On May 24 and 25, Disney celebrated the 30th anniversary of their animated film The Lion King, which first premiered in June 1994. This time, Hollywood Bowl organized a musical accompanied by a live orchestra, featuring the original cast from the first movie: Nathan Lane (Timon), Ernie Sabella (Pumbaa), Jeremy Irons (Scar), and Jason Weaver (the singing voice of young Simba), as well as the casts from the 2019 version. Moreover, aside from the star-studded lineup of the musical, one cast member gained more attention from the public: North West, the daughter of model Kim Kardashian and rapper Kanye West, who played the role of young Simba and sang “I Just Can’t Wait to Be King,” marking her singing debut, which is a big deal for the girl.
However, the girl seemed to face significant backlash after videos of her performance circulated the net, with many calling her “underqualified” and accusing her of leveraging her celebrity privilege to land such an important role despite having no singing background.
A mother of one of the auditionees for the same role expressed her disappointment, believing that her daughter, who has more theatrical experience, is more deserving. However, she felt that because of one girl carrying a celebrity name, she immediately landed the role. In her video, she said, “We had heard that there is someone that was in the industry that is pulling strings to get their daughter in front of the casting director.” Allegedly, the mother was accompanying her daughter for her fourth set of callbacks and the final screening for the role, not realizing Kim and West would walk into the audition room and claim that Kim Kardashian allegedly paid for her daughter to secure the role of Simba.
Other video of a boy’s audition tape creates more heat of saying how there are more deserving ones with more talent and experience who should have played the role and give justice to the character and the entire production.
Another video from a social media user on TikTok also pointed out that this moment would probably be a heartbreaking for West North because people are mostly talking about how bad her performance is and the only reason she got the role is because of the influence of her parents but not her own effort and talent in singing.
This controversy ultimately raised important questions about fairness and opportunity in the entertainment industry. As of now, Kim Kardashian still has not addressed allegations of her pulling strings or even paying the production for her daughter to be cast in The Lion King production.
