Jacob Tremblay Says He Recorded 'Little Mermaid' Part Before Hitting 'Deep-Voice Puberty' (Exclusive)

Tremblay, 16, who voices Flounder in Disney’s live-action update of the animated musical, worked on the movie before the COVID-19 pandemic.

Jacob Tremblay is grateful he worked on The Little Mermaid when he did.

In an interview with PEOPLE, the 16-year-old, who voices Flounder in Disney's live-action update of the 1989 animated musical, says he recorded his part "right before the pandemic. I think I was about 13."

Adds Tremblay, who has starred in the movies like Room and Good Boys, "Luckily, I hadn't fully hit deep-voice puberty yet." That made singing easier, he says: "It was still quite easy for me to do a higher range."

"If I were to try to do that now, it would not sound very good," he continues. "I find it hard to not have voice cracks in regular conversations. I couldn't imagine. What's funny is that we did a little bit of re-records not too long ago, and this was when my voice had changed a little, and I had to pitch my voice up high. Luckily,​ they didn't have me doing any songs, but if they did, oh boy, I probably wouldn't have been able to do it."

Related:Everything to Know About Disney's Live-Action 'The Little Mermaid'

The Canadian actor admits he was intimidated to be surrounded by established singers like Halle Bailey, who plays mermaid Ariel, and Tony-winning Broadway star Daveed Diggs, who voices crab Sebastian.

"It was definitely a learning curve for me because I had never sung before for anything," says Tremblay. "So I was kind of learning the ropes of it."

The day Tremblay was to record his part singing one of the musical's many iconic songs, like "Under the Sea," he misunderstood and thought it was just a rehearsal. But several of his co-stars were present, including Bailey, Diggs and Awkwafina.

"I was just like, 'Okay, well since everyone's watching, I better just give a hundred percent anyway, even though it's just rehearsal.' And thank God I did that because it turns out that was real," he says.

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Before he sang, Bailey, half of the Grammy-nominated pop duo Chloe x Halle, "actually gave me some really good advice because this was obviously my first time singing and I was very nervous about it," continues Tremblay. "I remember talking to her, I was like, 'Oh, I'm so nervous about it. I don't know why.' And she gives me the advice to just picture—she says that she pictures everyone naked. At first thought, I was like, 'that's really weird.' But honestly, it works and it definitely helped me."

Ultimately, he says being surrounded by co-stars like Diggs, with whom Tremblay previously worked on the 2017 drama Wonder, was a bonus, too. "Just being in a safe place where it's okay to mess up and everyone's just having a good time and the energy is just so positive and happy and joyful definitely helped."

Tremblay says that while some tweaks have been made, the new movie is largely faithful to the original story about a mermaid named Ariel, who makes a deal with a sea witch named Ursula and trades her voice for a pair of legs so she can be on land with Prince Eric, a man she has loved from afar. (In this version, Melissa McCarthy stars as Ursula, and Jonah Hauer-King plays Eric.)

"They are changing a few things, adding more details," he tells PEOPLE. "What's really cool about doing a live-action, the creators are able to just see the original and then kind of question, 'Okay, what can we improve here? What can we do different? Is there anything we should take out? Anything we should add?'"

Related:The Little Mermaid First Reactions Praise Halle Bailey, Live-Action Film as an "Epic Watch"

Composer Alan Menken previously told Vanity Fair he'd changed some of the lyrics to songs including "Kiss the Girl." He told the outlet, "There are some lyric changes in 'Kiss the Girl' because people have gotten very sensitive about the idea that [Prince Eric] would, in any way, force himself on [Ariel]."

It's a move Tremblay applauds. "I think that's just how it should be now. I think we obviously moving forward as a new generation have to make sure things are more sensitive. So that's always cool to be a part of that change," he tells PEOPLE.

The Little Mermaid is in theaters Friday, May 26.

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