Kylie Cantrall Talks Future of Franchise

It’s not a stretch to say that Kylie Cantrall was born to be a Disney princess. The Descendants: The Rise of Red star made it clear to her artistic parents at the age of two that she was a natural performer, and that innate ability soon took shape in the form of dancing, singing, songwriting and acting. At the same time, Cantrall also developed a deep affection for Disney and all its programming that featured young trailblazing performers such as Zendaya, Selena Gomez and Miley Cyrus. At 8 years old, the L.A. native turned that affinity into a YouTube series called Hello Kylie where she reviewed Disney Channel shows and covered the music of its young stars. 

A few years later, Cantrall started auditioning for various roles around town, but she couldn’t shake the fact that the Disney trajectory was the ideal course for her.

“I had done some auditions for Nickelodeon shows, and they gave me a lot of good positive feedback. But I just always felt like I wasn’t meant to be there and that I was meant to be with Disney,” Cantrall tells The Hollywood Reporter. “So I’m really happy that the stars aligned for me to work with the Disney family. It has totally felt meant to be.”

Cantrall’s first Disney job was a season two episode of Bizaardvark, and she’s been off to the races ever since. Just 18 months after that episode of Bizaardvark aired, she starred as Gabby Duran on Disney Channel’s Gabby Duran & the Unsittables. Gabby Duran would ultimately pave the way for her most recent title character, Princess Red of Wonderland, in Jennifer Phang’s Descendants: The Rise of Red, the fourth movie in the Disney Channel’s musical fantasy franchise. As a longtime fan of the Descendants stories, Cantrall is ecstatic that she had the chance to play the franchise’s first eponymous character.

“There’s nothing that can really prepare you for this kind of moment, and having my character’s name in the title is really, really special. I was definitely like, ‘This is insane,’” Cantrall says. “From the [Princess Red] dolls to the Halloween costume, it’s all felt like a pinch-me moment.”

The Descendants franchise chronicles the children of famous Disney characters, mainly the villains, and in The Rise of Red, Princess Red joins forces with Chloe Charming (Malia Baker), the daughter of Cinderella (Brandy) and Prince Charming, to stop the former’s mother, the Queen of Hearts (Rita Ora), from staging a coup at Auradon Prep where each generation of characters has gone to school. The unlikely pairing of Red and Chloe travel back in time to when Auradon Prep was known as the Merlin Academy, all so that they can prevent Red’s mother from ever becoming the villainous Queen of Wonderland.

Following its Disney+ premiere, The Rise of Red became Disney Branded Television’s biggest 3-day premiere on Disney+, and with an ending that alludes to a forthcoming sequel, Cantrall is very confident that fans will see how Red and Chloe have to reckon with their time meddling. 

“Time travel is messy, so there’s definitely more to this story, and I’m excited to get to continue Red’s story. It’s only the beginning,” Cantrall shares.

Below, during a recent conversation with THR, Cantrall also discusses the “blueprint” of Zendaya, as well as the ways in which she relates to Red.

The movie’s been out for a short while, and it’s been setting a number of Disney+ viewership records. Have you directly felt all of that energy and enthusiasm? 

Oh my gosh, yes. It’s definitely been a whirlwind over the past month that [The Rise of Red] has been out. I’ve definitely felt a surge in the fandom and Descendants community and how much love that they’ve shown, not only to me, but just the whole cast. It’s been just an overwhelming amount of love, and I even felt it this past weekend at D23. It’s one thing to see comments online and to see fans making videos to the songs, but I actually got to meet the fans in person and shake their hands and give them hugs. We had a meet and greet that lasted almost three hours at D23, and there were just lines and lines of people there to meet us. So that was a really eye-opening moment where I was like, “Wow, people actually watched the movie. This is crazy.” So it was really, really special to see it firsthand like that. 

So, to figure out how you arrived here, you’ve been a performer your entire life, but before you started working for Disney around the age of 11, you were a Disney fan on YouTube and in general. Has it always felt like a Disney career was in the cards for you?

Totally. I’ve had such a magical connection to Disney ever since I was younger. Of course, I was like every other kid who was obsessed with the Disney Channel shows and the young stars at the time, like Selena Gomez, Miley Cyrus and Zendaya. I looked up to them so much as a kid, and I’ve always had this weird connection to Disney where I felt like I was meant to be a part of the family in some capacity. When I first started auditioning around the age of 10 or 11, I had done some auditions for Nickelodeon shows, and they gave me a lot of good positive feedback. But I just always felt like I wasn’t meant to be there and that I was meant to be with Disney. So I’m really happy that the stars aligned for me to work with the Disney family. It has totally felt meant to be, and every project leading up to this moment has very much felt meant to be. 

Were you also a fan of the Descendants franchise since its early days?

I was so obsessed with the movies. I was the prime audience for Descendants because it came out when I was nine years old. The minute that it came out, I was in front of the TV with my friends, and all that we could talk about in fourth grade was these characters and the songs. They were bigger than life and had such an impact on me as a young performer and inspired the path I went down. Whether I was even conscious of it or not. Descendants has impacted me in a really strong way and has shaped me into the person and the performer that I am. So, in a weird way, it was manifested, and it has felt right from the beginning. When I got the first script for [The Rise of Red], I was like, “Damn, this feels like it could be so perfect.” I really resonated with the character of Red, and of course, there’s singing and dancing, all the things that I love. So it really was one of those projects that felt perfect from the get-go. 

You went to work with Disney in 2016 or 2017, and it’s been project after project ever since. Do you think that history with Disney gave you a leg up in the casting process for The Rise of Red?

I think so, but I still had to audition. It definitely wasn’t something that was like, “Here’s a direct offer.” But Disney is one of those companies that definitely has a loyalty towards their actors and the people that are in the family, and it’s a system where you get to work your way up. It doesn’t matter whether you’ve worked with them in the last three years or in the last ten years, they’re always going to have a loyalty and a respect for the Disney stars that have worked with the company before. So that’s really special about the Disney family, and I think they definitely had a connection with me since they’ve watched me grow up, essentially. I did my first job with them when I was 11; I had a guest star role on Bizaardvark. So now that I’m 19, it’s been almost a decade of working with them, and I’m just so grateful that they like me and that they allow me to keep working.

Your character is the only character to be named in the title of a Descendants movie, so you must have been beside yourself when you got the good news. 

Oh my gosh, yeah. There’s nothing that can really prepare you for this kind of moment, and having my character’s name in the title is really, really special. I was definitely like, “This is insane.” From the dolls to the Halloween costume, it’s all felt like a pinch-me moment. It’s unlike any other project I’ve done before.

You’re following in the footsteps of many talented performers, but there was a recent story that Zendaya auditioned a few times and really wanted to be a part of the Descendants franchise. Is that a pretty validating feeling as well? 

Oh yeah. Zendaya has been one of my role models since I can remember, and she has definitely been a blueprint for me on my Disney journey. She started at the company when she was young, and similarly, she worked her way up doing different projects before producing K.C. Undercover. That was her last Disney project before she made the transition into everything that she’s doing now. So she’s definitely laid such a beautiful groundwork and blueprint that other young stars can follow, including myself, and she continues to inspire me. From her fashion to her artistry and acting, she’s such a mogul, and I definitely could see myself leading a similar path.

How far along were the songs when you were cast? Were they ready to be rehearsed?

There’s so many moving parts, and a lot of preparation goes into a musical like this. You’ve got the songs and the costume design that takes months and months, but it’s also VFX-driven, so you’re building a whole world, essentially. But I would say they were ready to be rehearsed probably a good two months after I was cast, I had already recorded the songs by then, and it was really special getting to hear those first versions before seeing where they ended up. I had some creative liberty to add my own little twists and flavor on the songs. I even changed a couple little melodies and added a little run here and there. So there were different things that the producers allowed me to play with, and I thought that was really cool, especially as an artist and a musician. It was really important to me to make sure that I could add my flavor to the songs, and it was already really easy to fall in love with them. They were just so catchy and they would stick in my head for hours and hours, so it all felt really natural and fun.

Is there any overlap between you and Red? Did she learn anything that you also needed to learn or have already learned? 

Similar to most teenagers, Red is on this ever-evolving path of self-discovery and trying to find yourself, aside from what your parents expect from you or whatever family you’re born into. Red is heir to the throne; she could become the next Queen of Wonderland. So there’s a lot of pressure that comes with that, and she realizes that she doesn’t really want to follow her mom’s path. She wants to create her own destiny, and I am also figuring these things out in my own life. I’ve been lucky enough to have figured out my passions very early on, but there’s still aspects of myself that I’m still discovering and working on constantly. It’s okay to be evolving constantly and to not compare yourself to the trajectory of others, and that’s something I’m always trying to work on. So Red definitely goes on a similar journey, and hopefully, her arc inspires people to stay true to themselves and to give themselves grace in every chapter of their life. The growing process takes time, and it’s never really complete.

To your point about not comparing yourself to others, that’s a healthy outlook to have, and while it’s easy to get caught up in the successes of someone like Zendaya, there’s a valuable takeaway in that story I mentioned. Even she was told no from time to time.

I love that, and that is something that has given me peace of mind. It’s not that you were bad at this job or that you weren’t a good fit; it was just meant for someone else. Everyone has their path, and I truly do believe that whatever’s meant to be for you will be. So you can’t compare yourself to someone else’s path because everyone’s very much on their own journey, and that’s something that has taken me time to understand. I’m trying to work on that every day, for sure.

The Rise of Red is partially about the formative memories that make us who we are. In the case of Red’s mom, the Queen of Hearts (Rita Ora), one prank at a school dance turned her into the present-day villain that she is. Are you able to pinpoint your own formative memory that made you into who you are now? 

I wish that I had one moment where I could say I walked into my parents’ room and was like, “I want to be a singer!” We hear those stories a lot, and that’s really cool, but my childhood and upbringing were a little bit different. My parents were so involved in my journey from such an early age, and they’re both artists and very creative. My mom’s a dancer, and my dad is a songwriter-producer, so, in my household, it was very normalized to be an artist and to want to perform and to put yourself out there. And when I started gravitating toward the arts, my parents were like, “Yeah, we expected that you would.” So there wasn’t one of those light-bulb moments, and I can’t remember a time where I wasn’t singing or performing or dancing. My dad always says that, as early as two years old, anytime I’d see a stage, I’d run up on that stage. So I was always called to it, and while that’s kind of a boring answer, it’s the truth.

Overall, has it been quite the juggling act to prioritize both your acting career and your music career?

Yeah, for sure. They’re both so dominant and take up so much time and energy. So, trying to find the balance where I can show equal attention to both is definitely a bit of a juggling process, but we’ve seen it with so many people. J.Lo and Sabrina Carpenter are great examples of artists that continue to balance the worlds of pop stardom and acting. So there is a world where I can continue to do both. They lend themselves to one another, and with projects like Descendants, it’s really a dream to be able to combine those two aspects. So I see a lot of musicals in my future. It’s a really fun space to be in.

The ending of The Rise of Red suggests that there’s more to the story since Red and Chloe Charming (Malia Baker) messed with the fabric of time. Are you feeling optimistic that you’ll be able to tell that story? 

Oh yeah. When you mess with the fabric of time, you don’t come out unscathed. So there’s a lot that Red and Chloe are going to have to fix and clean up. Time travel is messy, so there’s definitely more to this story, and I’m excited to get to continue Red’s story. It’s only the beginning.

***Descendants: The Rise of Red is now available on Disney+ and Disney Channel.