During an interview with Yvette Nicole Brown and Adrian Martinez, we were able to understand the villains of Lady and the Tramp, and why we should view them in a different light.
“I didn’t even get to hold her.”
When Aunt Sarah whispers this in Lady and the Tramp on Disney+, you can’t help but feel for her. Yvette ad-libbed this line, and it has such an impact in the film.
Understanding The Dog Catcher
Adrian Martinez plays Elliott, the misunderstood dog catcher in Disney’s Plus’s Lady and the Tramp. When you watch the film, you may dismiss Elliot as a total bad guy. I mean, that’s exactly what I did until our interview with Adrian.
When asked how he took on this role he knew would be seen as mean or a villain, Adrian said he asked a big question: what is his greatest pain?
“Nobody gets him,” Adrian says. He joked that Elliott would go home after a long day of work, to a house full of cats. But, he also said he could easily see Elliott feeling lonely. No one takes his job seriously, and they dismiss his passion.
Yvette also mentioned loneliness when talking about Aunt Sarah. “She obviously lives alone,” says Brown, when mentioning where Aunt Sarah’s meanness and contempt may come from.
Villains Don’t Realize They Are Villains
Both Yvette and Adrian mentioned that villains never really know they are the villains in a story. With films like Maleficent to reference now, we can all see that there is a story behind these characters we may have given a superficial tag to when reading or watching our favorite fairy tales.
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Aunt Sarah and Elliot are important parts of the Lady and the Tramp storyline, because they give us someone to project our feelings towards. We wouldn’t embrace the beauty and sweetness of Lady, without Aunt Sarah expressing her disdain for her. We wouldn’t root for Tramp without Elliott chasing him around the Savannah streets.
Villains are needed and necessary, but they don’t always have to be hated. We can love their layers, and brilliant actors like Yvette and Adrian help us do just that.
Lady and the Tramp will be available on the Disney+ streaming platform on November 12th!
