Barry Jenkins on why he made ‘Mufasa’ and how it changed him as a filmmaker

On December 18, 2024By Littum

NEW YORK (AP) – During the four years he has worked on the “Mufasa: The Lion King,” Barry Jenkins estimates he’s been asked why he wanted to do it at least 400 times.

The question of why Jenkinsthe filmmaker of “Moonlight” and “If Beale Street Could Talk” and “The Underground Railroad,” would want to jump into the big budget, photorealistic animated Disney world of lions and tigers has confused much of a film world that reveres him.

Countless other directors had made the leap into CGI-heavy blockbuster-making before. But Jenkins’ decision was uniquely scrutinized—perhaps because there is no more heralded or trusted filmmaker under 50 today than Jenkins.

“It just thought it was something I couldn’t deny,” Jenkins says. “I had to do it.”

“Mufasa,” which opens in theaters Friday, brings together movie worlds that are usually very far apart. On the one hand, you have the Oscar-winning, 45-year-old director of some of the most luminous and lyrical films of the past decade. On the other hand, you have the intellectual property imperatives of today’s Hollywood. What happens when they collide?

The result in “Mufasa,” about the lion cub’s orphaned upbringing seen both before and after the events of Jon Favreau’s 2019 remake of “The Lion King” is an unusually structured and thoughtfully rendered play that, Jenkins maintained in a recent interview, has more in common with “Moonlight” than you’d think. Made with virtual film tools, “Mufasa” essentially brought one of the most cutting-edge filmmakers working today into an all-digital playground with a budget more than a hundred times that of “Moonlight.”

Often in “Mufasa,” you can feel Jenkins’ sensibility heating up and amplifying what in other less sensitive films can feel soulless. With songs of Lin-Manuel Miranda“Mufasa” works as blockbuster entertainment and, even more surprisingly, as a Barry Jenkins film.

“My head was spinning when it started,” says Jenkins. “It actually reminded me of when I first started making films. This felt strangely very similar to the first experience. You can kind of run away from that newness and be intimidated by it, or you can embrace it, learn the things you don’t know, and then start bending it.”

It’s also an experience that has clearly changed Jenkins, exponentially expanding his filmmaking toolkit while opening his eyes to new ways of making movies. “It was almost like learning a new language,” Jenkins says of the process. These are edited excerpts from the interview.

AP: How many times have you been asked why you made this film?

Jenkins: At least 400 times. But it came down to the spirit and warmth of Jeff Nathanson’s script and also the spirit and warmth I always found in the story. I got to “The Lion King” by looking after my nephews way back in the 1990s. My sister was a single mom and I wanted to stay home and watch with the kids. You had put on different VHSs and “The Lion King” was always the one that stuck. I just thought, wouldn’t it be interesting to come out of something like “The Underground Railroad” to step into this thing that’s so full of light?

AP: Were you actively looking for something lighter after these projects?

JENKINS: Maybe warmer, lighter, but still just as deep, just as spiritual. This idea of family heritage, of finding your place in the world, these are things that are very present in “Moonlight” and “The Underground Railroad.” If I told you, “I’m going to make this movie about this kid who has this almost biblical experience involving water and a parental figure that he’s then displaced from and has to find his place in the world, I could be talking about “Moonlight “, or I could talk about “Mufasa.”

Kelvin Harrison Jr., Tiffany Boone, Aaron Pierre, Anika Noni Rose, Billy Eichner, Seth Rogan and Barry Jenkins at a London “Mufasa” photocall. (Ian West/PA via AP)

AP: Were you motivated by expanding yourself as a filmmaker? Or the ideas people have about you as a filmmaker?

JENKINS: It wasn’t about the notions of who people thought I was. But I was looking to expand the very kind of filmmaking I was doing at the time. This came right in the middle of basically a seven-year cycle, from the beginning of “Moonlight” to being in the post of “The Underground Railroad”, the way this film is made, with this virtual production, it is just a very new way of making movies. There have been maybe five or six films made with this technology.

AP: Did you find that you could carry your sensibilities into virtual filmmaking?

JENKINS: I did. We developed this process to the point where we could create so much of the entire world and the movement in virtual space, and we could then take our virtual cameras into virtual production. We developed the animation to the point where we could create the lighting, we could create the set, we could create the environment. (Cinematographer) James (Laxton) would be there and I would be there and we would blast the actors’ voices into the room and the animators would move through and I would direct the blocking and the camera would react to blocking in real time.

AP: It seemed like you paid particular attention to close-ups. In the virtual space, did you play with where to place the camera?

JENKINS: Absolutely. Look, I’m a filmmaker who was on the set of “Moonlight,” I have 25 days and the sun is setting. Yes, you are trying to find a location for the camera, you have ideas, but those ideas are not practically achievable. In this sense, the camera could be anywhere. It could be anywhere. These are somewhat the same questions, but the opportunity to answer is so immediate and direct.

AP: However, you recently told Vulture that the digital process “wasn’t your thing.” Are you eager to return to physical filmmaking?

JENKINS: I want to unpack what you just said. We’ve talked and I’ve talked about using these tools to create a very physical, personal experience. I don’t consider this an all digital and all computer animated project. If I did this movie again right now, it wouldn’t take me four years. It would probably take me two and a quarter. If I were to make another one of these films, I would have such a stronger foundation. It wouldn’t feel like something that’s alien or something that’s different or it’s all digital. It would just feel like making movies.

Filmmaker Barry Jenkins poses for a portrait to promote the movie “Mufasa” on Monday, Dec. 9, 2024, in Los Angeles. (Photo by Rebecca Cabage/Invision/AP)

AP: So you see “Mufasa” more as part of a continuum for you personally?

JENKINS: One thousand percent. I love that through this process, I’ve learned so many other ways to make a movie that I just couldn’t learn to make something like “The Underground Railroad.” What I love now is the overlap between the two of them. When I started this process, I talked to Matt Reeves because I had heard that he had used some of these tools to pre-screen “The Batman.” He said: “You know that shot where the penguin is in his car and Batman goes upside down? I discovered that in the volume.” I said, “Of course you did.” I thought, Oh my God, we could have foreseen “Moonlight” with this technology.

AP: Do you think it is necessary for a filmmaker today to be aware of these techniques?

JENKINS: One thousand percent. The light can be anywhere in this film and the camera can be anywhere. That doesn’t mean it has to be everywhere. The next time I go out to make a movie, whether it’s something like “The Underground Railroad” or “Beale Street,” James and I will probably incorporate these tools as well. Because figuring out the light is half the battle, as they say in “GI Joe.”

AP: So do you feel changed as a filmmaker by this experience?

JENKINS: It’s all new. It’s all being developed right now. We went down to “Avatar” and talked to the engineers there. They heard what we were trying to do and sent some people to integrate with us, and they helped us develop our process so that we could make these two-legged animators move as if they had four legs. What I’m saying is: This is the wild, wild west.