Idina Menzel can belt it out.
\nThis is no secret. Menzel is probably best known for her singing and acting in roles on Broadway in \u201cRent\u201d and \u201cWicked,\u201d winning a Tony Award for the latter.
\nShe\u2019s also appeared in films and on television shows, so you\u2019d think she\u2019d have a lot of boxes checked off on the bucket list.<\/p>\n
Check off another: Menzel plays Elsa the snow queen in \u201cFrozen,\u201d the Disney animated film opening Wednesday, Nov. 27. And she gets one of the film\u2019s signature songs, \u201cLet It Go.\u201d In the film, Elsa freezes her kingdom and heads for the hills; her sister (Kristen Bell) goes after her.<\/p>\n
As you\u2019ll see, this was a big step for Menzel, 42. She talked recently about the film, the song and her work on stage and screen.<\/p>\n
Question: Do you follow animated films?<\/strong> Q: What does he like?<\/strong> Q: Don\u2019t you get sick of hearing \u201cThe Lion King\u201d 127 times?<\/strong> Q: Did you worry you might start work and the song would be bad?<\/strong> To me it\u2019s always about surrounding myself with people who are so f—–g smart and good that I\u2019m terrified to walk in the door, but I still do it so that I can learn something or get better. That\u2019s kind of where my head was at, so even if it wasn\u2019t a good song I probably wouldn\u2019t even think of it that way. … I try to look on the bright side.<\/p>\n Q: It\u2019s always odd that, in animated films, you don\u2019t really work with the other actors.<\/strong> Q: There are a lot of twists in the movie. The trailer might mislead some people in terms of who\u2019s good and bad.<\/strong> Q: You were in \u201cWicked.\u201d That version of the Wicked Witch is one of the most preconceived notions of all time.<\/strong> Q: There are misconceptions about Elsa, too.<\/strong> Q: Do you prefer stage to film?<\/strong> Idina Menzel can belt it out. This is no secret. Menzel is probably best known for her singing and acting in roles on Broadway in \u201cRent\u201d and \u201cWicked,\u201d winning a Tony Award for the latter. She\u2019s also appeared in films and on television shows, so you\u2019d think she\u2019d […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_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","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[2],"tags":[39,8,38],"class_list":["post-382","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-interviews","tag-39","tag-family-life","tag-frozen"],"acf":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6Srnq-6a","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/382","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\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=382"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/382\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":383,"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/382\/revisions\/383"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=382"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=382"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=382"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nAnswer: I have a 4-year-old boy, so for the last four years I\u2019m like a lexicon of Disney movies.<\/p>\n
\nA: He loves \u201cThe Lion King.\u201d He loves everything, honestly, but it was \u201cThe Lion King\u201d for a long time. He likes \u201cTangled\u201d a lot. And he liked \u201cCars\u201d early on. You know, it depends on the age.<\/p>\n
\nA: Uh, yeah (laughs). But it takes great music that transcends that to have a life like that for so many years. If that\u2019s the worst scenario that people are listening to it 127 times, I hope that this movie has that kind of legacy. I believe it says the right things and has the scope to appeal to a large demographic of people, that it could be that thing. But mostly I\u2019ve just always wanted to be in a Disney animated movie, and then to have a great song on top of it is just the best. It\u2019s really a dream for me.<\/p>\n
\nA: Heck yes I might have thought that (laughs). Not really. I\u2019m not that discerning. I\u2019m happy to have the job, happy to be involved with such amazing talent and creative people and John Lasseter (of Pixar and Disney fame) sitting in my session.<\/p>\n
\nA: Well, I was lucky because Kristen Bell and I had a few days where we were able to feed off of each other, singing and doing dialogue together. That was a real treat. And then there were plenty of days where we couldn\u2019t be there at the same time. That at first seems like it\u2019s going to be weird, but I think being familiar and comfortable in a recording-studio environment, I sort of understand the science of it, and I kind of enjoy it. I like being able to take one line and do it over and over, all the different ways you can say it. And plus, you have someone reading with you in there, so you are playing a scene. It\u2019s not as antiseptic as you\u2019d think.<\/p>\n
\nA: That\u2019s the whole point, is how we tend to judge people we don\u2019t know well enough, and what our preconceived notion of their character is and how people are misunderstood, that those of us who are unknown or mysterious to us can be scary until we get to know them and see where everything\u2019s coming from.<\/p>\n
\nA: Exactly.<\/p>\n
\nA: It\u2019s not like these things descend upon me. Back in \u201cWicked\u201d I had to audition for that role, and it\u2019s not like I\u2019m at the point in my career where everything is just given to me. There is some serendipitous quality to me getting these similar characters, and I always wonder if it\u2019s the universe\u2019s way of telling me I need to learn something (laughs).<\/p>\n
\nA: Everyone always asks me that. Forced to give an answer, I\u2019d say it\u2019s probably live performance, whether it\u2019s stage or performing a concert. I like the adrenaline that I get from a live audience. But those are grueling schedules, and there\u2019s always a right time to find balance and go off to a TV set or the solitude of a recording studio or a film set and try something new. Without one or the other, you can burn out. So depending on where I am in my life, I might say, \u201cOh, I like this one better.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"