Rose calls 'Princess' role 'amazing'

LOS ANGELES, Dec. 11 (UPI) -- U.S. actress Anika Noni Rose says people's reactions to the main character in "The Princess and the Frog" may vary depending on where and when they were raised.

Rose's animated alter-ego, Tiana, is the first African-American Disney princess.

"I think it will mean different things to different people as they sit in that theater," the 37-year-old Connecticut native told reporters in Los Angeles recently when asked to place the character in the context of cinematic history.

"It will mean different things depending on what time they grew up in," she noted. "For my nephew, it will be the norm. He will think nothing of it. It will be his first princess, period. For my mother, it will be something she's been waiting for and for her child, no less. For my grandmother, it would be something that she never thought would have happened.

"Each person who sits in that theater will have a different journey that they're bringing to the story that will make the story different for them and I think that's something that's really beautiful about what it is that's being made. Disney is Americana and we have simply opened a new chapter in Americana."

Rose admitted she was overcome with emotion when she first saw a hand-drawn rendering of the beautiful Tiana.

"I just started to cry. Even talking about it now, I'm such a wuss," she said. "This is something that I've always dreamed of doing. I didn't dream of being a princess. I could have been a dandelion and I would have been really happy. So this is like when your dreams take off and become bigger than what you imagined. It's amazing."