{"id":27968,"date":"2024-12-24T23:58:05","date_gmt":"2024-12-25T04:58:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?p=27968"},"modified":"2024-12-24T23:58:05","modified_gmt":"2024-12-25T04:58:05","slug":"mufasa-the-lion-king-press-conference-with-actors-aaron-pierre-kelvin-harrison-jr-director-barry-jenkins-and-composer-lin-manuel-miranda","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?p=27968","title":{"rendered":"Mufasa: The Lion King : Press Conference with Actors Aaron Pierre, Kelvin Harrison Jr., Director Barry Jenkins and Composer Lin-Manuel Miranda"},"content":{"rendered":"

@Courtesy of Disney<\/p>\n

Mufasa: The Lion King<\/strong><\/a> enlists Rafiki to relay the legend of Mufasa to young lion cub Kiara, daughter of Simba and Nala, with Timon and Pumbaa lending their signature schtick. Told in flashbacks, the story introduces Mufasa as an orphaned cub, lost and alone until he meets a sympathetic lion named Taka–the heir to a royal bloodline. The chance meeting sets in motion an expansive journey of an extraordinary group of misfits searching for their destiny–their bonds will be tested as they work together to evade a threatening and deadly foe.<\/div>\n
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Director<\/strong> : Barry Jenkins\u00a0<\/a><\/div>\n
Producer<\/strong> : Adele romanski, Mark Ceryak<\/div>\n
Screenwriter<\/strong> : Jeff Nathanson<\/div>\n
Distributor<\/strong> : Walt Disney Pictures<\/a><\/div>\n
Production Co<\/strong> : Walt Disney Pictures<\/div>\n
Rating<\/strong> : PG (Peril|Action\/Violence|Some Thematic Elements)<\/div>\n
Genre<\/strong> : Kid & Family, Adventure, Drama, Animation<\/div>\n
Original Language<\/strong> : English<\/div>\n
Release Date (Theaters)<\/strong> : Dec 20, 2024, Wide<\/div>\n
Runtime<\/strong> : 2h 0m<\/div>\n
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\"Mufasa<\/div>\n
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@Courtesy of Disney<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Mufasa: The Lion King : Press Conference with Actors Aaron Pierre, Kelvin Harrison Jr., Director Barry Jenkins and Composer Lin-Manuel Miranda<\/strong><\/div>\n
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Q: How did the journey of Mufasa: The Lion King start for you?<\/b><\/p>\n

Barry Jenkins: When I first read the script by Jeff Nathanson, I realized I had assumed so many things about how one\u00a0 becomes a king, about how one becomes James Earl Jones. It was really cool to read Jeff\u2019s script and see that all these things that we\u2019ve concretized over 30 years about how someone becomes the\u00a0 perfect father, the perfect leader, my assumptions of what that path was, was just totally not correct. I could\u00a0 actually relate more to someone who grew up far outside, the path leads you to become a\u00a0 great leader. I found myself closer to\u00a0 Mufasa, I realized audiences would find themselves closer as well if we did our job,\u00a0 trying to build a life that people could see themselves in.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>Q: Why do you think Mufasa is so beloved around the world? <\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Aaron Pierre: That\u2019s a really beautiful question. This is a shared thing, my\u00a0 introduction to James Earl Jones\u2019s original portrayal of\u00a0 Mufasa, it just felt like his voice was so warm. It was so\u00a0 comforting, full of strength, clarity. That\u2019s what I connected to the first\u00a0 time I ever engaged with it. The reason the character is so beloved is because he radiated an essence of love and unity. We all crave that in our own respective lives and in our own personal communities or in our global community. I was very nervous to contribute to the beautiful legacy\u00a0 that is Mufasa that the great James Earl Jones originated. Hopefully I was able to serve that in a small way.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/ins>\n

Q: How did\u00a0 you bring Taka to life knowing what you knew about his\u00a0 future? <\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Kelvin Harrison Jr.:\u00a0 The biggest thing was not to judge\u00a0 him. I enjoyed him so much in the original version. He\u2019s so playful, so lively. All those characteristics still remain true in this movie. During my first conversation with Barry, he was like: \u201cStay present, stay in the moment with Taka and allow his instincts and his natural tendencies and his love for life and people to shine through. I just played it with that, threw in a nice voice and just saw what happened.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Mufasa<\/p>\n

@Courtesy of Disney<\/p>\n

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Q: Can you describe the DNA of the music of The Lion King? How do\u00a0 these new songs embrace that but also showcase\u00a0 your own sensibilities?<\/b>\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Lin-Manuel Miranda: The original The Lion King \u201994 is an immortal soundtrack. It\u2019s\u00a0 like no skips from Elton John and Tim Rice, and then Hans\u00a0 Zimmer\u2019s incredible score. If it had just\u00a0 been that first movie, I would have been very intimidated, but there\u2019s been an entire world of Lion King music. There is the incredible Broadway musical, one of the longest running musicals on Broadway. There\u2019s Beyonce\u2019s album, The Gift, which expanded the vocabulary of what a Lion King song could\u00a0 sound like. It felt like an amazing world to\u00a0 play in. My secret weapon was Lebo M., who is the\u00a0 first voice you hear on that original film. I knew his choral arrangements and his incredible choir were going to raise whatever I wrote to the next level. Working with him and Mark Mancina, who I worked with on Moana, I knew I had incredible talent in my corner that would\u00a0 help us get to that Lion King level.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Q: The dynamic between Mufasa and Scar is central to the story. How did\u00a0 you both work together to develop the sibling rivalry and camaraderie we see in the film?\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n

Aaron Pierre: Wow. This picture was the first\u00a0 time that Kelvin and I had the opportunity to work\u00a0 together.\u00a0 Beyond that point, we had the great privilege of portraying heroes of ours, Dr. Martin Luther\u00a0 King Jr. and Malcolm X. Interestingly, on both of these projects, we didn\u2019t spend\u00a0 an enormous amount of time in the same room. Our friendship and our brotherhood actually developed 90 percent of that context of work. That\u2019s what we engaged with, what we drew from to find the brotherly bond and the familiarity that these two brothers would have.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Kelvin Harrison Jr.: Three years of doing the same movie helped too. It tends to kind of get a rhythm going. I knew his Mufasa. He knew my Taka.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Q: What did initially go\u00a0 through your mind when you needed to find a new version in something that originally existed, The Lion King\u00a0 animated film? <\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Barry Jenkins: It all starts with\u00a0 living in what it is about the legacy that you\u2019re walking in. There\u2019s a reason why people have been in love for 30 years with The Lion King. Once I diagnosed what that was, it was just clarity of emotion and clarity of purpose. In Jeff Nathanson\u2019s script, those things were there in spades. When I first read the script, I realized there was such a depth in so many of\u00a0 these characters that hadn\u2019t been on the periphery. I saw all of this clarity of intent, clarity of purpose, honesty of emotion: whether you\u2019re a four year old or 104 year old, there\u2019s something in The Lion King for you. And all those things were present in Mufasa.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/ins>\n

Q:\u00a0 You\u00a0 said you read the script for Mufasa: The Lion King, and\u00a0 knew exactly where the songs should go. How did those songs come to you, and how was it to choose which characters would sing and when?<\/b>\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Lin-Manuel Miranda: 90 percent of it\u00a0 was in the script. Jeff took such care to make space for the music, to carry the ball and carry the emotional real estate. I\u2019m amazed at some of\u00a0 the things music got to do in this movie. Most of the song titles actually began as lines of dialogue referenced reading that\u00a0 script. There was one number that wasn\u2019t in the script that I pitched to Barry: we had this incredible villain in Kiros, voiced by Mads Mikkelsen. Having Mads as your villain and\u00a0 not make him sing in a musical is malpractice. Barry let me write him a big old tune, and I\u2019m listening to dancehall. I know those are two different tastes, but I swear they\u2019re gonna taste great together. That was really a lot of fun.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Mufasa @Courtesy of Disney<\/span><\/p>\n

Q: How do you think Mufasa will impact the generation that watched The Lion King as children or teenagers?<\/b>\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Barry Jenkins: I am the generation that watched it as children and teenagers. If you\u2019ve seen the film Moonlight, that\u2019s the\u00a0 world I come from. I assumed someone who came from that\u00a0 world could not walk the same path as someone like Mufasa.\u00a0 When I first read the script, I realized Mufasa grew up with a found family the same way that I did. There were so many ways I was able\u00a0 to see myself in Mufasa through this telling of the story. It was the key to figuring out\u00a0 how to make this film.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Q: After the first trailer premiered, many people became team Scar when it was revealed that Mufasa wasn\u2019t\u00a0 supposed to be the king. How was it to see that\u00a0 response from people for you? <\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Kelvin Harrison Jr.: It\u2019s really cool. It\u2019s a nice opportunity for people to pull back the curtain a little bit and reassess that original first interaction with Scar. No one\u2019s born a villain. Anybody who’s angry is probably hurt at some point. I like the fact that\u00a0 everyone having the dialogue is probably gonna examine themselves a little bit, some of their preconceived notions around their enemies.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Q:What aspects of Mufasa\u2019s journey do you think will surprise fans the most?<\/b>\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Aaron Pierre: What surprised me the most when we met Mufasa, he is the king. He has wisdom. He\u2019s the pinnacle of his community. He\u2019s really unshakable. But we learn in this\u00a0 that there was a journey to that point. And the beginning of that journey involved being\u00a0 separated from his family, becoming an orphan, being\u00a0 ostracized, being degraded, dismissed. And despite all of\u00a0 those circumstances, embracing everything that is and channeling it into something that elevates himself,\u00a0 elevates the people around him. I imagine that if I was a young person watching this, I would draw inspiration from that.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Q: What inspiration did you take from the iconic soundtrack from the\u00a0 Lion King, 1994, the songs by Elton John?<\/b>\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Lin-Manuel Miranda: I knew I wanted Lebo M\u2019s voice and talent on the tracks I was writing. Everything I wrote bumped up a level when he got in the studio and started playing around with the tunes, adding harmonies to them. I only allowed myself one Hans Zimmer quote: it\u2019s five notes when Mufasa\u2019s alone in the middle of I Always Wanted a Brother, that\u2019s all you get. I felt like there\u2019s a direct line between Mufasa searching for his ancestors and Simba ascending the throne in the \u201994 original film. I wanted to connect those dots.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/ins>\n

Q: Do you remember the first time you saw the 1994 Disney classic, and what impact it had\u00a0 on you?\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n

Barry Jenkins: I was babysitting my two nephews for my sister, I\u00a0 remember reaching around for the VHS, which one was going to calm the children down. The Lion King was the one they would watch most often. At first, I thought they were watching it, and then I realized I was watching it with them. The deepest impression that made was, they\u2019re processing very complex emotions for the first time, but they were doing it in such a safe way. Then three minutes later, you\u2019re singing and\u00a0 laughing and dancing around. I thought it was a really powerful magic trick. I thought it was just something\u00a0 quite moving.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Lin-Manuel Miranda: My first experience\u00a0 was the trailer, which is the greatest flex in\u00a0 the history of marketing. Disney just showed us the first\u00a0 four minutes of the movie. I was in the theaters to see something else and then you see that hand-drawn sunrise and hear Lebo\u2019s voice. And they just played the Circle of\u00a0 Life, and just like, boom, The Lion King.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Q: : How does it feel to continue the legacy of James Earl Jones bringing Mufasa to life? <\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Aaron Pierre: Even before I knew I would be given the opportunity to be welcomed into this\u00a0 family to tell this story, even way before I became professional, James Earl Jones was an enormous inspiration for me. He has always been at the top of the mountain. I\u2019ve always observed him. It\u2019s very nerve-racking because of the place he holds in my heart, but in the end those nerves and that fear served me because\u00a0 this is an adolescent version of this character. This Isn’t the adult king who\u2019s running things. He\u2019s figuring out his identity. It feels like they\u2019re wearing shoes that are two sizes too big. I felt like that, it actually served as something that propelled me forward. It was a beautiful experience.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Mufasa<\/p>\n

@Courtesy of Disney<\/p>\n

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Q: How are you all similar to your\u00a0 characters?\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n

Aaron Pierre: The thing that I connect with the most is how hard he is on himself.\u00a0 He expects himself to have the answers to questions he hasn\u2019t had the life experience to\u00a0 answer. I\u2019ve done that for a vast majority of my life.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Kelvin Harrison Jr.: I would say Taka\u2019s curiosity. He asks a lot of questions, pretty nosy. I\u2019m in everyone\u2019s business pretty much all the time. He\u2019s just as lighthearted and just curious about everything that\u2019s going on.<\/span><\/p>\n

Q:\u00a0 Did you have to put yourself in a child\u2019s shoes when composing for films like this? And if so, how did you do that? <\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Lin-Manuel Miranda: That\u2019s like that artist\u2019s whole gig. I have two little kids. Their imagination is so ridiculously limitless, when everything\u2019s possible and everything is pretend.\u00a0 The job of the artist is to protect that instinct, protect that impulse that we\u2019re all born with. When I\u2019m writing, the first audience I\u2019m trying to please is the kid who saved VHS cassettes of Little Mermaid or The Lion King. I\u2019m always trying to\u00a0 create the sense of wonder that I was blown away by when I saw these movies as a kid.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Q:\u00a0 What\u2019s the most important message you hope people\u00a0 take out of this film?\u00a0\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n

Barry Jenkins: I love answering this question, but Lin has the best answer.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Lin-Manule MirandaL: I\u2019ve got two kids\u00a0 and they\u2019re obsessed with who\u2019s the good guy and who\u2019s the\u00a0 bad guy, like most kids.They want to understand the\u00a0 world. This movie leaves you to be able to have a conversation with the nuance of, no one\u2019s born a good guy, no one\u2019s born a bad guy.\u00a0 We have good choices and bad choices. Sometimes our experiences lead us to make the wrong\u00a0 choices. We have good and bad impulses, no one\u2019s just\u00a0 good or bad. To be able to have that kind of\u00a0 conversation with your kids is so joyous, when a work of\u00a0 art allows that conversation, where you can use these characters as a way to talk about the real world.\u00a0 This movie does that beautifully.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

If you like the press conference, share your thoughts below.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Check out more of Adriano\u2019s articles.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong>Here\u2019s the trailer of Mufasa: The Lion King:<\/strong><\/p>\n