What part did you audition for?
It was the jailkeeper Mama Morton but a male version. The role Queen Latifah played in the movie.
Did you think about Mama Morton at all when you auditioned for Jafar?
Well, no, but I had a really cool idea. For my first Aladdin audition I was asked to sing “Arabian Nights,” and I became completely fascinated with how Nina Simone would have done it. So I held that thought in my head as I was singing, and it added a sort of seductive, slow-motion, strange timing to the song. That gave it some more drama and flavor and, more than anything, I just really enjoyed doing it. To be inspired by one of the greatest singers of all time and play Jafar—it doesn’t get any better for me.
DALIA
FORMER SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE STAR NASIM PEDRAD SERVES UP ROYAL COMIC RELIEF IN THE FORM OF A CHARACTER NEW TO THE STORY: JASMINE’S BEST FRIEND AND HANDMAIDEN DALIA. By Amy Wilkinson
Nasim Pedrad
A TIGER IS NO LONGER PRINCESS JASMINE’S only palace confidant (sorry, Rajah), and she has an unusual perspective. “Dalia works at the palace but lives in Agrabah,” Nasim Pedrad says. “When Jasmine wants to escape the palace and be among her people, Dalia is caught between supporting her friend but also protecting her.” Here, Pedrad speaks about the challenges of creating a role that’s entirely new—and how she connected with costars Naomi Scott and Will Smith on-set.
You were a kid when the original Aladdin hit theaters. Were you a fan?
It happens to be my favorite Disney movie of all time. My sister Nina and I were obsessed. We would alternate dressing up as Princess Jasmine for seven Halloweens in a row. I think it resonated with me because as an Iranian-American girl it was really the first time I saw a Middle Eastern protagonist in a major motion picture.
Given that you basically spent your childhood doing Princess Jasmine cosplay, did putting on your Aladdin costume feel surreal?
I can’t even tell you! Michael Wilkinson, our costume designer, is incredible. He literally went to all these different countries in the Middle East just to pull fabrics. So he brought a real authenticity to what the characters wore. It felt incredible to be in his designs and on those sets created by [production designer] Gemma Jackson. You saw this movie come to life where the two of their visions intersected. A lot of my scenes were in Jasmine’s room, and I was just so taken aback by the level of specificity and detail. Every fixture, set artifact, item in her room really felt authentic to the character.
What kind of woman is Dalia?
She’s supersharp, confident, and she’s really honest. She doesn’t just tell Jasmine what she wants to hear. I’d say Dalia is that friend who is relentlessly loyal even when you’re being a little bit of a pain in the ass. Playing a character created just for this version—it gives you a blank slate to make it your own. I was so lucky to get to do this with [director] Guy Ritchie because he’s incredibly collaborative. So it’s all the fun of creating something from scratch and then watching that against the backdrop of the story that we already know and love.
Did that process of improvising and creating a character remind you of your SNL days?
It did in that SNL trains you for everything that comes next and being able to generate comedy under time constraints. There was a really fun fight-or-flight aspect to it that reminded me of the fun of making something at SNL on the day.
Dalia and Princess Jasmine are such close friends. Did you and costar Naomi Scott go on any girls’ outings ahead of time to foster your connection?
We did, but it wasn’t so manufactured—it happened very organically. We met each other and genuinely just wanted to hang out with each other. So it was really cool. We’ve become really close as a result of having made this film together and had total trust in each other. Hopefully that joy and friendship translates in the film because it was very genuine on our end. We would just cry laughing in between takes to the point where I feel like the crew was kindly enduring us.
When you look back on this experience in 10, 20, 30 years, what moment will stand out?
Probably my mom visiting set and Will Smith going out of his way to make her feel welcome. He was so kind and generous and inclusive on-set.
Is your mom a big Fresh Prince fan?
She is now. [Laughs]
SULTAN
THE IRANIAN-BORN NAVID NEGAHBAN HAS A LONG HISTORY WITH THE TALE OF ALADDIN—HIS FAMILIARITY WITH THE STORY HELPED HIM PUT A SAVVY SPIN ON HIS PORTRAYAL OF THE SULTAN OF AGRABAH. By Amy Wilkinson
Navid Negahban
FOR ACTOR NAVID NEGAHBAN, THE ROLE of the sultan—ruling father to Princess Jasmine—is unlike any he’s played before. And it comes with some sentimentality attached. “I watched the movie with my kids and grew up reading The Thousand and One Nights,” he says. “For me, coming from Iran and the odd jobs I’ve had to do—cleaning up rooms, washing cars—[and] now I’m the Sultan of Agrabah? It was very attractive.”
Born in Iran, Negahban got his start in Germany, acting onstage and performing his own stunts. “I’m a trained mime, so I’m very agile,” he says. After he moved to the U.S., he initially found work as a fight choreographer and coordinator before stepping in front of the camera on TV series including 24 and Mistresses. Negahban might be best known, though, for playing al-Qaeda commander Abu Nazir on Showtime’s Homeland and more recently the Shadow King on FX’s Legion.
Although the sultan from the 1992 animated Aladdin could best be described as bumbling, Negahban says his ruler is different. “This sultan is a little bit more realistic and has more depth,” he explains. “[He’s] more culturally accurate [for the] way that fathers behave in that region, so it’s not just a caricature.”
When it came to the character’s impressive beard, a certain amount of movie magic was required. Negahban was juggling another role on a TV show while filming the live-action remake and couldn’t grow out his facial hair. “Hair and makeup did a fantastic job on me,” he says. “They copied my beard from other movies that I’d done. Every day we spent about 45 minutes just to get it ready and make the sultan appear.”
HAKIM
The palace guard was originally a background character. Now portrayed by Numan Acar, Hakim gets a promotion
Numan Acar
Every villain needs a henchman, and treacherous Jafar is no exception. Taking on the role of Hakim, head of the palace guards, actor Numan Acar is best known for turns in Fox’s Prison Break and Showtime’s Homeland. The Turkish-born German actor studied civil engineering before pivoting to show business, starring in Turkish and German films and founding his own production company, Acar Entertainment. More recently he notched a role in the 2018 film 12 Strong, and he is slated to appear this year in Spider-Man: Far from Home. With a résumé boasting several rough-and-tumble roles, Acar is certainly well-equipped to get his hands dirty on behalf of the Royal Vizier of Agrabah. Or, maybe, the Sultan of Agrabah. —Amy Wilkinson
Welcome to Agrabah
EXPLORING ALADDIN’S COLORFUL WORLD
Concept Art
ARABIAN SIGHTS
TASKED WITH CREATING THE ARABIAN CITY OF AGRABAH, THE DESIGN TEAM OF ALADDIN PLUNDERED HISTORY AND REAL-LIFE MARKETPLACES TO BUILD A VAST AND DETAILED WORLD THAT WAS AS BELIEVABLE AS IT WAS FANTASTICAL. By Kevin P. Sullivan
Cave of Wonders
Special effects can create a mythical cavern filled to the brim with unimaginable riches, but in a largely CGI environment like the legendary Cave of Wonders, old-fashioned set decoration helps the impossible seem tactile. Production designer Gemma Jackson and set decorator Tina Jones filled the areas between actor Mena Massoud and the green screens backing him with artificial rock formations and jewelry. Most of the treasures on-set were pieces sourced from across Asia that were then recast in rubber. The duplication made it easier for crew members to work around the pieces without fear of breaking anything, but not all of the jewels were false: Zales provided some genuine stones to give the trove onscreen the ring of authenticity.
Aladdin’s apartment
Aladdin’s Agrabah apartment, complete with riffraff and street rats, might never have been the fanciest place in town—nor, considering the required pole-vaulting, the easiest to get to—but what a view! Aladdin’s live-action abode keeps the rooftop location and palace scenery but adds one crafty feature. “When we talked about [the apartment] at the beginning, we wanted it to be quite clever,” Jackson says. The set designers rigged a pulley system that would raise a cloth canopy, revealing Aladdin’s living space: sure to impress any visitors, maybe even a princess.
Agrabah marketplace
Jackson began her quest to create a real-life Agrabah in Morocco. The original plan was to film on location, with extensive construction to disguise the North African country as the fictional city, but after Jackson presented her plan to Disney, she heard the magic words: Just build the whole thing. Working at a studio with customizable sets, Jackson could create exactly the Agrabah she wanted, which meant lots of color. This version is imagined as a crossroads, where cultures from across the continent meet and mingle in a bright mélange of pistachio green, ocher and pink.
Jasmine’s room
A bedroom in a movie, if smartly designed, can help an audience get to know the character who sleeps there. In the case of Jasmine, Jackson wanted the princess’s chambers to say something specific. This is no damsel in distress: “People want princesses to be these gorgeous creatures that don’t do much else except sit around waiting for a prince,” Jackson says. “It was quite important that this one had a mind of her own.” To that end, maps and texts fill practically every inch of the room not taken up by the extra-large bed, which was made wide enough to comfortably fit Jasmine and her best bud, Rajah.
Sultan’s room
Design inspiration for the most opulent location in all of Agrabah sprang from surprisingly humble origins. Jackson approached the challenge of the palace knowing she didn’t want it to look like any other royal residence. “At first you say, ‘Oh, gosh, a palace,’ “ she says. “We’ve got to do something different.” Jackson found her starting point in photos of a Burmese monastery, which had been decorated with elaborately carved wood painted gold. Jackson applied the beam-heavy aesthetic across the palace, giving the individual rooms—like Jasmine’s and the sultan’s chambers—a unifying theme.
Set the Scene
SECRETS OF THE SET
PRODUCTION DESIGNER GEMMA JACKSON USED VIBRANT COLORS TO BRING ALADDIN’S BEAUTIFULLY DETAILED SETS TO LIFE. By Kevin P. Sullivan
Jasmine’s Room
One concern of Jackson’s was the abundance of pink in the sets. The rosy hue pops up throughout Agrabah, including in Jasmine’s bedroom. But the color was prominent in the film’s cultural influences, and also Jackson just really, really liked it. “It doesn’t look girlie,” she says. “It doesn’t look like ‘A woman must have designed this.’ It really does look magical.”
Sultan’s Room
As the filmmakers created an updated Agrabah that exists in three dimensions, they also added depth to the city’s history. This version of the setting exists at the nexus of an ancient trade route. That little bit of backstory brings not only people from all over the world into the film but also artifacts like the ones seen in the sultan’s chamber.
Petal Alley
Inspired by the pink palette of Marrakech, Jackson and set decorator Tina Jones created an Agrabah alley covered in petals, where they imagined merchants extracted oils from flowers. “The other lovely thing was that I talked to Guy a lot about color,” Jackson says. “We had agreed that this was one time that we could really go mad with it.”
Costumes
FANCY DRESS
ALADDIN COSTUME DESIGNER MICHAEL WILKINSON CREATED TIMELESS GARMENTS FROM EXQUISITE JEWEL-TONE FABRICS TO HELP TELL THE STORY OF A PRINCESS AND A STREET RAT, A SULTAN AND A VIZIER. By Kevin P. Sullivan
Jasmine (in disguise)
When it came to creating the look Jasmine (Naomi Scott) wears as she wanders through Agrabah hoping not to be recognized, costume designer Michael Wilkinson opted for neutral fabrics with just a hint of vibrant blue-green. “I wanted all of her costumes to have a tease of turquoise, so it becomes her iconic motif,” Wilkinson says. “You see it repeated again and again until you see the whole turquoise costume in the middle of the film.” Pairing her split skirt with trousers hinted at her nature as a more “fluid and modern” princess, Wilkinson notes.
Aladdin
Let’s face it—Aladdin’s vest-and-no-shirt look from the 1992 animated film is wildly impractical. Still, with an eye toward honoring that original ensemble, Wilkinson mined the character’s personality for inspiration. “With Aladdin, he is a street kid who lives by his wit and his audacity,” he says. “He’s very streetwise, so we wanted him to have a bit of swagger.” Wilkinson gave Mena Massoud’s diamond-in-the-rough striped pants as well as a striped shirt and added a hood to his vest. A pair of custom leather shoes completed the ensemble.
Jasmine (in magenta)
In addition to filling out Jasmine’s life with a new friend and handmaiden, Dalia, the live-action Aladdin tells us more about the princess’s mother. “In our film Jasmine wears clothing inspired by South Asian countries to honor her late mother,” Wilkinson says. “A lot of Jasmine’s costumes have a slightly different feel to the rest of Agrabah, the country that her mother made her home, which distinguishes her from the rest of the looks.” That difference is on display in this magenta dress—with turquoise accents, of course.
Jasmine (in orange)
One of the first steps toward expanding Jasmine’s style was broadening her color palette. Wilkinson dressed Scott in bright colors, such as oranges and fuchsias, as a reference to her inner character. “Jasmine is a very modern Disney princess, so she could really carry off these very strong colors,” Wilkinson says. “We thought that she would have a very bold personal style because she is a very confident woman.” The character’s inner turmoil also played out in the structure of her clothing. Wilkinson kept her palace-wear rigid, while private outfits had a looser, more relaxed fit.
Sultan
A sultan should look like—well—royalty, so Wilkinson didn’t want to settle for the near-monochromatic outfit that Jasmine’s dear old dad wore in the animated film. That’s why he draped actor Navid Negahban in bright oranges and greens. The final, essential touches were the finishes: an osprey feather for his headdress and buttons and belts Wilkinson found in Istanbul’s Grand Bazaar. “We wanted to layer the colors and fabrics in the most sumptuous and surprising eye-catching way,” Wilkinson says. “That was a wonderful challenge, to find the most lovely, lavish fabrics to express the wealth and the power of the sultan’s palace.”
Jafar
For Jafar (Marwan Kenzari), the filmmakers built out the character’s backstory, making his high-ranking position in the Agrabah government a little more plausible (lest audiences wonder why the sultan would place his faith in such a clearly untrustworthy adviser). Jafar’s wardrobe reflected those embellishments. “[Jafar] has these military plans for the future,” Wilkinson says. “With the armor and some of the more formal looks, it almost looks like a dress uniform that he’s wearing when he’s in the court.” Much remained the same from the animated version, however. His costumes are largely black and red, and his turban is adorned with a single feather.
Character Design
Behind the Scenes
CONJURING GENIE
FOR HIS LIVE-ACTION DEBUT, ALADDIN’S MAGICAL PAL GOT AN UPDATED LOOK THAT INCLUDED A BLUE WARDROBE AND CHIC TOPKNOT
Dress Code
Will Smith and Guy Ritchie
Genie’s blue hue might work in the privacy of the Cave of Wonders, but out on the streets of Agrabah? Not so much. So Aladdin’s filmmakers created a more inconspicuous human form for the character that didn’t require CG and allowed Will Smith to walk among ordinary citizens without attracting too much attention.
Still, director Guy
Ritchie and costume designer Michael Wilkinson (above) wanted a wardrobe that referenced Genie’s signature color. “We had great fun sourcing beautiful blue fabrics from all over the world and giving him a lovely palette of clothes,” Wilkinson says. As in the animated film, Genie wears cuffs on his wrists that symbolize his eternal servitude. “We liked the idea that for each master he inherited these bracelets,” Wilkinson says.
Once Smith was cast, the hair and makeup department workshopped several potential dos before settling on the character’s topknot. “We spent three or four days just doing tests with Will,” says hair-and-makeup designer Christine Blundell. “Everything was done on Will. We didn’t do it on any stand-ins beforehand. Will was as involved as he could be.” —Kevin P. Sullivan
World-Class Menagerie
CREATURE FEATURE
MONKEYS, MAGIC CARPETS, PARROTS AND TIGERS— ALADDIN’S NONHUMAN AND (MOSTLY) NONVERBAL STARS ARE JUST AS SHOWSTOPPING AS THEIR REAL-LIFE COSTARS. By Kevin P. Sullivan
Abu
Aladdin’s furry friend does not speak in the animated movie, but considering how expressive he is, he might as well. For his take on Abu, director Guy Ritchie wanted to bring the monkey closer to nature. “We gathered many, many hours of video footage of real capuchin monkeys, particularly in their natural habitats,” visual-effects supervisor Chas Jarrett says. “Fortunately for us, capuchins’ faces are extremely expressive with eyes that are constantly darting, eyebrows and mouths always twitching.”
The Ultimate Guide to Aladdin Page 3