What Is a Disney Princess Audition Like
The INSIDER Summary:
- INSIDER spoke with Brianna Smith, who played Rapunzel in Walt Disney World for six months during her Disney College Program.
- The audition process is rigorous. Even once you have the part, you need to know your character inside out.
- The guest experience is the most important, even when you're being tackled by over-eager fans.
It's every little girl's dream to become a Disney princess.
For most of us, that fantasy stays firmly rooted in our childhoods. But for Brianna Smith*, a recent college graduate from Provo, Utah, and a handful of other lucky women around the world, being a princess is a real-life career.
INSIDER spoke with Smith, who played Rapunzel (from the Disney movie "Tangled") during her internship with the Disney College program from January to June in 2014 at Disney World. She gave us the inside scoop on what it's really like to be princess, how easy it is to get fired, and the gossip that only happens backstage and underneath (yes, underneath!) the Happiest Place on Earth.
Keep scrolling for our favorite secrets, scoops, and gossip from a real-life Disney princess. Be warned: Disney magic spoilers ahead.
* Not her real name
The audition process is super rigorous
When Smith first auditioned to be a Disney princess in Salt Lake City, she was rejected outright. But after applying to and getting into the coveted Disney College Program, which sets college students up with internships and work-study programs at Disney World, Smith decided to try again at an in-house audition.
"There were about 500 of us, and they divide you into rooms of 50. Then they line you up in rows of 10 and study your features," she said. "It was pretty unnerving. Then, after all of that they said 'we just need Brianna Smith, thank you.' And just like that all 49 other girls were eliminated."
After learning a dance, practicing lines, and facing several eliminations, only three girls out around 500 were picked: a Rapunzel, an Aurora, and a Snow White.
"Of that 450 they didn't use anyone else, even girls who were fit into costumes and makeup," she said. "I got really lucky."
Beauty and looks are (often) more important than talent
"You could look exactly like Ariel and have the voice down but if your boobs are too big, you won't be playing the Little Mermaid," she said. "Plus, you don't want to have an uncoordinated Aurora, and if you can't nail a Scottish accent, you can't be Merida [...] I was a musical theater major in college, but a lot of girls had never had any acting experience. It's more about your facial structure."
One of the most important aspects of being a princess is uniform height. You have to be between 5'4-5'7 to be a Disney princess, while Disney fairies like Tinkerbell are between 4'11-5'1. Smith, who is 5'7, was on the higher end of that height requirement.
You have to be trained as a furry before becoming a princess
Disney princesses and princes are known in the business as "face characters," while characters in full face costume that don't talk (except for the new talking Mickey Mouse), are known as "fur characters." For the first few weeks after an actress is cast as a Disney princess, she must practice as a "fur character." Smith was mainly cast as Pluto, but also trained as Mrs. Incredible, one of the Green Army Men from Toy Story, and Rafiki.
"It's basically like a giant game of charades," she said, adding that the only downside was working in a head-to-toe costume under the hot Florida sun.
Princesses have to look practically perfect in every way — and if they don't, they're in trouble
"The whole idea is when a guest comes one year and they meet the same princess the next year, they will have the exact same experience," Smith said. "You have to be trained on how to do your makeup the exact same way every single time."
Smith said that you can get written up for not being perfect, like if a Disney prince forgot to shave (can't have Prince Eric with 5 o'clock shadow!) or if Cinderella walked in with pink nail polish.
"One time I walked out on set wearing my bright orange tennis sneakers; I had totally forgotten to change!" Smith said. "Luckily, someone spotted me just as they were opening the doors. They had to rush to re-shut the doors before guests came in. I was almost fired on the spot!"
Research means watching the same Disney movie over and over again
If you want to be a Disney princess, you have to know the character inside and out: Her lines, facial expressions, and even her favorite color. Smith said that even though it wasn't a requirement, she watched "Tangled" at least once a week because shereallywanted to succeed at her job.
"I had a whole day of character training. My instructor was a former Fairy Godmother," Smith said. "I watched scenes over and over again, and she'd quiz me and ask me to mimic the character. It paid off because when a kid is like 'wheres your kingdom?' you cant just be like 'it's fake kid go away;' you have to have a response ready that's sweet, accurate, and not confusing."
There's a weird social hierarchy backstage
If Disney World was a high school, the Disney princesses would be the queen bees: They're beautiful, beloved, and their costumes are wayless sweaty than the fur characters. Smith said that there was this odd unwritten social hierarchy backstage and in the utilidors (tunnels that run underneath the Magic Kingdom, where dressing rooms, prep kitchens, and the staff cafeteria, or "Mouseketeria," is).
"There was a weird attitude on both sides, and people would talk about the princesses like 'they're such b**ches,' like there was a weird stigma that we think we're better than everyone else," she said. "People would expect us to act like these characters, but we were just college students, just regular people."
Guests will trust you with their deepest secrets
Smith was often surprised at the personal secrets guests (even adults) would entrust her with. But she realized over time that she was representative of a special part of their lives, even if the adults knew it was all pretend.
"There was one woman who told me she lost her baby, she had a miscarriage," Smith said. "She gave me a big hug and told me how excited she was to see me. I mean, she knows I'm not really Rapunzel and yet she felt comfortable telling me this because of an emotional connection to the movie."
Sometimes it's hard not to cry on set
Even though hearing adult guests' personal stories was sometimes sad, nothing could prepare her for the heartbreaking private moments with "Make a Wish" kids with severe illnesses. An interaction with a little blind girl is one of Smith's favorite moments during her brief stint as Rapunzel.
"When this little girl came in, she was about six or seven, and she was blind, I was thinking, 'what kind of connection can I possibly make with her?'" Smith said. "I knelt down with her, grabbed her hands and brushed them up and down the long wig and said 'do you feel my hair? It glows when I sing.' I brushed her hands over the flower clips in my hair and said 'Do you feel these? Flynn picked them for me. They're so beautiful.' I was verbally explaining the dress and what everything looked like. I glanced up at her parents and they had tears streaming down and the girl had this huge smile on her face."
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What Is a Disney Princess Audition Like
Source: https://www.insider.com/what-its-like-to-be-a-disney-princess-2017-8
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