Daveed Diggs queued up outside Oakland’s Grand Lake Theatre, his hometown multiplex, to see “The Little Mermaid” with his father, Dountes. “It must’ve been opening weekend.
The line wrapped around the block,” Diggs recalls. “I remember loving Scuttle, thinking he was just the funniest thing I’d seen up to that point, and loving the songs.” Thirty years later, Diggs is a Tony- and Grammy-winning actor, rapper and filmmaker, best known for “Blindspotting” (both the 2018 film and the Starz series) and “Hamilton,” where he delighted Broadway audiences by putting his unique imprint on Thomas Jefferson and the Marquis de Lafayette.
After playing those historical figures night after night, one might imagine he’d have no qualms about taking on another well-known character — the calypso-singing crab Sebastian in Disney’s live-action “The Little Mermaid,” which opens on May 26.
But Diggs’ insecurities — much like Sebastian’s persistent worries — nearly got the best of him. When his reps called to say director Rob Marshall wanted him to audition, Diggs tried to pass, believing the filmmakers were just asking to be nice.
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