Getting Rihanna to star in the new Smurfs movie may seem like a big ask, but it turns out that may have been the easiest part of the process for director Chris Miller.
The superstar voices Smurfette in the animated film, along with serving as a producer and recording original music for the project. At the Los Angeles premiere on Sunday, Miller joked to The Hollywood Reporter that he would love to take credit for bringing Rihanna in, but the reality was “Rihanna wanted to play Smurfette in the Smurfs movie, she was pursuing it and wanting it. Talking to her, it became clear almost immediately like, ‘Oh, you have to be Smurfette. You have to bring your perspective, your own voice, your authenticity to the character.’”
In addition to doing two songs for the film, Miller also points to “a lot of needledrops, beautiful sonic landscapes that Rihanna helped create” and when it came to recording her voice work in the booth, he noted, “It’s kind of a joy because she’s open and she’s funny.”
Rihanna — who brought her two young sons RZA and Riot to the premiere — is an admitted Smurfs superfan and heavily influenced the film’s approach to Smurfette, as writer Pam Brady recalled how they were still working on scripts and trying to figure out the character when the star signed on.
“[Rihanna] did an interview where she was like ‘[Smurfette] is badass, she takes no guff from anybody,’ I’m like, ‘Oh that’s Smurfette.’ And all of a sudden the way she saw her character locked it in for us,” Brady said. “We acted like we knew what we were doing but we were like, ‘Oh Rihanna has it, let’s write that.’”
The film also features a star-studded voice cast of John Goodman, Nick Offerman, Hannah Waddingham, James Corden, Natasha Lyonne, Alex Winter, Nick Kroll, Sandra Oh, Amy Sedaris, Xolo Maridueña and Billie Lourd.
Waddingham — who said she’s done a recent animated trio of Smurfs, Lilo & Stitch and The Garfield Movie for her young daughter — is also a longtime Smurfs fan and celebrated having Rihanna at the forefront as “brilliant, inspired casting for a new generation, because her voice is so recognizable and she’s a total badass.”
Maridueña added that Rihanna’s involvement “was a huge part of the excitement in seeing what this movie was going to be” and he also signed on with his younger family members in mind: “I’ve got little sisters, I’m always thinking of things that they can watch that they’ll understand. The type of stuff I make is definitely not the type of stuff they appreciate, so something like Smurfs makes a lot of sense.”
Smurfs hits theaters on Friday.