By Emily Hewitt
The new Disney Original Movie The Slumber Party takes a classic scenario and adds a comic twist. The film, which premieres later this week, depicts the hilarious aftermath of a hypnotism at a sleepover birthday party gone wrong. The film stars Darby Camp as Megan, Emmy Liu-Wang as Paige, Valentina Herrera as Anna Maria, and Alex Cooper Cohen as Veronica.
Before the movie premieres on Disney Channel on Thursday, July 27, at 8 p.m. ET and Disney+ the following day, D23 sat down with the leading cast to hear funny behind-the-scenes stories and what they hope viewers take away from the new film.
The Characters’ Stories
In the movie, Megan, Paige, and Veronica, wake up with no memory of the night before and must retrace their steps to find the missing birthday girl, Anna Maria. The four characters each bring something different to the film. Paige is the sassy, bold friend who radiates confidence. Liu-Wang said she is very similar to her character from the one-liners to her dry sarcasm. Throughout the film, Paige becomes more mature and responsible while learning to handle new situations.
Lui-Wang’s character is juxtaposed by Camp’s character, Megan, who struggles to try new things. Camp said that seeing Megan grow and face her fear of being embarrassed might inspire kids to do the same.
Her character awakens to find one of her eyebrows has been shaved off. While Camp says she adjusted to the one eyebrow look, even thinking it looked cool, luckily, she didn’t have to sacrifice her own brow for the role. The look was achieved through a combination of silicone prosthetic and makeup.
“For them to get the shape for the little prosthetic they had to do a molding of my face shape, which was such a cool experience,” Camp said.
Herrera’s character, Anna Maria, and Cohen’s character Veronica, bring an interesting dynamic to the story, as soon-to-be-stepsisters.
Anna Maria is against her father marrying Veronica’s mother and Herrera got into her character’s emotional state of mind by writing a diary as Anna Maria.
“When you’re writing in your diary, that’s when you’re most vulnerable and that’s when you don’t expect anyone to read it,” Herrera said.
On the flip side, Cohen provides comedic relief. Cohen prepared by reviewing her funny moments with the director, Veronica Rodriguez, and putting the finishing funny touches on each of her humorous lines.
Given the diversity of characters, Liu-Wang hopes audiences can relate to at least one character’s traits or struggles. Camp said she believes the film will help people of all ages learn to be their most authentic selves.
“I think especially young kids, I hope what they can take away is how it’s okay to be different and it’s good to celebrate your differences with your friends and family,” Camp said.
Behind the Scenes Stories
Although this film isn’t a musical, audiences can expect a brief High School Musical inspired number from Veronica and Paige’s brother, Mikey who is played by Dallas James Liu, in the film.
“When we were shooting it, we had a lot of fun with it. There was one instance where he started singing in falsetto, so I was singing down here (in a low voice) and after we finished, after we cut, everybody burst out laughing,” Cohen said.
In addition to collaborating with one another, the cast also had the opportunity to work with ducklings. Cohen’s character held a duck named Bill in her fanny pack almost the whole film and by the end, she was called the “duck whisperer.”
A duck audition was held specifically for the part of Bill to ensure the most well-trained ducks were selected to play the part. Yes, that’s ducks, plural. Alex wasn’t able to work with the same duckling throughout the film process because ducks grow at a fast pace, so Bill had to repeatedly be replaced by younger ducklings, Cohen said.
Working with ducks isn’t all fun and games though. When one of the baby ducks pooped in Cohen’s hand, she put her hand out. Fearing the duck was going to fall, Liu-Wang went to catch the duck and the poop fell into her hand which paused shooting for 15 minutes.
Slumber Party Stories
In real life, Liu-Wang had a slumber party similar to the one in the film. Her two best friends slept over at her house where they were meant to all sleep on her couch. However, in the middle of the night Liu-Wang felt homesick and spent the night upstairs with her parents. Her friends woke up the next morning to find her gone, much like Anna Maria seems to be missing in the film.
Unfortunately, the cast didn’t throw a slumber party of their own off set, but when asked by D23 which Disney character they’d invite to their own slumber party, they didn’t hesitate. Cohen’s favorite film is Toy Story so she would love to have Buzz Lightyear at a slumber party. Meanwhile, Herrera said she’d invite Veronica, the character played by Cohen, to add humor to any sleepover shenanigan.
“I think she would have a lot of stuff up her sleeve, and she would be able to get us into anywhere with her parkour,” Herrera said.
Camp’s favorite movie since she was little has been The Little Mermaid and for her 10th birthday, she even had a mermaid-themed slumber party. Thus, it would be a dream come true to have a slumber party with Halle Bailey, who plays Ariel in the live-action The Little Mermaid.
Liu-Wang feels like her funny personality would mesh well with Mushu, from Mulan.
“I feel like we would just stay up all night telling jokes or hang out. He would make me laugh uncontrollably in any situation,” Liu-Wang said.