HomeNEWS'Lion King' James Earl Jones gets loving tribute in 'Mufasa'

‘Lion King’ James Earl Jones gets loving tribute in ‘Mufasa’


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Before knowing who he was, Aaron Pierre felt James Earl Jones in his soul.

While Pierre plays a young Mufasa in the Disney prequel “Mufasa: The Lion King” (in theaters now), Jones originated the iconic role in the original 1994 animated classic “The Lion King.” The London-born Pierre, 30, remembers seeing it “when I was 3 or 4” and “I just felt this voice that was full of warmth and love, and also strength and clarity.

“He really is the king. It was just a massive honor and a privilege to have the opportunity in a small way to contribute to that legacy.”

Jones, the screen and stage legend who died Sept. 9 at 93, was on the minds of “Mufasa” stars and filmmakers during the making of the movie – and still is. Before “Mufasa” even starts, director Barry Jenkins includes a tribute card that reads, “In remembrance of James Earl Jones,” with Jones’ unmistakable voice speaking his character’s lines from the first film. (He also voiced Mufasa for the 2019 remake.)

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“We wanted to stamp that James Earl Jones is so important to the legacy of ‘The Lion King’ (and) so many generations of moviegoers right at the beginning, acknowledging this is the energy that we are walking in. This is the spirit that we are making this film with,” the director says.

“I grew up without a traditional father figure and so you look to the world for those father figures,” adds Jenkins, who recalls the scene from the original movie where Mufasa risks his life to save son Simba. “That’s just printed on generations of children, of adults, of citizens across languages, across cultures. To me, he always symbolized this idea of greatness, of leadership, of just someone who lived a life that was noble in actions and not just in title.”

In addition to “Lion King,” Jones was famous for his film roles in “Coming to America,” “Field of Dreams” and the “Star Wars” movies, and he was also a legendary thespian in the theater world. That work is what “Hamilton” creator Lin-Manuel Miranda, who wrote new original songs for “Mufasa,” finds most inspiring.

He met up with Jones on several occasions but the most memorable for Miranda was the time in 2009 when they “split a van” from New York City to Washington to perform for President Barack Obama’s evening of poetry, music and the spoken word at the White House. Jones did a monologue from Shakespeare’s “Othello” while Miranda debuted the first song from his work-in-progress “The Hamilton Mixtape” – which would become the opening number of his mega-popular Broadway show. 

“That was one of the all-time great days of my life,” Miranda says. “I would go on to see him any time he performed on Broadway, and he always remembered that moment and how terrified I was. Given his gravitas and his incredible gift of an instrument, he was still so playful. He could be Darth Vader, Mufasa and the king of Zamunda. The entire universe is in his performances.”

Pierre also was taken with Jones’ theater work. He saw him once onstage in 2013 opposite Vanessa Redgrave in “Much Ado About Nothing” at London’s Old Vic Theatre, “and it was beautiful to just see him live. His presence is something that just reverberates around the room. It’s palpable,” Pierre says. “He has always been, way before I even turned professional, someone who I drew enormous amounts of inspiration from and someone who, for me, was the top of the mountain.”

Pierre’s love for Jones runs so deep that he figures he’s “probably two-thirds of the views” on a YouTube clip of Jones giving a fiery performance opposite Courtney B. Vance in the 1987 Broadway production of August Wilson’s “Fences.”

“I’ve watched it again and again and again, watching the nuances, watching the details. How he hits his chest, why he hits his chest in that moment. How he is so still but it feels like he’s vibrating on the stage,” Pierre says. “That’s the man right there.”

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