Formative Performances: Eleanor Audley in “Cinderella”

You don’t need to be a genius to see that mothers get a bad rap in this world. The idea of motherhood is revered and romanticized to the point where mothers are trashed and vilified if they step out of line – often, by their own children.

I, like many ungrateful children, gave my mother a hard time if I felt she was being unfair. In turn, my mother would tell me that “life isn’t fair” (a phrase that makes me twitch with suppressed rage to this day). Other times, she would simply ignore my immature whining. And then there were the times that she would go all Lady Tremaine on me.

If I didn’t want to do chores, I would tell my mom that she was being mean to me – because in my childhood mind, “being mean” and “trying to get your daughter to be a helpful member of the family” were synonymous. Instead of directly challenging my ridiculous argument, she would simply quote the Wicked Stepmother from Cinderella: “And do the tapestries, and the draperies – and don’t forget to give Lucifer his bahhhhth.”

It was her way of saying, “Look, we both know that I’m not a terrible mother, and we both know that you’re full of shit, but I’m not going to directly say it because you’ll ignore it. I’m quoting Disney and you can figure out my intention.”

The technique was always effective. I had no comeback ready to that. How could I tell my mom she was being a Bad Mother if she provided me with such a perfect example of a mother who was really awful?

Lady Tremaine, or The Stepmother (as I called her when I was a kid), is truly awful and wicked and a real delight to watch. Ursula from The Little Mermaid and Scar from The Lion King are some of the most entertaining Disney villains, but Lady Tremaine is the scariest because of how human she is. She has no grandiose plans to take over the world. She lives only to spoil her entitled daughters, live through them, and punish her stepdaughter.

Cinderella herself gets criticized a lot for relying entirely on others to escape her lot in life, but I think this criticism is a little unfair. She’s clearly a victim of domestic abuse and she didn’t  have any options before she went to the ball and met the prince. Besides, if this woman was my stepmother, I would have a difficult time standing up to her, too. Her voice is measured and calm, the mask of rationality and good humor, until she turns on a time to become biting and cruel – and then she can switch back to her fake calmness without blinking.

And people say voice acting isn’t “real” acting. The animators certainly did their job with drawing Lady Tremaine, but she would have been an utter failure without the vocal talents of Eleanor Audley. Who else could create a mix of such delicious wickedness and scary delight just by uttering the words, “I said ‘if.'”