Interview – Malia Baker, Kylie Cantrall and the Cast of ‘Descendants: The Rise of Red’

The Descendants film franchise is premised on an ingenious idea – What happens after “happily ever after”? What does life look like after our Disney fairy tales ended on screen? The Descendants films answer those questions by introducing new generations of heroes and villains and telling their stories.

The first Descendants film released in 2015 with an incredible cast (Kristin Chenoweth played Maleficent) and the kind music and dance choreography that stays with you long after the film ends. After two successful sequels, the franchise was at a point where even the young protagonists of the series had to pass the baton to yet another group. That’s where the latest film in the series, Descendants: The Rise of Red, comes along.

While the original Descendants films focused on the children of Belle and the Beast, Aurora, Maleficent, Jafar Cruella de Vil, the Evil Queen and Ursula, this fourth film adds a new twist, bringing in the daughter of Brandy’s Cinderella and Paolo Montalban’s Prince Charming, the daughter of the Queen of Hearts, and Ursula’s younger sister. The new crop of characters adds fresh new energy to the franchise, which is necessary for a fourth film, and sends the series into a novel direction.

I had the chance to speak with several of the new cast members, including Malia Baker, who plays Cinderella and Charming’s daughter, Chloe, and Kylie Cantrell, who plays the Queen of Hearts’ daughter, Red.

For many fans of diverse stories, the 1997 Cinderella, starring Brandy and Montalban, is an iconic film that took the bold step of race-bending two legendary characters in pop culture. Such creative decisions are rare even today, let alone 27 years ago. The fact that the Descendants creatives decided to continue that beloved story in this franchise is a special treat.

Considering Malia Baker is essentially playing Brandy and Montalban’s daughter, I asked her how it felt to work with the two beloved actors.

“They are literally exactly what you said, I mean, royalty as royalty gets. You walked on set and you saw them in their uniforms of this, you know, royal highness. Brandy in her gown, Paolo in his suit with his sword, it was just picture perfect-esque,” Baker said of her two on-screen parents. “But with Brandy, she gave me some really great advice in terms of just staying true to yourself and being really authentic and grounded. She was so sweet too. Words of encouragement, she said, ‘You have a very charismatic aura to you,’ and I was like, ‘Oh my God!’….She said I reminded her of her daughter, which I thought was just, I was geeking out I’m such a fan of her.”

Baker and her co-star Cantrall, had similar praise for Montalban, who is active on Instagram and regularly shared his support for the young actors.

“Paulo as well, I mean he’s truly, we cannot stop talking about Paulo. He is the most wonderful father,” Baker said.

“He’s the sweetest ever. He would leave the most supportive little comments on every post,” Cantrall chimed in excitedly.

“Every single post! He was like, ‘I cannot wait for the world to see you’….He is on it with social media! So they were exactly what you picture. They’re incredible,” Baker added.

Cantrall herself also follows in the footsteps of another legend, Rita Ora, who plays the Queen of Hearts. I asked her the same question about her experience working with Ora.

“It was so much fun. I mean she is very much not the villainous aspects of the Queen of Hearts. She’s super sweet and warm, but she does have a regal energy to her. Like the minute that she walked on set, I think everyone was like, ‘Oh my gosh, the Queen!’ She has this very queen-like energy about her, which is totally inspiring,” Cantrall said. “She’s a girl boss and I hope to be even as close to a girl boss as she is one day. I look up to her in many respects. She’s so talented and we talked a lot about music and I told her my goals as a musician, and she’s like, ‘Oh girl, you could do anything!’ Yeah. Some good boy advice as well. So she was great.”

Malia and Cantrall play the two leads of the film, and share great on-screen chemistry together. The two shared that they spent a considerable amount of time together off-screen, which contributed to their on-screen brilliance.

“We had a lot of movie nights and chill nights. I feel like with Malia, she’s one of those people that like we can just couch rock together. You don’t have to be doing anything. She’s just so easy to be around,” Cantrall said.

Every fairy tale story needs a villain, and here, Dara Reneé is more than happy to oblige as Ursula’s younger sister, Uliana. Ursula’s extended family make for some of the best characters in the Descendants franchise, with her daughter Uma (China Anne McClain) also playing a pivotal role. Reneé looks to relish the opportunity to play a villain, having so much fun on-screen that it’s hard not to root for her side.

“Oh my gosh I had so much fun. I was like indulging in being a villain. It was so cool being able to be related to Ursula, and literally China as Uma is just an iconic situation alone, so it was so much fun,” Reneé said. “And I definitely prepared, listening to some Doechii, and I did some weight training because they told me I was going to do a lot of stunt, so I was like, ‘Okay I want to give this character the best I can.’ Had a lot of muscles. I was really in it.”

There’s a time-travel element to The Rise of Red storyline, where audiences meet the teen versions of Brandy’s Cinderella and Ora’s Queen of Hearts, played by Morgan Dudley and Ruby Rose Turner respectively. Of course, filling the glass slippers of such actors is no small task, so I asked both Dudley and Rose Turner how they approached their roles.

“I got the privilege of meeting Brandy on more than one occasion, and the first time I met her was so nice, she was like, ‘You’re so beautiful’ and I got to watch her from afar and just be graced with her presence,” Dudley said. “But something that I thought was really important to me for this film was making sure that Ella stayed my own and that it made sense in order to properly bridge the timeline gap. Because who Ella is as a teenager is not who Brandy Cinderella is necessarily. Like she hasn’t quite developed that part in her brain. And besides Brandy, there’s been so many iterations of Cinderella that I was just like, ‘You know what? I think the best use of my work here is to really ground myself in what it would mean to be a character that’s so oppressed in their self-expression,’ and so that’s really what I focused on there. But I did definitely take some notes of times where Ella could be soft, I was definitely thinking of Brandy and both of her portrayals of Cinderella.”

For Rose Turner, it was more about watching Ora’s performance and going in the complete opposite direction, as her version of the soon-to-be Queen of Hearts is one who has not yet been jaded by the realities of life.

“I think it was really just a game of playing like opposites, you know what I mean? I was sort of mentioning this earlier, but Rita was so so good as Queen of Hearts and of course I didn’t really get the privilege to work with her on set, but I sort of just did everything that she did and went the exact opposite away with it,” Rose Turner said. “But yeah, I think it was definitely challenging to get in, you know Bridget is such an open-hearted girl and she really doesn’t have any filters and is just super herself and that was really tough to sort of like get down to that base layer, but really freeing once I got there and was a lot of fun.”

Descendants: The Rise of Red premieres July 12th on Disney+.

About Descendants: The Rise of Red:

“Descendants: The Rise of Red” follows the story of Red, the rebellious daughter of the Queen of Hearts, and Chloe, Cinderella’s perfectionist daughter. When the tyrannical Queen of Hearts incites a coup against Auradon, polar opposites Red and Chloe must join forces and travel back in time to undo the traumatic event that set Red’s mother down her villainous path. The film stars a new ensemble of Villain Kids (VKs) and legacy characters, including Kylie Cantrall as Red, Malia Baker as Chloe, Brandy as Cinderella, Rita Ora as the Queen of Hearts, Dara Reneeì as Ursula’s sister Uliana, Ruby Rose Turner as Bridget/Young Queen of Hearts, Morgan Dudley as Ella/Young Cinderella, Joshua Colley as Young Hook, Peder Lindell as Morgie, Grace Narducci as Fay/Young Fairy Godmother, Jeremy Swift as Principal Merlin, Paolo Montalban as King Charming, and Leonardo Nam as Maddox Hatter. China Anne McClain is back as fan-favorite Uma and the new principal at Auradon Prep. Melanie Paxson also reprises her role as Fairy Godmother. “Descendants: The Rise of Red” is executive produced by Suzanne Todd and Gary Marsh. The film is directed by Jennifer Phang, with a script from Dan Frey and Russell Sommer. The movie is choreographed by Ashley Wallen (“The Greatest Showman”) with a score by Torin Borrowdale (“Searching”). The production design is by Mark Hofeling, with Declan Quinn serving as the director of photography. Katie Ennis is the editor. Co-executive producers include Mahita P. Simpson and Jennifer Phang, and Wendy S. Williams is producer. Costume design is by Julia Caston and Emilio Sosa.

Ron Seoul-Oh

Ron is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of POC Culture.  He is a big believer in the power and impact of pop culture and the importance of representation in media.