“Shrek” director Vicky Jenson celebrated the premiere of her new Netflix movie “Spellbound,” the second animated function from John Lasseter-led Skydance Animation, in New York Metropolis on Monday November 11. The story stars Rachel Zegler, Javier Bardem, and Nicole Kidman in a fairy story that takes place within the legendary kingdom of Lumbria as Princess Ellian embarks on “an invigorating quest” to interrupt the spell.
Bardem has had fairly a busy final couple of months following the September premiere of Ryan Murphy’s “Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story.” Following the thrill from the present, the well-known true crime case received a viral quantity of consideration practically 30 years for the reason that brothers had been sentenced. On October 24, the Los Angeles district lawyer really helpful that Lyle and Erik Menendez be resentenced after being convicted of murdering their dad and mom over three many years in the past.
“Properly, I assume the response has been large,” Bardem instructed IndieWire. “There’s plenty of folks every single day that come to inform me how a lot they just like the present and the way a lot they considered it and comply with the actual case afterwards [and] by documentaries.”
“The factor is,” he continued, “the truth that the case might be reopened due to how the present has reached the viewers and has put the case onto the desk, it speaks volumes in regards to the high quality of the present and the standard of the analysis that Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan did as artists and likewise as very accountable folks understanding that they’re coping with very, very delicate materials.”
With “Spellbound,” Bardem takes on fairly a special mild in comparison with the extremely tense roles that we’re so typically use to seeing him in. For him, he loves the change up. “I imply, I prefer to go from one place to the opposite. Having the ability to sing songs of [composer] Alan Menken, I imply, Jesus, it’s loopy. I cherished it. It’s my first animated film and I really feel very honored to be on this one, as a result of Vicky Jenson is such a terrific director and what the film speaks about is vital.”
Lead and star Rachel Zegler was additionally thrilled to be part of her first animation function as nicely. Although, after all, she has sung onscreen beforehand, together with her Golden Globe-winning efficiency in “West Facet Story,” altering her voice to play a 14-year-old took a special kind of preparation.
“[Though] I’m enjoying a 13-year-old in ‘Romeo + Juliet’ proper now, being a 14-year-old in an animated film is far totally different than enjoying one on stage,” Zegler instructed us. “You solely have your voice. So I used to be actually working with my vocal coach to begin speaking up right here and that was like type of the important thing into discovering it, placing your larynx up right here for all the oldsters at residence. And that was actually cool. It was a extremely totally different course of for me and the music is so fantastically written by Alan Menken. It was simply wildly totally different from something I’ve needed to do.”
She at present is main Sam Gold’s manufacturing of William Shakespeare’s iconic love story on Broadway alongside Package Connor. Zegler, who had been very supportive of voting early and voting blue for the current presidential election, mirrored on having to proceed to carry out at her finest, regardless of final week’s election outcomes.
“Sam’s authentic intention with doing ‘Romeo + Juliet’ was that youngsters broke into Circle within the Sq. as a result of they wanted to get one thing off their chest,” she mentioned. “So doing any type of artwork with the week that we simply had, looks like catharsis, and attending to be a part of an incredible all-star solid that’s largely folks of colour, totally different gender identities, sexualities from totally different international locations, creeds, you identify it, we’ve received it. We symbolize what this world seems to be like regardless of what the information might have us assume.”
“Spellbound” streams on Netflix November 22. Watch the trailer right here.