Being in Hollywood for the Red Carpet World Premiere of The Jungle Book is an exhilarating experience. Getting to know the people who are behind this magical and wonder-filled movie phenomenon is soulful and very emotional. Meeting and speaking to Lupita Nyong’o and Giancarlo Esposito on their roles and voices behind Raksha, the mother of the wolf pack, and Akela, the leader of the pack, was mind shifting.
Red Carpet Experience at El Capitan Theatre
April 4, 2016
(Photo by Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images for Disney)
Being the voices of the wolfpack’s parents and leaders, both actors appeared to have a strong creative bond, and they showed it during our conversation with them. The recording for the movie takes time, during which all actors, writers and directors become a Family! Here’s what they say about that.
We did get a chance to see some of the film as it progressed. Especially in parts of it that referred to our scenes together, and our scenes with Mowgly. Which has been really, really wonderful. And then we’ve been offered screening after screening, but we’re obstinate. We say no, we want to see it together as a family.
Spending some time with these amazing individuals who lent their voices to strong characters in The Jungle Book movie had really affected me on a deep level. We wanted to know where such strength and belief in what they do and portray with their voices in the movie come from.
Lupita Nyong’o
I have a lot of very, very powerful women in my life. My mother being the first. And most important. But in my culture, in my mother’s sisters are also my mother. And my father’s sisters are my mother’s, too. So I’ve have many mothers. And, um, my… My mom is… was a [STAMMERS] a… a [STAMMERS] She had a fierce love. She has a fierce love for her children. And she’s known to say things like if you die I’ll kill you.
For me, that spirit, that tenacity of mothering was something that I thought of. And that inspired me is my version of Raksha. Because it takes a woman with one huge heart to take on not only a child that’s not hers, but of a completely different species. And the fact that she does this, and she doesn’t look back, and she does everything in her power to protect that child.
And then to have to let go of that child as well – that takes even more love to allow your children to do what they need to do. And all mothers go through that. I know… I went through that with my mother.
And as a child, you don’t appreciate it until you’re much older, and you realize how hard it is to make new connections. Then, how hard it is to lose those connections.
So those were things I was definitely thinking about. And I love my mommy.
Both actors have a strong connection to their mothers who are their ideal heroes in their lives. Their respect for a woman in this life, in this day and age, is tremendous and is over-pouring with the magnitude of adoration and belief in her.
We talked about technologies involved during the recording process. Giancarlo Esposity who is directing and acting himself and has his own studio, talks about The Jungle Book voice-over experience with love and curiosity for the inside process and how it was done. He opens up about his first steps on the radio and how they led to his work with Director Jon Favreau.
[Recording process was] Very different. Because technology has changed so much in the last few years. I love being on the mike. There’s a special relationship that you… your whole being, nurtures when you’re on the mike. And I, I started working with RKO when I was seven years old, and couldn’t get my face in front of a camera because I wasn’t black enough. Back in the ‘60s and ‘70s. It was really interesting situation. So I went on the mike because I wasn’t regarded as black ‘cause I’m half Italian and from Europe and all these things.
Because I spoke well, I would do recordings that would teach young black kids how to speak English. So I gained, a relationship with the mike. With this, John put up cameras – three different cameras in a way that captured our motion, so that he could blend our physicality with the physicality that he was planning for the wolves.
I learned so much from just being in the studio a couple of different times.
Giancarlo Esposito really opened up during our interview about his personal life, his interaction with his four daughters, his creative role as a parent who travels and records a lot. The ingenuity and sincerity of his words and emotion during the conversation were truly a life changer for me. When asked if he was identifying with the characters on the screen, the actor offered this answer.
Oh, in so many ways. I’m a male, and I have four daughters. I have to say that, while these questions in regard to Raksha, and how Lupita feels about her mom and being a mother, I feel like the importance of the female and the mother presence in our society is greater than ever.
I have four daughters: the eldest is 19, the youngest is 12, and I watched all of them journey into motherhood. Motherhood is very deep. It starts when you’re very, very young. Now, my 12-year-old comes in, wants to put me to bed. And she’ll put her hand on my forehead and say the prayer with me. As for years I’ve done for her! It’s almost like a very beautiful, natural transition.
So while Lupita and you have been talking back and forth about motherhood, I have this vision that I’m really watching each one of my daughters start to become women and mothers. And this is what’s gonna save our planet. I know it.
Because there’s such a grace and understanding in the female persona when have really come into their own. Part of that is to have children, and to be caring for those children, and not only in the care for them, but also in the nurturing and raising of them, they have to pass on their souls and their intelligence.
And all those things can’t be taught. It’s something that is in the essence of a woman, the essence of a mother, a mother knows! I have learned to listen through raising four daughters. But I’ve learned to become a progressive man because I have four women in my life. And their mother, who I don’t… I’m not married to anymore, but who impresses me because of our relationship. Because we have a very deep and friendly relationship that is completely about who we really are now.
Coming into contact with human greatness and gracefulness is a magical moment indeed. With Lupita Nyong’o, we get the strength and the intelligence her culture and personal aspiration for woman’s place in life – and creative world – brings into her performing career. With Giancarlo Esposito, we dive into the genuine admiration of women who have been surrounding him all his life – his wife and four daughters who rule his human nature and reflect on his career choices.
Lupita was gracious to share with us her upcoming project she collaborated on with other three women.
I am on Broadway at the moment. Uh, I’m doing a show called Eclipsed by Danai Gurira. You might know her from The Walking Dead.
She plays Mishone. And she’s an incredible playwright. She’s written this five-female play about women in the Liberian civil war, and how they each individually deal with war, and get themselves out of very dire situation. We are the first all-female performed, directed, and written play on Broadway.
It’s a milestone. I’m really proud of. I love going to work every day. It exhausts me. And I earn my rest! And I wake up, and I do it again, and I just feel so blessed to be able to do, this story that means so much to me, means so much to my continent. The very diverse audience is coming to see it. So if you’re in New York, come check us out. And, other than that, I have things I cannot talk about yet.
It’s so much more fun to do the work than to talk about it. I will have to admit that. Everybody gets to decide how they feel, and what to take away by themselves, and that’s what you hope for. That people will take away different things and have different experiences from the work we do as actors.
So I don’t like to prescribe how to feel about, the work I do. Right now, on Broadway, I’m playing a 15-year-old. And so to go from playing a 1,000-year-old female to 15 – I just love that kind of range to be able to do those kinds of things.
Photo Credit: Sara Krulwich/The New York Times
I’ve just made my second feature film as a director called This is Your Death. It stars Josh Duhamel, Famke Janssen and myself. It’s an unflinching look at reality television. And it’s very provocative and profound. I locked picture on Friday. I’m praying that my investors at Gray Point Media will say yes. This is the locked picture, and I can go into my finishing. So I’ll be finishing the movie this month in Vancouver doing all the technical stuff that I need to do on it.
And I’ve started on Maze Runner 3, the Death Cure. We’ll go back May 15th and finish that film. And I feel so blessed to be in creation. I’m working with the History Channel on a story of the first, black US Marshal named Bass Reeves. In Indian Territory who was the right hand man of Judge Isaac Parker, Hanging Judge Parker, who brought law to an untamed land. So it’s a story about their relationship. I’m excited because I’m able to do various different things. It’s kinda lovely to be able to play in television and play in film. I’ve got this coming out, and Money Monster coming out in April. I feel like I finally am hitting my stride again. It’s kinda nice.
Rubbing shoulders with these two individuals who walk like us, who breath like us, yet who act out their lives like unique, one-of-a-kind creations of this world – that was one of the high points during this trip to Hollywood. This conversation with them changed the vibration of my soul. It shot me deep inside of me to touch that which allows us to be GREAT. Great with people. Great with choices we make. Great with the Planet we call Home.
