Kelly Marie Tranfirst burst onto the scene in 2017 with the release ofStar Wars: The Last Jedi. Even though she’s still only at the beginning of what’s proving to be a very promising run in film and television, she’s already achieved some significant (and long overdue) “firsts” that are changing the industry for the better. With her work as Rose Tico inThe Last Jedi, Tran became the first woman of color to play a lead character in aStar Warsfilm. Now she’s voicing Disney’s first Southeast Asian princess inRaya and the Last Dragon.
The movie takes place in a fantasy land called Kumandra, a place overrun with a plague called the Druun. The humans of Kumandra do have what they need to defeat the Druun, but it requires them to unite as one when they’re insistent on staying divided into five lands - Heart, Talon, Tail, Spine and Fang. However, that’s where Raya comes in. Her mission is to find the last dragon (voiced byAwkwafina), bring the five pieces of the dragon gem back together and create one Kumandra again.
With the movie now available to watch on Disney+, I got the opportunity to chat with Tran about her experience making the film. She discussed the learning curve required forRaya, even having done voice work forStar Warsprojects andThe Croods: A New Age, and highlighted one specific beat of theRayastory where she took a big swing to get into the physical nature of what her character was doing. But, on top of that, Tran also took a moment to address her experience achieving these “first,” specifically focusing on what she’s learned from past “firsts” that she can now apply toRaya. Here’s what she said:
“I think the most important thing I’ve learned about being the first anything is just that, you want to make sure you’re not the last of whatever that thing is. Making sure that as you are sort of opening the door, that you’re leaving it open for others to follow. And also, gosh, the most important thing is to really enjoy every single moment because these moments are once in a lifetime and they’re fleeting. I really just want to live every one of these moments to the fullest and recognize that this is a miraculous experience and it doesn’t really make sense and it’s so much bigger than me. Being able to acknowledge all of those things, it’s big for me.”
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Check out the video at the top of this article to hear our full chat with Tran aboutRaya and the Last Dragon, including the new tool Tran added to her voice acting toolkit that she’ll take on to future animated projects, like perhaps her upcoming series,Monsters at Work.
Kelly Marie Tran:
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