Yvette Nicole Brown on Talking Teacups, Disney Magic, and Finding Humor in ‘Hexed’

Yvette Nicole Brown is a Disney kid at heart, and her career has brought that love full circle. From lending her voice to Zootopia 2, Pixar’s Inside Out 2, and LEGO Star Wars: Summer Vacation to appearing in Marvel Studios’ Avengers: Endgame, Brown has become a familiar presence across Disney’s storytelling worlds. Now, she’s lending her voice to Scared Little Teacup in Walt Disney Animation Studios’ upcoming film Hexed, where she will get to be a part of the Disney legacy once more.

Hexed follows Billie Doe (Hailee Steinfeld), an impulsive and unconventional combat boot-wearing teenager living in a quiet Ohio suburb. But her life is turned upside down when she discovers she comes from a family of witches, which is a secret that her overly cautious mother, Alice (Rashida Jones), has been keeping from her in order to protect her. This discovery hurls her out of suburbia and into Hexe, a vast, spectacle-filled secret realm of witches. Forced to team up with her mother, Alice, the two must uncover family mysteries that could change the witch world forever.

We had a chance to talk to Brown about her role in the film, how her character Scared Little Teacup would react to Beauty and the Beast’s Chip, and if there is a Phyllis Jenkins somewhere in the MCU multiverse.

While Brown’s character is named Scared Little Teacup, there is more to her than just being frightened. As Billie navigates the world of Hexe, the tiny character shows that despite her name, she genuinely cares about others’ well-being. “What I love about her is that she’s got a heart for other people, and she wants everybody to be okay,” Brown said about Scared Little Teacup. “That’s kind of something that the way I live my life as well. And so she’s in a difficult situation. She has a warning she’d like to give, and she may not be able to get it to the person she needs to get it to. So it’s that feeling about her that was really interesting and fun to play.”

No stranger to Disney voice acting, Brown understands that bringing an animated character to life involves more than simply reading lines from a script. For her, part of the fun comes from having the creative freedom to improvise and experiment with different approaches to a character’s personality. So the directors would give their talent the room to play because “they think maybe this silly, funny person might have something that’ll bring life and spark something in the animators.”

“You always get a fun pass,” Brown said about the recording process. “I love that they trust voice actors to play, and then I love that sometimes the stuff you do makes it into the movie.”

That creative freedom has also allowed Brown to develop a familiar working relationship with Jared Bush, who co-directed Zootopia 2 and co-wrote Hexed. Having worked with Bush on both films, Brown described how their shared sense of humor makes the recording sessions feel less like work and more like catching up with an old friend. “We have a shorthand and a silliness between us because he’s a really silly guy,” Brown said. “When I’m in a session with him, it’s really like just laughing and doing some yuck-yucks with a friend of mine.”

Of course, Scared Little Teacup isn’t the only enchanted teacup in Disney animation. There’s also Chip from Beauty and the Beast. And while both characters have experienced their share of unusual circumstances, Brown believes a conversation between them would reveal just how different their experiences have been.

“I feel like Chip would try to calm her down,” Brown said, describing Chip as a cool character. While both have found themselves in frightening situations, Brown pointed out that even Chip had to deal with the Beast before he transformed back into a prince. Still, she believes Scared Little Teacup has witnessed things Chip hasn’t. “They both have been through some things,” she explained, but the fear experienced by Scared Little Teacup is “more visceral and real.”

But when asked what other household object she’d like to see come to life, Brown had one particularly personal request: her bathroom scale.

Brown joked that she’d like her scale to have a better personality instead of constantly hurting her feelings. Ideally, it would tell her that she’s perfect just the way she is and encourage her never to step on it again.

“It’s way too honest,” Brown laughed. “It’s too early in the morning for all that violence.”

Beyond Disney’s animated worlds, Brown also has a place in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, having portrayed S.H.I.E.L.D. employee Phyllis Jenkins in Avengers: Endgame. And while her appearance in the film was brief, Brown hasn’t given up hope of seeing her character return, even if it means convincing directors Anthony and Joe Russo to make it happen. “I have been trying to make Phyllis Jenkins happen, and I swear the Russos just won’t give it to me,” Brown joked.

But Brown already has a few ideas about what her character could be doing in the MCU. In her mind, Phyllis is still solving crimes, and she’s even entertained a fan’s suggestion that the character could be Nick Fury’s mother. “Like, imagine if she’s Fury’s mom,” Brown said. Although she joked that she’d probably have to be aged up to play the character again, Brown has already started developing her own mythology for Phyllis Jenkins.

Hexed opens in theaters on November 25, 2026.