Donald Glover casually roars onto Jimmy Kimmel Live in The Lion King suit
You didn’t know? Donald Glover had to train for two years with master of motion-capture Andy Serkis in Africa in a lion costume to train for Disney’s The Lion King. “This is what we wore every day,” the voice actor and Childish Gambino rapper said when he arrived in a lion getup on Jimmy Kimmel Live Tuesday night.
Obviously, all that never happened, but that was the running gag when Glover, who voices Simba in the film, showed up to promote The Lion King, which held its premiere in Los Angeles nearby Jimmy Kimmel’s talk show studio. He brought a clip, featuring the “Hakuna Matata” musical number, and talked about working with Beyoncé Knowles-Carter, but the real attraction was his suit.
“I’m not sure, but I believe Jim Henson Creature Shop made this. Took about five years,” Glover joked in reference the puppeteers behind The Muppets and Sesame Street.
When Kimmel changed gears and asked if Glover recorded “Can You Feel the Love Tonight” in the same room as Queen Bey, the actor continued his deadpan humor: “No, I requested not to be. I did not want to be looking into Beyoncé’s eyes while doing this.” (In all seriousness, he couldn’t because he was filming his role as Lando Calrissian in Solo: A Star Wars Story at the time, so he had to record separately.)
Kimmel imagined it would be intimating to sing with Beyoncé. Glover joked, “I imagine it’s less intimating playing basketball with Michael Jordan if you’re at home just throwing pieces of paper in the trash.” Fair.
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