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Hello Beautiful recently sat down for an interview with Anika Noni Rose, star of Disney’s upcoming animated feature, “The Princess and the Frog.” Anika is the voice of Tianna, who makes her debut as Disney’s first African American princess.

In case you missed it here is part I of the interview.

Check out part II of the full interview below:

HB: What does it mean to you being the first in the same year that Barack Obama became the first?

ANIKA: Its very interesting because-and I don’t mean this in a disrespectful tone-to me I was the first the moment I got that call in 2007. And then President Obama got elected and I was like wow how exciting, what a year. So this has been happening for a long time, and I think a lot of people were under the impression that it was brought about because we now have this black president. But animation takes years in the making. It’s just an amazing coincidence that this is the world that we are living in right now.

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Check out these photos from the LA premiere:

HB: Were you the little princess growing up, or were you the tomboy?

ANIKA: I was in the tree. I had princess moments. When I was dressed up I loved to be dressed up, and when I wasn’t I was jumping and running and riding down the street on my bike with my hands in the air. I was very much a mixture of both of those things and with no compunction. Didn’t feel bad at all. Still don’t.

HB: Did you feel a particularly strong sense of responsibility taking on the role of the

ANIKA: I feel a strong responsibility every single time I play a role. I have a responsibility to give 100 percent every time I do a role, and then to figure out how I can take it farther than that because that’s the way I work. There’s always a responsibility. There’s so many ways in which to look at this: as a woman, as a person representing the old beautiful, and I think future New Orleans. I think there’s always responsibility.

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See the first 5 minutes of the movie here:

I’m really looking forward to playing a nasty villain one day, but there’s a responsibility there too. Because you can’t just be nasty out of nowhere; there’s a reason. It’s your responsibility to figure out what the reason is and what makes that person react the way that they do. How did they come to who they are and what they do. Words can be hurtful if you don’t have reason.

Click here for a sneak peek at “The Princess And The Frog”!

HB: Can you talk more about your experience in New Orleans?

ANIKA: I’ve never experienced such humidity before ever in my life. It was very interesting in terms of the hand drawn animation. I feel as though they really, when you go to those bayou scenes, they drew humidity in the air. There was a haziness about it that was so amazing and heavy but beautiful. I feel like we’ve seen New Orleans naked in the past couple of years and they didn’t know someone was coming to snatch their pants down. I feel as though it’s so important for us to re-envision and the glory of what it was and to allow adults and children from there so see their city as something glittery and beautiful and worthy of magic, because I don’t think that that has been the case. And although I think that it is very important for us to not forget what has happened there, it’s also important for us to look forward and say ‘we can bring the magic back. Remember what you came from and all of the things that have come form New Orleans.’ The music, the art, the architecture, the visual art; it is a beautiful representation of America when you talk about the melding of culture. It’s important for us to bring that magic back, because it’s a very unique culture. To be in a city that has gone through what they have gone through and have people still feel like they want to stand on the corner and play music for the joy of what music is; that is something else. They are survivors and artisans and that is spectacular.

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For 2024’s iteration of MadameNoire and HelloBeautiful’s annual series Women to Know, we knew we wanted to celebrate the people who help make the joys of film and television possible. To create art is to create magic. This year, we spotlight Hollywood Executive’s changing the face of cinema.