Idina Menzel currently has two hit movies in theaters. She\u2019s reprising her role as Princess Elsa in the family-friendly \u201cFrozen II\u201d and starring opposite Adam Sandler in the gritty dramedy \u201cUncut Gems,\u201d playing his exasperated wife. She seized the chance to work with Sandler and directors Benny and Josh Safdie on a role that struck a familiar note.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know a lot of women like her. I grew up on Long Island [N.Y.] and could identify with a strong-minded woman trying to raise a family with an unreliable husband,\u201d Menzel told the Journal. \u201cShe\u2019s really the truth teller in the movie. She\u2019s the only person who says what she means to his face.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sandler plays a gambling addict whose increasing debts threaten his life and endanger his family. \u201cHe\u2019s making a lot of bad choices,\u201d Menzel said. \u201cHe really wants to be a winner for once in his life and I think people can identify with that no matter how despicable a character he is. Adam still finds a way to make the audience root for him. I think we all can identify with the desire to be a winner in life and see our dreams come true, in whatever way that manifests.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cFrozen II,\u201d meanwhile, already has earned close to $1 billion worldwide, which surprises Menzel despite the original movie\u2019s enormous success. \u201cThere was a lot of pressure on everybody for the sequel and it feels really great to have it be so widely received again,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
The movie\u2019s soundtrack is topping the Billboard albums chart but it\u2019s not her only holiday album. \u201cChristmas: A Season of Love\u201d features duets with Josh Gad, Ariana Grande and Billy Porter, and includes \u201cOcho Kandelikas,\u201d a Latin-flavored Hanukkah song sung in Ladino. Leading into it is \u201cWalker\u2019s 3rd Hanukkah,\u201d in which Menzel teaches her son the blessing over the candles.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not too religious but I try to carry on the traditions,\u201d she said. \u201cIt was always a special time when the family would get together and light the menorah. There were tough times in my teenage years when my parents divorced and the holidays became a little more complicated for my sister and I. I get to sort of rewrite all of that now that I\u2019m a mother and define what those traditions are with my son, which is really a gift.\u201d<\/p>\n
Walker is Menzel\u2019s child with ex-husband Taye Diggs. She is now married to fellow \u201cRent\u201d alumnus Aaron Lohr, who sings \u201cI\u2019ll Be Home for Christmas\u201d with her on the album and recently joined her on stage at Carnegie Hall. Although she loves touring \u2014 \u201cit\u2019s where I live and breathe \u2014 I\u2019ve been traveling so much in the last few months, it would be nice to stay home with my family and check out for a minute before I make those decisions.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAs long as you\u2019re really honest and authentic, you will connect with people. That\u2019s more important than any high note you sing.\u201d \u2014 Idina Menzel<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Menzel\u2019s vocal prowess emerged long before \u201cRent\u201d and \u201cWicked,\u201d at the Concord Hotel\u2019s day camp talent show. \u201cI sang \u2018The Way We Were\u2019 in a really strong Long Island accent,\u201d she said. \u201cThe whole audience flipped out and told my parents that their daughter had something special.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s really only one role I\u2019ve wanted to revive,\u201d she continued. \u201cFanny Brice in \u2018Funny Girl.\u2019 Other than that, I\u2019m very comfortable being in the embryonic stages of a musical in development and helping composers create new work.\u201d<\/p>\n
She\u2019ll next play the wicked stepmother in a film version of \u201cCinderella,\u201d with Camila Cabello in the title role. \u201cIt\u2019s a modern telling of the story with music, sort of like \u2018Moulin Rouge,\u2019 \u201d she said.<\/p>\n
On Dec. 22, Menzel will host and perform on the CBS special \u201cHome for the Holidays.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a beautiful evening celebrating foster kids, chronicling their stories and helping them find homes,\u201d she said. An active supporter of arts, education and LGBTQ-related charities, she established the A BroaderWay foundation, which operates a camp for girls. It was inspired by \u201cthe greatest six summers of my life\u201d she spent at Camp Olympus, a Jewish camp in the Catskills, and her desire to give back.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe way we can show our gratitude is giving back for the gifts that are given to us. Giving back gives you perspective in the world. But it\u2019s not just giving back. It\u2019s the reciprocity of the experience,\u201d she said. \u201cTo be a role model, you have to live and breathe what you say, so it\u2019s a reminder of who I want to be in this world as well.\u201d<\/p>\n
In November, Menzel received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, with her family and her \u201cFrozen\u201d sister, Kristen Bell, in attendance. \u201cIt\u2019s an incredible honor and to share it with Kristen Bell was even more special because we created these roles together,\u201d she said. \u201cIt was nice to have my son there so he could see how cool his mommy is,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n
Walker, now 10, is more interested in basketball than music. \u201cBut we overhear him singing in the shower once in a while and it\u2019s clear that he has a great ear and a great voice. Maybe by high school he\u2019ll change his mind,\u201d she said. \u201cI think he\u2019s turning out to be a fascinating, loving, sensitive yet strong little man.\u201d<\/p>\n
She\u2019s also proud of the women she has portrayed. \u201cI\u2019ve tended to attract characters that speak to young audiences and give them permission to be their authentic selves and celebrate who they are,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
She credits \u201chard work, discipline, practice and surrounding myself with people who are honest with me\u201d for her success. \u201cI try to remain vulnerable and open and be as real as possible,\u201d she said. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t matter what you do or what kind of mistakes you make. As long as you\u2019re really honest and authentic, you will connect with people. That\u2019s more important than any high note you sing.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Idina Menzel currently has two hit movies in theaters. She\u2019s reprising her role as Princess Elsa in the family-friendly \u201cFrozen II\u201d and starring opposite Adam Sandler in the gritty dramedy \u201cUncut Gems,\u201d playing his exasperated wife. She seized the chance to work with Sandler and directors Benny and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":813,"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":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2],"tags":[56,55,53,54],"class_list":["post-812","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interviews","tag-56","tag-christmas-a-season-of-love","tag-frozen-2","tag-uncut-gems"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/menzel-e1586028109895.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6Srnq-d6","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/812","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\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=812"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/812\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":814,"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/812\/revisions\/814"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/813"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=812"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=812"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=812"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}