Princess Fiona
Princess Fiona is a fictional character in DreamWorks' Shrek franchise. One of the film series' main characters, Fiona first appears in Shrek as a beautiful princess cursed to transform into an ogre at night. She is initially determined to break the enchantment by kissing a prince or knight, only to meet and fall in love with Shrek, an ogre, instead. The character's origins and relationships with other characters are further explored in subsequent films: she introduces her new husband, Shrek, to her parents in Shrek 2 ; becomes a mother by Shrek the Third ; and is an empowered warrior in Shrek Forever After, much of which takes place in an alternate reality in which Fiona and Shrek never meet.
Created by screenwriters Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio, Fiona is loosely based on the unsightly princess in William Steig's children's book Shrek!, from which her role and appearance were significantly modified. The screenwriters adapted the character into a princess under a shapeshifting enchantment, an idea initially greatly contested by other filmmakers. Fiona is voiced by actress Cameron Diaz. Comedian and actress Janeane Garofalo was originally cast as the character until she was fired from the first film with little explanation. Fiona was one of the first human characters to have a lead role in a computer-animated film, thus the animators aspired to make her both beautiful and realistic in appearance. However, an early test screening resulted in children reacting negatively towards the character's uncanny realism, prompting the animators to re-design Fiona into a more stylized, cartoonish heroine. Several revolutionary achievements in computer animation were applied to the character to render convincing skin, hair, clothing and lighting.
The character is considered a parody of traditional princesses in both fairy tales and animated Disney films. Reception towards Fiona has been mostly positive, with critics commending her characterization, martial arts prowess and Diaz's performance. However, reviewers were divided over the character's human design, some of whom were impressed by her technological innovations, while others found her realism unsettling and too similar to Diaz. Several media publications consider Fiona a feminist icon, crediting her with subverting princess and gender stereotypes by embracing her flaws. Diaz also became one of Hollywood's highest-paid actresses due to her role in the Shrek franchise, earning $3 million for her performance in the first film and upwards of $10 million for each sequel.
Development
Creation
Shrek is loosely based on William Steig's children's book Shrek!, but its main characters significantly deviate from their inspirations. According to animation historian Maureen Furniss, changing Shrek's love interest from an ugly princess to a beautiful one is the film's most significant deviations. In Steig's story, a witch foretells that Shrek will marry an unnamed princess, who she only describes as uglier than Shrek himself, inspiring the ogre to pursue her. Described in the book as "the most stunningly ugly princess on the surface of the planet", Steig's princess bears little resemblance to Fiona, but the couple immediately marries with little conflict. In an effort to expand the plot and make its characters more marketable, the film's writers decided to adapt Shrek!Feeling that keeping Fiona's curse entirely secret until the end was unsuitable for a feature-length film, screenwriters Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio suggested a shapeshifting princess. At first, the concept was rejected by their peers for six months because they found it overcomplicated for a fairy tale, but the writing partners argued that similar plot points had been used in Disney's The Little Mermaid and Beauty and the Beast. Instead, Elliot and Rossio began referring to Fiona as an "enchanted" princess. Some writers expressed concern that turning Fiona into an ogre full-time once she professes her love for Shrek implies "that ugly people belong with ugly people", but Rossio explained that her final transformation actually suggests that Shrek already loves Fiona regardless of how she looks. Fiona remaining in her "ugly, bewitched state" retains some of the book's original themes about staying true to oneself, according to journalist Julia Eccleshare, although The Daily Telegraph remarked that Fiona is far from repulsive.
In early drafts of the script, Fiona is born an ogre to human parents, who lock her in a tower to conceal her true nature and lie about her appearance to their subjects. One day, Fiona seeks help from a witch named Dama Fortuna, who offers her a choice between two potions, warning her that only one will turn her beautiful. Fiona selects the wrong potion, entitled "Beauty", and only after drinking it learns that the elixir renders her human during the day before reverting every night. The writers had originally intended for Fiona's backstory to be the film's prologue, but discarded it after test audiences found the scene depressing. Animator Tom Sito had pitched the scene to producer Jeffrey Katzenberg, but recalled that Katzenberg reacted unfavorably. The sequence was storyboarded but never animated. Another abandoned scene, entitled "Fiona Gets Them Lost", follows Fiona, Shrek, and Donkey becoming trapped in a cave after she is rescued, while a third details a physical confrontation between Fiona's ogre form and Shrek, who the latter mistakes for a monster who has harmed her. The fight was discarded because, according to Elliot, some female crew members perceived the violence towards Fiona as misogynistic, reportedly misunderstanding their vision for the action sequence.
Elliott and Rossio had suggested revisiting discussions about whether Fiona's true nature is human or ogre in a potential sequel, but their idea was rejected. Directors and writers spent four months brainstorming several new ideas for the sequel, mapping out plans for Fiona and Shrek's lives post-honeymoon with producer Aron Warner. They ultimately determined that the only logical progression was Fiona's parents reacting to their daughter both marrying and remaining an ogre. Shrek 2 director Kelly Asbury explained that introducing Fiona's parents offered an entirely "new story to go on, and a whole new place to go". Additionally, Shrek 2 reveals why Fiona was locked in a tower in the first place, with the filmmakers realizing they could use some of the first film's abandoned concepts to gradually unveil more details about Fiona's story throughout the series. For Shrek 2, they decided to reimagine Dama Fortuna as Fiona's conniving fairy godmother and the sequel's main villain, who uses magic against Fiona and Shrek's marriage.
Voice
Fiona is voiced by American actress Cameron Diaz, one of the franchise's three main cast members. Diaz voiced Fiona in all four installments of the film series over the course of ten years. The role was originally intended for comedian and actress Janeane Garofalo, who was fired from the first film and ultimately replaced with Diaz. Although Garofalo maintains that she was fired without explanation, it is believed that Fiona's re-casting resulted from the death of comedian Chris Farley, who was originally cast as Shrek and had already recorded most of the character's dialogue until he died during production, at which point he was replaced with actor Mike Myers. According to film historian Jim Hill, the filmmakers originally cast Garofalo as Fiona because they had felt that the actress' "abrasive, sarcastic comic persona" would serve as an ideal foil to Farley's positive approach to the titular character, but eventually relented that Garofalo was "too downbeat" for the film's lighter tone, offering the role to Diaz. With a "sweeter" version of Fiona introduced, Shrek was developed into a more pessimistic character in turn.Fiona was Diaz's first animated role. DreamWorks invited Diaz to star in an animated film about an ogre and a princess who learn to accept both themselves and each other. In addition to the film's positive message, Diaz was drawn to the idea of co-starring alongside Myers, Eddie Murphy and John Lithgow. Approaching her role as though it were a dramatic performance, Diaz recorded most of her dialogue before a full script had been written, working closely with director Andrew Adamson to stage scenes before the film had been storyboarded. Prior to Shrek, Diaz starred in the action comedy film Charlie's Angels, a role for which she had undergone martial arts training. While recording the scene in which her character fights Monsieur Hood and his Merry Men, Diaz became quite animated, gesturing and occasionally uttering Cantonese phrases; her martial arts background is credited with benefiting the sequence. Diaz once burped during a recording session, which was written into a scene for Fiona. Without a proper screenplay to aid her, Diaz found the improvisation required for some scenes one of the most challenging aspects of the recording process. The actress did not see the film's completed story until after she had finished working on the project on-and-off for two years, by which point she finally truly understood her "character and... what she was going through". Myers was both impressed with and inspired by Diaz's commitment to her role, to the point that he felt he was acting opposite Fiona herself. Asbury recalled that Diaz immediately "nailed" her character, elaborating, "She had this certain thing about her voice where she could be headstrong and know exactly what she wants and be confident, but also have this touch of sweet naivete and all make it completely believable." Despite admiring the performances of her predominately male co-stars, Diaz seldom worked directly with them throughout the Shrek series.
Diaz preferred voicing Fiona in the character's ogre form. Apart from the Charlie's Angels sequels, Shrek is the only franchise for which Diaz reprised a role. Because the origins of Fiona's parents had not yet been disclosed in the first film, Diaz voiced Fiona using an American accent. After learning that English actors Julie Andrews and John Cleese has been cast as her parents Queen Lillian and King Harold, respectively, in Shrek 2, Diaz regretted voicing her character with her default Californian accent as opposed to a British accent, calling it one of the few things she would change about her performance. Although admitting that working on the films for only a few hours at a time sporadically sometimes resulted in her feeling as though she is not 100 per cent involved in the process, she takes ownership over the character, explaining, "It's interesting to see something that's not actually tangible so fully embody your essence". Diaz would often defend Fiona's appearance from the press asking how she feels about playing an "ugly" character, finding their opinion shocking and explaining "I love that she is the princess who isn't like all the other princesses. She doesn't look like them, and she's just as beloved and accepted". In Shrek the Third, Diaz co-starred alongside her ex-boyfriend, singer Justin Timberlake, with whom she had broken up the year prior. Timberlake plays her character's cousin Arthur Pendragon, heir to her late father's throne. Shrek 2 includes a brief reference to Timberlake; a picture of a young knight named "Sir Justin" appears in Fiona's childhood bedroom, which is believed to be an homage to their relationship. Diaz was unaware of Timberlake's cameo until watching the film, believing it had been finalized before they became a couple. Although Timberlake was cast as Arthur while he was still dating Diaz, Warner maintains that his involvement was not influenced by their relationship, insisting that Timberlake earned the role based on his own merit and comedic timing. The film's May 2007 premiere in Los Angeles was the first media event at which the former couple had been photographed since the end of their relationship. Director Mike Mitchell denied media speculation that Timberlake and his character's omission from Shrek Forever After correlated to Diaz and Timberlake's breakup, explaining that Arthur was written out solely to allow more screen time for more relevant characters.
A filmmaker described Diaz as "the rock" of the franchise because "She brings such a great spirit to these movies." Following the release of Shrek Forever After, the series' final installment, Diaz reflected that the Shrek films had remained her "safety net" for several years, describing the period as "a decade of knowing that you finish one and for the next two years we'll be making another one". She remains hopeful for future sequels. Diaz was saddened to bid farewell to her character, admitting that she took the films and Fiona for granted until the end because she always assumed she would be invited back within a few months for another installment. Considering the role "a privilege and honor", Diaz maintains that Fiona is the role for which she is most recognized by children, but she prefers when parents allow them to pretend that her character truly exists without revealing her voice actress, often attempting to prevent parents from exposing the truth. Diaz elaborated that Fiona has become "part of my screen persona. Rather than me putting myself through her I think she comes through me in a weird way. When people think of me they think of Fiona, it's not the other way around." Diaz believes that her popularity has greatly increased since voicing the character. Despite being currently in development, Diaz has yet to confirm whether or not she will reprise her role in a fifth film, although she had previously said that she would return for a fifth installment if asked.
Diaz's role in the Shrek series contributed to her becoming one of Hollywood's wealthiest actresses by 2008. After being paid $3 million for the first film, Diaz originally re-negotiated to receive $5 million for Shrek 2, estimated to be an hourly salary of $35,000. She ultimately earned between $10 and $15 million for reprising her role. For Shrek the Third, it is said Diaz was paid $30 million, her highest salary at that point, due to securing a significant portion of the installment's profits. She earned $10 million for Shrek Forever After. In 2010, Forbes ranked Diaz Hollywood's second highest-earning voice actor, behind only Myers. On the actress' lucrative earnings, filmmaker Herschell Gordon Lewis wrote in an article for the Sun-Sentinel "Sure, she captured the character well. Yes, the 'Shrek' movies invariably are box office successes. But can anyone say that if the voice of Princess Fiona were that of a competent actress other than Cameron Diaz, the movie would have flopped?" Actress Holly Fields has provided the character's singing voice in the film, in addition to voicing the character in several video games, toys, commercials and amusement park rides. Fields is often hired to imitate Diaz, describing the experience as one of her "coolest jobs".