Lea Salonga on Disney roles, crying at KPop Demon Hunters and discrimination she’s faced
Ahead of her Hong Kong Disneyland show, the Filipino singer talks about why Mulan is still so dear to her and her wish to tell Asian stories
“Crying like a baby” is not the kind of reaction in-flight entertainment usually evokes, but when Lea Salonga was watching KPop Demon Hunters – in which she has a minor singing role – on a recent trip, that was what happened.
“I watched it on a flight, and I was like, ‘Why is this movie making me cry so much?’”
Another work that made her “cry buckets” was Maybe Happy Ending.
“It’s quite the successful South Korean musical, and then it made its way to Broadway and it won all of the things. It’s such a gem.
“If there’s anything that those productions have proven, it’s that there is a demand for this kind of [Asian] storytelling. There is a demand to learn about another culture.”