Malia Baker on How Brandy's “Descendants” Role Is Different from 1997's “Cinderella”: A 'Multiverse' (Exclusive)

While Brandy and Paolo Montalban step back into the roles of Cinderella and King Charming, they aren’t entirely the same characters as 1997's 'Cinderella'

Malia Baker is taking on the role of a lifetime in Descendants: The Rise of Red.

In the Disney+ film, the actress, 17, stars as Chloe, the teenage daughter of Cinderella (played by Brandy), who takes a magical journey through time when her mother’s life is in danger in present day.

As she stepped into the role, Baker tells PEOPLE it was a bit “daunting” at first, as she not only joined the iconic Descendants franchise but also played the onscreen daughter of one of her music inspirations.

“I was such a huge fan,” Baker says of the original movies, which starred Dove Cameron, Sofia Carson, Booboo Stewart and the late Cameron Boyce. “So coming into this, it was so daunting of just the idea of all these iconic characters and all these OG cast members that I'm like, ‘Oh. Now, I have to be one of y'all. That's a really big task.’”

“But I think the one thing that I've reminded myself is I'm not walking in their footsteps. I'm watching their footsteps go and admiring from afar, and if I'm even a couple steps behind them, then I'm still in the right place,” she adds.

On working with Brandy, specifically, Baker says she was completely starstruck her first day on set, which the cast adorably dubbed “Brandy Day.”

“I was all geeking out about her before even meeting her,” Baker says. “I saw her in the green room with her huge blue dress, and being a huge fan of that movie growing up, she's legit who I thought of when I think of Cinderella as a princess. Seeing her and then her turning around and just having this big dramatic reveal, I just yelled, ‘Is that my mom?’ And she yelled, ‘Is that my daughter?'”

“She was just so lovey-dovey, and she hugged me right off the bat. She held my hand through a lot of this process,” she adds, noting that Brandy gave her sweet words of advice about “remaining authentic and staying grounded” amid the entire filming process. She says, “She's an OG for a reason.”

While Brandy and Paolo Montalban step back into the roles of Cinderella and King Charming in the new Descendants movie, they aren’t entirely the same characters as Rodgers & Hammerstein's Cinderella, with Baker joking it’s like “the multiverse with Cinderellas.”

Notably, how Cinderella and King Charming first met is different from the 1997 TV film and they now have two children, Chloe and Chad from the original Descendants films.

“Chad is the one thing we were tied to [with the original Descendants movies] which remains true and I love,” Baker says. “He's my older brother. He's off to college, so it's like his post years of what we've seen before,” Baker says of how the new spinoff movie connects to the original franchise. “He's still a very prevalent part of our story. Chad is not going anywhere.”

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Descendants: The Rise of Red is currently streaming on Disney+.

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