Malia Baker on 'Descendants 4,' Advice From Brandy, & Getting Her Own Doll (2025)

Malia Baker turned down the audition for Descendants: The Rise of Red twice.

Having developed an obsession with the hit Disney franchise as a pre-teen, Baker — who is best known for playing Mary Anne Spier in Netflix’s series adaptation of The Baby-Sitters Club — didn’t think she had the musical theater chops needed to land one of the coveted lead roles of the fourth installment, which was being reimagined with a new cast for a new generation.

But when the audition for the role of Chloe landed in her inbox for a third time, the Canadian actress took it as a sign that she should at least put herself on tape, if only to appease a special person in her life.

“My younger sister got so mad at me for turning the first two down that she was like, ‘You need to do this. This is the thing that I’ll think you’re cool for,’” the 17-year-old actress tells Teen Vogue with a laugh during a recent visit to New York City.

Following an extensive casting process, which included a a catalog of songs she'd have to sing on video and a Zoom chemistry test with eventual co-lead HSMTMTS star Kylie Cantrall, Baker landed the role that will likely catapult her to even more fame amongst young viewers around the world.

Directed by Jennifer Phang, Descendants: The Rise of Red introduces Red (played by Cantrall), the rebellious daughter of the Queen of Hearts (Rita Ora), and Chloe (Baker), the perfectionist daughter of Cinderella (played by Grammy-winning singer and former Cinderella, Brandy Norwood). When the tyrannical Queen of Hearts stages a coup against the nation of Auradon, unlikely allies Red and Chloe must travel back in time to undo the traumatic event that set Red’s mother down her villainous path many years ago.

Below, Baker opens up to Teen Vogue about creating her interpretation of Cinderella and Prince (now King) Charming’s first daughter, what she learned from working with her onscreen mother Brandy, and the responsibility she feels to advocate for the next generation of young actors of color.

Teen Vogue: What kinds of conversations did you have with the creative team about transforming into Chloe?

Malia Baker: It’s so crazy to see her [as realized] as she fully is at the end, because I remember my first meeting with the costume designers and the hair people. We had white costumes and white clothes, and we would color test how the blue [hair] would work with my skin tone.

And then you had Mattel on set and they’d be like, “This blue wouldn’t look too great for the dolls.” Everything was already lined up, which was so crazy coming into it. Usually, when you’re on a project, you’re like, “I hope this works out… I hope we get some views.” And with this one, there’s such a fan base already that it was like, “Okay, it has to be good.” I think everybody was thinking so, so far ahead, which made it all the better in the end.

But going into [playing] Chloe, I rewatched Cinderella so, so many times. Paolo [Montalbán] and Brandy were a dream to work with. The joy of playing Chloe is that there’s never been a daughter of Cinderella before, so I had so much creative freedom with the people that helped me form and mold her into who she is. We really wanted to make sure that Chloe was Charming in her own way, but she wasn’t incredibly feminine like Cinderella is. She’s very sporty, which you see throughout my holsters and my swords. The training for that was wild — we trained with the costumes as well to make sure that it would all work out.

TV: In this iteration of Descendants, you go back in time to change the past and both Red and Chloe get a chance to meet younger versions of their mothers, who went to school together and were once close friends. How do you think going back in time changes or reframes Chloe’s understanding of Cinderella?

MB: Chloe has learned everything from her mother and [uses] what her mother values as her [own] morals. The moral code in the Charming family holds so true to how you live your day-to-day life. When I was coming up with Chloe and how she would go about her day-to-day, I thought of how she was growing up. She was probably told the story of how her parents met and the Cinderella story every night as her bedtime story.

Her life is literally a fairytale, so when she goes back in time, everything gets torn down. She has walked into this world that she never even knew — and part of that comes with meeting Red for the first time. It’s the first time anyone ever shoots her down. It's the first time she’s like, “Oh, am I … uncool?" [Laughs]

Meeting a younger version of her mom… really rocks her entire being and how she views her whole life and the black-and-white state of everything. She has to find her own moral code, which is crazy to think of as a concept for humans in general, but even crazier for a girl that’s grown up in a fairytale.

TV: Whereas past Descendants films felt more like ensemble pieces, you and Kylie were given the challenging task of carrying most of The Rise of Red as co-leads. How did you go about building that rapport with her? In retrospect, are there any specific memories that stand out from the time you spent together?

MB: God, I hate her. No, I’m just kidding. [Laughs] I love Kylie so much. Both of us don’t reach out to random people on the internet super often, but she was one person that I wanted to connect with over the years, so we became Instagram friends years and years ago. Once I heard that the Zoom [test] was going to be with her, I was like, “Oh, I need to do this. This would be so cool — if not to book it, then just to meet Kylie.”

What’s at the core of these characters is that they pick up where the other one leaves off. They’re able to balance one another in such a tried and true way that a lot of best friends do. Polar opposites do attract, and I think that holds true [for] Chloe and Red.

What bonded us the most though, looking back, is we took this trip to this aquarium in Atlanta where we were filming. It was this bonding exercise that they put you through. It’s, of course, awkward because this was our company being like, “You guys need to get along.” But it was like an hour and a half drive away, and we just talked and asked the most random questions on the way there, and then we got our caricatures drawn while we were there. That was it for us. We got along so well, and honestly, the scenes where we had to hate each other were even more challenging because of it.

TV: And now you’ve both been immortalized as your own Descendants dolls! What was your reaction to seeing your doll in person for the first time?

MB: I need to go and tell my friends to find them! We were at VidCon [recently], and we saw little kids walk around with our dolls, and we didn’t even know that they were there. We had only seen a mockup months ago, so when we saw them for the first time, someone was brushing [the doll’s] hair. Kylie was in her costume, and [the little kid] turned and saw us, and they held up the doll. It was like this crazy face-to-face reflection moment. The waterworks came, of course. I couldn’t help it.

We were gifted [the dolls during an appearance] on Good Morning America. Immortalized is a great word for it — I never thought about it like that before — and that’s terrifying, but in the best way. I need to go out and see it on shelves for it to really feel real because right now, it just feels like a little stick figure that’s way more cool than I could ever be.

TV: Going into the shoot, did you seek out any advice from past Disney leads about the pressure that comes with leading one of these huge tentpole films?

MB: There’s so much pressure. I remember China [Anne McClain], Dara [Renée, who plays Ursula’s sister Uliana], and I were in the hair trailer, and we were the last people on set that day, and we had the longest conversation while getting our wigs off. China wanted us to remain authentic to ourselves. She came back [to Descendants] because she wanted to be a part of telling a new story and pass down these iconic characters and the love for Descendants to another generation, which I think was so magical to hear from an OG like her.

With Brandy, I remember we were in a carriage for the scene that we were filming at the Cinderellasburg castle, and it was raining that day. Our wigs were obviously so picture perfect that you can’t let them get wet, so we sat in that carriage for hours just talking, and she said pretty much the exact same thing. It’s funny — she said that she was nervous to be back on set [as Cinderella], and that made me feel so much better to hear that she’s human and she gets the nerves, too. [It was interesting to hear] how she’s reminded herself over the years of who she is and how she grounds herself in this industry.

TV: There are certainly many different ways to be an activist, but sometimes, people seem to slap on the label without really putting in the work. In your case, you’ve done more than lip service; you’ve done real-life work specifically geared toward the empowerment of young girls with Girl Up and She’s the First. Have you given much thought to what that kind of advocacy looks like with the kinds of roles you take on?

MB: I remember being asked when I was younger [on Baby-Sitters Club]: “How do you feel about leading the next generation?” And at 13 years old, that’s terrifying to hear. That’s not something that you’d want to hear when you wake up, like, “You’re going to seize the world one day, kid.” It’s great that people believe in you, but it’s a lot of pressure. I think it’s true that a lot of young people [in particular] slap on the word “activist” because it’s what’s handed to them at that age.

When it comes to Descendants, it’s such an interesting contrast to what I’ve been interested in for so many years because the story is so female-driven. Every pivotal character that comes into play is a woman — and a woman of color. Me and Kylie [are both women of color], and having that not even really be a conversation point during this press run is cool because it’s just so normalized.

We get to talk about these Disney characters as if they’ve been [people of color] the entire time, which is really cool to be able to hand down and not have it be a big deal for the next generation. [There won't be a question of]: “Why is your hair like that? This isn’t how it should work.”

Chloe’s wig [is] identical to how my hair usually is — I never had that kind of representation when I was younger. It was always the blowouts, which look great, don’t get me wrong, but it wasn’t me. To have [that kind of representation of natural hair] in such a magical spinoff with Cinderella with these characters that you hold dear to your heart, it truly is weighing heavy on my mind and I think weighs heavy on most of the cast, because we’re able to see it and feel it from a perspective that we’ve all lived before.

TV: Your version of The Baby-Sitters Club was a hit with fans during the pandemic, but Netflix unceremoniously cancelled the series after two seasons. What kind of relationship do you have with that show now?

MB: While I’ve been in New York, I’ve had a lot of people only recognize me for Baby-Sitters Club, and it really took me back to my 12-year-old self. I was like, “You watched it?! I watched it too!” [Laughs] Because at that time, it felt like a home movie. No one had a premiere [due to COVID]; we were doing press only online. It was my first big project, it was my first press run. It legit felt like I was just goofing off with my friends, and no one would ever really see it — and then suddenly, we were at the [Daytime] Emmys.

I will never not be proud of Baby-Sitters Club. The girls and I are still so close, so it’s really sweet to be able to say, “Do you want to FaceTime this five-year-old that I just ran into? She loves your character. She’d love to say hi.” It’s a pretty crazy reflection of where I am now and how I started, and I really hope that show will be timeless. I’ll always hold Mary Anne in my heart. [Her] glasses were real. The contacts are now in for certain portions of my life, but they always come on at night.

TV: At the end of The Rise of Red, Uma says in a voiceover, “Getting what you want can be dangerous, especially when you mess with the fabric of time. You didn’t think that was the end of this story, did you?” Have you had any conversations with the Descendants team about returning for future installments of the franchise?

MB: [Grinning] I have theories. My Notes app has many conspiracies. But I’ve been in the Disney building every now and then, I’ve been hearing some conversations. All I can say is that you can’t mess with the fabric of time too much, or else something might happen. The butterfly effect is a very real thing!

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