THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER 40 FEBRUA RY 26, 2020
Watch Liu Yifei and Niki Caro discuss all things Mulan at THR.COM/VIDEOCARO HAIR AND MAKEUP BY MARY CURRAN AT MCURRANSTYLIST. MANICURES BY ASHLIE JOHNSON FOR CHANEL AT THE WALL GROUP.MULAN: JASIN BOLAND/DISNEY.MALEFICENT:FRANK CONNOR/DISNEY.CINDERELLA: JONATHAN OLLEY/DISNEY.JUNGLE, BEAUTY, DUMBO,ALADDIN, LION: COURTESY OF DISNEY.ALICE: PETER MOUNTAIN/DISNEY.initial audition were brought to
Los Angeles, but, after vetting
several promising candidates for
months, Caro decided to start
over. (The search dragged on for
so long that Disney delayed the
original November 2018 release
date.) Eventually, Liu, who had
been unavailable during the first
pass because of a TV show in
China, was able to audition.
“I was determined that who-
ever played Mulan was not going
to be fragile and feminine,” says
Caro. “She had to pass as a man
in a man’s army.” So the director
and a trainer put Liu through a
90-minute physical assessment,
with extreme cardio and weight
exercises. Other actresses fared
less well. “Boy, did they flame
out,” says Caro with a laugh. But
Liu “never complained once,
never said, ‘I can’t.’ She went to
her limits.”
With Liu, Disney also found anactress who could speak English,
was familiar with martial arts
from her TV work in China and,
most importantly, was known to
the Chinese market.
While Liu spent three months
training for the role in New
Zealand, Caro finished up her
own extensive research. She took
multiple trips to China and spoke
to dozens of experts — including
the world’s foremost specialist on
Tang dynasty military strategy.
She also studied the 360-word
Chinese poem The Ballad of
Mulan, which first told the young
heroine’s story. The legend, which
originated in the fifth or sixth
century CE, is a tale as familiar in
China as the story of Joan of Arc
or Paul Bunyan in the West, and
it’s been adapted many times into
plays, operas and films.
“I certainly wasn’t aware of how
deeply important it is to Mainland
Chinese — all children are taught
it,” says Caro. “She is so meaning-
ful that many places I went, people
would say, ‘Well, she comes from
my village.’ It was wonderful to
feel that profound connection —
but also terrifying.”
As soon as the first trailers
rolled out, so did the grumblings
about factual inaccuracy, like the
choice to situate Mulan’s family in
a tulou, a traditional round struc-
ture that housed several clans.
These homes were mostly present
in southern China, in what is now
Fujian province (Mulan is said to
be from the north), and would not
have existed at the time she lived.
“I told [Caro] to not be too
concerned about the historical
accuracy,” says Kong. “Mulan,
though very famous, is fictional.
She’s not a historical person.”
Disney tested the film thor-
oughly with Chinese audiences,
including its own local execu-
tives. In an early version, Mulan
kissed love interest Chen Honghui
(Yoson An) on a bridge when they
were about to part. “It was very
beautiful, but the China office
went, ‘No, you can’t, that doesn’t
feel right to the Chinese people,’ ”
says Caro. “So we took it out.”
Caro and the writers, AmandaSilver and Rick Jaffa (the hus-
band-and-wife team behind
Rise of the Planet of the Apes and
Jurassic World who rewrote the
original script), also had to con-
sider the passionate fans of the
1998 film. Most Disney remakes,
like Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin
and The Lion King, have remained
loyal to the tone and structure
of the animated source mate-
rial while adding a new song or
character. Departing from that
formula wasn’t a swift decision.
“We had a lot of conversations
about it,” says Reed. Ultimately
they wanted “to tell this story
in a way that is more real, more
relatable, where we don’t have
the benefit of the joke to hide
behind things that might beLiu Yifei (left) and
Niki Caro were
photographed
Feb. 8 at the
Houdini Estate in
Los Angeles.
On Liu: Carolina Herrera
dress; Jimmy Choo
shoes; Cartier earrings.
On Caro: Christian
Siriano dress; Tamara
Mellon shoes.