00:00I saw her dancing at the Miami stop of the renaissance tour.
00:02There you go.
00:03Smashed it.
00:04Seth looked at me and said, you know who's playing Kiara, right?
00:07And I said, what are you talking about?
00:08Yeah, that young lady, that woman is playing Kiara.
00:12He said, no, think about it.
00:15Like, who played Nala?
00:17If A Lion King prequel weren't a musical, we messed up.
00:30Hey, it's Tetris with Billboard News here at San Diego Safari Park
00:33at press day for Mufasa.
00:35I'm talking to the cast and creators about the Roarin' prequel.
00:39This was director Barry Jenkins' first time with a musical,
00:42and he linked up with Disney favorite Lin-Manuel Miranda.
00:46Barry's a musical storyteller.
00:48I mean, you feel the music in Beale Street.
00:49You feel it in Moonlight.
00:50So his notes always made my songs better.
00:54He was very clear about what he wanted.
00:55And so I signed on because I knew I'd learn a lot from him.
00:58And of course, you're so, you know, known in the Broadway world.
01:00And now, of course, Disney with Moana, Encanto.
01:02So do you approach the Disney music differently than, say, Broadway?
01:06How do you change?
01:07I think the only difference is, and someone pointed this out to me,
01:09I didn't even realize it, all my stage musicals take place in New York.
01:14So Disney's kind of my passport.
01:17You know, with Moana, I got to go to, you know,
01:19learn about the beautiful Pacific Island culture.
01:22With Encanto, I got to go down to Colombia
01:25and learn all these different music forms that are down there.
01:28And then with this, you know, I got to work with the great Lebo M
01:31on his incredible choral harmonies and his voice being,
01:36you know, really present in the music
01:37and play with these incredible African rhythms.
01:47Let's talk about the music a little bit.
01:48I, last night, was obsessed instantly with the Brothers song.
01:5210 out of 10 from me.
01:54Now, did you guys feel like when you were creating this story,
01:56or background story for Scar,
01:57that you wanted people from this song to like him?
02:00It's not about wanting them to like Scar.
02:02It's about them meeting Taka and not judging Taka.
02:06You know, allowing Taka, this kid,
02:08to have time to show who he is, who he was, what he's going through.
02:12And as he evolves, they can re-evaluate their relationship to him
02:16the same way Mufasa has to.
02:17I think that was a really cool thing about Jeff's script.
02:20Yeah, I remember, you know, I read the script
02:22and the first lump in my throat is Taka throwing the race
02:26because he goes, I always wanted a brother.
02:28And I'm like, Barry, that's the name of the song.
02:31I think they had like, and now a song, Brother Trouble,
02:33where you see, I was like, it's not called Brother Trouble.
02:35No, no, no.
02:35It's called I Always Wanted a Brother.
02:37And just to get to know him that way,
02:40as this young cub who adores his brother.
02:44And listen, I'm the father of two young boys.
02:46We're six and 10 years old.
02:48Like, to get to explore that kind of a relationship,
02:51which I hadn't gotten to explore in my writing
02:52because I didn't have kids on the last few,
02:55was so, it was easy, but I didn't have to look
02:58any farther than my own apartment to find it.
02:59Well, speaking of exploring your writing,
03:01you told Jimmy Fallon that, you know,
03:02people never thought you could write a villain song
03:04and then bye-bye.
03:07So do you feel like that validated you?
03:08Yeah, again, with Moana, the villain
03:12was a very different thing.
03:14And with Encanto, the villain was generational trauma.
03:18So I really enjoyed getting to, you know,
03:21he has this big, scary line.
03:23I was like, please, Barry, it's Mads Mikkelsen.
03:27He's like the biggest villain in like Bond movies.
03:30Like, let me write him a villain song.
03:32Did you guys feel relieved or sad
03:34that you didn't have a song this time around?
03:36Because I was waiting on the song the whole time.
03:38I was furious.
03:39And I've given Lin-Manuel a piece of my mind about that.
03:42I can't even sing and I was mad.
03:43We gotta go back to the beginning of the story.
03:46We're not in the beginning of the story.
03:49The first thing that came to my mind
03:50when watching this film was actually
03:52Lion King one and a half.
03:54The nostalgia hit and I was like,
03:55here are my boys telling this story.
03:57So did you guys watch that to get prepared
03:59or get inspiration for the film?
04:01I haven't watched Lion King one and a half.
04:04Since it came out.
04:04Yeah, it was a really gigantic,
04:08like disproportionately big video box.
04:10They were always so big.
04:11They were puffy and big.
04:12Yeah, no, I don't think I've seen it since.
04:15Yeah, I'm not, no, I did not go back to that.
04:17Well, for fear, I would be tempted to steal from that.
04:21Well, you guys did a really great job
04:23with this new version.
04:24And of course, a lot of your scenes,
04:25I have to ask you were with Blue Ivy.
04:27So did you guys hear her voice in the studio
04:29as you guys recorded your scenes or even meet her at all?
04:31No, we did not.
04:32They didn't even tell us it was her playing the role.
04:35Seth told me.
04:36Yeah, I told him because I'm friends
04:38with some of the people making the movie.
04:41They didn't tell us in the recession.
04:42No, Seth, we had already recorded a couple of days
04:45and we were on a break.
04:46And we were like walking out drinking coffee.
04:48They had another young actress playing the role.
04:51Wow.
04:52So we had someone to work off of.
04:53And I just thought, oh, well, that's the young lady
04:56they cast, right?
04:57And then Seth looked at me and said,
04:59you know who's playing Kiara, right?
05:01And I said, what are you talking about?
05:03Yeah, that young lady, that woman is playing Kiara.
05:07He said, no, think about it.
05:09Like who played Nala?
05:11And I was like, oh my God, no one had told me a thing.
05:15I got to work with her.
05:16She was amazing.
05:17You know, very young person, very professional,
05:20very diligent about her work.
05:22And it was just like working with any of the other actors.
05:24For me, Kiara is almost like the children
05:26in the audience in the film.
05:28They can see themselves.
05:30She's receiving a story from Rafiki about her grandfather.
05:32We're receiving a story about our father, Mufasa.
05:36And she understood that so, so well
05:39and brought such a depth of empathy and knowing
05:42and just like deep spirit.
05:44I thought she did an amazing job.
05:45And I saw her dancing at the Miami stop
05:47of the Renaissance tour.
05:48There you go.
05:49I smashed it.
05:50Well, you guys smashed the movie as well.
05:52Thank you guys for taking the time to talk to us.
05:54The soundtrack for Mufasa is out today.
05:57I had so much fun with everyone in the movie.
06:00It's amazing.
06:01For more on the soundtrack and the film,
06:03head over to billboard.com.
