Interview: Megan Hilty Talks TROLLSTOPIA, Voice Acting, and the Future of Broadway

Broadway darling Megan Hilty stars in "TrollsTopia," the animated series hitting Peacock and Hulu tomorrow, November 19th!

Her Broadway roles include Glinda in "Wicked," Doralee in "9 to 5," and Brooke in "Noises Off!" In 2011 Hilty joined the cast of NBC's "Smash" as Ivy Lynn, an actress desperate to land the lead in a Broadway musical about Marilyn Monroe.

Megan voices "Holly Darlin' on "TrollsTopia," or the fast-talking delegate from the country tribe. She is a southern spitfire! Everything about Holly is big- big energy, big heart, and big hair.

"TrollsTopia" is the next chapter in the hair-raising adventures of the trolls. Now that Poppy knows there are other musical trolls scattered throughout the forest, she bottles up her endless positivity and invites delegates from every troll tribe in the forest to live together in harmony in a grand experiment she calls TrollsTopia!

BroadwayWorld had the chance to talk to Megan about the series, what she loves most about voice acting, and creating community through music and animation.

Read the whole interview below!

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I got to watch the first episode of "TrollsTopia," which was just adorable.

Oh my gosh, yeah. I feel the same way. I'm so lucky to be a part of it.

So, you play "Holly Darlin'" in the series, who comes from the country western part of TrollsTopia. You were also Doralee in the "9 to 5" musical, and you played Patsy Cline in "Patsy and Loretta" just last year. What's your background with country music?

It's kind of wild, because I constantly am cast as Southern people - and, actually, in life, people just kind of assume I'm from Texas. Like, specifically Texas. I'm not quite sure why - maybe I speak with an accent and I just don't know it. But I'm from Seattle! I couldn't be further from the South.

But I love it! I love playing all of these women from the South. They're all fantastic roles, and I am just grateful for what I can get.

What do you like most about voiceover work as compared to stage work?

I have to say, I think it's probably my most favorite thing to do, ever. In interviews, people often ask, "Do you prefer stage or screen?" And I have to kind of derail the whole thing and say neither!

I mean, I love both of them, but, really, my ultimate favorite is voiceover, I think. Because I get to sing in nearly everything I do! I get to play characters I would never play in real life, "TrollsTopia" included. I would never play a centaur, most likely.

It's just so wildly creatively fulfilling, because you go in a recording studio and you just try as many different ways of saying one line as you can. The worst that can happen is they erase it. And it's so magical when you get to do the old-school group records, where the whole cast is in the same room doing the same episode. It's kind of rare these days - well, these days, nobody's doing anything in the same room together, but before COVID, you'd have the whole cast. Like, in "TrollsTopia," I would record with Amanda, who plays Poppy, a lot, and it was so much fun! And she's so talented.

I think this might be my favorite thing that I do! I mean, ask me tomorrow and I might have a different answer, but I think voiceover is my absolute favorite thing to do.

What has surprised you most about voiceover work?

It surprised me how much I love getting REALLY technical about vocal stuff. It's great, really tuning in with a director. I feel like in any other setting, the direction might not cater to an actor's ego, but I love kind of separating from that and really getting down to exactly what sound they're asking for, what tone they're looking for. I love that.

Especially in "TrollsTopia," they have me playing many different characters. So, Holly Darlin' is my lady, but then I'll play - they'll say, "Okay, so, what would a rock troll who's this age - what would they say in this situation?" And so it's just really creatively fulfilling, and I get to play tons of different people in one four-hour session.

You mentioned that you get to sing in a lot of your voiceover work - I loved the song in the first episode. It was so fun, and so high-energy. Could you tell me a little bit about the whole of the music on "TrollsTopia"?

First of all, Alana [Da Fonesca] is the genius who has written all of the songs within the episodes. She has written so many different songs, and they're all so unique! They're all so specific to each genre. And I think she does it so well, too.

I guess because I'm not a writer I just kind of assume, oh, you latch on to one or two different styles, and you're really good at it. Well, she's good at all of them, and that's really apparent listening through the songs. They're so catchy, they're so fun. I feel like it's everything we all need right now. You don't have to be a kid to really enjoy this.

What lessons do you think kids - and their parents - can learn from the series?

Ultimately, teamwork and celebrating our differences and how we're all better when we come together. That's kind of the crux of it all, which is one of the many reasons why I'm so proud to be a part of it, especially now. Not getting too deep into anything, but everything else feels so divided right now. So I feel so honored and appreciative to be a part of something that - even though we're little trolls, we're not real beings, it really represents how people of different backgrounds can come together and make something beautiful.

I think there's something so powerful about doing that through music, too.

Absolutely. And it's so funny because a lot of times I found myself - in music, when I auditioned, I auditioned with some country stuff, but I think they had me do some pop stuff, too. I remember getting my first real pop song on this and I was like, "Whoa! I don't really sing like this. I don't really do these riffs, and all this."

But it ended up being really great, how it all came together! So, I guess I say all that to say that - even though, say, I'm a country troll, I sing in different genres, too. They blend all of that together, and they do it really well.

Do you sing in any other genres on the show that you really loved?

Those are the ones that stick out! We've been working on this for a LONG time- animation you work on for years. So it's really interesting - I just started watching the episodes with my kids, and they're going crazy over it. It's great. I have my own little focus group in my house.

But it's funny - watching these episodes now, like, "Oh, yeah! I remember doing that! That was so much fun!" I know once I watch them, I'll be like, "Oh, yeah! I remember doing that last year!"

Like all of us, I assume you're waiting patiently for Broadway to return. When we can finally come back in person, do you know the first thing you want to do?

I don't know. My hope is that - like so many industries - my hope is that Broadway is taking this time to really reset and reorganize, and I'm really hoping that they're listening to what people in our industry are asking for. Especially people of color. I'm hoping that when we come back we're seeing more people of color behind the desk, in the creative teams, on the producing side, so that everybody feels well-represented and taken care of.

I hope Broadway is listening to what audiences and performers alike are asking for. I don't know where I fit in that, but that's what I hope for the general direction of Broadway, the stories we tell, and how we tell them.

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"TrollsTopia" premieres tomorrow on Hulu and Peacock. Watch a trailer here: