Video: Actress Julianne Moore, Swimmer Michael Phelps Live Out Their Disney ‘Fantasea’ In Ariel-Inspired Annie Leibovitz Photography
Posted on April 25, 2008
Filed Under celebs
BURBANK, Calif., April 25 /PRNewswire/ — For the latest image in the
portrait series of celebrities living out their Disney dreams, photographer
Annie Leibovitz followed a simple recipe: Just add water.
To view the Multimedia News Release, go to:
http://www.prnewswire.com/mnr/disney/32800/
Continuing the “Disney Dream Portrait Series” that has put stars in all
kinds of Disney fantasies, Leibovitz trained her famous lens this time on
the undersea world of Ariel, heroine of “The Little Mermaid.” To get there,
she dressed actress Julianne Moore and American swimming icon Michael
Phelps in tails and scales.
“Yes, Julianne has a big mermaid tail; it’s interesting,” Leibovitz
recalled from the shoot. “Michael, too. His movements were so graceful and
beautiful you just felt like you were watching a real merman.”
The latest Leibovitz photography is part of her acclaimed series as
Disney Parks continue, through 2008, the “Year of a Million Dreams”
celebration on both coasts.
In the finished image captioned “Where another world is just a wish
away,” shafts of light pierce the blue depths as Ariel (Moore) sits in her
undersea world amid wavy coral and darting sea life. In the foreground of
the frame, Phelps slips past, flipping his fins.
Inside The Shoot
Leibovitz worked her mastery on soundstages on both coasts. Fitted in
his silvery fishtail, Phelps was lowered into a backlot tank in Los Angeles
used for underwater movie scenes. Leibovitz was on the outside, snapping
away, communicating her instructions to Phelps via members of her crew.
“One of the most complicated shots I have ever done,” said Leibovitz.
“I didn’t know if it was going to work, what to expect. I have to tell you,
he was beautiful. Michael put on that tail and … he just became like a
modern dancer. He just took to it and enjoyed himself and swam through this
tank. I was blown away.”
For the four time “World Swimmer of the Year” (as designated by
Swimming World Magazine), donning flippers was worlds away from the
swimming competitions he’s used to.
“It was kind of weird to be able to put on a tail and swim around in a
tank,” Phelps admitted. “To work with Annie and try these crazy sorts of
ideas is really an honor and something I won’t forget.”
A host of swimming stars, past and present, joined Phelps in the water
and final image: Janet Evans, Rowdy Gaines, Brendan Hansen and Cullen
Jones.
At a New York soundstage, Leibovitz perched the fishtailed Moore on a
rock as the starry-eyed Ariel.
“There’s a moment in the shoot where Julianne is sitting on a rock in
her mermaid tail and her young daughter comes in, and there is not a dry
eye in the house,” Leibovitz recalled. “She sat in her mother’s lap. Her
jaw just dropped. She could not believe her mother was Ariel.”
When Moore was asked to play Ariel, she recalls, “I leapt at the
chance.” “Ariel is my daughter’s favorite princess, so I was just really so
excited to do it,” Moore said. “All the images I’ve seen that Annie’s shot
so far - Cinderella and Alice and the prince one - are absolutely
exquisite. They are so beautiful and so kind of wonderfully emotional. So I
was really thrilled to be asked to work with her and do this.”
Star-Studded Series
The latest image - planned for the June issue of Vanity Fair magazine -
continues the renowned Leibovitz series of putting celebrities inside their
Disney fantasies. Released in separate flights since January 2007, these
have included:
— Scarlett Johansson as Cinderella, Beyonce as Alice in Wonderland and
David Beckham as the gallant Prince Phillip from “Sleeping Beauty.”
— Rachel Weisz as Snow White, Roger Federer as King Arthur from “The
Sword in the Stone,” Julie Andrews as the Blue Fairy from “Pinocchio”
with Abigail Breslin as Fira from “Disney Fairies.”
— Jennifer Lopez as Jasmine, Marc Anthony as Aladdin and Whoopi Goldberg
playing the Genie; Giselle Bundchen as Wendy Darling, Mikhail
Baryshnikov as Peter Pan and Tina Fey as Tinker Bell; and Jessica Biel
as Pocahontas.
“It is about bringing great stories to life,” Leibovitz says of the
series. “Working with great actors - these are stories that they know. It’s
embedded in them. And when they start to have their own children it means
even more to them.
“These are the stories that are passed on and on, from generation to
generation. We just want to do the stories justice. To me it’s a lot of
play acting, it’s a lot of dress-up, that’s the joy of it.”
Disney Parks guests with their own Ariel dreams can go “under the sea”
and meet everyone’s favorite mermaid. Ariel poses for photos with guests
and signs autographs in her Fantasyland grotto in Disneyland Park and in
Walt Disney World Magic Kingdom. In Disney’s Hollywood Studios at Walt
Disney World Resort, the adventure continues during performances of “Voyage
of The Little Mermaid.”
SOURCE Walt Disney World
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