New Disney Dream Portrait Series photos and behind the scenes video
Written by Louis Mongello
Actress Julianne Moore, Swimmer Michael Phelps Live Out Their Disney 'Fantasea' In Ariel-Inspired Annie Leibovitz Photography
Photographer Annie Leibovitz continues her "Disney Dream
Portrait Series" that has put stars in all kinds of Disney fantasies. This time, the lens is on the undersea world of
Ariel, heroine of "The Little Mermaid." To play the parts, she dressed
actress Julianne Moore and American swimming icon Michael Phelps in
tails and scales.
"Yes, Julianne has a big mermaid
tail; it's interesting," Leibovitz recalled from the shoot. "Michael,
too. His movements were so graceful and beautiful you just felt like
you were watching a real merman."
Inside The Shoot
Leibovitz worked her mastery on soundstages on both coasts, as Phelps was lowered into a backlot tank in Los
Angeles used for underwater movie scenes. "One of the most complicated shots I have
ever done," said Leibovitz.
At a New York soundstage, Moore became the starry-eyed Ariel. "There's
a moment in the shoot where Julianne is sitting on a rock in her
mermaid tail and her young daughter comes in, and there is not a dry
eye in the house," Leibovitz recalled. "She sat in her mother's lap.
Her jaw just dropped. She could not believe her mother was Ariel."
When Moore was asked to play Ariel, she recalls, "I leapt at the chance." "Ariel
is my daughter's favorite princess, so I was just really so excited to
do it," Moore said. "All the images I've seen that Annie's shot so far
– Cinderella and Alice and the prince one – are absolutely exquisite.
They are so beautiful and so kind of wonderfully emotional. So I was
really thrilled to be asked to work with her and do this."
Star-Studded Series
The latest image – planned for the June issue of Vanity Fair
magazine – continues the renowned Leibovitz series of putting
celebrities inside their Disney fantasies. Released in separate flights
since January 2007, these have included:
Scarlett
Johansson as Cinderella, Beyoncé as Alice in Wonderland and David
Beckham as the gallant Prince Phillip from "Sleeping Beauty."
Rachel
Weisz as Snow White, Roger Federer as King Arthur from "The Sword in
the Stone," Julie Andrews as the Blue Fairy from "Pinocchio" with
Abigail Breslin as Fira from "Disney Fairies."
Jennifer
Lopez as Jasmine, Marc Anthony as Aladdin and Whoopi Goldberg playing
the Genie; Giselle Bündchen as Wendy Darling, Mikhail Baryshnikov as
Peter Pan and Tina Fey as Tinker Bell; and Jessica Biel as Pocahontas.
