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‘Once Upon A Time’ Actress Karen David Sings ‘Aladdin’ Song, Talks About Playing Princess Jasmine

By Treva Bowdoin
Published on: 04:43 PST, Oct 24, 2016

Warning: spoilers for the October 23 episode of Once Upon a Time are ahead.

Once Upon a Time fans got to watch a revamped version of Aladdin and Princess Jasmine’s Disney fairytale last night, but “Street Rats” was missing something from the animated movie that gave it an added touch of magic — a romantic duet. Thankfully, actress Karen David just made some OUAT viewers’ dreams come true by singing a few lines of “A Whole New World.”

Galavant fans were thrilled when they found out that actress Karen David would be returning to ABC as Princess Jasmine, and there was some hope that the talented singer would get to show off her vocal chops again on Once Upon a Time. However, as Emma Swan (Jennifer Morrison) was shocked to discover, Jasmine and Aladdin (Deniz Akdeniz) never got a chance to perform their romantic magic carpet ride duet — Agrabah needed saving, and the princess and the street rat had to split up to ensure that Jafar (Oded Fehr) didn’t destroy their kingdom.

During a recent interview with AfterBuzz TV, the delightful Karen David talked about the possibility of Once Upon a Time fans getting to hear Jasmine sing on the show.

“There’s been talks,” she said. “I know a lot of the fans really want a musical episode, and when I came on board, they were like, ‘Oh my gosh, you have to sing!”

David pointed out that the music in Disney’s Aladdin was a major part of the movie’s appeal, but Once Upon a Time “isn’t a musical like Galavant,” the canceled ABC series in which she played a different plucky princess. However, David did sing a snippet of “A Whole New World” and filmed it for an Instagram video.

According to Karen, Deniz Akdeniz swears that he’s “tone deaf” and refuses to sing in front of her, so OUAT‘s Aladdin won’t be crooning his part of the romantic duet on the show. Viewers will just have to settle for hearing the street rat-turned-Savior telling his princess that he wants to show her the world.

Akdeniz may be shy about singing in front of Princess Jasmine, but three of Karen David’s The Tiger Hunter costars—Danny Pudi, Jon Heder, and Rizwan Manji—were more than happy to belt out Aladdin’s lines while they were hanging out together at the Carmel International Film Festival over the weekend. Karen shared a video of their impromptu performance on Instagram, and she explained that she couldn’t join in because her “three Aladdins” were singing in different keys. The guys also get a bit goofy near the end of the video below.

During her AfterBuzz TV interview, Karen David talked about what it was like to score the role of Princess Jasmine on Once Upon a Time. She revealed that she was completely unaware that she was auditioning to play a real-life Disney princess because the casting call she answered said that it was for the role of Scheherezade, the storyteller in One Thousand and One Nights. The character description said that she was “fearless,” so David decided to “go the tomboyish route” by wearing jodhpurs and “medieval boots” to her audition. According to the actress, her wardrobe choice made her stand out from the other women vying for the part.

“When I went in, I was surrounded by beautiful, beautiful girls who were dressed like princesses,” David said. “Clearly, they all knew that it must have been for Jasmine.”

David joked that she looked like a “street rat” compared to the other girls, but she didn’t need to be wearing jewels and a tiara to convince the casting directors that she was perfect for the part.

Once Upon a Time fans will definitely see Princess Jasmine and her diamond in the rough in future episodes of the show, but Karen David says that she hasn’t been told what’s in store for the characters. At the end of last night’s episode, Jasmine was still unaware that Aladdin had used the Three Fates’ magic shears to cut away his Savior status.

“It will be interesting to see where that goes,” David said.

It sounds like Once Upon a Time viewers may have to wait a while to see if Jasmine and Aladdin get their happy ending.

In the video below, Karen David also talks about the possibility of Jasmine being the character who kills Emma, fangirling over being told that she was auditioning to play the Disney princess, and her hopes of a Galavant revival.

Once Upon a Time airs Sundays at 8 p.m. ET on ABC.

[Featured Image by Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images]

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