10-yr-old is voice behind Disney’s new princess

“I’m fine with,like,the princess stuff,” Elizabeth says. “I am like her. I don’t like kissy and mooshy-gooshy stuff.” Tiana likes to cook with her father and dreams of owning a restaurant. Elizabeth says she’d also like to own a restaurant when she grows up — unless she makes it big as an actress or decides to run a toy store.

Elizabeth has appeared in school productions and local commercials,but young Tiana is her first movie role. Anika Noni Rose is the voice of the older Tiana.

Elizabeth learned about the Disney part three years ago from an agent. She had three auditions in 2007 and learned in early 2008 that she’d been chosen. She did the voice recording in New Orleans and Los Angeles in 2008 and 2009.

The Princess and the Frog is set in 1920s Louisiana,and Elizabeth learnt a New Orleans accent with the help of family friends who moved out of the city after Hurricane Katrina.

“I got used to shaping my mouth in an ‘O’ when you want to say something. That is very different from talking like we do in Mississippi,” Elizabeth says in lilting drawl.

One of the directors,John Musker says the young actress “brought a lot of natural cuteness and warmth to the part”,including an endearing pronunciation of “frog.”

“She said ‘a fruh-aug’ and that was her own thing,and we really loved that so we used that in the movie,” Musker says.

Tiana is Disney’s first African-American princess,and while Elizabeth understands the significance,she’s not overwhelmed by it,her mom says. Jeanna Dampier calls the movie “an awesome blessing” for her daughter.