00:00I was honestly terrified I was terrified to embark on this journey because of the
00:09enormity that it had for me you know to approach a character that is so
00:17celebrated and championed you know I'd be lying to you if I said that that
00:21didn't strike any fear in me it certainly did but I really just leaned
00:25into that and tried to mold it into something that propelled me forward as
00:32opposed to prohibiting me and really was guided by James Earl Jones entirely
00:38guided by James Earl Jones that was my guiding light throughout the entirety of
00:41the process I had fun with it I got it wrong I tried again and I think that's
00:50the beauty in any sort of experience like this so we're really excited for
00:55people to join us and see it December 20th try not to project the original
01:01version on to him as a kid because that was the thing was like I came in with an
01:05idea and I was like which was a common like young actor mistake honestly I was
01:10like well he's the villain so I'm gonna come and play the young version of the
01:13villain and that wasn't the story we were making and Barry really encouraged
01:17me to humanize him at some points he told me he said um sometimes it sounds
01:22like you are ready to just stab Mufasa in the back now and I was like ah right
01:26let me reel it in a little bit so that was the hardest part was not just
01:32putting an idea on him but making a real-life kid that was gonna become a
01:37grown man that we know respect to some love for some and are feeling a little
01:45bit dumb discouraged by this father's I love them lines prior to being invited
01:57to join this family of Mufasa the Lion King this was my favorite Disney film
02:02honestly as a child I watched the V8 my VHS tape version of this countless times
02:09I think the first time I probably watched it I was maybe two or three so
02:14in 96 or 97 and almost immediately it became my favorite and I've said before
02:21you know because of the things at that time I was of course too young to have
02:25the language for it but I understand now that subconsciously at that time it was
02:30set on the continent of Africa it was celebrating that continent it was
02:37celebrating everything that that is the environment the community the culture
02:40and I felt seen by it and I think that's why I watched it so often on my
02:46own with my family with my friends so to now be you know a 30 year old man going
02:54and having the opportunity to be part of this it's a dream come true and I'm
02:58pinching myself to this day yeah I think what was so beautiful about their
03:02original relationship was that they saw something in each other they saw each
03:06other in each other and I think that's such so common and what I what I'm
03:13excited about is to see how kids feel about if I ever get to talk to any kids
03:18about this movie but maybe I will how they feel about what the kids are so
03:23smart now the communication and protecting your loved ones protecting
03:27the people that you that you claim as yours and trying to navigate in salvage
03:33whatever is left because it's it's so few and far between what we have
03:36something a genuine connection with somebody we have to protect that and I
03:40think we've done that in our friendship and I think that's what was really
03:46special about the movie I always wanted to brother is a banger and it's a banger
03:49for so many reasons it means a lot but it's also just a great song
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