Idina Menzel plays Ella’s stepmother, Vivian, in “Cinderella.”
(Kerry Brown / Amazon)
The following early morning, Ella is visited in the basement by her stepmother, Vivian, (Idina Menzel), who shares that she employed to enjoy piano and spent a thirty day period at a noted conservatory. “When I returned, my husband, he believed authentic wives didn’t act so frivolously,” Vivian claims with tears in her eyes. “You may believe me cruel, but the real cruelty would be for me to permit you to think you can be a thing you simply cannot.” Vivian then places the leftover glass slipper and attempts to persuade Ella to marry Prince Robert following all, as a indicates of resolving their financial challenges.
Cannon added this Vivian backstory because “I did not want there to be any ‘evil’ in the film at all. Vivian had these dreams, and her partner divorced her basically simply because she was trying to adhere to them. And then she remarries but he dies and she’s back again to square a person with an further daughter.
“She had been taught to imagine that marrying is the only way that you can increase your large amount in life,” Cannon ongoing. “If you comprehend that about her, you see she’s not jealous of Ella or spiteful. Her advice is coming from a extremely emotional and tragic position, seriously.”
Vivian laments her deficiency of possibilities in the unique song “Dream Lady,” an angst-ridden monitor co-written by Menzel that functions as anthem for the gals of the kingdom. “If you just take it out of the movie, it is a common cry for all the wrestle of not staying regarded and appreciated for who you are, and the discomfort of anyone telling you that your goals never subject,” reported Menzel of the song.