Never Have I Ever star Maitreyi Ramakrishnan unlocked another achievement with her supporting role in Turning Red, Domee Shi’s love letter to Toronto. Ramakrishnan is the first person of South Asian descent to voice a principal character in a Disney or Pixar feature film. Before her, there was the young Sanjay in Pixar short Sanjay’s Super Team, who doesn’t have any lines, and Mowgli in 1967’s Jungle Book, which was voiced by white dude Bruce Reitherman.
That it’s taken this long to get to the first brown lady of Pixar and Disney animation is sad. But it’s also thrilling that Ramakrishnan gets to be the one to start filling these gaps. She told NOW about her childhood dreams of working on Pixar movies when we first interviewed her almost three years ago. Now she’s having her Disney moment, thought most of the experience voicing her character Priya in Turning Red took place in Toronto recording studios.
“I did one session in the Pixar studios when I was in L.A.,” says Ramakrishnan, sharing her excitement visiting the dream factory she wanted to work at since she was 10-years-old. But it was the pandemic, so the office wasn’t quite as bustling as she dreamed. “Everything was closed.”
Ramakrishanan spoke to NOW during a Turning Red press tour in Toronto, following a wrap on Never Have I Ever season three. She’ll soon be heading back to LA to begin production on the fourth and final season before pursuing other endeavours, like her Pride and Prejudice adaptation The Netherfield Girls.
In Turning Red, Ramakrishnan’s Priya is a nose ring-wearing, deadpan best friend to Meilin (Rosalie Chan), a pubescent pre-teen who turns into a raging red panda. The movie follows the girls from Kensington Market and to Chinatown, as they plot to attend their first concert.
Last summer, Ramakrishnan took us to Toronto spots like Kensington Market and places that hold formative memories, like Nathan Phillips Square where she attended her first concert featuring Marianas Trench. In the video below, we discuss where a Turning Red sequel would take place if the characters were to move to Mississauga, and I ask Ramakrishnan to pick her own favourite Pixar movies other than Turning Red. Her decision on the latter question is split.
Up, which came out when Ramakrishnan was only seven, is the one she loves revisiting the most. But Coco, with its story about a young Mexican boy trying to preserve his great-grandmother’s memories, hits close to home.
That’s the one she loves to watch with family because it brings back memories of her great-grandmother, who Ramakrishnan was very close to. Her great-grandmother had Alzheimer’s too. Ramakrishnan sang Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah at her funeral. “That was the first time I ever sang in front of my family.”
Read More:
Domee Shi’s Pixar love letter to Toronto
Review: Turning Red is a Pixar movie that stays true to horny Toronto
Maitreyi Ramakrishnan is coping with fame, pressure, pride and prejudice
