EJAE and Arden talk about how they initially became involved with KPop Demon Hunters. EJAE connected with Rumi’s journey and was excited that it was an animated film set in Korea. Arden said originally auditioned for Celine and didn’t even consider that playing Rumi was a possibility. EJAE says How It’s Done was the first demo back in 2020. It went through at least eight iterations but several of the elements from the original ended up in the final version. She says Your Idol was inspired by cathedrals. Golden was the last song written. Although the film’s team gave her a lot of guidelines about what they wanted in each song, her experience as a kpop trainee helped her relate to Rumi’s struggles trying to appear perfect and hiding what she was ashamed of.
They spent about a year and a half doing recording sessions for the movie. EJAE said sometimes the plot would change so they would have to rewrite lyrics and then re-record the song. She said when recording the songs, they always did multiple takes for each line to give the directors and animation team lots of options. Arden didn’t realize how collaborative the recording process would be. She also said that as an actor, she doesn’t fully feel like she’s a character until she’s in full hair, makeup, and wardrobe so it was an adjustment to inhabit a character without any of that.
Arden said the first time that she saw a version of the movie, the animation was about 85% done. The screener was the first time she got to hear the songs (which the team had kept a big secret) and they made her cry! She said she watched the part where the girls come together in This Is What It Sounds Like multiple times. During the interview, EJAE and Arden find out that purple is both of their favorite color. Arden’s friends knew she loved purple so when the movie came out, they asked if Rumi’s hair was purple because it’s Arden’s favorite color but she had nothing to do with it.
EJAE said that when she was dropped from the kpop trainee program, she felt the lesson she learned was that hard work doesn’t pay off. Arden said she felt similarly when Partner Track was canceled. She had been told for her entire career that she would never be #1 on the call sheet in the United States and that if she wanted a lead role, she would have to go to Korea.
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