Julie Taymor Talks New Film THE GLORIAS and More on AT HOME WITH THE CREATIVE COALITION
Upcoming guests include David Alan Basche (“The Exes,” “United 93”), Asante Blackk (“When They See Us,” “This Is Us”), Carly Chaikin (“Mr. Robot”), and more.
By: Chloe Rabinowitz Oct. 15, 2020
Julie Taymor ("The Glorias," "Frida," "The Lion King") sat down with The Creative Coalition CEO Robin Bronk in the latest episode of "At Home With The Creative Coalition," a podcast featuring unplugged and uncensored conversations with today's biggest stars. In the just-released episode, Taymor opens up about how she came to adapt "The Lion King" for Broadway despite not having seen the animated movie, how Gloria Steinem helped her get through the highs and lows of her career, why she almost walked away from "Across the Universe," whether the Beatles flick will be adapted for the stage, her latest film "The Glorias," and more.
"At Home With The Creative Coalition," is available on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Soundcloud, and more.
Listen below!
Highlights from "At Home With The Creative Coalition" featuring Julie Taymor:
On how she came to adapt "The Lion King" for the stage, despite never having seen the animated film:
"I had worked with animals, lots of animals and transformation. Tom [Schumacher] knew my avant-garde work, my off-Broadway work (I wasn't really interested in Broadway or commercial theater), and he called me up... And he said, 'We're interested in talking to you about adapting 'The Lion King' to stage. We don't know if it should be Broadway, we don't know what it should be, but we'd like to talk to you.' He said, 'Do you know it?' And I said, 'No. No, I haven't seen it.' I mean I was brought up on Disney someday, like any person my age, but I wasn't really into Disney at that time. I wasn't that familiar. So I said, 'You mean the cartoon?' And he said, 'Yeah, yeah, the cartoon.' I said, 'No, I haven't seen it.' He said, 'Well, why don't you go see it and give me a call.' And I have to say that when I saw the animated 'Lion King,' the idea of being able -- the challenge of putting the stampede on stage was thrilling."
On being purposeful with casting Black actors in the Broadway adaptation of "The Lion King":
"What happened with 'The Lion King' musical, we really were excited about this, was Scar was white, Mufassa was Black, Simba and Nala [were Black]. We absolutely paid attention to racial casting. It was not blind casting... In the first 'Lion King' in Minneapolis, when we saw half the audience was African American, we realized these kids have never seen a Black king. They'd seen TV where there's lots of guns, and lots of violence and drugs and this and that, but they had never -- this was 25 years ago, there was no Obama, there had never been. And not all the bad guys are white, but Scar was the evil brother -- this was something fresh and new. Now, Disney did not go wide about that because for white people, it didn't matter. It didn't matter the casting, it didn't matter at all. For Black Americans, it mattered a lot."
On why she almost walked away from "Across the Universe," which was originally titled "All You Need Is Love":
"I said I can't do the movie if it's called 'All You Need Is Love.' I don't mind it being at the end, I don't mind it being earned, but I don't believe in it as a concept. So for a while, we didn't have a title."
On her new Gloria Steinem biopic, "The Glorias," which recently released on Amazon Prime Video:
"When I told Gloria Steinem, 'I want to adopt your book,' she said, 'You're crazy. I don't know how you're going to do that. But go ahead.'"
On how Gloria Steinem helped support her during the "mess" of Broadway's "Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark" run:
"Even during the 'Spider-Man: [Turn Off The Dark]' mess, [Gloria Steinem] was there supporting me. She sort of saw it from an outsider point of view. She could see where a lot this had to do with being female, and I was not able -- I had blinders on -- I wasn't able to see it from that perspective. She's gone through some really tough moments in her life, so she got it totally."
On what appealed to her about doing "The Lion King" on stage:
"Everything that seemed impossible to do in the theater was what was really thrilling to me, really exciting."
On whether or not "Across the Universe" will be adapted for the stage:
"I would like to but I can't talk about it until it goes into another stage."
On how she came to direct "Frida," for which she earned an Academy Award nomination:
"'Frida' came from Miramax. I met with Salma Hayek in New York. I'm sure there were other directors who were asked and turned down; in fact, I know that -- some Mexican male directors... What blew me away is, for two hours, she talked about Mexican culture in the '20s, about Frida -- she'd been wanting to make that film for eight years and hadn't really been given the support. Her humor, her intellectuality, her understanding of the drama -- I just sat there listening to her and thought, 'Well, I'll just be a midwife here.' If I could just take what she just did and put that energy, which was so beautiful, and seductive, and intellectual, and inspiring on film then people will like it."
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