Film and TV Now Interview: Whitney Avalon Talks ‘Princess Rap Battle’ & Sarah Michelle Geller

WHITNEY AVALON

“We definitely plan to release more battles soon!”

We all wish we could be a Princess, but actress/singer Whitney Avalon has taken it to a whole new ‘hip-hop’ level with her parody web series, Princess Rap Battle. The newly released fourth installment pits BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER star Sarah Michelle Gellar as ‘Cinderella’ against Avalon’s ‘Belle’ slinging insults to one another in a rapping battle that is burning up the internet. In less than 6 months, Avalon’s YouTube channel has earned more than 33 million views making it one of their fastest-growing independent channels.

Now that ‘Cinderella vs Belle’ has officially released, Avalon was able to find some time for an interview:

What gave you the idea for Princess Rap Battle?

I write a lot of comedy songs, and I was working on a silly rap from my own perspective. There was a lyric about how pale I am, and it led to the thought “What if it’s actually Snow White herself rapping?” I figured someone that old-school would need a nemesis with an opposing viewpoint, and everything else flowed from that! Since the popularity of the first battle, we’ve continued the series with more bad-ass females, and I get to play a variety of fun fictional gals.

How did you land Sarah Michelle Gellar to play ‘Cinderella’?

Sarah had tweeted the Snow White vs. Elsa rap battle, so we knew she was a fan of the series. We reached out through her representation with an offer to play Cinderella and were delighted when she said yes. She’s an incredible talent, a total sweetheart, and very funny, as everyone will see in the new video!

Could you tell from day one that PRB would be so successful?

There’s no real way to know if a video will go viral, no. I knew that I was proud of what Steve Gossett and I (plus a team of awesome friends and crew) put together, and that I would be happy if it made any number of people laugh and think. I didn’t expect that number to skyrocket into the millions, but I’m so honored it did!

Who writes the songs and lyrics?

I write everything that’s on my channel at youtube.com/whitneyavalon, sometimes with collaborators. The Princess Rap Battles are made with Steve Gossett: we both write, produce, and direct the videos. The beats are composed for us by incredible musicians we bring in.

Tell us your favorite PRB lyric and which episode it’s from?

I can’t pick one! But if you want something seriously harsh, there’s a line in this new video where Belle references Cinderella’s dead mother that I think would make anyone cringe.

And pretty much everything Santa says in the Mrs. Claus vs. Mary Poppins battle makes me laugh extra hard due to Jim O’Heir’s incredible performance.

I also dig Leia’s show-offy multi-rhyme on “You’re like a Stormtrooper cuz your shots never hit / I wore one gold bikini and the world lost its shit / I’ll rap faster, outlast her, outclass her, surpass her / I’m a master with a blaster, you’re a renn faire disaster”

Will there be more battles in the future and can give us a hint of who we might see?

We definitely plan to release more battles soon! Let’s just say there are princesses and other strong characters in all genres and all media, including television and video games.

We can’t let you go without asking…who was your favorite Princess growing up?

I spent a lot of my childhood walking down school hallways actively reading a book, so I always identified most with Belle! (And now I finally get to play her, in my own twisted way.)

You can watch PRINCESS RAP BATTLE on YouTube now.

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