Linda Larkin, Who Voiced Princess Jasmine in “Aladdin”, Held Back Laughter During Takes with 'Comedic Genius' Robin Williams

Victoria EdelWed, July 1, 2026 at 8:52 PM UTC

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Robin Williams in 2011 (left); Genie from 'Aladdin' (right)Credit: Jason LaVeris/FilmMagic; Alamy -

Linda Larkin opened up about recording the voiceover for Aladdin with Robin Williams

Larkin, who voiced Princess Jasmine in the movie, remembered Williams' rapid-fire improvisations

Larkin said that she had to be careful not to laugh at Williams' jokes and mess up the take

Linda Larkin has incredible memories of working with Robin Williams on 1992's Aladdin.

Larkin, who was the speaking voice of Princess Jasmine in the film, opened up about her time making the movie on the June 30 episode of Hey Dude… The 90s Called, hosted by Christine Taylor and David Lascher. Larkin, 56, and Taylor, 54, became close friends during the ‘90s, and Taylor remembered Larkin auditioning for and ultimately recording for the movie.

Larkin said that people don't realize that, for most animated movies, the actors record the lines before their characters are animated. “We would have the scenes, the script was written, the directors, who were both animators themselves, . . . they would walk us through these scenes,” she said.

After recording a scene solo, they would bring in the other actors to record together. The iconic Disney film also starred Scott Weinger as the voice of Aladdin and Williams, who died in 2014 at the age of 63, as the speaking and singing voice of Genie.

“They would have me for a whole day for eight hours, then there'd be a day where they had me and Scott Weinger doing our scenes together,” she said. “There was a day when Scott and I were in the studio with Robin Williams doing what was a very small amount of dialogue for me.”

Linda Larkin (left); Jasmine from 'Aladdin' (right)Credit: Michael Buckner/Variety/Penske Media via Getty; Alamy

Lascher, 54, asked what it was like to work with Williams and watch him improvise close-up and in person.

“He was no limits,” Larkin said. She said it was so powerful to be “close up to one of the most incredible comedic geniuses of our lives.”

“We weren't in separate booths. We were in the same booth with our own music stands, having to not make any noise,” she said. They especially could not laugh, no matter what Williams did to try to get them to.

“The thing we were the most scared of doing is ruining a take, cause everything he did was brilliant and it was different,” she said. “Sometimes he only did it once, and that's what ended up in the movie, and it was improvised.”

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Larkin said, “I wanted to be good enough, professional, and I wanted to really be able to keep up with this person that I knew was just beyond genius, and now I'm like in the room with him in a little tiny room. Every sound is picked up.”

Larkin also explained on the podcast that she expected to be fired from the movie before it reached its final cut. “The audition had come through my theatrical agent, so they were specifically and deliberately looking for actors, and they were looking for people with a strong sense of comedy which we learned later was because Robin Williams was going to be the Genie,” she said.

In the original movie that she auditioned for, Jasmine never sang. “Had there been a song, I would have never auditioned for it because I'm not a singer,” she said. In that early script, she was “more of a secondary character,” but they kept “writing more and more scenes” for her.

Robin Williams (right) and a person dressed up as Genie from 'Aladdin' in 1996Credit: JOHN T. BARR/AFP via Getty

“And I was like, this is great. This part is getting really big,” she said. “And then they wrote a song and I was like, ‘I'm out. That's it.' ” The song was “A Whole New World.” Larkin figured she'd taken the movie as far as she could, but they would “obviously” have to hire someone else.

Instead, production told her they would find someone whose voice could blend with hers. “And I was like, ‘That's not going to happen,' ” she remembered. After they hired Lea Salonga, she thought, “They're going to discover that Lea Salonga can also speak and she can also act.” For “a whole year,” every time she went into the studio, she thought, “I don't know if I'm really going to end up in the final cut of this film.”

But, she said, “It worked out,” and Jasmine became the first Disney princess to have her singing voice and speaking voice played by two different people. Other movies, like 1995's Pocahontas and 1998's Mulan (which also featured Salonga as the title character's singing voice), followed suit.

Aladdin was a smash hit at the box office, earning over $500 million, and it won two Oscars, plus the Grammy for song of the year for “A Whole New World.” Williams did not reprise his role as Genie for the first direct-to-video sequel, 1994's The Return of Jafar, but he did return for the second, 1996's Aladdin and the King of Thieves.

Larkin appeared in both those sequels, as well as the TV series Aladdin. She's also voiced Jasmine in the movie Ralph Breaks the Internet and in the video game Kingdom Hearts. Larkin was named a Disney Legend in 2011.

Aladdin also starred Jonathan Freeman, Frank Welker, the late Gilbert Gottfried and Douglas Seale.

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Source: “AOL Entertainment”