Descendants 3 star Dove Cameron reflects on the end of the Disney series
Descendants 3 was another hit when it premiered in the US back in August, bringing the hugely successful Disney franchise to an end.
Talking to Digital Spy, star Dove Cameron – who plays Mal, daughter of Maleficent – admits that she hasn't actually been able to pay much attention to the threequel's success in the US.
"I think it's been really good. It's funny, I get told it's been very good, but I mostly spend time in my house with my cat, so I've not really seen it first hand. We're really happy with the reaction," she says.
Dove Cameron has played Mal from the very beginning, so who better to talk to about the climax of the series as Descendants 3 finally hits UK screens on Disney Channel on Friday, October 11.
(Note – we chose to focus on the movie and series rather than ask about the tragic death of Dove Cameron's co-star Cameron Boyce in August.)
Since the first movie, how do you feel you've developed the character of Mal? What would you feel is the biggest change in her?
I think that any time you play a character, they always kind of meet you at where you are in your life, especially when you're young and developing.
So a lot of wherever Mal is is very heavily based in wherever I am because sometimes you can't really keep those things from mixing. I would say that she's developed, basically, alongside how I've developed.
In the first film, she was really a kid, really scrappy and defensive and very fear-based, and then in the second film, she was unbelievably lost, we've all been through those phases where we just don't even have a clue left, right, up or down or who we are, how we feel about anything.
In the final movie, I know it sounds presumptuous and arrogant and silly to say they've developed – because who's really ever developed – but for as long as I've lived, I definitely feel the most sure of myself that I have, and I think that's very much where Mal is as well.
What do you feel, performance-wise, is the biggest lesson you've learnt as an actor since starting to work on Descendants?
I would say that working with Kenny Ortega, who is just as unbelievable as everybody says he is, he has taught me so much.
Like I said, I was very fear-based when I was younger, very scared of things going wrong, scared of myself, and I think anybody can really relate to, as they get older, they stop being afraid of their own ability.
I would say that Kenny, as a performer, coaxed me out of my stuff I was hiding in and made me feel comfortable enough to think that the best of me was the most of me, if that makes any sense.
I really thought I had to become something else to become good, but I think as you get older as a performer, you learn that the stuff you're afraid to show and think you want to hide, is actually where all the magic lies. I definitely learned to feel safe in feeling very vulnerable and staying present and trusting my abilities.
As with the other movies, there are huge song-and-dance numbers. Were they the most challenging thing about making Descendants 3 or is it the quieter moments that are actually harder?
Funnily enough, it's one of those rare projects where the answer is both.
It's a very high production film for Disney. It's very intense and it's not based in reality, obviously, so that's a difficult world to believe that it is. You have to suspend reality and you have to be, 'This is the real world for these people' and with that, you have to find a grounded reality.
Some of the quieter, more emotional moments that you might think are very easy, it can be hard to feel vulnerable when you're surrounded by green screen and you're dressed in head to toe leather with coloured wigs. To find reality in that is actually quite a challenge, alongside the opposite challenges of sword-fighting, stuntwork and dancing and things like that.
Descendants 3 brings back Sarah Jeffery after she missed out the second movie, and she's excellent as she gets to go full evil. Are you disappointed that Mal's never allowed to have gone full evil in this series?
That's so funny that you ask that because the answer is yes [laughs]. The thing about Mal that is quite a difficult balance for the writers and the channel and for myself as an actress, is that she is supposed to be the most evil.
She's supposed to be this incredibly wicked, very mischievous, sort of root-of-all-evil ultimate Descendant and she is, but because she also has to be our protagonist, she's never fully allowed to lose herself in that.
The most evil you ever see Mal is in the first film where she's a bit more defensive and angry, and then I would say in the second film at the very top when you see her do 'Ways To Be Wicked' and she's lost in her fantasy of what it would be like to be wicked again and be the kid she knows herself to be.
It is quite difficult as an actor because, originally, the role was the ultimate of all evil so you have to sneak that in as impulses and brief moments, while also being a credible leader and someone who fights for justice and someone who's very human at the end of the day. As well, she's so rewarding and fun to play and you sneak those evil moments in, for sure.
There's a little tease in the very final scene of Descendants 3 when it seems like they're off to reunite with their parents again. Was there ever a chance that the likes of Kristin Chenoweth would return or was that just never on the table?
That moment was never in the script. What happened there was the four of us realised, because the most important thing to the four of us about the franchise is the four of us, we noticed at the end of filming that we don't have many moments together in this film.
It's the first one where we're mostly separated and we never got to have that 'Rotten to the Core' moment which is something that has become so canon to us. It's become so silly, an inside joke, a fun, silly and over-the-top thing that we always have such a fun time doing. We wanted to plug it in and we begged them to put it in the movie and Disney did.
We also wanted to give our characters a moment to feel they were going back to their roots. To play evil characters that basically become the good guys, we really enjoy the villain aspects of it and we wanted to keep their integrity of who they were and where they came from, and not completely strip them of that.
I don't think we ever asked Kristin to come back for the third, or any of the parents really, but I do know that she would love to be involved in the franchise more. She's a very good friend of mine and I know that she enjoys the franchise so much, as well as Cheyenne Jackson, and there's definitely possibility for that in the future.
What do you feel it is about Descendants that has made it such a success and so beloved by fans?
The relationship with the franchise from the actors' perspective, I think is worlds apart from the relationship with the series in terms of a fan's perspective. While we share common ground, I think we can appreciate the same things the fans do, it's something we actually can't relate to.
We've never been outsiders to the franchise, it's always been something that's like a language we speak. It's kind of like if someone's like, 'Why do people like you so much?', you're like, 'Errr, I don't know, I can't see myself'. We couldn't fully tell you.
I think because we have the absolute luck of having Disney corporate, big overall Disney, grant us the permission to dip into, and mess with, the origin stories of historical characters, I do think that that land is very appealing to everybody. It's why people love Disney in general, these big characters that they love so much.
I also think they did this amazing job at creating this, almost like in the way JK Rowling did with Harry Potter, this world is so detailed. Our set decoration, our costume designers, producers, Disney and Kenny did this incredible job of fleshing out this world with so much detail and love that it feels like a real world you could escape into.
Finally, and maybe most importantly, I think that the cast has this unbelievable, next-level closeness that when you watch it, you really believe that these characters love each other and have this chemistry in the way that they do because we do. I think so much of the love and feelings that we have towards each other really reflects in the films.
We just got lucky, I really think we struck gold and we feel really blessed that the fans feel about it as strongly as we do.
You teased a little bit when we were talking about the parents, but do you feel this is the end of Descendants or will there be spin-offs and it carrying on in different forms in the future?
To be completely honest, as an actor who is not beholden to Disney, I would say that I think it would be smart for them to capitalise on the brand that they created. I think it would be smart to do maybe a spin-off with maybe the younger characters.
I have not heard anything about that. I know that Disney has been very specific about saying that this world doesn't really ever end, it goes on forever and the possibilities are endless.
Also, I may or may not have heard something about something that I might be doing involving the franchise. I would never say that it's over, but I also would never confirm anything at this time. I would be open to doing more.
Descendants 3 airs on Disney Channel UK on Friday, October 11 at 5.30pm.
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