Cruella: Mark Strong and Director Craig Gillespie Talk the Movie’s Epic Soundtrack

Cruella is finally hitting theatres and Disney+ Premier Access next week, which means [...]

By Jamie Jirak

Cruella is finally hitting theatres and Disney+ Premier Access next week, which means ComicBook.com recently had the chance to chat with the movie's director as well as some of the cast. One of the highlights of the upcoming movie is the soundtrack, which features many iconic songs. Both the soundtrack and score albums are now available and feature original music from composer Nicholas Britell who has been nominated for two Oscars for scoring the music for Moonlight and If Beale Street Could Talk. He also recently won an Emmy for scoring the Succession theme. While speaking with Cruella director Craig Gillespie, the creative had nothing but praise for Britell and his music.

"Nicholas Britell music," Gillespie responded when we asked if there were any Cruella topics he hadn't gotten to talk much about. "He's off of Succession and The Big Short and just an amazing composer. And, the very tricky part of this was, you know we have 48 or 50 songs in this movie that are very, some very iconic songs. And so having to create a score that has to fit in between that and compete with that in a way."

Gillespie continued, "He did this amazing rock score for Cruella and he went back to Abbey Road and he scored with old amps and instruments. And at certain points is 132 channels on one track because he's got orchestra and rock musicians and all playing, it's like the energy that he has to bring to that score and just the volume to compete with these iconic rock songs. Yeah. So that was ... amazing, and working with him .... at his place, like on the sofa, score by score and trying to really create ... they figured this out and really what fits into this film is, it's very tricky when you have that much music in there."

We also spoke with Mark Strong, who plays John the Valet in Cruella. In addition to giving us some updates on Shazam!, Strong also revealed that he suggested one of the Cruella soundtrack's many epic songs.

"My nugget of joy was the fact that I gave one of the tracks, because it has the most kicking soundtrack," Strong shared. "Just absolutely brilliant. But I suggested one of the tracks to Craig and I think he's admitted, or confessed, that one of the tracks I came up with, which was the Ike and Tina Turner cover of 'Whole Lotta Love,' you know, the Led Zeppelin track. Because I was, I just thought it would work. And Craig said to me at the time when I suggested it, he went, 'Do you know what, actors are always suggesting things to me and it never ever works. And this time it did.'" Strong added, "I think it's maybe one of the things that I'm quite proud of because it meant I really, I just got, I understood where he was going with the movie."

You can watch our full interview with Strong at the top of the page and check out our interview with Gillespie here.

Cruella arrives in theaters and on Disney+ Premier Access on May 28th.

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