Cinderella's director strove for inclusivity, comedy in new adaptation
Kay Cannon on keeping Cinderella's comedy PG and what she thought was the film's diciest dance number
With a CV that includes Blockers, Pitch Perfect, and 30 Rock, Kay Cannon might not seem like the obvious choice when you’re looking for a director to take on a fairy tale adaption. And yet, Cannon’s new take on Cinderella for Amazon Prime Video somehow manages to pull from all those elements, creating something funnier, more diverse, and chock-full of popular music than the boring old Cinderella projects we’ve all seen before.
For Cannon, crafting a new story was always important. As Cannon told us for the video interview below, “At every turn I was like, “Okay, how can I modernize it? How can I make it different? How can I make it worth people’s money?’” Part of that twisting and turning the original tale came from recasting some of the traditional story’s roles, including the fairy godmother, who’s played on Cannon’s version by Pose star Billy Porter. “When it came to the fairy godmother I was like, ‘gosh, so many amazing women have played this role,” Cannon says. “I think I need to make this a man. I need to make this a gay man. I need to make this Billy Porter.”