Producer Jason Reed recently sat down with Collider among the lush peaks of New Zealand to reveal some details about the casting process of Mulan and the integral components in getting the voices of the performers right. When asked about the decision to audition Mandarin speakers exclusively, and how that could have potentially sidelined Asian-Americans who were interested in such a role, Reed replied: In a latter portion of the interview, the producer also elaborated on the challenges of getting the voices right along with the diversity of where these accents originated from. It seems like the cast and crew of Mulan were really invested in finding a middle ground for all of this to work. A great amount of toil goes into the casting process, as the right actors can definitely elevate a film to greater heights. For a film like Mulan, having a certain sense of cultural accuracy is pretty darn important if you want to please a particular crowd. You can’t just turn a blind eye to the legacy and legend of the folk character, or the pitchforks will start coming! So our American actors are having to learn how to bring a sort of a Mandarin accent to it, and our Cantonese actors are having to learn how to bring a Mandarin accent to it. And our Mandarin speakers are learning how to bring sort of an American energy to their performance so it has been complicated and to be honest, I had no idea how complicated language was until I sat in a couple of these sessions… with flashcards, they do all kinds of exercises, and I was like I can’t speak English well enough to do any of this. Let’s hope that Disney’s live-action adaptation will bring honour to Hua Mulan when it hits Malaysian theatres this 26th of March.
