The best acting performance Aaron Pierre has ever seen: “I get chills every single time”
Between playing a military veteran with a vengeance in Rebel Ridge and an enigmatic corporate employee in Foe, Aaron Pierre has proven that he is a rising star in the industry who can be taken seriously when playing intimidating characters. However, neither of those roles necessarily had the same responsibility that came with voicing Mufasa in Walt Disney Studios’ live-action prequel Mufasa: The Lion King.
The original 1994 version of The Lion King is not only one of the greatest animated films ever made, but a quintessential example of the hero’s journey that wears its Shakespearean influences proudly, and although many films from Disney’s ‘renaissance era’ featured all-star vocal casts, this one memorably featured the great James Earl Jones in the role of Mufasa, the patriarch lion whose death forces his son Simba, voiced by Matthew Broderick, to flee into hiding.
Jon Favreau’s 2019 remake circled out the original cast with new voices, including Donald Glover replacing Broderick as Simba, but Jones had been so synonymous with the role that it would seem superfluous to bring anyone else back. Even though the film itself received mixed reviews, most audiences and critics tended to agree that Jones’ return was well worth the wait.
However, he did not return to voice the character in Mufasa: The Lion King, the prequel that explored the future king’s youthful days, where he first developed a friendship with his subsequent rival, Scar, voiced by Kelvin Harrison Jr. And although Pierre did not get the chance to meet with Jones before his tragic death at the age of 93, he told The Guardian that the late actor was one of his heroes.
“It’s deeply sad,” Pierre lamented, “I’ve said a number of times before, he is a hero of mine. He’s a hero of many, from his stage work to his extensive filmography to his voice work. He’s just a phenomenal artist.”
Although he had obviously looked to Jones’ work in the original animated film for inspiration on Mufasa: The Lion King, his knowledge of the late actor’s work spanned beyond his film appearances, with him being most taken by Jones’ performance on stage in the 1985 production of August Wilson’s Fences, a masterpiece of American theatre.
Denzel Washington would eventually take over the role of Troy Maxson in a contemporary Broadway revival and cinematic adaptation of the play, but for theatre buffs, no one could top Jones, about which Pierre said that a clip of him delivering the play’s most iconic speech is one that he often returns to. “I’ve watched it more times than I can count, and I get chills every single time,” he claimed, “He was always pursuing authenticity and achieved it every time. That’s my goal”.
Ironically, Pierre’s work in Mufasa: The Lion King mirrored Jones’ in the 2019 remake, and while neither film has been able to curry favour with critics, there was tremendous praise for the work by both Pierre and Jones, leading both instalments in the series to become box office successes.
If it could be said that Pierre did Jones’ legacy proud, it’s exciting to know that he might be playing around in another one of the legendary actor’s most iconic franchises. Outside of The Lion King, Jones is perhaps best known for being the voice of Darth Vader in the Star Wars franchise, and Pierre is set to officially join the galaxy far, far away in 2027 with a role in Star Wars: Starfighter.
