Cruella, the latest of Disney’s live-action adaptations, arrives in theaters and on Disney+ May 28. Part prequel and part retelling, the film gives Ms. De Vil a whole new set of motivations and an entirely new found family to lean on.
Joel Fry and Paul Walter Houser play Jasper and Horace, two fellow orphans who meet Estella (Emma Stone) as children and form their own little crew. The actors spoke to Screen Rant about diving into Disney lore and softening up their antihero characters with the bonds of friendship.
What drew you guys to Cruella?
Joel Fry: An Easterly wind drew me this way, and I just kind of found myself on the set of Cruella.
Paul Walter Hauser: I had the chance to reunite with Craig Gillespie and Emma Thompson, the chance to do a cockney accent and play dress up and get paid for it. And Emma Stone is probably top of the list, man. I have a list in my head of actors I really want to work with, and she’s totally one of them.
Joel, can you talk to me a little bit about how your characters fit into the story?
Joel Fry: I think we’re Estella/Cruella’s surrogate family, and I think we’re there to try and keep her grounded and keep her in the realms of reality – and not kill someone. Or try not to kill. That’s why I think we’re there.
Paul, Cruella really explored your characters and their relationships in an unexpected way. Can you talk to me about the relationships between Jasper, Horace and Estella?
Paul Walter Hauser: Yeah, I think it’s a relationship of survival. They didn’t meet at a party when they were 23 and decided they liked the same brand of fun. They met as little kids and pooled all their micro resources to stay afloat. And I think there’s something really sweet and rootable about that, and that’s why we probably get away with some of the naughty stuff we do in the movie and the audience is still on board with us.
Then again, audiences were still on board with Bryan Cranston in season 4 of Breaking Bad, so the stakes are pretty low here. We don’t have to worry too much. I think these Disney antiheroes we portray will still be universally loved, hopefully.
Joel, Jasper acts as the moral compass when Estella goes full Cruella. Can you talk to me about that shift in our character and how it affects Jasper?
Joel Fry: It effects Jasper and Horace in all sorts of ways, because before they’re a team. And they’re still a team after, but they’re a team with a boss. It was very much the boss telling them what to do. And that’s not how it was; it’s not how it’s been. So, that doesn’t work for us two.
But at the same time, we want to give her space because we care about her and we want her to be well again. So, we allow a certain amount of craziness to happen before we put our foot down. But even then, you’re family; you want to try and get them back on board. You’d do anything really to try and make sure they’re okay. Yeah, that’s what I think about that.
Paul, Jasper and especially Horace have so many fantastic comedic moments. Can you talk to me about the comedy elements of your characters?
Paul Walter Hauser: Yeah, as far as the comedy elements go, I credit Craig Gillespie and Neil Swain, my dialect coach, and all these people that were instrumental in the tonality of what I was doing and what we were doing together.
The comedy in the film, the reason I think it works is because we’re not playing it like a Disney movie. We’re like two characters in a Guy Ritchie film that got dropped into Cruella. That was partly the dialect for me, learning that cockney accent, and then part of it was sitting down with Craig and Joel and feeling out what is the banter. What is the give and take and push and pull between the two guys?
Joel Fry: Do Americans say banter as well?
Paul Walter Hauser: Yeah, sometimes. Or rant or Screen Rant.
Joel, the grittier element to your characters was really interesting. What was that like to explore?
Joel Fry: Yeah, I guess that’s to do with pace. Because it’s pace in how we’re speaking, pace of the camera movements, and pace of the editing. Yeah, that’s what that is. And at some point, I clocked onto that early and tried to keep that energy high, and that pace high. Because that’s what he demanded, and what he wanted it to be. That’s where I think that comes from.
Craig really understands the language of film, like blending music and costumes with the setting. Can you talk to me about the collaboration process of working with Craig, and his directing style on this film?
Paul Walter Hauser: I would say there’s a lot of trust. He really has to trust his actors and know that he cast the right people. Because on the day, Joel and I might be waiting in our trailer 5 or 6 or 7 hours to do a scene. When they finally bring you up, it’s not like you’ve been saying the same three lines in the mirror for six hours. That doesn’t make you a better actor; it probably just makes you crazy.
When you get to set to do two or three lines of dialogue after waiting six hours, they’re trying to move. Clearly, they have a lot to accomplish. So, you don’t always get a big, collaborative conversation about the scene. Sometimes it’s like teaching a kid how to swim; sometimes you throw them in the deep end and tell them, “Don’t die. Keep moving your arms.” It’s kind of like that with acting sometimes, where there’s a lot of trust afforded. He just throws you in the deep end and tells you to go swim, because he hired you to swim.
I think that trust is a big thing, and then his sense of humor and enthusiasm. We’ll shoot something at 9am in the morning, and by 4pm after lunch, he’s showing us the scene’s rough cut that he edited. That’s very unique; a lot of directors don’t invite people in that way. And Craig’s kind of like a little kid, like, “Come see this thing I’m working on.” That enthusiasm and sense of humor and vibe is really good.
Joel, what did you want to bring to the character of Jasper that wasn’t necessarily on the page?
Joel Fry: That’s a good question.
Paul Walter Hauser: Probably the heroin addiction?
Joel Fry: The heroin addiction was one.
Paul Walter Hauser: Did that make it into the film?
I think that one got cut. I think that one was cutting room floor.
Joel Fry: What I wanted to bring to that was maybe a caring and softness. I think the character was written be softer; not particularly mean like everybody else. But I was wary that it’d be really good if I could come across like I really genuinely cared. Because there’s a couple of scenes where it wasn’t like, “Let’s nick this, let’s steal this or run away or get this.”
I thought the reason for this character is to give that little bit of normalcy. [The film is] crazy, and if those little bits of normality could be right, then it would just be really nice. Because then that would give just a slight different texture to the rest of it. And it also gives you a slight breath, because when you go back into the rest of it, all kinds of stuff happening. Maybe that’s one thing I really wanted to try and do.
