Weaver went on to co-star within the sitcom “Smart guy,” sing Chingy’s 2004 hit “A call away” and always working in movie and TV. Nevertheless it was solely in recent times, Weaver mentioned, that he started to obtain extra recognition for his function as “The Lion King.”
Disney can also be retaining the fanfare surrounding the movie alive: In Might, the studio filmed a birthday concertthat includes Weaver and a number of the others original voice actors, which can stream on Disney+. It has additionally introduced a theatrical re-release in July from the unique movie and a brand new live-action prequel, “Mufasa: The Lion King,” will debut in December.
Weaver’s eyes twinkled behind thick-rimmed glasses as he spoke from Chicago, the place he’s at the moment filming the Showtime drama. “The Chi.” As an grownup, Weaver mentioned, he got here to understand his function within the Disney basic.
These are edited excerpts from our dialog.
How did singing come about for younger Simba?
I used to be filming the miniseries “The Jacksons” and, all through manufacturing, there have been all the time nice artists who stopped by the set as a result of they have been associates of the Jacksons or simply out of curiosity. On this explicit day, I used to be singing “Who’s Lovin’ You” and Elton John (who co-wrote songs on “The Lion King” with Tim Rice) stopped by. He noticed me performing reside and approached my mom. They wished Simba’s voice to have a youthful Michael Jackson vibe, and I used to be capable of audition the day after we completed “The Jacksons.”
What was the recording course of like?
It was merely imagined to be an audition. I used to be simply coming in to see if they might contemplate me for the function. However (administrators) Rob Minkoff and Roger Allers have been there, and producer Don Hahn. After I walked into the Burbank recording studio, they’d storyboards with fundamental pencil-sketched artwork displaying what Simba seemed like. And so they mentioned, “If you stroll into the sales space, we’ll have cameras set as much as seize your actions, as a result of if we like what you are doing, we will put that into the character animation.”
When the music began, I felt so comfy. There was power within the room and it felt good. I sang “I Simply Cannot Wait to Be King” a few instances, and Roger mentioned, “Properly, you bought the job.” I needed to end all of the recording that day as a result of I used to be scheduled to return to Chicago with pink eyes. So, I additionally sang a part of “Hakuna Matata”, after which I did one other tune that by no means made it into the movie referred to as “Rhapsody of the Warthog Boar.”
