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In an LA exclusive, Glen Ferris talks to The Princess And The Frog star Anika Noni Rose about being Disney’s first African-American princess

Wishing upon a star really has made Anika Noni Rose’s dreams come true. Best known as one third of the Dreamgirls, alongside Beyonce Knowles and Jennifer Hudson, and as the narky receptionist Grace Makutsi in The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency, the 37-year-old actor is now winning hearts as the voice of Tiana in Disney’s newest feature, The Princess And The Frog. A return to the studio’s hand-drawn animation roots, it’s a 1920s New Orleans-based tale about a young woman with big dreams who is mistaken for a princess, coerced into kissing a prince-turned-frog and then forced to deal with a big problem when she’s transformed into a green-skinned amphibian herself. We travelled to Disney’s Animation Studios in LA to talk to Anika about froggy love, the challenges of voiceover work and the honour of playing the House of Mouse’s first African-American princess.

How did it feel to be approached by Disney?
It felt magnificent. It still feels magnificent. I’m still going through it and figuring it out; it feels a little difficult to really think about it when you’re going along on your little cloud so I guess some day soon it’ll really sink in. For now though, it just feels great.

Much has been made of the fact that Tiana is the first African-American Disney princess. Did you feel like a kind of pioneer?
Well, you know, we’re in a time in society where we’re so much more integrated than we used to be, so it only makes sense that she be here now. Disney animation is now being helmed by John Lasseter, who used to run Pixar, and he has a really clear image of America that he wants to embrace and expand. Disney is so clearly a representation of Americana and I think that Tiana is a beautiful role model for all young girls. In fact, I’ve seen little girls playing in the park with their Tiana outfits on and they’re not looking up to her for her skin colour or her pioneer status, they’re looking up to her because she’s pretty, she’s smart, she’s talented and she’s their princess – which is pretty amazing.

Compared to Disney’s classic princesses, Tiana is very modern, particularly in her relationship with Prince Naveen…
I think that even if you’re doing something set in a certain time, it’s important that you still talk to the children of today. It’s important that we should show little boys and girls the necessity of getting to know someone before you get married – that is, unless it’s part of your culture. In our culture at this time, it makes sense to have that kind of attitude.

“I wanted Tiana to not look like a cookie-cutter princess who had been coloured in brown”

It’s one thing portraying a princess on the big screen but how did you adjust your performance when you had to play a frog?
I didn’t really change her persona for frogdom. She has many more adventures when she’s a frog, what with all the running, falling over and carrying on, but it’s still her. Her energy is a little bit more intense and hectic but otherwise I just played her as if she was her human self.

How did you and Bruno [Campos, who plays Prince Naveen] work together? Did you bond?
Not really because usually when you’re doing animation you’re alone. We did maybe two 20-minute sessions together to play off of each other but that was about a year into the process. It’s a very solitary thing and when it all comes together it’s a very magical thing because you would never guess everything would come together so well.

How difficult is it doing animation voiceovers compared to normal on-screen work?
I think that as long as you’re aware of what the situation is then it’s fine, it’s actually pretty freeing because you have to let your inner child come out and play. But if you’re running through a swamp, you have to find a way to make it sound like you’re running through a swamp. So I’d be running around the studio and jumping up and down in front of the microphone so you could hear the exertion in my voice.

Did you have any say in how Tiana would look?
They videotaped me so they could capture the way that I move and I did ask if they could make her left-handed because I’m left-handed and I feel that, as a child, when you’re in art class using scissors and all they do is bend the paper, that’s a very strange place to be. It’s not something that’s talked about in the movie but any child who has ever been in a gym class and isn’t able to play baseball because there isn’t a glove for them will be able to recognise that she’s just like them.

I also said I wanted it to look like she ate and wasn’t skinny, and she has a full mouth and a little round nose and curly hair and these are all things that made her look distinctly herself. I wanted her to not look like a cookie-cutter princess who had been coloured in brown. When I saw her for the first time and realised how much she looked like me I was really blown away.

What about your froggy self?
Froggy has lashes, froggy has great lashes. She looks fantastic.

The Princess And The Frog is in cinemas from 29 January. Glen Ferris is Managing Editor of Screenrush. To watch more great behind-the-scenes features for The Princess And The Frog, visit www.screenrush.co.uk

This entry was posted on Monday, January 25th, 2010 at 11:25 am and is filed under Interviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.