The Big Picture

Collider’s Arezou Amin talks with
Spellbound
co-stars Nathan Lane and Tituss Burgess.
Netflix’s
Spellbound
is the tale of a princess who sets out on a bold adventure to save her parents and kingdom from a mysterious spell.
During their conversation, Lane and Burgess discuss why they joined the project, their goals in the recording booth, and their approach to their characters Ludo and Sunny.

In Netflix’s new animated musical Spellbound, a princess named Ellian (Rachel Zegler) seeks help from any who can give it, as her parents (Nicole Kidman and Javier Bardem) transformed into monsters a year ago, and she’s running out of options to keep her kingdom together. Two of those she seeks help from are the Oracles of the Sun and Moon — Sunny (Tituss Burgess) and Ludo (Nathan Lane) — who may not solve the problem for her but do set her on the path to solving the mystery and saving her kingdom herself.

Ahead of the release of the new animated musical, I had the chance to speak to stars Nathan Lane and Tituss Burgess about their work on Spellbound. The day was special enough with it being the first time the actors had actually met (yes, really!), but the chance to talk to not one but two legends of stage and screen really made my day. The pair talked about joining Spellbound for the chance to work with legends and shared what their approach to Ludo and Sunny was in the recording booth. Read the transcript of our conversation below, or watch the interview in the player above.

Tituss Burgess Joined ‘Spellbound’ Because of Nathan Lane

COLLIDER: What was it for the two of you that had you like, “Yes, I absolutely must be a part of this project?”

TITUSS BURGESS: Him.

NATHAN LANE: Oh, well, I don’t know. I was available. [Laughs] It’s now it’s so far back, I don’t even remember. I do remember we were showing up in masks, so that’s how far back. It just seemed like a fun project. I’d never worked with Alan Menken, and everyone involved sounded top-notch, and I thought it would be a lot of fun.

BURGESS: Absolutely. If you see his name on the score, you should do it.

Absolutely. I know with recording animation it can be very solitary, and Nathan, you said you were all showing up in masks, so more of a lockdown era, but because Luno and Sunny have such a bantery dynamic, I was wondering if the two of you had that opportunity to play with it, either in a recording booth or beforehand to establish that rapport.

LANE: What you’re seeing here is the first time we’ve met. Today is the first day that we met. We did not record together.

BURGESS: Not even virtually.

LANE: Yeah, not even virtually. They kept threatening to put us together, but I guess it was just so explosive. It was too frightening the thought of having us in the same booth. [Laughs] It would be too much. Just too, too much.

Just comedic chaos, and they were like, “We need to put a lid on that,” beforehand.

LANE: Exactly! Comedic chaos. There’s a quote — comedic chaos.

Related ‘Spellbound’: Cast, Plot, Streaming Details, and Everything We Know So Far Rachel Zegler lends her voice to Apple and Skydance Animation’s latest adventure.

With the two of you having experience in animation prior to this, I’m curious if there was anything that was unexpectedly challenging, or alternatively, unexpectedly smooth in the process.

BURGESS: I mean, you certainly have to rely on the text to find your North Star, and then you delve into what you think the relationship is off the page with him. I certainly had great respect for Nathan for a very, very, very long time. The joy and the glee of being opposite him in any capacity sort of guided me in terms of how I moved Sunny along. But because we do it separately, you have very little to rely on.

LANE: I’m gonna be honest with you, okay? In these situations, I look at this stuff, and I don’t care about plot, I don’t care about your story, I don’t care what message [it is], I just want to make it as funny as possible. I want people to go, “Oh, that was really funny when those two guys came on!” That’s all I cared about. So, I improvised a great deal. I wrote jokes for it, and very little made it into the film because I guess they wanted to keep it a G rating. [Laughs] But yeah, that’s what I cared about, is making it as funny as possible. And especially when you’re playing a three-foot tall, 350-pound blue person who lives in a forest.

BURGESS: Who travels on a frog.

LANE: I’m not delving into his childhood. This is about, “How do we make this as funny as possible while serving what they’ve written?” So, that’s what interests me. If you’re going to be the comic relief, relieve.

Tituss Burgess and Nathan Lane Jumped at the Chance to Work With Alan Menken

You both mentioned getting the chance to work with Alan Menken. I was wondering if you could talk a bit about that experience and what that was like for the two of you?

BURGESS: Well, I had worked with Alan 16 years ago in The Little Mermaid. I played Sebastian the crab in The Little Mermaid, and while that score predates me, or that song at least, working with him was pretty extraordinary. He doesn’t lead with ego, which he could, and he’s very generous. Even with this, I found, we explored keys that were appropriate, we explored text, and Glenn Slater, who also did additional lyrics for The Little Mermaid, and wrote the lyrics on this, they’re both just so casual about their genius, which makes it inviting and not intimidating, I find.

LANE: I had never worked with Alan, so he literally was there.

BURGESS: He was?

LANE: He was there when I recorded my stuff the first, the song. This is an old, long story — it’s not that long — but way back when, when he had written Little Shop of Horrors and it was a little Off-Broadway musical, I had auditioned for it. Then, as they’ve told me, it had come down to either me or Lee Wilkof, who eventually did play Seymour brilliantly, and he and I were friends, by the way. So, Howard Ashman apparently wanted me, and Alan wanted Lee, and Howard Ashman’s assistant was a woman named Connie Grappo, who eventually became Lee Wilkof’s wife, to this day, and so she was pushing him to hire Lee, which he eventually did. So, that was my only time that I might have worked with Alan until I did this film. It was lovely because he’s a legend now.

BURGESS: So are you.

Yes, it’s true! I’m speaking to two legends right now.

LANE: Oh, thank you.

Spellbound is streaming now on Netflix.

Spellbound Spellbound, directed by Vicky Jenson, follows Princess Ellian on her adventurous quest to rescue her family and kingdom. As a mysterious spell transforms her parents into monsters, Ellian must navigate this perilous journey to restore the King and Queen of Lumbria.Release Date November 22, 2024 Director Vicky Jenson Cast Rachel Zegler , Miguel Bernardeau , Giovanna Bush , Dennis Stowe , Jenifer Lewis , Dee Bradley Baker , Susan Fitzer , Nicole Kidman , Javier Bardem , John Lithgow , Olga Merediz , Rich Moore , Nathan Lane , Tituss Burgess , John Ratzenberger , Vicky Jenson , Angela Grovey , Jessica Molaskey , Isabelle McCalla Runtime 109 Minutes Writers Vicky Jenson , Lauren Hynek , Elizabeth Martin Studio(s) Skydance Animation Character(s) Princess Ellian , Chilo , Orsola , Lumbrian Soldier , Nazara , Flink Dee , Old Maid , Queen Ellsmere , King Solon , Bolinar , The General , The Postmaster , Luno – Oracle of the Moon , Sunny – Oracle of the Sun , Milo The Monster Handler , Old Blue-Haired Woman , Lumbrian Citizen Expand

Watch on Netflix