In early 2007, Tony Award-winning actress Anika Noni Rose beat out some of Hollywood's top personalities – including Alicia Keys, Tyra Banks plus her Dreamgirls castmates Jennifer Hudson and Beyoncé Knowles – to win the role of Tiana in Disney's The Princess and the Frog. Not only did Rose become the lead actor in Disney's first cel animated movie since 2004, but she also became the voice of Disney's first black princess.
Rose recently sat down with Suite 101 to discuss the film, and the artistic contributions she made to Tiana.
S101: How did you get the role of Tiana in The Princess and the Frog?
Anika Noni Rose: “(laughs) I had 3 auditions. Some people at Disney, including the casting director Jen Rudin, saw me in (the hit Broadway musical) Caroline, or Change in 2004.
“They brought me in for a general audition, so they could look at me, figure out who I was, if I had any interest in working with Disney – as if! (laughs) I would have done something that day!
“Two years later, right on the verge of Dreamgirls coming out, Disney let me know that they were auditioning for Princess and the Frog, and my agent said, ‘I don’t know if you’re interested . . .’ (laughs)
“They first auditioned me in December, I had my 2nd one the day after the Los Angeles premiere of Dreamgirls, and my 3rd was a little while after that. Then I waited . . . and waited . . . pretended to be patient (laughs) but I *so* wanted it!”
S101: What’s it like doing voice work for an animated film?
Rose: “It’s very solitary. For all the animated, fun adventure, you don’t see those people while you’re working. Everything you’re doing, you’re creating organically from within you. It’s akin to accessing your inner 3-year-old: if you’ve ever watched a baby play, they create their whole world they make it up themselves. That’s what you have to do in that room: if you’re running through a swamp, you have to figure out how to make your voice sound like you’re running without hitting the microphone. (laughs)
“It’s a very different way of working because you’re not bouncing off of other people the way you would in theatre or in movies. Once in a while, you might have a session with someone else if they want some ad-libs or they want to see where a scene is going. But it’s not the actual person saying that line in the movie."
S101: Who did you work with?
Rose: “Mostly myself!" (laughs)
S101: Who was directing you?
Rose: “Oh, I’m sorry. Mostly directors John Musker and Ron Clements, plus Rob Edwards, one of the writers, along with producer Peter Del Vecho. And they were always behind that glass: I’d do a take and they’d say, ‘Okay, Anika, that was really great. Let’s go now to page 35 and then . . .' And I’d be like, ‘Push the talkback button!’ (everyone laughs). It was like watching the space shuttle and hearing the astronauts talk to one another. That’s how disjointed it sounded behind that big glass wall.
“But they’re amazing. Ron, John and Peter really get this world of teenage girls so it’s a wonderful experience working with people like that. But also, when they don’t get it, they’re so open to my perspective, because I actually was a teenage girl. (laughs) They were interested in what I had to say, as a woman, maybe that line isn’t going to work because we don’t like that! (laughs) So it was a very collaborative and wonderful experience.
“Watching Ron and John work together is so amazing because they’ve known each other for so long, they’re almost telepathic. They’ll look at each other and you’ll hear ‘Hm.’ ‘Yeah.’ ‘Hm.’ ‘Yeah.’ And then one of them will say, ‘So, Anika . . .’
“And you didn’t see or hear anything but the ‘Hm. Yeah. Hm!’ (laughs) They’re an amazing team and I loved, loved doing this.”
S101: What parts did you feel you had a bigger contribution?
Rose: “There was nothing really bad, just things that I as a woman wouldn’t really say. In the sequence when you see Tiana kiss her father’s picture, that was my contribution. Other than that . . . I just drew a complete blank! My brain just went ‘Whoop!’ (laughs)
“Let’s talk about her physicality. Tiana's animator Mark Henn was often there, watching while I worked. Or they’ll videotape you when you’re working and they’ll watch the tapes later. We talked a lot about how I wanted her to look.
“It was important to me that she be left-handed – I’m left-handed. I think, for kids that are in Art Class, with the scissors that only make the paper bend (laughs), it’s important because kids rarely miss things.
"It was important to me that she not be a wisp of a girl but, as a chef, she clearly eats some of the food she makes. I think we have enough images of wispy, itty-bitty women out there. I didn’t want anybody starving to look like Tiana. Her hair has curl in it, her lips are full, she’s definitely who she is. They were really open to that.
“Early on, I was (speaks in high-pitched, nervous voice), ‘Can I just add . . . could she be left-handed?’ (laughs) And they were so excited about that and it’s little, but it speaks to a lot of kids that spend time in gym class throwing the ball like their arm doesn’t work because they don’t have a teacher to show them how it’s done, or writing (twists left arm around into an awkward position while miming writing on a piece of paper) because the teacher doesn’t know how to teach them how to write left-handed properly. I think that’s quietly affirming.”
(In Part #2 of this interview, Anika Noni Rose addresses the controversy surrounding The Princess and the Frog.)
Dominic von Riedemann - Dominic is the Animated Film Feature Writer, and winner of 11 Suite 101 Editors' Choice Awards.
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