Bruce Smith & Ralph Farquhar Interview: The Proud Family: Louder & Prouder
The Proud Family: Louder and Prouder is coming to Disney+ on February 23, and the revival of the classic Disney Channel animated series promises to be bolder than ever. The Proud Family has been off the air for over fifteen years, but rather than showing the kids "all grown up," Louder and Prouder is picking up where its predecessor left off and simply modernizing various elements of the story.
14-year old Penny Proud (still voiced by the hilarious Kyla Pratt) and her school friends are hit with puberty at the start of a new school year, but that's not the only thing that's changed in their lives. Two newcomers to their town, Maya (Keke Palmer, Nope) and KG (Artist Julius Dubose, known professionally as A Boogie wit da Hoodie), are about to change Penny's perspective on a lot of things and shake up her social circle. Thankfully, she can always count on her rambunctious but loving family to have her back through it all.
Farquhar and Smith spoke to Screen Rant about how ecstatic they were to bring their beloved show back, and how the recent additions to the cast help shape the story moving forward.
What made this the right time and how did you get the opportunity to revive The Proud Family?
Ralph Farquhar: Well, anytime to bring The Proud Family back is a good time. And the truth is Bruce and I never understood why it stopped being on air, so we've been begging, cajoling - doing everything we could to get Disney to bring the show back.
And then lo and behold, almost 18 years later, we get a call. "Hey, you guys want to bring it back?" We said yes. It was just without question. We just dropped whatever we were doing and said, "Okay, this is what we're gonna do." I mean, Bruce turned down a job with Obama. I'm not lying! I'm not making this up.
Anytime would have been right, but given what's going on the world right now, this time turned out to be perfect. We need the reassurance of The Proud Family, so we're glad to be back.
We also have some fun new additions to the cast, with Maya and KG, as well as EJ Johnson getting to take on Michael. Bruce, can you talk about what spice Maya and KG bring to Penny's life and how you cast EJ?
Bruce Smith: Ralph and I talked about expanding the universe, and we needed to bring in more kids. That was about expanding the storytelling, and we need certain components to really play against Penny.
So, we brought Maya and KG in as new kids who just moved down the street. And their parents - actually, you don't want to forget about those - are Zachary Quinto and Billy Porter. They play a same-sex couple, husband and husband, who actually have these two adopted kids.
Maya's played by Keke Palmer, and she's a 14-year-old who actually is very level-headed and conscious. The first time she meets Penny, she's very protective of just letting people in her world. We thought that having a true voice of conscience would play well against Penny and would help expand her world and her thinking. Penny has always thought that she was the most conscious one in her world, until Maya steps in and wiggles it a little bit.
And then KG is voiced by Artist "A Boogie wit da Hoodie" Dubose - it's a long name you know, but he's an artist. Ralph and I marvel at just the quality of the voice that he brings to the character, that we had never really seen before or heard before in The Proud Family university. He really shapes KG, who's a gamer but has a level of depth with his use of technology and such that really helps round out their crew ultimately.
Those are some amazing characters. And now, we knew going into this round of Louder and Prouder that we needed to revisit Michael in the realest way possible. The first time we kind of - wink wink, nod nod - had Michael representing the LGBTQ universe, but at that time it was 2000 and the world wasn't ready for that character yet. This time around, we're bolder - louder, prouder, more truth - and we wanted to really lean into the truth of who this character is under the LGBTQ umbrella.
So, we brought in EJ. Ralph and EJ have a relationship that goes back a while, and we knew right away - just talking to EJ - that this is Michael. And we encouraged EJ, even in the recording booth, to be and define who this character is. "There's words on the page, and then there's you, right? And you're mixing in with these kids. Help us find this character."
And that's what we do with all of our actors in the booth. What's great about our recording sessions is they're always extensions of the writing room. Every [actor] is there with the liberty of creating and crafting their character and their performance, and that's what really makes the show and elevates the characters in the crafting of our show.
Bruce Smith: A fun fact on Keke Palmer is that when we were going to do this show, she called up and said, "I better be in this."
The Proud Family: Louder and Prouder will premiere its first two episodes on Disney+ February 23.