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Harvey Guillen recalls his first time at Walt Disney Animation Studios.
Harvey Guillén is best known for playing Guillermo de la Cruz in What We Do in the Shadows, but he also has a history with animation. In addition to playing Nightwing in Harley Quinn, the actor voiced the fan-favorite Perrito in Puss In Boots: The Last Wish, and will soon be playing Odie in The Garfield Movie. Last year, Guillén also voiced Gabo in Wish, the animated film celebrating 100 years of Walt Disney Animation Studios. ComicBook.com recently had the chance to chat with Guillén in honor of the digital release of Wish, and he spkoe about making the “inspirational” film, being a Disney fan, and even revealed his go-to Disney karaoke song.
“Absolutely,” Guillén said when asked if he was a Disney kid. “I mean, growing up that was my jam. I just loved Disney movies. I was just thinking about, the ones that really always spoke to me were Peter Pan and The Little Mermaid, and I just got to meet Jodi Benson for the first time, not so long ago, and I was just like, ‘I grew up listening to you sing over and over and over.’ And to be asked to be a part of – to celebrate the 100th – it blows my mind.”
“Now, I didn’t care what it was,” he continued. “I was like, ‘I’ll just say hello and then walk out or whatever in the scene.’ So it was really a treat to play Gabo and to be a part of that, and reinvent that idea with Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, and Gabo/Grumpy, that idea was really cool. And it’s a great story. It’s a new version of telling this story of a young girl who represents, I think, what we all aspire to be. Just community-oriented, just wanting the best for everyone, helping people’s wish come true. Pretty inspirational.”
“You know what I love is that I feel like that represents hopefully a lot of us now,” Guillén added of the friend group featured in Wish. “We have our core chosen family kind of thing where you have a little bit of everything. With Gabo, you have someone who’s a realist, and he’s just very real about life … but we need that friend. We need someone to keep us like, ‘Hey, I don’t want to ruin your parade, but the reality is this.'”
“And then we want that friend who’s really sweet and endearing, and follows you and agrees with whatever you say,” he continued. “And because you want that camaraderie, it’s just nice to have a group of friends that represent all of those different things, which makes your core seven, and including yourself eight, which is nice to show that a whole group of friends will all show up for you when needed. Your true friends will.”
Harvey Guillén Explains How Disney Differs From Other Studios:
“I mean, just, every project’s different,” Guillén explained to ComicBook.com. “And I think Disney, going to the animation studio, it blew my mind just because I thought about how many people have gone through those halls. And you walk in and there’s pictures of every Disney film animation ever done. I am talking all of them, they’re just up on the wall and you’re like, ‘Oh my gosh, oh my gosh,’ and it’s a blueprint of something from 1962, and it’s like, ‘Oh my gosh, oh my God.'”
“And it’s like a museum before you go record, which could be a little intimidating, because then you’re walking through the halls of greats, and you’re like, ‘Oh my God,’ and they’re just passing you by and, they’re like, ‘Oh, and there’s The Jungle Book, and then there’s this one,’ and then you get to the recording studio. And then they’re like, ‘All right, what do you got?’ And you’re like, ‘Let’s do it.’ But they’ve been so great, and they were so welcoming. And let me play with Gabo, and we’ve got to do a little bit of ad-lib here and there and just really find his voice, which is really great,” he explained.
When asked about his go-to Disney karaoke song, Guillén revealed, “‘Poor Unfortunate Souls,’ Ursula, Little Mermaid.”
Wish is now available digitally.