00:03Hi, this is Mariah Goa from The Hollywood Reporter, and I'm here with J.D. McCrary today.
00:08Yes, you are.
00:09We are in studio to talk about The Lion King.
00:11Okie dokie.
00:12But first, you have to tell me every detail about the Grammys.
00:22Okay, so...
00:23Because I wasn't there.
00:25Yeah, sadly.
00:27Sadly.
00:28So, how it went down is, they called me in, they wanted me to sing with Donald Glover,
00:33and that was cool, so I said, yeah, I want to be in the Grammys.
00:36That's awesome.
00:38Then I went, re-rehearsed, and then we did it.
00:41And also, I got to meet, like, everybody that I wanted to.
00:46Was it completely overwhelming?
00:48Well, I wouldn't say overwhelming, I'd just say really cool.
00:51Yeah?
00:52Is there one moment that really stuck out to you?
00:56Yes.
00:56As far as meeting somebody?
00:58Yes.
00:59I met Logic.
01:00I don't know if you know of him.
01:01I do.
01:02Okay, great.
01:04He's a rapper, and he is my favorite rapper, in my opinion.
01:08That's awesome.
01:09He's awesome.
01:10That's awesome.
01:10And you guys just had a little chit-chat, talked about things.
01:14Did he say he was a fan?
01:16Did you say you were a fan?
01:18Well, I think he knew.
01:20Of course.
01:21Yeah.
01:22Well, that's great.
01:22And then how was it?
01:23Had you met Donald Glover before?
01:26Well, I didn't meet him.
01:27I was in his song, but we Skyped.
01:30Oh, that's awesome.
01:32That's how you hung out with each other.
01:33And now, you both play Simba in the new Lion King movie,
01:37which is out next year, summer of next year.
01:41We don't know much about the movie, but we do know that you are young Simba.
01:45Yes.
01:46And how was that?
01:48Was that a great experience?
01:49That was a really great experience, because it was just really fun.
01:53I got to meet Jon Favreau.
01:55That was cool.
01:55He's the director.
01:56Yeah, what's he like?
02:00He's, let's put it like this.
02:02He's a very in-depth person with what he's doing, but he's really cool.
02:07He's super into it, yeah.
02:08And he's really cool.
02:09Yeah.
02:10Did you like The Jungle Book?
02:11Yeah, I loved The Jungle Book.
02:13I thought it was super, I couldn't even believe what I was seeing when I saw The Jungle Book.
02:17Those animals, you just want to hug them.
02:20They have like real fur.
02:22It's super cool.
02:24Yeah.
02:25So, have you met any of your other cast members?
02:27Let me just show you.
02:29This is your cast.
02:31Okay.
02:32I've met, here, let me show the camera.
02:34Mm-hmm.
02:35I've met this guy.
02:36Uh-huh.
02:37Okay, Seth Rogen.
02:38That guy.
02:39That guy.
02:39Billy Eichner.
02:41No, not that guy.
02:42No key in.
02:43You're going to meet everybody as you guys start.
02:47Oh, right on, right on.
02:48She's cool.
02:48I spent most of my scenes with her.
02:50Excellent.
02:51Well, I have a little game for us to play.
02:54Okay.
02:55Some of these people are very big on Twitter.
03:00Okay.
03:00Some of those cast.
03:01So, I pulled some of their tweets, and I wanted to see if you could recognize them from their tweets.
03:08Okay.
03:09So, here's the first one.
03:12It says, I'm opening up a brunch restaurant called Planet of the Crepes.
03:20Who's the funny person that would say that?
03:27Seth Rogen?
03:29Close.
03:31Eric Andre.
03:32Oh, man.
03:33Come on.
03:33Have you met Eric Andre?
03:34Yeah, I did.
03:35Oh, you did?
03:36He looks like Seth Rogen.
03:37He does look like Seth Rogen.
03:40All right.
03:40Next one.
03:41Okay.
03:41So, this guy watched Justin Timberlake on the Super Bowl, and he said, oh, wow.
03:48He's wearing fringe.
03:51I'm going to go with Seth Rogen.
03:56Not Seth Rogen.
03:57That's the only word that can roll off my tongue.
03:59Billy Eichner.
04:00Oh, it's a moment.
04:01All right, all right.
04:02Okay.
04:03Here's the next one.
04:04Okay.
04:04This is a visual one.
04:05So, this guy said, hey, Steven at home, here's a photo for your Puerto Rico relief effort.
04:12I give you the nuclear option.
04:14And it's a photo of him when he was in high school.
04:19Who's that?
04:21I just keep on thinking of Seth Rogen.
04:23Like, that's the guy that I spent my time with.
04:26It's not Seth Rogen.
04:27Here's a hint.
04:28He has a British accent.
04:30Can I see the cast?
04:31Oh, yeah.
04:32Yeah, yeah, yeah.
04:33Check it out.
04:34What guy looks like he has a British accent?
04:40Keegan Michael Keegan.
04:42Oh, no, no.
04:43Nope.
04:44It's John Oliver.
04:46Oh, I was going to see that!
04:47Oh, my gosh.
04:49He does look like he has a British accent.
04:50And this is his, wait, this is his high school.
04:54It's pretty funny.
04:55Okay, here we go.
04:57This is a good one.
04:58This World Humanitarian Day, I'm doing something good somewhere for someone else.
05:03Join me.
05:03So this is somebody who's a humanitarian.
05:06She likes to do a lot of things for other people.
05:10Uh-oh.
05:11She's got a lot of Twitter followers.
05:15A lot.
05:16Oh, okay.
05:17I know Beyonce.
05:18Like, she has a lot, because she's Beyonce.
05:22That's Beyonce!
05:23Yeah!
05:24You got it!
05:24Okay.
05:25Money!
05:26Beyonce.
05:26Always doing something nice for other people.
05:28Yeah.
05:29Okay, this one.
05:30This one's really, really long.
05:32Yeah.
05:33I have this weird thing, where whenever I see a photo of someone, my brain makes the sound
05:37that would have been frozen in time.
05:39Seth Rogen!
05:40You got it!
05:41Yes!
05:42You know Seth Rogen well.
05:46Okay.
05:47Last one.
05:48Okay, so this one is just a bunch of emoticons, because this guy's a weirdo.
05:52Okay.
05:53It's a guy.
05:54It's a guy.
05:55It's a guy.
05:55Okay.
05:56He's weird.
05:56And I'll give you a hint.
05:57You've never met him before.
05:59And he doesn't have a British accent.
06:02Not him.
06:03But you thought he did.
06:04Oh!
06:05Keegan.
06:05Michael.
06:06That's right!
06:07Let's go!
06:07You got it!
06:08Alright!
06:09Well, I'm excited for you to meet all the cast members.
06:13Yes!
06:14And here they are.
06:14You gotta catch them all.
06:16Gotta catch them all!
06:17Pokemon!
06:17Whoop!
06:20Alright, I have a couple more questions for you.
06:23Alright!
06:25Who is your favorite Disney character?
06:28Is this a question?
06:29Simba.
06:30Simba.
06:32What's your favorite line from a Disney movie?
06:34And let's go not Lion King.
06:37You have another one you like.
06:39Hmm.
06:41I will show you the world.
06:44Oh!
06:44I like that.
06:44Nice!
06:45Aladdin!
06:45Aladdin.
06:46Okay, so let's say John Favreau came up to you and he was like, JD, I'm gonna let
06:52you make the next Disney movie.
06:54What would you like to do?
06:55What kind of story would you like to tell?
06:57I would like it to be Mickey Mouse.
06:59It wouldn't have any color.
07:00It would be like old Mickey Mouse.
07:02Old school Mickey!
07:03Yep.
07:03I like that.
07:04Like a Mickey prequel.
07:05Yeah.
07:06I like that.
07:07I like that.
07:08Yeah.
07:10Who is your movie hero?
07:11Oh, the genie.
07:12The genie from Aladdin.
07:14From Aladdin.
07:14He's awesome.
07:14Nice.
07:15Who's your music hero?
07:17Music hero, Michael Jackson.
07:18Easy.
07:19Nice.
07:20Who is the scariest villain?
07:23Scar.
07:24Scar is pretty scary.
07:26What's your favorite sport?
07:28Basketball.
07:29Nice.
07:30What's your favorite food?
07:31Pizza.
07:32Pizza.
07:32What's your favorite dessert?
07:34Pizza.
07:36Pizza with pineapple on it?
07:38Pizza.
07:40Who's the funniest member of your family?
07:42My dad.
07:43Nice.
07:44Yeah, me cracking my way here.
07:46Yeah.
07:47Yeah, he's good at cracking jokes.
07:49Yeah, he's good.
07:52Well, what's next for you?
07:54Do you have anything exciting coming out?
07:56Hmm, since you know of The Lion King, since we've been talking about it for a minute now.
08:00Yes.
08:01Yes, I do.
08:02I have a song that's out.
08:04It's called Inviting All of You.
08:06Nice.
08:07What's Inviting All of You about?
08:09It's about, it's like everybody could listen to it.
08:13It doesn't matter what age you are, what race you are, what gender you are, it doesn't matter.
08:17It's all of you.
08:18What planet you live on.
08:19Yeah.
08:21You can be anybody and you can listen to it.
08:23Yeah.
08:23That's awesome.
08:24Can you sing a little bit from it?
08:27Yeah.
08:28Alright.
08:30Gotta get my stance ready.
08:33Alright, let's do this.
08:36Step in.
08:37Good evening.
08:41I'm so glad you came.
08:44Oh.
08:46Tonight, I'll be sinking.
08:50You can dance the night away.
08:53And I know that you're gonna have the best time of your life.
08:58Call your friends and tell them hurry in tonight cause I'm all of you.
09:12Yay!
09:16You got it up.
09:18That was excellent.
09:19Thank you so much.
09:21Okay, before I let you go, I just wanna know, when you found out that you were young Simba
09:26for The Lion King, did you go out and look at lions and start researching lions on your
09:32own?
09:34Actually, it's funny you ask that cause I did.
09:36I actually, like right when I got the role, at least two days later after I finished everything,
09:41well I haven't finished, well since I was, since I, let's say on a break.
09:46Uh huh.
09:46And I was talking to my dad and I was like, man, once I hit puberty and I'm super strong,
09:52I want a lion for a pet.
09:54Uh, it's smart of you to want it after you think you can handle it.
09:59Yeah.
10:00It wasn't gonna be right away because it would eat me.
10:03Yeah.
10:03But, I do want a pet lion.
10:05Uh huh.
10:05I'm probably not gonna get it because, you know, moms, they, they keep you safe cause I'm
10:09a guy.
10:10I do stuff like that and she keeps me safe.
10:12Here she is, my beautiful mother.
10:15Aww.
10:16And, yeah, I really wanted a lion.
10:18Uh huh.
10:19Have you ever been up close with a lion before?
10:22Like at the zoo or have you ever been able to pet one?
10:24I've never, I've never pet a lion.
10:26No, I really don't want to.
10:27Now I kind of wish I have though.
10:29I kind of want to go to one of those sanctuaries where they like get, you know, like take care
10:35of lions that are damaged.
10:37I feel you, I get you.
10:38Sad lions.
10:39But I kind of don't want to pet or be near a lion cause it'll just bite me and stuff.
10:44You know, you're a pretty smart kid.
10:47I just want to be aware that I'm not going to get hit or hurt by any animal.
10:52Right.
10:52And they're wild animals.
10:54Yeah.
10:54Yeah.
10:55But, you know, maybe someday there will be an opportunity for you to get real close to
10:59a lion.
11:00Maybe hopefully there will be some glass between you.
11:02But then you can recognize each other as kindred spirits.
11:05Yeah.
11:06Also big and strong.
11:07Yeah.
11:08I've been working out.
11:09I'm kind of strong.
11:09You look pretty strong to me.
11:12A lot of Pilates.
11:13Yeah.
11:16JD, thanks so much for coming out.
11:18Thank you for having me.
11:19The movie is The Lion King.
11:20It will be out next year.
11:22Check it out.
11:232019 summertime.
11:25Bye.
11:25Bye.
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