EXCLUSIVE: Diamond White & Fred Tatasciore Talk Playing Moon Girl & Devil Dinosaur in Marvel’s Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur
Diamond White steps in to voice the lead of Disney Channel’s new show, Marvel’s Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur. As Lunella Lafayette/Moon Girl, she is joined in the series by Fred Tatasciore, who voices the show’s other lead Devil Dinosaur.
We got the chance to hear from both stars before the premiere of their new show tonight, February 10. Check out what they had to say above.
Diamond, when crafting the voice for Luenella, how much did you draw on your own experiences to bring her to life?
White: “A lot. I grew up being African American and when I was seven, all I wanted was a character like this to come to life. So it’s cool to have someone of my skin tone and of my hair texture really be there. The representation…it means a lot to me.”
You mention your hair and there is an episode where that is touched upon. What was it like brining that episode to life?
White: “Well, definitely I’ve experienced someone calling my hair frizzy or messy and that’s why it was important for me to see the episode where Lunella gets her hair straightened, the perm episode. That touched my soul in a place where it was like, yeah, I’ve been through this. And your hair really does become your enemy. Growing up Black, your hair becomes your enemy. So, it’s really cool to see that play out and that’s something that I’ve never seen on television before. I thank everyone on the team for allowing me to bring my voice to that episode because I needed to see that. And my younger self is thriving right now.”
Fred, you bring to life Devil Dinosaur. How challenging was it for you to find the voice for this character?
Tatasciore: “It’s a beautiful, artistic challenge because I feel like I’m showing up with this broken saxophone instrument. We know the traditional sounds of what we think of dinosaurs as being andthe scariness, and the bigness, and he’s a force of nature. But then, we wanted to try to figure out what’s the language of his heart and articulation with Lunella? So we had to really work together to find it without going to the other direction. We had to really find where that center lied. And it ends up being very comical—now the difficulty is, of course, the physicality of doing it and that’s okay. That’s just part of the job. But the humor comes from just the weird noises. We will start with a long sentence and then sort of reduce it down to four sounds, you know? And I’m of course aided with great animation and emojis to illustrate some points.”
For you Diamond, what does it mean for you to be a part of this powerful show?
White: We made history being Marvel’s first teenage Black girl superhero. So it’s important to see that kind of representation. I mean, like I said, it’s a show that I needed growing up and I feel like it really does make a difference. Like the show says, one girl can make a difference. Like, this show is going to make a difference in a lot of people’s lives, so I’m just excited to be a part of it.”
*This interview has been edited for length and clarity*
Photo credit: Disney/ PictureGroup