Santino Fontana made his broadway debut in Sunday in the Park with George in 2007, at 25. Since then he has performed in numerous broadway shoes and has even been nominated for an Emmy. But most recently, he played Hans in Disney’s Frozen.
I was able to sit down with him and discuss what it was like playing his role and some of his favorite scenes in the movie. *this article alludes to a spoiler*
Q : What’s in like playing your role?
Santino Fontana: It’s pretty great. It’s pretty liberating because it’s kind of the freest sense of acting. And the great thing about animation is you’re not limited by anything physical or even logical. You can totally be in a place of nothing but imagination.
And what’s so great about what Jenn and Chris did is they’re the ones who are responsible for the editing, which has all the logic. So my job is just to generate creative ideas and it’s their job to make it all make sense. And that’s great, that’s great.
Q: How many hours did you send on your character?
Santino Fontana: That’s what’s so funny… My agent was like what is this? Five days of work for you? And I was like yeah. That was it. It was five days, five days of recording and, you know, in five days in a Broadway show you’ve done eight shows, so it’s kind of nutty.
Q: What’s your favorite scene in the movie?
Santino Fontana: Sure, I love Josh’s song sequence, his dream sequence. That’s just kind of like the best of everything. It’s great writing. It’s a great performance. I’m excited to go back to New York so I can just sneak in to watch peoples reactions. There is also a scene of mine where they audience always laughs at my demise. I’m kind of a like hey, he has feelings too. But I get it. It’s a testament to the creators more so than anything to do with me, ’cause that’s an editing feat and a story telling feat.
I love that kind of surprise. It has nothing to do with an actor, but the people putting it together. And I’m proud of it. I mean we haven’t seen that in any Disney movie. You know, Jaffar is Jaffar. We know, you know, the Ursula we know. This is, you know, it’s complicated and great.