Tiffany Boone was done with voiceover auditions when the script for an unspecified lioness landed in her inbox.
“I just thought I was so bad at voiceovers,” Boone confesses. “I’d been trying for years and never booked a single thing. I quit probably a year or two before I got this audition — obviously, my agents didn’t listen and sent me this anyway.”
She owes her agents a thank-you note. Boone, 37, not only landed a part in the Disney prequel Mufasa: The Lion King, but was cast as central figure Sarabi, the queen of Pride Rock, otherwise known as Mufasa’s mate (and Simba’s future mom).
It was, to hear Boone tell it, kismet, seeing as how The Lion King was her favorite film growing up. “I’m not lying,” she says. “Lion King was number one. Number two was Aladdin. And number three was Beauty and the Beast.”
Still, what initially inspired her to become an actress was a very different bit of ’90s-era entertainment. “When I first saw A Different World, that was when I really got the bug,” she says of NBC’s Lisa Bonet-led Cosby Show spinoff about daughter Denise Huxtable’s life at Hillman College. “Watching Jasmine Guy’s portrayal of Whitley” — the Southern belle classmate who started out super snobby but eventually mellowed, especially after Bonet left the series — “I was obsessed with her character. I wanted to be her. But I was also obsessed with Jasmine Guy as an actress. I thought she was so funny and beautiful and even in the dramatic moments was really grounded.”
Raised by a single mom — Boone’s father died when she was 3 — she grew up mostly in Baltimore, where she dabbled in dance before her Whitley obsession pushed her toward acting. She studied at Baltimore School for the Arts, then moved on to CalArts, and by her early 20s was starting to land small roles in slasher movies like 2011’s Detention and goth romances like 2013’s Beautiful Creatures. More recently, she’s been finding herself in higher-profile parts, acting opposite Nicole Kidman and Melissa McCarthy in Hulu’s Nine Perfect Strangers, as well as playing Kerry Washington’s younger self in the streamer’s Little Fires Everywhere.
It was, in fact, her turn in Little Fires Everywhere that first attracted the attention of Mufasa director Barry Jenkins. “He was like, ‘I saw you in that and I thought, “I have to put her in this,” ’ ” says Boone.
Of course, voice performance exercises different muscles than live-action acting, and it took Boone a beat to transition to the task. “It’s quite different in that we don’t get to make the same connection as actors as you do in other film and television work,” she notes. “But at the base of it, it’s the same work. You’re focused on character, relationship and intention.”
And, with this particular gig, there was also singing, which was not something Boone fully appreciated when she signed on for the role. “I almost was like, ‘You know what, y’all got it. I’m not going to be doing this anymore because I didn’t agree to sing,’ ” she says. “But I couldn’t give it up that late in the game. So I got a singing coach.”
Ironically, it’s Boone’s big number in Mufasa — “Tell Me It’s You,” her duet with Aaron Pierre, who plays the titular king-to-be — that’s generating the most awards buzz. The tune, composed by Lin-Manuel Miranda, has been Oscar shortlisted for best original song.
For Boone, that’s all very well and good, but she has her own barometer for gauging her singing abilities. “I didn’t hate myself,” she recalls of her reaction after watching the film for the first time. “To hear myself sing and not be like, ‘My career is over’ — that is the highest praise.”
Her career most definitely is not over. Indeed, she could be playing Sarabi for some time to come. “The cast keeps joking about The Lion Queen,” she says. “I’m here for all of it.”
This story appeared in the Jan. 3 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Click here to subscribe.
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