Disney Pixar’s “Turning Red” Star Rosalie Chiang Is A Certified K-Pop Fan
Spoiler Alert
What do Turning Red star Rosalie Chiang and her character Meilin “Mei” Lee have in common?
They’re both huge fans of music groups!
Disney-Pixar‘s Turning Red focuses on Mei Lee, a 13-year-old Chinese Candian who goes through puberty during the early 2000s. She experiences “the change” a bit differently from the average girl. When she gets stressed or experiences high emotions, she turns into a giant (but adorable) red panda.
Like most of us, she and her friends are obsessed with a boy band. During the time period for which the film is set in, the Backstreet Boys and *NSYNC were the hottest groups.
For Mei Lee, though, she loves the fictional group 4*TOWN, which is inspired by not just these said groups but Oscar-winning Director Domee Shi‘s own favorite K-Pop groups and idols.
Domee Shi is not the only K-Pop stan among the Turning Red crew. In a recent interview with BuzzFeed Celeb, two of the stars voiced their love for none other than BTS.
The cast took one of BuzzFeed’s quizzes to find out which character they really are like IRL. One of the questions required them to pick their favorite boyband out of *NSYNC, One Direction, BTS, 5 Seconds of Summer, Backstreet Boys, and Jonas Brothers.
The cast was split with Ava Morse choosing the Jonas Brothers, Maitreyi Ramakrishnan choosing One Direction, and Hyein Park choosing *NSYNC. However, Rosalie instantly chose BTS, and legendary actress Sandra Oh seemed to agree with her selection.
It definitely appears like Rosalie has been influencing Sandra too. Recently, Rosalie promised to make a list to give to Sandra of her favorite K-Pop songs!
@popbuzz sandra oh k-pop era incoming?!👀#turningred #blackpink #redvelvet #twice #sandraoh
Rosalie Chiang is truly a huge K-Pop multi-fan. The 16-year-old actress is from California and is really just like us as she is a lover of all things K-Pop.
In an interview for Disney Plus Korea, she expressed her fandom. In doing so, she listed several of her favorite groups.
I am a huge K-Pop fan! You have no idea! Any K-Pop group or soloist… For girl groups, it’s like TWICE, Red Velvet, BLACKPINK, STAYC, Dreamcatcher, so many… Boy group: SEVENTEEN, BTS, NCT, EXO. Again, I can go on and on and on…
— Rosalie Chiang
During the interview, she even recounted a story that mirrors her character Mei’s. She wanted to see TWICE with her friends and planned to gather funds which is exactly like what happened to Mei and her friends when they wanted to see 4*TOWN!
Rosalie doesn’t just talk the talk. Like any true K-Pop fan, she follows her favs on social media and posts about them too!
Rosalie couldn’t be more relatable!
Turning Red is actually Rosalie Chiang’s first major role. She has a small filmography, having worked mainly in local projects, such as commercials and short films.
Rosalie was originally selected when she was only 12 years old to be a temporary or “scratch” voice for Mei until Pixar casted an actor. This is a common practice in animation, as it can take years to work on a film. But she did such an amazing job that the director ended up offering her the part for real!
As soon as we heard her voice on the audition tape she sent — it was a little bit imperfect, she didn’t enunciate everything perfectly — but there was such a natural, dorky appeal to her voice, it made us feel ‘Oh my gosh! That is Mei.’
When it was time to cast it for real, we listened to a bunch of audition tapes, and all of us were like, ‘Nobody came close…’ The role of Mei and Rosalie had become way too intertwined. She had just infused herself into the role.
— Domee Shi
So, we can’t wait to see her more in the future!
