FASHION FORWARD
Henson voices trendsetter in new animated film
For an actress as versatile as Taraji P. Henson, it may seem a bit disconcerting to her that the Disney producers of Ralph Breaks the Internet did not offer her the role of Yesss based on any of her past work.
It wasn’t her Oscar-nominated turn as Queenie in 2008’s The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. Nor her Golden Globe-winning performance as the ambitious Cookie Lyon on Fox’s Empire. Nor her role as NASA mathematician Katherine G. Johnson in 2016’s Hidden Figures.
“They were watching me in interviews,” says Henson, speaking to Postmedia earlier this month. “That’s how they knew they wanted me for this character. It wasn’t about the work I’d done. Because you have to bring so much to this character. In animation, you don’t get a script. You just get the pages for the days that you work because they are constantly changing — it’s constantly evolving. It took us a whole year to put this in the can. I never really saw an official script. So it’s a different way of working.”
In short, they wanted Henson to bring the sort of infectious energy she brings to interviews. And it doesn’t take long into an interview with Henson to see why.
When asked if she had seen the action figure of Yesss, which was among the towering collection of Ralph merchandise on display, Henson makes no attempt to hide her enthusiasm.
“I always wanted that,” she says. “I wanted to be an action figure. I wanted to do an action film or a Marvel character so I can say, ‘I play this character,’ and put in on my mantle. “Finally!” she shouts, her voice suddenly rising a few decibels. “Yes!”
Yesss is the name of the sassy, fashion-conscious algorithm she voices, a new character in the Wreck-It Ralph universe. In the sequel to the 2012 blockbuster, former video-game villain Ralph (voiced by John C. Reilly) and his best friend Vanellope von Schweetz (Sarah Silverman) embark on a new mission to find a vintage steering wheel for Vanellope’s arcade game, which has been broken. If one can’t be found, Vanellope might be forever homeless.
Luckily, the Litwak’s Family Fun Center and Arcade, where videogame characters all socialize afterhours in the power strip, has just rocketed into the modern age by installing an internet connection. So Ralph and Vanellope venture inside in hopes of purchasing their vintage arcade piece online.
Among the characters helping them negotiate this strange new universe is Yesss, who heads BuzzTube and determines what videos trend. She sets out to turn Ralph into a social media star so he can make enough real money to purchase the steering wheel. Giving life to social media’s strange realm of viral videos, trending and “likes” is just one of the savvy and wildly imaginative turns the filmmakers offer here.
Henson says she was on board from Day 1, when she was offered an early glimpse of Yesss as a smart, take-charge businesswoman prone to changing hairdos and outfits with lightning-quick speed.
“She loves fashion because she is a trendsetter,” Henson says. “Her fashion is always changing just like things on the internet — how things are viral for 10 seconds and then they’re gone. It’s an outfit for her. I really loved her character. I love how she looks, and I just felt like I could do it justice.”
Henson will be following her role as Yesss with a very different film. In the fact-based drama Best of Enemies, she will play 1970s civil rights leader Ann Atwater opposite Oscar-winner Sam Rockwell, who will play Ku Klux Klan member Claiborne Paul Ellis.
Still, despite her Oscar nod, three Emmy nominations, Golden Globe win and impressive slate of high-profile films on the horizon, Henson insists it was getting the call from Disney that finally assured her she had found success.
“I grew up watching Disney animated films,” she says. “To be the voice of a Disney animated character, that means you made it. That means people are coming to the movies because they like you. You got real box-office appeal now,” she says with laugh. “Pay me my money!”