Daveed Diggs Is Having a Blast
If you’re a fan of Disney's The Little Mermaid, then you’re a fan of a tiny crustacean named Sebastian. There’s no way around it. The sassy red crab, who helps Ariel defeat Ursula and live her best life above ground, was a standout in the 1989 animated film. Back then, voice actor Samuel E. Wright brought the character to life. Now, three decades later, it’s Daveed Diggs who is making Sebastian shine for a new generation.
In The Little Mermaid's live-action remake, which debuted last weekend, Diggs expertly adds his own spin to the character, but he admits that playing Sebastian was a daunting task. “I was terrified until we started rehearsing,” he tells me over Zoom. “A big part of me was like, What am I doing? Fandoms are a real thing and you don’t want to disappoint people when you know how important these films are to folks.”
All fears aside, the 41-year-old Diggs quickly settled into the character. Prior to filming, he traveled to the Caribbean to learn about their culture and the origins of Calypso music, which is featured throughout the film. That laid the groundwork for Sebastian's history. And for the crab's signature attitude and witty one-liners? Well, that came with the help of Diggs’ co-star, Awkwafina, who voices Sebastian’s frenemy, Scuttle. “She’s a genuinely hilarious person,” Diggs says of the comedian. “We developed this weird backstory for Sebastian and Scuttle.”
In their version of events, the bickering duo were divorced before the events of The Little Mermaid even take place. “The way they argue has that kind of vibe to it,” Diggs adds, laughing at the elaborate bit. “It’s that, like, we’ve known each other for a long time and we know each other so much that we can’t be together anymore. But there’s love in there somewhere.”
If Disney’s paying attention, they’ll give Sebastian and Scuttle the prequel they deserve. Uuntil then, you can watch their shenanigans transpire in The Little Mermaid. To celebrate the film, Diggs chatted with Esquire about creating the movie, his favorite Little Mermaid song, and the importance of viewers seeing themselves reflected on screen—even in a children's movie.
performance is iconic and I knew I couldn’t do that," he says. "I wasn’t going to do an impression of him, but I wanted to honor him."' expand='' crop='original'][/image]
ESQUIRE: Congratulations on The Little Mermaid, Daveed. Have you tuned into the buzz online?
DAVEED DIGGS: Not really. The audio recordings happened so long ago. I actually finished my last day of recording on March 19th, 2020, the day before the world shut down. We rushed the recording of “Under the Sea” so I could fly back and get home before they stopped flights. And I didn't see the film until the premiere in LA.
I really just wanted to see it and be able to feel it for myself, so I hadn't really been listening [to the reviews]—and it totally blew me away. The movie's so beautiful. Halle [Bailey] is amazing, as I knew she was. For me, all I ever have is the process, right? I love making things, so I normally won't watch myself at all. That's not the fun part to me. But this was so cool to see it and really enjoy it. I feel like I already won and I don’t need anybody else’s opinion.
Tell me more about the recording process. Were you in the booth with your co-stars?
Rob Marshall [the film's director] made a bunch of really smart choices with the production, but this was one of the best. Everybody rehearsed together. That first month, we rehearsed it like it was a musical. If you were in a scene with somebody, we rehearsed in real space together. So for me, Aquafina, and Jacob—we’re the fully animated characters. There were also puppeteers who had to scale models of what our characters looked like. So we would rehearse scenes with the puppeteers, moving the character through space, being like, “OK, well it's gonna take Sebastian this many seconds to climb up this wall, so we might need a little more dialogue here.”
It allowed us to feel like a company of actors, and make choices together. When we did the actual audio recordings, we were on a sound stage altogether. We weren't in booths. Awkwafina, Jacob, and I were all sitting at stands with mics and there were cameras pointed at us so they could capture our facial expressions. All of the other actors in the scenes were also there acting with us so we got to play off people for real, which was really special. They ended up keeping so much more than I thought they would. Mostly because every time Awkwafina said something, I started laughing.
What else surprised you when you saw the final cut?
Everything that happens above water is really beautiful and precise. I love the color palettes Rob chose for under the sea and on the land. They speak to each other in this really beautiful way. There's this one incredibly cinematic moment when Ariel goes to the surface for the first time and they combine. There's some really beautiful filmmaking in it.
There's also a great score happening. The orchestrations are really smart. You'll hear a song and then you'll hear it called back, later in the film. During the engagement party scene, “Kiss the Girl” is being played on a harp, but you wouldn't really know. It’s very subtle and all those great elements worked together so well.
Yeah, I was surprised by how realistic it looked, too.
I agree. But "Kiss the Girl"—that scene is not hyperreal. It leans into the magic of it a little bit. There's a Disneyland ride quality to it in some ways. It’s such an effects-heavy show, but somehow they managed not to overuse them. I guess, exactly what you’re saying—they created a world that feels real but also has a look to it..
Totally. It had a Wakanda vibe.
That's a good comparison. It’s this very immersive place that you haven't seen before. You can't go through photos and find a place that looks like that, but it felt fully realized.
So, did you like animated movies as a little kid?
Oh, I loved them.
Do you have a favorite Disney film?
Yeah, still do. My favorite Disney film is The Aristocats. That or the animated Robin Hood. I love that. Winnie the Pooh, all that stuff from that era. They were cheaper, but the voice acting is really great. There’s something really endearing about the artwork in those too.
Totally. I don't know if they've done a live-action of The Aristocats yet.
I don't think they have.
That would be fun though.
There are great songs in that one.
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Let’s talk about Sebastian. He’s such an iconic Disney character.
Samuel's performance is iconic and I knew I couldn't do that. I wasn't going to do an impression of him, but I wanted to honor him. There were a lot of things that made me nervous about it, but the environment on set was very much like, Everyone's here because we love the original, so we're going to honor the original. Let’s play.
That sounds liberating. Given the comments people had about Disney remaking The Little Mermaid—and casting people of color—I imagine there was some pressure to prove them wrong. But I'm glad it was still a fun process.
Yeah, I mean a lot of that is also a tribute to Halle. I don't know that there's another human being on the planet who could do what she did with the role. There’s obviously her voice, and she's a brilliant actress, but also the person she is. Being a real-life Disney princess comes with a lot of things. Like the scrutiny that Sebastian's getting? Whatever! Do you know what I’m saying? Even before this thing came out, she had to deal with all of the love and all of the hate that came her way.
She was 19 years old at the time that we work on this. She’s 23 now. To watch her walk through the world, carry all of that, and spit back nothing but love, and then to also continue to grow into this incredibly caring, brilliant, confident woman? Wow. There is a generational talent attached to the front of this, and she’s an incredible role model for all of our kids. She’s exactly the person who should play this role. And what if they hadn’t been ready to do it for two more years? Or what if they have been ready five years ago? It wouldn’t have happened. We’re so lucky that Halle existed at the time that she exists.
make us associate the movie’s relationships with real relationships in our lives," says Diggs.' expand='' crop='original'][/image]
What do you think this version of The Little Mermaid offers that the original did not?
There are so many more points of entry into it, because of the character development involved. Obviously, because of the diversity, so many of us can look up on screen and see ourselves—but also, think about how the relationships work. You wouldn’t look at Halle and Javier [Bardem, who plays King Triton] in this film and ever question that that's her father. It doesn't cross your mind when you're watching it.
As a biracial kid, I grew up with a white mother and you never saw that represented in film either. So that's one aspect of it. But also, Ariel and Prince Eric’s relationship is different too. We learn a lot more about Prince Eric in this one. We see his family situation, and we watch them become friends before they fall in love. She can’t remember she’s supposed to kiss him, so they just hang out. That’s really beautiful. I found myself way more invested in that relationship. The father-daughter relationship comes across in a way that is so much more powerful than the original.
In the scene at the very end when [King Triton] sends them away, I was weeping. You really understand that he’s had to learn so much from her. He had to really allow his daughter to become a person. That's a real parent-kid relationship.
Totally.
That’s the thing about the live-action—it's not just a gimmick for the sake of having a live-action movie. It also makes us associate the movie’s relationships with real relationships in our lives. That allows for a whole bunch of different kinds of entry into it. Even in friendships. Like, what will you do to protect your friends? How far will you go? How important is your friend circle? What does love really mean? All of these things! Because we're watching human beings portray them, it just comes through stronger.
I have to ask—do you have a favorite song in The Little Mermaid?
“Kiss The Girl.” The writing is so good. All of the songwriting is really good, but that one is just... I mean lyrically, it's a masterclass. “Under The Sea” is like that too—just the rhythmic placement of all those words. As a person who writes rap songs for a living, when you actually start getting into those songs, they're perfectly constructed rhythmically and from a word choice perspective. “Kiss The Girl” is one of those. It's understated. There's not a lot going on, but everything about it is perfect.
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