Our red carpet interview with Leslie Iwerks from the Disney Worldbuilders premiere at the El Capitan Theatre is now live on YouTube, and it’s worth watching in full for anyone who read our review and wanted more of what she had to say. This was our first-ever Red Carpet Interview in Hollywood. Nervous, Excited, and a bit of fake nonchalance, so forgive us for anything that doesn’t look polished.
Watch the full interview here. Or check it out at the bottom of the article.
Before we get into what she said, it’s worth mentioning how well the day itself was run. The Disney Experiences team had us checked in and ready well ahead of time, with a Worldbuilders backdrop already set up and waiting when we arrived. We’re grateful to them for putting the whole thing together. When it was finally our turn, Leslie made the whole thing feel effortless. She was genuine and clearly having fun with it, and she put us at ease from the first hello. By the end, she was posing for selfies with us, which is now one of our favorite memories from covering this beat.
This one mattered to us more than most interviews we get to do, because documentaries are genuinely what we watch. We don’t really do dramas, sitcoms, or reality TV. What pulls us in is learning how something actually happened, the behind-the-scenes reasoning, the why behind a decision. Leslie’s own catalog is full of exactly that, and titles like The Pixar Story and The Hand Behind the Mouse: The Ub Iwerks Story are ones we come back to regularly. We got a preview of what that kind of access could feel like when we were invited to the screening of Disneyland Handcrafted earlier this year, but actually sitting down and asking her questions directly was something else entirely.
We sat down with Iwerks ahead of the screening, and the conversation ended up shaping a lot of how we thought about the film once we saw it. Our full review of Disney Worldbuilders covers the movie itself in depth, but the interview stands on its own as a look at how Iwerks approached the project before a single frame made it to Disney+.
Disney Worldbuilders traces a line from a single childhood memory, most often a moment walking through the gates of Disneyland, to a land, attraction, or story its subjects went on to help build or shape at a Disney park. Beyond the personal histories, the film also offers a look at what’s coming next, including glimpses of new lands and experiences still taking shape across Disney’s parks. The documentary features candid conversations with Bob Iger, James Cameron, Jon Favreau, Kevin Feige, Jennifer Lee, Pete Docter, Dave Filoni, Jared Bush, and Josh D’Amaro, spanning Disney Legends, award-winning filmmakers, and current creative leadership across the company.
The biggest moment in the interview is her explanation of why she calls Bob Iger the “ultimate worldbuilder” outside of Walt Disney himself. She walks through his instinct for building out Shanghai Disneyland, laying the groundwork for Abu Dhabi, and bringing Marvel, Pixar, Lucasfilm, and ESPN into the fold, all before connecting it back to why the film needed him as its emotional anchor. She also opens up about which story affected her the most personally while filming, landing on Jennifer Lee’s segment and the full-circle moment Lee had at World of Frozen with her sister by her side.
What comes through watching the full interview that’s harder to capture in text is just how much Iwerks means it when she talks about this project. She lit up talking through the details, and it was clear this wasn’t a rehearsed press stop for her. That’s the version of the conversation we wanted fans to be able to see for themselves, not just read about secondhand.
We Sat Down With Leslie Iwerks at the Disney Worldbuilders Premiere, and It Was Unforgettable
