At some point or another, almost every actor finds themselves pigeonholed to a certain kind of typecasting. Perhaps it’s action hero movies like Tom Cruise, romantic comedies like Jennifer Aniston, or cheerleader characters like Hayden Panettiere. For Awkwafina, star of Disney’s latest live-action blockbuster The Little Mermaid, it’s… birds.
The 35-year-old actress and comedi-hen is on her way to playing yet another feathered friend in Universal Pictures’ Migration, a story about a family of mallards who embark on a trip of a lifetime as they attempt to migrate from New England to Jamaica only to find themselves stranded in New York City in desperate need of assistance. Enter: Awkwafina, the leader of a pigeon gang who knows a thing or two about dodging busses, bikes, and pedestrians (or by the looks of the trailer, doesn’t).
Awkwafina is still fresh off her portrayal of Scuttle, Ariel’s egg-centric seagull friend in The Little Mermaid, and I don’t know about you but I’m still haunted by the echo of “The Scuttlebutt” during the wee hours of the night. The Lin-Manuel Miranda rap song divided the internet in half and solidified Fina (can we call you Fina?) as a major player in the realm of bird roles. However, to play another one so soon is… a choice.
The proximity of these two roles has not gone unnoticed by those on Twitter either.
Correction, good person, you would have three. It might sound like a bit of ostrich but Awkwafina actually voiced the character Quail in Storks (bet you didn’t remember that one). And yet, she is still three bird roles away from stealing the Guinness World Record (not really) for the most animated bird roles from none other than the late, great Gilbert Gottfried.
Most people remember Gottfried for his im-peck-able performance of Iago in Disney’s animated classic Aladdin. The very mention of him is likely to have Iago’s voice reverberating through your skull and causing a smile to creep up on your face. That being said, Gottfried, who passed away in April 2022, also voiced a number of other animated birds as well, including the Aflac duck.
He voiced Digit from the PBS Kids’ animated series Cyberchase, Digit’s son Widget, and Woodpecker from The Lion King’s Timon & Pumbaa. That brings Gottfried to a total of five bird roles including Iago and the Aflac duck. How do you like them apples eggs?
If Awkwafina has any hope in the world of catching up to Gottfried she’d better get a clucking move on it. Migration dives into theaters on Dec. 22.