‘Hoppers’ Star Piper Curda on How TikTok Got Her the Role of Mabel: It’s the ‘Most Insane Opportunity of My Life’
Piper Curda remembers exactly where she was when she found out she’d booked the lead role in “Hoppers,” Pixar’s latest animated feature.
Curda was lounging in her Chicago apartment with her best friend when her agent called with “the most insane opportunity of my life.” She and her friend ordered Milk Bar for a mini celebration to mark the occasion. “The relative smallness of that moment is the perfect juxtaposition against how big the rest of this has been,” says Curda.
Curda is calling into our conversation from the U.K., where she’s busy finishing up a weeks-long press tour ahead of the movie’s release. In “Hoppers,” Curda voices 19-year-old Mabel Tanaka, a passionate animal-lover who goes undercover in the animal kingdom after stumbling upon technology that can transfer human consciousness into lifelike robots. For the 28-year-old, it’s a big role that’s been a longtime coming.
Curda’s been acting for as long as she can remember (one of her first credits, like many actors, is a 2011 episode of “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit”). “I have quite literally never wanted to do anything different with my life,” she says. You may recognize Curda from a slew of mid-2010s Disney jobs she had as a teenager; she made appearances in television shows and movies like “I Didn’t Do It,” “A.N.T Farm,” “Liv and Maddie” and “Teen Beach 2,” and lent her voice to the Disney XD animated series “Randy Cunningham: 9th Grade Ninja.” After, she acted consistently, making appearances in a range of projects like “The Wretched,” “Youth & Consequences” and “May December.”
When the pandemic and actors strike slowed down work, Curda began posting on TikTok, using the social media platform as a creative outlet. Immediately, people were interested; Curda would answer questions in her comments about the behind the scenes details of being an actor and working in entertainment. “I forget how interesting our industry is and how interesting all the processes are, because I’ve been living it for so long,” she says.
With no steady acting work at the time, Curda shared with her followers that she’d started working retail jobs to pay her rent — another admission that resonated with her growing audience. Had she not, Curda might not have landed Mabel; before she auditioned, “Hoppers” director Daniel Chong had actually come across her videos. “I think it was the fact that I was just being myself that kind of sparked his interest, because he always knew who he wanted Mabel to be,” explains Curda. “I think he saw that in me, and was like, ‘Okay, I need to see her read for Mabel.’”
¯_(ツ)_/¯ #fyp
While Curda is no stranger to the spotlight, being the lead in a feature film is an interesting experience for her. “It’s so weird for me to be the lead of anything, because for so long I was not and was told that I couldn’t be,” Curda says. “I was the Asian best friend for a really long time, or the ethnic best friend.”
Experiences like those have made Curda extra cognizant of how special the role of the persistent, fiery Mabel is. “She does not take no for an answer, which I think we all need a little bit more of, especially young women who are told to just sit down and shut up for most of their lives,” says Curda. “Being shown a character that never does that is really inspiring and empowering… what a cool thing it is that I get to play her.”
During the conversion, Curda gets emotional reflecting on the entire process of making “Hoppers” — and her journey through the industry.
“This is the only thing I’ve ever wanted to do, and I’ve been doing it for 20 years,” says Curda. “I have seen so many people walk away from it for such good reasons, and I just haven’t had it in me to do that. And I’m very glad now that I didn’t.”
Curda was lounging in her Chicago apartment with her best friend when her agent called with “the most insane opportunity of my life.” She and her friend ordered Milk Bar for a mini celebration to mark the occasion. “The relative smallness of that moment is the perfect juxtaposition against how big the rest of this has been,” says Curda.
Curda is calling into our conversation from the U.K., where she’s busy finishing up a weeks-long press tour ahead of the movie’s release. In “Hoppers,” Curda voices 19-year-old Mabel Tanaka, a passionate animal-lover who goes undercover in the animal kingdom after stumbling upon technology that can transfer human consciousness into lifelike robots. For the 28-year-old, it’s a big role that’s been a longtime coming.
Curda’s been acting for as long as she can remember (one of her first credits, like many actors, is a 2011 episode of “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit”). “I have quite literally never wanted to do anything different with my life,” she says. You may recognize Curda from a slew of mid-2010s Disney jobs she had as a teenager; she made appearances in television shows and movies like “I Didn’t Do It,” “A.N.T Farm,” “Liv and Maddie” and “Teen Beach 2,” and lent her voice to the Disney XD animated series “Randy Cunningham: 9th Grade Ninja.” After, she acted consistently, making appearances in a range of projects like “The Wretched,” “Youth & Consequences” and “May December.”
When the pandemic and actors strike slowed down work, Curda began posting on TikTok, using the social media platform as a creative outlet. Immediately, people were interested; Curda would answer questions in her comments about the behind the scenes details of being an actor and working in entertainment. “I forget how interesting our industry is and how interesting all the processes are, because I’ve been living it for so long,” she says.
With no steady acting work at the time, Curda shared with her followers that she’d started working retail jobs to pay her rent — another admission that resonated with her growing audience. Had she not, Curda might not have landed Mabel; before she auditioned, “Hoppers” director Daniel Chong had actually come across her videos. “I think it was the fact that I was just being myself that kind of sparked his interest, because he always knew who he wanted Mabel to be,” explains Curda. “I think he saw that in me, and was like, ‘Okay, I need to see her read for Mabel.’”
¯_(ツ)_/¯ #fyp
While Curda is no stranger to the spotlight, being the lead in a feature film is an interesting experience for her. “It’s so weird for me to be the lead of anything, because for so long I was not and was told that I couldn’t be,” Curda says. “I was the Asian best friend for a really long time, or the ethnic best friend.”
Experiences like those have made Curda extra cognizant of how special the role of the persistent, fiery Mabel is. “She does not take no for an answer, which I think we all need a little bit more of, especially young women who are told to just sit down and shut up for most of their lives,” says Curda. “Being shown a character that never does that is really inspiring and empowering… what a cool thing it is that I get to play her.”
During the conversion, Curda gets emotional reflecting on the entire process of making “Hoppers” — and her journey through the industry.
“This is the only thing I’ve ever wanted to do, and I’ve been doing it for 20 years,” says Curda. “I have seen so many people walk away from it for such good reasons, and I just haven’t had it in me to do that. And I’m very glad now that I didn’t.”