the state, but it’s also where Mary first auditioned for Scout at nine years old.
“This [play] is something that Cecilia and I kind of thought about through the years, and would communicate to each other back and forth,” Mary tells us. “As we started getting older, we got more serious about putting it down on paper and getting the ideas formed, and just getting our memories down.”
Cecilia says the film was also a significant chapter in her family’s history. “My dad said the one film people always wanted to know about was To Kill a Mockingbird — of all the films he made, no matter where he went in the world,” she shares.
Growing Up with Atticus came together with a bit of Alabama magic. Virginia Samford Theatre’s Executive Director Philip Mann reached out to Mary, asking if there was anything she was hoping to get on the stage. “I said, ‘Well, it so happens we have a project that we put together, and I think it’s to the point now where it’s ready,’” she tells us.
As the director of the theatre’s production of To Kill a Mockingbird last year, Birmingham-based David Strickland was a natural choice for the project. After recruiting Alabama Sawyer’s Cliff Spencer (who serves on the theatre’s board of directors) for set design, the show was on its way.
The play explores and intertwines its subjects: The film To Kill a Mockingbird, the character Atticus Finch, and the man Gregory Peck. “The first half of the play is really talking about the film, our memories of it, especially Mary’s, and then we go into some of the connections that Harper Lee was making with Alabama history when she wrote the book,” Cecilia explains. “The second half is more about the impact that the film and my father had on both of us, how it shaped the course of our lives, and the work we’ve created since then.”
The play also incorporates clips from the film, photos from the set, and personal artifacts that have never been shared before. “We’re going to be sharing some of my father’s shooting script, where he wrote his notes in the margins, and talking about what he put into those scenes and what the film meant to him,” Cecilia says.
As a documentary film director, Cecilia has always been drawn to telling other people’s stories, including her father’s. “I have tried along the way to do projects that remember my dad and honor his legacy,” she says. “He’s always with me and guiding me in everything I do.”
Among his many accolades, Gregory Peck received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1969 in recognition of his humanitarian work.
“I do a lot of work on women’s stories — on women who have the courage to stand up for what they believe in, who have survived trauma, and are using their voices to support other women. That’s been my main focus,” Cecilia shares. “A lot of my dad’s work had themes of standing up against injustice, and so does mine.”
Cecilia was just 3 years old when filming began on To Kill a Mockingbird; she turned 4 during production. “Some of my earliest memories are of the set,” she tells us. Mary remembers Cecilia as being the adorable preschooler on set and her playmate on the weekends. “I used to go over and stay with the Pecks on the weekend, and Cissy and I used to play together,” she recalls.
Back then, while the world idolized her father’s character, Atticus, Cecilia idolized Scout. “My father was so much like Atticus. They were kind of woven together, and always have been. And for me, so was Mary,” Cecilia says. “I wanted to be Scout. I wanted to wear overalls and be strong and not be too girly and be athletic and have an opinion.”
The iconic To Kill a Mockingbird character was Mary’s very first role. Green as she was, she recalls instantly warming up to Gregory as her character’s father. “When you see photos of the two of them on set, Mary was always leaning on him, and it was clear she was so comfortable with him,” Cecilia shares.
“Atticus was always just Atticus,” Mary adds. In fact, she’d continue to call Gregory ‘Atticus’ for the rest of his life, and he’d call her ‘Scout.’
Mary’s nickname for Gregory points to more than nostalgia. Cecilia says the lines between her father and his character are forever intertwined. “I mean, he was an Atticus. He was a real-life Atticus,” she says. Even Atticus’s creator agreed. “Harper Lee said it so well when she said Atticus Finch gave Gregory Peck a chance to play himself,” Cecilia says. “Not that it was easy, but he really did put so much of himself into it.”
Cecilia says her father always worked from a personal place, and this approach shone brightest in Atticus. “I think my dad felt that his audiences wanted to see him inside Atticus. He wasn’t the kind of actor who wanted to disappear completely,” she says. “And I think you do see him. You can know Gregory through Atticus.”
When asked about Gregory’s impact on Mary as an actress, she notes two overarching qualities that he impressed upon her — professionalism and kindness, in equal measure. “He had such a professional way about him. He always came to the set prepared,” Mary recalls. “And he was just such a kind human being. That’s the best of it. He really supported us, was patient with us, and helped us not to feel bad if we made little mistakes. He’d just say, ‘It’s okay, we’ll just do it again.’ He could always help relax everything so we weren’t stressed.”
Both Mary and Cecilia are also quick to praise the film’s director, Robert Mulligan, for bringing the same ease and lightness to the set. “He really made it fun. He wanted a nice, fun, happy set, and that’s what we had,” Mary says.
As for the differences between Gregory and Atticus, both Mary and Cecilia point to one thing: Gregory’s sense of humor. “Atticus didn’t get to have a lot of humor,” Cecilia says. “You can see a twinkle in his eye in some scenes, but my father was very witty and funny, with an Irish sense of humor.”
“He loved to laugh,” Mary adds.
Through Growing Up with Atticus, Cecilia and Mary share with audiences the man they both loved and looked up to, and the enduring values he personified — values also championed by To Kill a Mockingbird.
“What my dad taught me, what he really stood for, was that when you see injustice in the world, you speak up. You don’t let it go by,” says Cecilia. “He was very opposed to discrimination of any kind. He taught me to treat other human beings with respect and empathy and dignity, and that’s also what the book and the film are about.”
Mary agrees. “If you look at the body of Gregory’s work, he did works that made a statement. Work that tried to get us to reach up, to go for the better option — to act from the best in ourselves,” she says. “In our own careers, Cecilia and I both have chosen work that has something to say and can hopefully lift other people up.”
“Growing Up with Atticus” will be presented at the Virginia Samford Theatre September 17-27. You can reserve your tickets here.
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Katie Leigh Matthews
A Birmingham native, Katie is a lifelong waterfall chaser and is passionate about the outdoors. She also loves connecting with remarkable women in the Birmingham community and bringing their stories to life. Katie has been writing professionally for over six years; you can find more of her work at Moms.com and Islands.com.
