10 Behind The Scene Facts About The Cast Of “Encanto”

According to co-director Byron Howard in an interview, when Stephanie Beatriz came in to audition for Encanto she not only read for a part other than Mirabel but came in singing a Lin-Manuel Disney favorite in Moana’s “You’re Welcome.” As Howard states: “It was so good and so funny that one of our animators actually animated Mirabel to it, and it was one of the things that set the tone for who that character is.” 

Jessica Darrow stated in an interview that while recording the soundtrack for Encanto she discovered skills she never knew she had. “Three different types of songs in one. I feel like at one point I was doing a monologue and then I was hitting these high notes, and then I was rapping. I did not know I could rap this well.” It’s this range that helped make the character Luisa and her song “Surface Pressure” more special. 

As we all know, COVID-19 shut down the world, but like the age-old theater saying goes, “The show must go on!” And so the actors for Encanto made their way to a studio or did some recording in the comfort of their home all while being directed by Jared Bush, Byron Howard, and Lin-Manuel Miranda from a Zoom call. It’s this type of adjustment that was new to everybody but, due to the tremendous talent in the film, made for a fantastic Disney classic. 

According to co-writer/director Charise Castro Smith, John Leguizamo improvised the plot to the “Rat Telenovela” in the film, and it happens to be one of her favorite jokes in the whole film. If you know anything about the esteemed actor, it is how good his comedic timing is. It seems the directors gave John some space to ad-lib to the benefit of the film, as we all know outrageous plots are synonymous with the telenovela culture. 

During the recording process of Encanto, a lot of the actors have mentioned how difficult it was at times to sing Lin-Manuel’s amazing songs. Diane Guerrero had a running joke with the famed songwriter, stating in an interview that he would often say to her, “You missed the bus,” anytime she missed her cue to start singing. Of course, Lin mentions as well that a lot of actors “Missed the bus,” specifically because of the Zoom recording they were doing and the time delays that can happen when you’re working online.  

In an interview with Cinemablend, Leguizamo mentioned how honest he was with Lin about his musical talent stating: “They gave me a rap, I got a little rap section, and Lin was there and I said, ‘Lin, you gotta help me out, bro. You gotta help me out. I’m not a singer.’ I can deal with the acting and the quirkiness, but the singing was rough. But he was there, patient, listening to it over and over. I only had a paragraph, but we did it like a million times. I think it took two days to get it done.” 

In the same interview with Cinemablend, Wilmer mentions that although he never had to sing a song like some of his castmates, he had to sing plenty of harmonies that were difficult enough, along with the nerves of having the likes of Lin-Manuel Miranda in front of you giving you some direction. 

He stated, “I didn’t have to do the songs that these ladies had to do, because the difficulty level was like at 11. But I had to do some harmonies. I had to do a couple little punch in and outs in the songs – and I thought I could sing until I had to do Lin-Manuel songs. I thought I could sing, but I was terribly wrong once I started doing harmonies for Lin-Manuel.”

Encanto’s co-director Jared Bush recently tweeted that when actor Stephanie Beatriz was recording her vocals for “Waiting on a Miracle,” she was nine months pregnant, and even more shocking is that 48 hours after she had finished recording on the song she gave birth to her daughter, Rosaline. I’m sure the song has a whole new meaning for Stephanie now. 

Actor Alan Tudyk is known for his many voices on Disney animated films, with his last avian character being Heihei in Moana. Apparently, when given the role of Pico the Toucan in Encanto, he did his fair share of homework because according to director Jared Bush, on the day Mr. Tudyk came in to record he had informed them that the scratch Toucan sounds they had were actually that of a different species of bird. That’s dedication!