‘Mufasa’ is coming to theaters on December 20th, and we had the opportunity to sit down with Lin-Manuel Miranda, Seth Rogan, Barry Jenkins, and Billy Eichner ahead of the release to get the inside scoop on what it was like to create the soundtrack for the film, work with Blue Ivy, and more!
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MusicTranscript
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.