Interview: Eden Espinosa Reacts to Her Emmy Nomination For ALICE'S WONDERLAND BAKERY

Alice's Wonderland Bakery airs on Disney Junior.

By: Nov. 29, 2022
Interview: Eden Espinosa Reacts to Her Emmy Nomination For ALICE'S WONDERLAND BAKERY
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Following her Emmy nomination for voicing the Queen of Hearts, Eden Espinosa is back with more singing, laughing, and baking in new episodes of Alice's Wonderland Bakery!

"Alice's Wonderland Bakery" centers on Alice, the great-granddaughter of the original heroine and a budding young baker at the enchanted Wonderland Bakery, where her magical treats help bring a new generation of friends and families together.

The series stars newcomer Libby Rue as the voice of Alice and a host of celebrity guest stars, including: Craig Ferguson as Doorknob, Jon Secada as the King of Hearts, Vanessa Bayer and Bobby Moynihan as twins Tweedle Do and Tweedle Don't, and Donald Faison as Harry the March Hare.

The series also features a strong lineup of Broadway voices including, James Monroe Iglehart, Mandy Gonzalez, Christopher Fitzgerald, and more.

BroadwayWorld caught up with Espinosa to discuss her Emmy nomination, going from acting onstage to being alone in the recording booth, and the potential Broadway future of the musical Lempicka, which she starred in over the summer.


First of all, congratulations on your Emmy nomination! How does it feel to be nominated?

It feels awesome. Like, it's just crazy dream. Every time someone says it, I just start laughing. It's just so, so crazy and awesome.

How have you been enjoying doing the voiceover work on Alice's Wonderland Bakery?

I honestly feel that everything that I've done so far has led me to be free enough to bring this character to life. The more and more work you do and this medium, the more comfortable you are, the more free you are to just play. There is no wrong. She's just so much fun because she has all those Queen of Hearts-isms, but also you get to see her softer side with her relationship with her daughter and her dad and Alice, and you get to see her be human, which is so fun. And the music that I get to sing is just a gift and she is just one of my favorite characters. It's so much fun.

There are also a lot of other Broadway names in the series, with Mandy Gonzalez, James Monroe Iglehart. Are you ever with them in the studio? Do you get to see them at all or are you mostly on your own?

Yeah, unfortunate that's unfortunate part about voiceover. It's always by yourself. I think if we were all ever able to be in the studio together, we would get nothing done. We would just be having so much fun. In other shows that I've done, sometimes if my scene partner records first, I'm able to like work off of their record. But I've never been able to do that yet with this show. So it is always by myself in a booth.

It must be such an interesting experience to be isolated and voicing a big character like that. What is that like?

It's something to get used to. I think that the more you do work like this, the more you realize it is a craft into its own. There is a skill to it and it's about, for me, just a trust fall, kind of with the relationship with the voice director and trusting that they guide you. I keep using the word "free" because it is about just no rules, no boundaries in the booth, and they're filming me. So it's like I want to bring her as much to life in that little space so that the animators have stuff to work on with my physicality. It can sometimes feel strange.

Especially from being onstage, to go from being in a room with so many people to just being alone in front of a mic with a camera on you, I'm sure is such a different experience.

Yeah, it is. The interesting part about it for me is finding the nuance without trusting, without relying on my face or my body. That's something that I learned over time where it's like, "Oh, I felt like I was giving you what you needed." And it was like, you have to paint the picture with your voice instead of relying on your facial expressions. So it's really felt like really digging deeper and finding the nuance as if they would never see you. Almost like a radio play, you know what I mean? Like, could I get the message across with just my voice? And then I hope that it gives the animators like so much to work with and play with.

So what can we expect from the future of the show? Can we expect more singing?

Yes. Well, the good news is we've been picked up for a second season, so that is such good news. I definitely have more songs I'm singing in the upcoming holiday episodes, which we have one in November and then one in December, as well. We have a lot of upcoming moments of a softer side for the Queen. I get to sing a ballad coming up, which is awesome. I love every time she gets to sing and more antics in the kitchen with the Queen.

You recently did the out of town trout of Lempicka. Can we expect anything from that show in the future?

We learned a lot. I mean, the out of town tryout at La Jolla was very successful and I think that we are having some private readings of new versions of the script, so that's exciting. Hopefully, fingers crossed, we will be bringing that show to New York. I have some other things that I've been working on for a while that are not far enough along to talk about. But hopefully fingers crossed Lempicka will be in the next couple seasons, who knows.

Interview: Eden Espinosa Reacts to Her Emmy Nomination For ALICE'S WONDERLAND BAKERY
Eden Espinosa in Lempicka

Hear Espinosa sing in the "Easy Breezy" music video here:



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