The Hilarious Way Anthony Ramos Took A Break From Godzilla To Audition For Trolls World Tour

Anthony Ramos in Godzilla: King of the Monsters
(Image credit: (Warner Bros))

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Ever since Anthony Ramos first dropped the bars “the ten-dollar Founding Father” in the opening number of the Broadway phenomenon Hamilton, he's been strapped on a fast-moving train to fame alongside his cast-mates, such as Daveed Diggs, Leslie Odom Jr. and Lin-Manuel Miranda. Just within the past few years, Ramos has been part of A Star Is Born, Godzilla: King of the Monsters and Trolls World Tour.

His recent voice role as King Trollex in DreamWorks’ feel-good musical was an especially big moment for the actor because he’s always wanted to be an animated movie character. When the moment came for Anthony Ramos to show off his voiceover chops for Trolls World Tour, a bit of a giant Kaiju was in his way. So naturally, he had to improvise. As Ramos told CinemaBlend:

The way it happened was I auditioned for the role. I remember they hit me up and said they want to see you for Trolls, like you just got to record yourself doing these lines and I didn’t have any recording equipment or anything. I was shooting Godzilla in Atlanta, so I just did it on my phone in the closet. I just went right up to the closet in the bedroom, took my phone out, opened the voice memo app and recorded the lines. And I didn’t hear back for months and I thought I didn’t get it.

The audition process isn’t as glamorous as one would imagine, huh? Not only did Anthony Ramos record his first lines as King Trollex in an Atlanta hotel room, all of his lines were done away from the rest of the cast too. For the actor to remove constraints of his immediate (closet) surroundings and embody the monarch of the Trolls’ EDM region of its world is pretty incredible.

Anthony Ramos as King Trollex in Trolls World Tour

(Image credit: (DreamWorks))

Along with being the voice of King Trollex in the movie, Anthony Ramos also recorded the song “One More Time” for the Trolls World Tour soundtrack that also includes the talents of Justin Timberlake, Anna Kendrick, Anderson Paak, Mary J. Blige and SZA. The actor is also gearing up for the release of Hamilton on Disney+ Independence Day weekend, where subscribers can see the actor play John Laurens and Philip Hamilton with the original cast back in 2016.

Trolls World Tour also had an unprecedented release when Universal made the film available to rent at home on its intended theatrical release in April instead of delaying its launch date. The family film became a success on VOD, scoring $100 million in its first three weeks, and the fact that parents admitted to renting it multiple times at their kids’ request may have helped. Trolls World Tour is now available to purchase on Digital, and it will be available on Blu-ray, 4K and DVD starting on July 7.

Anthony Ramos will also star in the movie adaptation of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s In The Heights next summer, and he’ll be working with DreamWorks as the lead for an upcoming animated project set in space called Distant, which also has The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel’s Rachel Brosnahan attached. Stay tuned here on CinemaBlend for updates on more upcoming movies.

Sarah El-Mahmoud
Staff Writer

Sarah El-Mahmoud has been with CinemaBlend since 2018 after graduating from Cal State Fullerton with a degree in Journalism. In college, she was the Managing Editor of the award-winning college paper, The Daily Titan, where she specialized in writing/editing long-form features, profiles and arts & entertainment coverage, including her first run-in with movie reporting, with a phone interview with Guillermo del Toro for Best Picture winner, The Shape of Water. Now she's into covering YA television and movies, and plenty of horror. Word webslinger. All her writing should be read in Sarah Connor’s Terminator 2 voice over.