Movies Online sat down with Idina Menzel at the Los Angeles press day for \u201cEnchanted,\u201d directed by Kevin Lima (\u201cTarzan,\u201d \u201cEloise At Christmastime\u201d) from a screenplay written by Bill Kelly (\u201cBlast From the Past\u201d) and featuring original songs from the reunited team of acclaimed composer Alan Menken and lyricist Stephen Schwartz (\u201cPocahontas,\u201d \u201cHunchback of Notre Dame\u201d).<\/p>\n
A classic Disney animated fairy tale meets with the modern, live-action romantic comedy in Walt Disney Pictures\u2019 \u201cEnchanted.\u201d Featuring an all-star cast, the film follows the beautiful princess Giselle (Amy Adams) as she is banished by an evil queen (Susan Sarandon) from her magical, musical animated land and finds herself in the gritty reality of the streets of modern-day Manhattan. Shocked by this strange new environment that doesn\u2019t operate on a \u201chappily ever after\u201d basis, Giselle is now adrift in a chaotic world badly in need of enchantment. But when Giselle begins to fall in love with a charmingly flawed divorce lawyer (Patrick Dempsey) who has come to her aid \u2014 even though she is already promised to a perfect fairy tale prince (James Marsden) back home \u2013 she has to wonder: can a storybook view of romance survive in the real world?<\/p>\n
Tony Award winner Idina Menzel, who plays the role of Nancy Tremaine in \u201cEnchanted,\u201d has a diverse career that spans the stage, films and music. Idina is a powerhouse of talent who constantly amazes audiences with her strong, emotional performances.<\/p>\n
A skillful songwriter, Menzel writes and performs her own music. She has just completed work on her solo album produced by Glen Ballard for her record label, Warner Bros. Records, and is gearing up for its release in January 2008. In addition, Menzel recorded the end credit song, written by Glen Ballard, for Robert Zemeckis\u2019s \u201cBeowulf\u201d which just opened starring Angelina Jolie and Anthony Hopkins.<\/p>\n
Menzel was most recently seen in Robert Towne\u2019s \u201cAsk the Dust,\u201d opposite Salma Hayek and Colin Farrell. In this film adaptation of John Fante\u2019s Depression-era novel, Menzel played Vera, who harbors an unrequited love for Farrell\u2019s Arturo. Menzel was seen in November 2005 in director Chris Columbus\u2019 film version of the Pulitzer and Tony Award-winning musical \u201cRent,\u201d in which she reprises Maureen, the role she originated on the Broadway stage.<\/p>\n
Menzel completed her Tony Award-winning performance (Lead Actress in a Musical) in \u201cWicked\u201d in December 2005, and later reprised her role as Elphaba in the London production for which she received the WhatsOnStage.com Theatregoers Choice Award. Helmed by Tony Award-winning director Joe Mantello, \u201cWicked\u201d played to packed audiences at the Gershwin Theatre. During this run, Menzel was nominated for every prize that the theatre community awards. In addition, the West End production had the distinction of breaking all weekly box office records during her run.
\nIn fall of 2005, the actress starred in Michael John LaChiusa\u2019s Off-Broadway musical \u201cSee What I Wanna See,\u201d directed by Ted Sperling at The Public Theater. For her roles as various characters, she received Drama Desk and Drama League nominations. Menzel received a Tony nomination for her Broadway debut performance as Maureen in the original production of the hit \u201cRent.\u201d She also earned a Drama Desk nomination for her performance as Kate in Manhattan Theater Club\u2019s Off-Broadway original musical \u201cThe Wild Party.\u201d<\/p>\n
She appeared as Sheila in the Encores! Production of \u201cHair\u201d and starred as Amneris in Broadway\u2019s \u201cAida.\u201d Her other Off-Broadway credits include the pre-Broadway, original, buzz-creating production of \u201cRent\u201d and \u201cThe Vagina Monologues.\u201d<\/p>\n
Idina Menzel is a fabulous person and we really appreciated her time. Here\u2019s what the Tony-winning Broadway superstar had to tell us about her new movie, her upcoming album, the possibility of a movie version of Wicked, and maybe a sequel to Enchanted:<\/p>\n
Q: NONE OF US COULD BELIEVE YOU DID NOT SING. IS EVERYONE DRIVING YOU CRAZY WITH THAT QUESTION: WHY DIDN\u2019T SHE SING?<\/strong> Q: DID YOU ENJOY THE LAST SCENE IN THE MOVIE?<\/strong> Q: DO YOU APPROACH THE CHARACTER DIFFERENTLY IN THAT FORMAT?<\/strong> Q: WE HEARD THERE WERE SOME DELETED SCENES INVOLVING YOUR CHARACTER\u2019S STORYLINE AND ALSO WITH HER BEST FRIEND?<\/strong> Q: WHAT DID YOU THINK OF YOURSELF AS A CARTOON?<\/strong> Q: ARE YOU SIGNED UP FOR A SEQUEL?<\/strong> Q: WERE THERE ANY DISNEY PRINCESSES THAT INSPIRED YOU?<\/strong> Q: DO YOU THINK THAT EXPERIENCE SET YOUR CAREER IN MOTION AND MADE YOU THINK \u201cI WANT TO BE UP THERE ONE DAY\u201d?<\/strong> Q: IS THERE ANY ROLE YOU\u2019RE YEARNING TO DO?<\/strong> Q: ARE YOU WORKING ON YOUR OWN ALBUM?<\/strong> Q: IS THERE A SINGLE?<\/strong> Q: WHAT ABOUT THE RUMOR OF A POSSIBLE MOVIE VERSION OF WICKED?<\/strong> Q: DO YOU THINK YOU\u2019RE THE FRONT RUNNER FOR BEING IN A MOVIE VERSION?<\/strong> Q: WOULD YOU CONSIDER DOING TV LIKE KRISTIN CHENOWETH?<\/strong> Q: HAVE YOU SEEN THE OTHER PRODUCTIONS OF WICKED?<\/strong> Q: WAS YOUR LONDON EXPERIENCE VERY DIFFERENT FROM YOUR NEW YORK EXPERIENCE?<\/strong> Q: IS THAT WHY YOU BECAME AN ACTRESS?<\/strong> Q: DO YOU THINK THE MESSAGE AT THE END OF THIS MOVIE IS THAT THE MODERN WOMAN CAN\u2019T HAVE IT ALL \u2014 YOU CAN\u2019T BE A HIGH-POWERED EXECUTIVE AND STILL BE ROMANTIC?<\/strong> Q: TALKING ABOUT LIVE THEATRE, ANTHONY HOPKINS COMPLAINS OF BOREDOM AND THE REPETITION OF DOING PERFORMANCE AFTER PERFORMANCE. DO YOU EVER SEE THAT HAPPENING TO YOU?<\/strong> Q: WHAT ELSE DO YOU HAVE COMING UP AFTER THE ALBUM?<\/strong> \u201cEnchanted\u201d opens in theaters on November 21st.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Movies Online sat down with Idina Menzel at the Los Angeles press day for \u201cEnchanted,\u201d directed by Kevin Lima (\u201cTarzan,\u201d \u201cEloise At Christmastime\u201d) from a screenplay written by Bill Kelly (\u201cBlast From the Past\u201d) and featuring original songs from the reunited team of acclaimed composer Alan Menken and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2],"tags":[31,25,20,5],"class_list":["post-233","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-interviews","tag-31","tag-enchanted","tag-i-stand","tag-wicked"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6Srnq-3L","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=233"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":280,"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233\/revisions\/280"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=233"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=233"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=233"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nIDINA MENZEL: It\u2019s a compliment really that everybody misses my singing. Nancy was never written with a song, honestly, so I think Kevin was a fan of mine and honestly it was a compliment to be asked to just be hired on my acting talents alone.<\/p>\n
\nIDINA MENZEL: You know, we\u2019ve got to be careful, because we don\u2019t want to be giving away the ending, but I enjoyed it very much. (Laughs) I think Nancy gets a really happy ending that really ties my whole character together.<\/p>\n
\nIDINA MENZEL: No, I didn\u2019t. I didn\u2019t. I always knew that was going to happen, but \u2014 well yeah \u2014 honestly, I just \u2014 I didn\u2019t want to play her as a typical mean girlfriend that everyone\u2019s going to hate. I thought it would be more interesting if she had a vulnerability and I knew we were heading there and that she\u2019s going to be funny and have a sweet side to her.<\/p>\n
\nIDINA MENZEL: Yeah. I was in my fashion design studio and I talk about \u2014 there\u2019s this monologue about giving up on true love and going to the Hamptons and meeting my Prince Charming \u2014 it\u2019s ridiculous \u2014 and I\u2019m not going to hold my breath type of thing. It was very good and hopefully it will be on the DVD.<\/p>\n
\nIDINA MENZEL: Oh, it was good. I like seeing the Jewish girl from Long Island in the dark hair and the whole thing, and Jimmy and I always thought it would be really cool \u2014 like he broke the glass, stepped on the glass. (Laughter) Wouldn\u2019t that have been funny? But I guess it was a little too much for Disney.<\/p>\n
\nIDINA MENZEL: Not that I know of \u2014 I mean I\u2019d love to be in it . . . I hope so. I think it\u2019s going to be a really big movie. I think it\u2019s got everything, it\u2019s got a lot for everybody. It\u2019s kind of a fresh, unique movie in that it\u2019s combined all those genres. It\u2019s an animated movie and a romantic comedy and a musical. It\u2019s got CGI. It\u2019s my first time doing CGI and staring at a sticker on the camera and oooing and aahing and feeling so ridiculous. But yeah, I think it\u2019s a really special movie and it\u2019s something we haven\u2019t seen in a while. It\u2019s kind of new and we really need it for the holidays because everybody\u2019s just stuck in a lot of morbidity.<\/p>\n
\nIDINA MENZEL: Oh (laughs) yeah. Can Tinker Bell be considered a princess? Because being in musicals, I loved Peter Pan. That was the first Broadway show I saw. My parents brought me into New York. They surprised me and my sister, and brought us in to see that. They told us we were just going to Dad\u2019s office to pick something up and so that was kind of in my memory. That\u2019s the person who comes to mind and she was spunky and kind of keeping it real for Peter Pan. So it\u2019s not your typical one.<\/p>\n
\nIDINA MENZEL: Yeah, that and Annie is another one. (Laughs) Then I got off track a little bit and I started \u2014 when I was 15 my parents got divorced, and I got a job as a wedding singer so I could help contribute funds and stuff. Then I kind of got into singing Motown and jazz and the pop music, because you have to learn all different kinds of music, and that made me want to start writing my own music. So then I kind of had both these ideas in my head and I\u2019ve been vacillating between the two for so long and then Rent happened and that was a fluke. So I said okay, you can go in this direction, and the theatre\u2019s always been so wonderful to me, but now I feel like I\u2019ve grown to the place where I\u2019m going to stop feeling like I have to pick one or the other and just try to be one of the modern-day disciples of Bette Midler or Barbra Streisand, something like that. I mean those are my idols.<\/p>\n
\nIDINA MENZEL: You know, I\u2019ve always wanted to do Funny Girl, but I never would. I\u2019ve thought about it, it\u2019s been talked about, and I think it would probably be a career disaster. (Laughs) Yeah, it\u2019s her, and it\u2019s never been revived and there\u2019s a reason for that. It\u2019s so iconic. I mean, the first line of the show is \u2019Hello, gorgeous.\u2019 I mean, how do you get up there and make that your own, and then they think you\u2019re trying to make it too much your own and I\u2019m paying homage to Barbra, but that\u2019s something I think of. I think of Evita sometimes. Mostly I feel like I\u2019ve set a standard for myself in originating roles in really important musicals, and I feel really lucky to have done that, so I\u2019m looking all the time with my manager at finding new original stories or women who have not been portrayed yet on the stage.<\/p>\n
\nIDINA MENZEL: Yes, I have an album coming out which is what I\u2019m doing right now. Tomorrow I\u2019ll be at the Beowulf premiere because I sang the credit song on that. So I got to do that and that was great because Glen Ballard wrote the song for that, and he also produced my album. He spent the last year and a half with me writing music and extracting my soul and encouraging me to be a songwriter and helping me to find a way to bridge the gap between theatre and pop and continue that dream of mine \u2014 sort of have all of those worlds unite. So I co-wrote almost all the songs on my album, about 9 out of 10 of them. It\u2019s called \u201cI Stand.\u201d It\u2019s on Warner Bros. and comes out the end of January, and I\u2019m very excited about it. It\u2019s a very personal album and we\u2019ll see what happens.<\/p>\n
\nIDINA MENZEL: Yes, there is. There\u2019s one, \u201cThe Light I Found in New York\u201d which I grew up listening to. If you\u2019re not from New York, you may not know it. They\u2019ve been playing my single now called \u201cBrave.\u201d But it\u2019s early and the holidays are going to come and you just leave that alone. Holidays are for the big, already established singers to sell lots of Christmas albums. But you get it going. A lot of the radio people are excited about this song called \u201cBrave,\u201d so we\u2019ll see what happens. I don\u2019t know if I digress but the music industry is changing so much because they don\u2019t have a leg to stand on these days so they\u2019re constantly trying to come up with all these different things. It used to be that they\u2019d pick one song and all your eggs were in that basket, and if radio didn\u2019t play it, you were dropped from the label and it was done. But now, because of the internet and having more control over my own career and my audience having more ways to connect with me, they pick different songs. So they\u2019ll pick a song they think I\u2019ll perform really great on Letterman, and then a song that\u2019s good for radio and then a song that\u2019s maybe more theatrical and then you have the Beowulf thing so it\u2019s more about marketing in that way.<\/p>\n
\nIDINA MENZEL: I know. Could you write a petition and tell them to hurry up? But they\u2019re doing so well with the show all over the world now \u2014 it\u2019s going to Japan. It\u2019s in Germany, today it just started \u2014 that I think they don\u2019t need to. They have enough publicity, and they\u2019re selling enough tickets that they\u2019ll wait until maybe a couple years.<\/p>\n
\nIDINA MENZEL: No, I was lucky with Rent to be able to be in that 10 years after doing that. If that happened twice, I would be thanking my lucky stars. Green make-up would hide a lot of flaws. [Laughter] I keep telling them that. I keep saying it\u2019s like Peggy Sue Got Married. I could have played an older one and then come back. So, of course I\u2019d love to do that, and I made sure all the keys were really hard, so that if you were not a real singer, you\u2019d have a hard time. But they always make do with that and they change it and they get in the studio and they\u2019ll just find I don\u2019t know who. I\u2019m not going to cast it for myself.<\/p>\n
\nIDINA MENZEL: Yes, sure I would, but the thing I think that sets me apart is being a songwriter, and there\u2019s not that many women in the theatre who do that, so I\u2019m just trying to go that route. It is a dream of mine, to be in a bus with a bunch of dudes, you know, touring the world, so that\u2019s something that I can still do\u2014hopefully they\u2019ll have me in a couple of years. I just have to see this through one last time, and it\u2019s so unique that you don\u2019t have to be 18, blonde and in a bustier. I got signed being a mature woman and it\u2019s okay and the record label\u2019s really behind me and I\u2019m really lucky. I\u2019m going to give it one more shot because I don\u2019t know how much more time they\u2019ll give me.<\/p>\n
\nIDINA MENZEL: I went back because one of my girlfriends, Julia Murney, was in the New York production who I did Wild Party with. It\u2019s a show I did at the Manhattan Theatre Club, and I wanted to support her, but I went back to London and did it for five months. So it\u2019s just like I\u2019m burned on it \u2014 so I want to support the show because I love what it says and I want it to be around forever, but I just need to take a break.<\/p>\n
\nIDINA MENZEL: Yeah, because I had more confidence. It\u2019s amazing. This show \u2014 the character mirrored a lot of things I needed to work out in my own life with just having confidence, feeling like I didn\u2019t necessarily fit in, owning my ferocity and my power on stage, like getting up there and just \u2014<\/p>\n
\nIDINA MENZEL: Yeah, I guess . . . I don\u2019t know why. It\u2019s just I\u2019ve always been singing and acting and that\u2019s just been a part of me, and it\u2019s actually now that I am afraid I have nothing else to offer, and I want to go take sailing lessons and Italian again because that\u2019s what I studied in school. It\u2019s so funny, it\u2019s like you spend your whole life going after this one dream and you turn around one day and you\u2019re like, what else do I do? I want to read more and I wish I\u2019d majored in English lit instead of theatre so I\u2019d be more well-rounded. It was going to London and hanging out \u2014 all my friends were so brilliant over there. I mean they\u2019re so much smarter than us. They have all these countries that it takes them an hour to get to and so they\u2019re surrounded by all these cultures and different people, and they travel all their lives, and they just have an appreciation and knowledge of everything going on in the world. And I was just constantly trying to soak it up, but also going home feeling a little ignorant.<\/p>\n
\nIDINA MENZEL: I think she just decides it\u2019s her wedding and maybe she\u2019s going to prioritize. She\u2019s gonna go find it. I don\u2019t think so. That\u2019s not what I got from it. She also realizes for the first time that maybe it wasn\u2019t the right moment and there\u2019s a time and place for everything.<\/p>\n
\nIDINA MENZEL: Well, I don\u2019t want to go against what Anthony Hopkins says. [Laughs] That\u2019s like going against Laurence Olivier. But for me that\u2019s not really the case. I mean there\u2019s always a time when you need to take a vacation because you just start to like \u2014 every line blends into the next and you start to forget things that you\u2019ve done for years. But for me, the audience is a living breathing creature and it\u2019s sort of the last character in the play and so every night it\u2019s different. And I always feel this need and responsibility to kind of win them over, and they always laugh at different places \u2014 cry and respond or not respond \u2014 so there\u2019s something different to be learned all the time. I know that sounds like actor-schmachter kind of stuff, but it\u2019s true because I literally \u2014 if you have the words \u201cI love you\u201d there\u2019s been times where six months down the road I\u2019ve said it and I\u2019m like, that\u2019s what the director wanted me to do the entire time. So when you have those moments, you\u2019re like there\u2019s always something to be learned.<\/p>\n
\nIDINA MENZEL: You know, I just don\u2019t know. It\u2019s really an unknown time for me. I have my husband wanting me to pop out some babies. [Laughs] Just one would just put him on hold for a little while.<\/p>\n