BEAUTY AND THE BEAST Paige O’Hara Panel – Baltimore Comic Con 2022

that when we brought the unfinished version to New York, and being a Broadway person, I know those critics and how harsh they are, and we didn't even bring a completed version, it was unfinished. still hand drawn and and but the music was made so you could hear the music and I remember Don Hahn sweating profusely and Jeffrey Katzenberg walking back and forth across the floor I thought Jeffrey was going to have a heart attack and we were all We sat down and it started and in the opening number they burst into applause at the end of Bell and I was like, oh man, these are the New York critics, they're applauding the movie, it was like, oh my God, calm down, you don't know, like that be. a hit, it's like just a page of a song, just a song, okay, but I knew that night and at the end they gave us a 10 minute standing ovation and they wouldn't take no for an answer. for me, Richard, Robbie and the whole creative team go up on stage and take a bow and all that, so I found out that night and that's when the Oscar buzz started that night in New York.

You can thank the New York Times for that. They said this is going to be Oscar-worthy for Tinder, so that's cool, yeah, okay, there you can take a closer look. Would you mind doing any of the voices? Well I'll do it uh I'll do my favorite first line in your Prime Evil positively oh God that's funny oh my God I love that line that was one of my favorites well some use their imagination you know it's and I think These singers here today, yes, you want to sing to your girlfriend. she's a soprano opera singer from Matsu, she sang at my table and floored me and you floored me too, this guy can come here, come on, will you be the Beast?

Oh my God, will you do the Beast? I didn't recognize him yesterday, he was Ursula. I never saw Ursula yesterday. It was me walking with Ariel. Something there would be cool, guys. I don't see much anymore, so give it to me, everything will be fine. Alright. There is something sweet and almost. kind but he was mean and he was coerced and unrefined and now he's loved and so insecure I wonder why I didn't see him there before she looked this way I thought I saw him and when we touched she didn't flinch at my paw no it can't be, I'll just ignore her, but she had never looked at me that way before that, oh, that was beautiful, thank you, you're a good voice, uh, mark, oh, markina, to mark, Aquino, okay, thanks for doing that, is incredible.

Thank you very much and I had the great pleasure of introducing my favorite opera singer of all time, who is also a mezzo like his wife, to his wife. She looked it up on Google. This is an amazing secret. She was the lead and Showboat in the recording I made. she played Ellie May Chipley, the role I played on Broadway and she and Jerry Hadley said the leads and I knew she would turn it around, she's amazing, I feel like she's retired now they called her Flicka, yeah, it was a lot of fun when we were filming.

Showboat, you know she's a real opera singer and a lot of them talk like that, you know, oh Paige, she knows how to tell me how you waist and I think she had to interpret that she was going to play the role of her daughter. on the album too and the daughter had to be a singer and she's oh Paige, I don't know how to bounce and I thought, look, I'll take it out of here and put it here, you know, so she started singing recording this. It's the London Symphony, we're at the Abbey Road studios in London and she says oh oh, every day it's getting hotter in the north.

Flicka no, no, and I went over and touched her belly like that and I told her, stick your belly out and you know how to do it and then you open your throat and she says she's okay, I'll have it later. I know two minutes later it's hotter up north every day and she's like singing this Broadway voice. I was like, oh my gosh, that was one of the most amazing moments of all time that was really cool that's amazing your life is amazing amazing okay we have time for a couple more questions we have one here thanks for asking that about your scene and Ralph Rexley Internet oh we loved it Wasn't it fun?

Oh my god, we, my husband got the phone call and he thought they were joking, he said this is the joke, right, no, no, he says they don't even let my wife paint the princesses in the same painting as them. Putting them all in the same seat in the movie was the first time John Lasseter definitely had a great idea and it really worked and started, first we had that scene, but when they showed it at d23 people went crazy. They decided to make our parts bigger and make us the ones who would rescue Ralph in the end, so we had a lot of fun, they didn't film us together, but we partied together, we had two wonderful princess parties and that was great.

Mandy Moore, I was so, oh my God, I was so nervous to meet her, I was like, really, she's really adorable, I mean, I was like, oh God, she was so sweet and it's like she's bragging to you, but she's so great as it seems. she really is great, good to know, good to know, okay, we had one more question, if not, I'm going to ask one. So what would you like people to know about your work making Beauty and the Beast? That everything you do is not for joy, it is a pure joy for me to be able to do what I love and make a living from it.

You know, I find that the Lord has really blessed me with that, because you know people don't. I don't realize that only five percent of people make a living as actors from The Actors Union, only five percent actually make a living just toss in other jobs or whatever and being in that Five percent is a true blessing and I love it. you know I'm not doing as much stage work you know as you get older you don't know it's strange that I had I was so brave when I went to New York and even my parents, they, my dad was very successful architect, he was one of the designers of the GM building in New York.

I mean, it was very surprising, but they basically said you're going to do it on your own, three hundred dollars, bye, so it was like okay, you have to do it and I loved it. It was the first time my brother came to see me and where he lived and he started crying and I was like, are you kidding me? This is a great apartment, it's like a youth and whatever. I loved every part of the process and learned from it. and uh I was just rehearsing and learning new roles and my acting coach was actually my acting teacher Joanna Merlin was also my childhood acting coach she was very hard on me and I'm very happy because she made me better and my first role .

It was Juliet Romeo and Juliet in New York at a showing and I know I knew a lot of Shakespeare because my mom taught it to me in high school, but I wasn't nailing Juliet and finally one day Joanne was really beyond my case, she said today . Boy, you're ready to go audition for that role now and go get it and I got the role and you know it's just that this process is what you learn from and I was the weakest actress in my class, which was cool because It made me get Better You Know and I had learned more, but the whole process has been incredible and I actually got my first acting teacher.

This is a little funny. She said, "You're not going to make it in the theater." an artist, you know, who I gave the paintings to to like me when I got the show in my initial role on Broadway. I called her and said, "guess what I'm going to do on Broadway," and she said, "wow, what a shame." I, I'm sorry, said that, but maybe I'd encourage you to do it. I said she actually made me angry and made me want him even more. You will be at your table. I think this is Paige, my assistant, my page, another page.

Isn't she crazy? So when do we get back to the table? 3 p.m. 3 p.m. Are there more photos? That's right, we have to take photos now. Alright. Today's photos are also with the other girls. Okay, so you can get up. You guys have been wonderful, thank you for coming today, let's give a big round of applause to Page O'Hara, thank you guys, this is Debbie Dairy Berry and you're watching fandom Spotlight. Be sure to like, subscribe and remember. Geniuses know they need to have fun. and follow your fandom how wonderful