Blue Ivy Carter is making her voice acting debut in a major motion picture and she didn’t land the role because of her superstar parents.
According to Barry Jenkins, director of Mufasa: The Lion King, Blue Ivy secured the gig because of her talent, not because of her hip-hop mogul dad, Jay-Z, or multifaceted mom, Beyoncé, who will reprise her role as Nala, Kiara’s mother.
“She did a wonderful job bringing this character Kiara to life,” Jenkins told Entertainment Tonight. “I’m really proud of her, really proud of the work she did. As we were thinking of who could play this character, I thought, ‘Oh, this is it. She’s the right age, the right vibe. Let’s test it out.’”
“She was just tremendous,” he continued. “There are some things she does in this film that are really emotional. She’s a thespian. [And the casting] had nothing to do with Mom and Dad. She was the right young woman for the job.”
As for getting the mother-daughter duo to voice act alongside each other for the animated film, Jenkins came up with the idea after hearing Blue Ivy read the audiobook recording of Matthew Cherry’s Hair Love.
“Starting this project and just having that in the ether, I was like, ‘Is it worth a shot? Would Blue Ivy want to do it? Would Beyoncé want to act opposite her daughter? Is it too close to home?’” Jenkins recalled to Entertainment Weekly. “But once we put the question to them, they both responded with enthusiasm.”
It’s among the many talents of Jay-Z and Beyoncé’s eldest daughter, including dancing, which she showed off as part of her mom’s Renaissance world tour, and playing the piano, which her grandmother Tina Knowles said came to her naturally.
“She’s self-taught and she sounds like a concert pianist. She paints, she draws, she does poetry. She’s just an artistic soul,” Tina told E! News. “I’m really, really proud of her. I can’t wait until the world gets to really hear.”
Fans will get a chance to see just how much of a thespian Blue Ivy is when Mufasa: The Lion King opens in theaters on Dec. 20.