Aladdin voice stars Scott Weinger and Linda Larkin in Los Angeles on Feb. 25, 2023. Photo:
Paul Archuleta/Getty
“We really try to work together as much as possible,” Linda Larkin tells us of her ‘Aladdin’ voice castmates
2024 might be a whole new world in some ways compared to 1992, but the Aladdin cast are still close 32 years later.
Linda Larkin, who has provided the speaking voice of Disney’s Princess Jasmine since that first movie took audiences by storm, spoke with PEOPLE aboard a recent media of Disney Cruise Line’s Disney Treasure ship about Aladdin‘s legacy and her tight bond with her voice castmates, including Scott Weinger (speaking voice of Aladdin) and Jonathan Freeman (Jafar).
“I keep in touch with everybody,” says Larkin, 54. “I was just with Jonathan Freeman this past weekend right before I came on board the ship. I was with him for three days at an event. We really try to work together as much as possible. We still record our voices for Disney,”
“All of us do the current voices, as well,” she adds. “But we rarely get to work in the studio together; they usually have us come in individually. So it’s live events where we get to see each other.”
Aladdin (1992).
Walt Disney/ Courtesy Everett Collection
Larkin, Weinger, 49, and Freeman, 74, were among a star-studded cast that also included well-known actors like the late Robin Williams(Genie) and Gilbert Gottfried (Iago).
Broadway star Lea Salonga provided the singing voice for Princess Jasmine (and, later, the titular warrior princess in 1998’s Mulan), while Brad Kane did the same for Aladdin himself.
And when Larkin and her former castmates do get together nowadays, their dynamic is “absolutely continuous,” she tells PEOPLE.
“We’ve been friends for 34 years — so for Scott and me, our whole adult lives. And it’s just a legacy that we share that is very unique to us,” Larkin explains.
Linda Larkin and Scott Weinger in Beverly Hills, California, on April 10, 1993.
Ron Galella, Ltd./Ron Galella Collection via Getty
Larkin’s own experience as the voice of Princess Jasmine is something that has evolved in a beautiful way over the last three decades, including being named a Disney Legend in 2011 alongside fellow Disney Princesses Jodi Benson(The Little Mermaid‘s Ariel), Paige O’Hara(Beauty and the Beast‘s Belle) and Anika Noni Rose (The Princess and the Frog‘s Tiana), as well as Salonga, 53.
The actress is especially touched by children today who still see themselves in her character, admitting it’s “something that I didn’t know would happened all these years later.”
“That a new generation would come along, that they would draw something from the character of Jasmine and reflect it back to me, and then create an opportunity for me to understand the character in a new way,” Larkin says.
Aladdin is streaming on Disney+.
For more information about the Disney Treasure, which kicks off its maiden voyage Saturday, Dec. 21, visit disneycruise.disney.go.com.
