The scariest thing about Disney's new HauntedMansion movie? The time they tried to film Jamie Lee Curtis' scenes with her head inside a real crystal ball.
Simien, a former Disneyland employee, says that his deep appreciation for the ride prompted him to expand on Leota's origins, and that included making her as iconic in the world of the film as she is to Disney parks fans.
"Tiffany Haddish's character [Harriet] worships Madame Leota, and already knows who she is by the time we discover that Madame Leota is in this mansion. If you look at Harriet's costume, you can see that Harriet is trying to dress like Madame Leota, but without access to any of those specific cultural references. We created a bit of a costume story," Simien says.
Curtis found levity in the conflict of Leota's existence as an esteemed psychic in the 1800s, versus the state she's reduced to in the contemporary timeline. "She thinks she's been in the ball a day, and she's been in there hundreds of years," Curtis says. "There was comedy to be played with the funny part of the fact that she's been in there a long time."Jamie Lee Curtis as Madame Leota in 'Haunted Mansion'One piece of direction she says Simien gave her as she barked Leota's lines from the ball?
"Be funnier, is the only direction I ever got from Justin," Curtis says. "It was just, 'Jamie, can you do it again, but be funnier.'"These interviews were conducted prior to the SAG-AFTRA strike.
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