‘I’ll get fired if you don’t speak Sebastian the Crab’: 30 years later, the Rasta Rockett team remembers the studio’s request for film accents.

As Disney’s iconic sports comedy Rasta Rockett celebrates its 30th anniversary this month, director John Turteltaub and his co-star reunited for an interview with The Independent (via Variety ) in which they discussed Disney’s struggle with Jamaican accents in the film.

Based on the debut of the Jamaican national bobsled team at the 1988 Winter Olympics, Rasta Rocket Before Disney was a feature film that was supposed to be about “drugs, racism, and characters having a lot of sex,” as actor Raoul D. Lewis, who plays Junior Beville. “I saw it become the film it is now. Was it something that had never been said before – Jamaicans in pantyhose? People were wondering, “How will it work under the Disney umbrella?”“, he added.

The managers of this studio argued John Turteltaub About the actors’ accents that they wanted to Americanize and not actually Jamaican.

“They said, “People from Central America can’t understand you.” said Malik Yoba, who plays Yul Brenner in the film. “At that time, people had little access to cultural differences and didn’t know what a Jamaican looked like.“

“They wanted me to look like Aladdin in Black. They wanted the Disney version.” added Leon (Derry Bannock in the feature film). “It was difficult because if anyone is going to be authentic, it’s me – but I’m a professional and I had a job to do.“

American accent

therefore John Turteltaub Once I got a phone call at 1 a.m. from then-Disney chairman Jeffrey Katzenberg, who said, “If you can’t get those accents to where I can hear them clearly, I’ll find a director who can.“

The next day, I said to the actors, “I’m going to be fired if you don’t talk like Sebastian the crab. Please don’t let me go.’ We joked, but they got it. They understood. We’re not going to make Sebastian the Crab, but we’re going to make an American version of the movie that people around the world can understand.

The director later expressed his uncertainty when asked if the film would be different if it was set in 2023.

“Times have changed a lot in 30 years. I would have no chance of getting the job – and probably shouldn’t. I’m on the side of those who say I shouldn’t have directed and we still ended up with a very good film. It’s complicated.“

Rasta Rockett can be found streaming on Disney+.