Saturday, May 20, 2023 3:38AM
CHICAGO — Disney’s live action remake of “The Little Mermaid” hits the big screen in less than a week, and Daveed Diggs and Jacob Tremblay are stepping into the iconic roles of Sebastian and Flounder.
“We had so much fun, we had a ton of freedom and it was great because we got to do it all together, which is unusual for voice acting,” Diggs said.
“I would describe [Flounder] as a very, very loyal friend and also very trusting,” said Tremblay. “I feel like I could trust him with any secret; he’s very anxious and gets very nervous, but he just seems like a good, genuine person to be around. Not person, because he’s a fish. He seems like a good fish to be around.”
Sebastian is a bit more educated and worldly.
“Ariel is the most important thing in the world to him,” Diggs said of the crustacean. “Even though he complains about how headstrong she is, all he ever wants is for her to be great. He wants her to live and thrive and so he has her back all the time.”
The cast and casting is fresh and full of representation across ages, genders and races. It was as good of a feeling for the cast as it will be for the audience.
“The best, I’m so honored to be a part of this movie,” Diggs said. “We were just at the premiere last night, getting to experience that with the audience and watching all the kids in there sort of light up and everybody be able to find themselves in this movie, it’s really great to be a part of.”
“Everyone can enjoy it and everyone should have characters they can look up to,” said Tremblay.
And there are real messages in the movie as well.
“I’m really like obsessed with the father-daughter relationship in this one, and the need to let go,” said Diggs. “And her need to accept him at the end, too. It’s really, really deep. By the time you get to the end of the movie I was crying pretty hard.”
The first showings of “The Little Mermaid” are next Thursday afternoon.
Disney is the parent company of this station.
Copyright © 2023 WLS-TV. All Rights Reserved.
