Black Girl Nerds had the honor and privilege to interview Tiffany Boone, the voice of Sarabi, Simba’s mother. She appears in the 2025 live action film Mufasa: The Lion King.
(This interview has been edited for time and clarity.)
You’re playing such an amazing character. Such a groundbreaking character with a lot of historical context. While developing your characteristics for Sarabi, did you look for any input from Alfre Woodard [from The Lion King (2019)]? Did you look at clips from Madge Sinclair’s original performance from the original 1994 film?
I watched both performances multiple times, listened to both performances multiple times. When I got the role and I talked to [director] Barry Jenkins about what he was looking for in the performance, I asked “Do you want me to try to imitate either of these prior performances or both?” He said, “You know, I really just want your take on it. We are seeing who she is as a young lady. We’re setting the path for where she’s going.”
I think naturally, in both of those performances, there’s a regality to them that you just feel in their voices. I wanted to maintain some of that, but also, she’s a young adult. She’s having fun. She’s sassy. I feel like I was able to add some layers on there, but still be inspired by [Woodard and Sinclair’s] performances.
That’s so fantastic! Can you tell me more about “the layers”? In Sarabi’s youth, she’s the reason for Zazu coming in for Mufasa’s kingly stage in his life; he’s not the reason. Any other direction from Barry Jenkins? Any direction from Lin-Manuel Miranda for the music (if you received any)? Congratulations on the success of “Tell Me It’s You” that’s trending a lot.
Thank you! A lot of times when I was recording with Barry, he was trying to bring my natural sassiness out. I don’t think you see a sassiness in Sarabi in the original film. You see a lot of vulnerability I was trying to bring to it. But also she’s tough and she’s confident. I think you get to see her make mistakes, be wrong, and be defensive about that. He was trying to push me to have fun with her range in that way.
I only worked with Lin very briefly when I was recording this song. He popped in for the last time I sang “Tell Me It’s You” on Zoom, and he said, “Oh! It’s perfect! It’s great!” But his team that I worked with, we’re really just like, “There’s a specific sound to Lin’s music,” right? There’s a specific way to sing it. There’s a specific way to sing Disney songs. In the beginning, I was maybe giving it a little bit too much R&B sometimes. So it was about maintaining the character as well as staying in the world of Disney. The songs we’ve grown up loving, there’s a feeling to them, and we wanted to capture that.
What was it like working with a voice over coach for this project?
I had a voice over coach that helped me from when I was auditioning, through working on the film for the first year or so. It was really wonderful! And this was my first time doing voice over work. She really helped me learn the basics of everything. She also helped me learn how to have fun. I had so much fear around it, and she was like, “You’re an actor, Tiff, you do film and television all the time. Stop thinking of it being so different, and think about the same things that are important to you when you’re doing film, television, and theatre. Now you get to have more freedom to to just physically do anything you want to do, make your voice sound as crazy as you want it to. Just use your imagination.”
I loved you in The Following and Nine Perfect Strangers. In your previous work, there’s a theme of grief and death. What was it like working on this mainstream franchise that deals with intergenerational trauma and grief?
Part of my connection for why I loved the original film so much growing up, I couldn’t articulate it as a child. It helped me process grief as a young child. It’s a gift to be able to be a part of the story of The Lion King and still continue to explore those same themes. Hopefully we’ll be able to bring lessons to other young children the way I learned some things from watching the original.
I guess I have worked on a lot of things that deal with grief and loss. I don’t really work on anything that my nieces and nephews can’t watch. It’s wonderful to work in this medium, on this Disney film, in this legacy, because it’s a way to deal with the same themes I always feel like I’m working with — but in a way that’s light and I’m still able to have fun, and laugh, and sing, and dance. To bring such a wonderful experience to kids and adults alike.
Thank you so much! Is there anything you’d like me to ask that you don’t get asked a lot?
Just let your readers know we have the digital version [of Mufasa] streaming for purchase now! It has all the fun of seeing it in the theater, and extra bits where you can see some behind the scenes, and sing along. April 1, 2025, we’ll have the physical copy coming out. I hope people can go check it out if you weren’t able to go see it in the theater, and even if you were! Have even more fun with it.
Along with streaming on Amazon, Apple, Google, and more (while we’re waiting for the physical copy), here’s a feature clip to check out in the meantime.
