By his own rough count, filmmaker Barry Jenkins has watched the 1994 animated movie “The Lion King” about 155 times, many of them with two young nephews and a well-worn VHS tape.
So when he was asked to direct the latest installment in the franchise, “Mufasa: The Lion King,” he was already very familiar with the story.
Who isn’t? “When somebody takes their baby and holds it like that” — he paused to raise his arms up, cupping his hands as if presenting a small but famous cub — “you know it’s ‘The Lion King. ‘ is,” he said. “There are very few things that have that level of cultural penetration.”
Familiarity aside, few things in Jenkins’ career seem to point toward a Disney animated feature. director, 44, in 2016 “Moonlight,” a small-budget coming-of-age film set in Miami at the height of the crack epidemic. It won three Oscars, including one for Best Picture, Infamouslywas announced only when the “La La Land” producer realized on stage that the wrong movie (his) had been called. Jenkins in 2018 “If Beale Street could talk“A romantic drama based on the 1974 James Baldwin novel, childhood sweethearts face a nightmare when a young man is wrongfully accused of rape.
And then Jenkins directed the 10-episode 2021 mini-series “Underground Railroad,” an adaptation of Colson Whitehead’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, which envisions a network of abolitionist-era escape routes as a literal railway system. “In terms of the emotional scope and the practical logistics of filmmaking, it was so far The greatest thing I’ve ever done” he said.
“Mufasa,” at least in terms of its fandom and accompanying scrutiny, is likely to be even bigger. Disney is planning a December release for the film, which tells the story of how Mufasa grows up and rises to power before siring Simba. It will serve as a prequel to three previous “Lion King” iterations: the original 1994 movie, the 2019 remake and the long-running Tony Award-winning musical. “I don’t know if pressure is the right word,” Jenkins said, “but you go, OK, I have to live up to the standard set by these people who have made these movies before me.”
In a video interview from West Hollywood, California, Jenkins talked about why he wanted to make movies after years spent on “Moonlight”, “Beale Street” and “Underground Railroad”; Perhaps not surprising for an indie filmmaker working with Disney; And what he loves and learned from the roots. These are edited excerpts from our conversation.
Why did you want to make this film?
I found the story incredibly moving. This is the character that we know as inherently great or inherently royal, and we’re going to really go in and explore how this person came to be. We’re also looking at what makes some people good and others bad, and how people aren’t fundamentally one or the other.
But then the other part of it is, I’ve been working in the same mode for eight or nine years straight, on the same kind of material. I really wanted to do something different, and this was the most different thing I could do.
I think I’ve seen ‘The Lion King’ maybe three times. What do you see in the 155th look?
For one, that’s what it takes to make a truly great song.
Do you have a favorite?
“Hakuna Matata” of course. “Hakuna Matata” is amazing, man. But then, “circle of life” is “circle of life”.
Disney fans are a different breed. Were you worried about coming into such a beloved franchise and getting grief from superfans?
I was not, and perhaps naively. To me, this is a character like no other, although you have to admit, yes, this character is lovable. People still show their kids the 1994 animated film. Every week, Broadway shows are sold out. When I booked this gig, I had never seen a Broadway musical, and sitting in a room full of kids at a Sunday matinee goes beyond hearing the hiss that goes over the crowd when the actors come out on stilts. For the starting no.
When word got out that you were directing the film, you got some heat about it. Can you tell me about it?
I got up very early in the morning, and a young guy, because I have all these followers on Twitter who are young filmmakers, young film fans, commented. I answered, thought nothing of it, called work, and then realized that all these people had taken my response.
Did you know the person?
No, he was just one of my followers. A young follower.
In response, you posted some of the previous films you’ve worked on, one starring kids in a scary movie the students made themselves, another featuring kids sending wedding wishes to a beloved instructor.
I’ve always done these little things, little side projects with youth groups, especially when I was living in the Bay Area before I moved back to LA to make “Moonlight”. And I got really amazing energy from those things. If anything, they were probably the primary sort of investigation ground for what I would do on “Mufasa: The Lion King.” And so it felt like making this film wasn’t my first time working with something that was specifically made for a younger audience. I wanted to show it and explain it.
Was it nice to have an excuse to show up again?
I think in a sense it was useful. Some of those pieces I haven’t seen in a while, and I think they’re really beautiful. This is where a friend of mine was teaching a class of predominantly African American students in Philadelphia, and I did an interview where they sent me questions and I answered them, and she filmed them watching the answers. It was really powerful for me to see how meaningful it can be for someone in my position, speaking these children’s names and taking their questions seriously.
There seems to be a rush of creative indie film directors taking on big Hollywood projects: Chloe Zhao in “Eternals,” Lee Isaac Chung in “Twisters,” Greta Gerwig and “Barbie,” and now you. Is this trend?
I don’t think it’s a trend. I mean, we don’t all get together in a room and decide we’re going to make these movies. But I talked to Ryan Coogler, who’s a friend of mine, and Chloe, before taking on the film, to get their read on what a film like this would be like. One thing I will say is that our generation of filmmakers has grown up with these stories. I watched “The Lion King” 155 times. Chloe Zhao grew up reading these comics. Same thing for Ryan Coogler. Lee Isaac Chung, who did “Twisters,” grew up in the Midwest. I think sometimes you can succumb to the expectation that, oh, a filmmaker who makes this kind of film doesn’t, or shouldn’t, make this kind of film. But if that’s the only reason you’re not making a film, and your instinct or your gut or just your hunger tells you that you should or you’re ready or you want to, then you should go and do it. .
Why do you think studios are flocking to indie filmmakers to do these big-budget pictures?
Perhaps they feel that the spectacle is not enough, and they wish their films were more emotional, or wish the drama felt more real, or the audience care more intensely about the characters. So maybe it’s smart to go to people like Chloe and Lee Isaac, who have proven they can do those things, and let them learn the skills to do this other thing, because maybe the studio thinks one is harder to do than the other. . . But I don’t know. I am not a studio.
Well, I’m glad I asked you. You are probably right.
I just took the job! I didn’t make it.
Do you have a favorite scene from the original movie?
The aftermath of the stampede. It’s amazing to see something that’s so intensely, so intensely painful, but it’s so safe for kids to connect with them to really explore those emotions. It’s like a magic trick that the movie was able to do that.
That scene often makes lists of the most shocking scenes in Disney movies.
But there are also all these videos on TikTok and Instagram where parents are filming their kids watching the scene, and then immediately the kid turns to the parent, and it’s clear they’re waiting for an explanation for what they just saw. is So even though it is a shocking scene – I use your word – it is very much intense The scene is a scene that they can share with their parents, and then their parents can talk to them about it and help them through it.
We are all losing people. We will all experience sadness, heartbreak, betrayal. We are also going to experience success and joy and accomplishment. I think that in a story format that you can share with friends, with family, with your parents, it’s really powerful. Especially now, with life being so fragmented, we’re all looking for these common places where we can experience something communally and hopefully learn and grow from it.
Well, I’ll take your word for it. Is there a similar intense moment in your film?
Of course! Of course. We live in the legacy of the “Lion King”. Of course there is.
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