China Anne McClain Teases Uma’s ‘Soft Side’ In ‘Descendants 2’ & More — Listen

Uma has arrived, ‘Descendants’ fans! China Anne McClain stopped by the HollywoodLife podcast to spill all the scoop about ‘Descendants 2’ and her villainous character, Uma, who also happens to be Ursula’s daughter! Listen now!

Uma (China Anne McClain) is the new villain in Descendants 2, and she’s going head-to-head with Mal (Dove Cameron) and the rest of the VKs in the highly-anticipated follow-up to the 2015 hit Descendants. Descendants 2 picks up with Mal, Evie (Sofia Carson), Carlos (Cameron Boyce), and Jay (Booboo Stewart) in Auradon. When the pressure to be royally perfect becomes too much for Mal, she goes back to the Isle of the Lost. When Mal returns to her former home, she finds that her arch nemesis Uma has taken over as the new queen of the Isle. CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO CHINA’S HOLLYWOODLIFE PODCAST INTERVIEW.

Uma’s pirate gang over on the Isle of the Lost includes the sons of two very famous Disney characters, and China, 18, revealed on our podcast that her pirate gang is like “family” to her. “My first mate is played by Thomas Doherty,” China said on the podcast. “He is Harry, the son of Captain Hook, and he’s very swashbuckling and then we have Gil. He’s played by Dylan Playfair, and his dad is Gaston from Beauty and the Beast. He’s not the brightest, but he’s very, very strong, and Uma sees him as an asset. She has a soft spot in her heart for him. Dove said something yesterday that was really, really cool that I agree with. She said not everyone is all good and not everyone is all bad. Everybody has both sides. And with Uma and her pirate gang, it shows a very soft side to her that she’s not just on her own and going for revenge. She really loves her pirates. That’s like her family.”

With pirates involved, you know there’s going to be a sword-fighting showdown. China told us that the cast had to go through “boot camp” before filming. “We had to do special training,” she said. “We had to do sword fighting. We had 3 weeks of rehearsals, just straight-up boot camp before we started filming anything. So, we learned all of the dances, got all of those perfect, and we learned sword training which is super fun for me because now I can wield a sword. Watch out, everybody!”

Uma’s look from head-to-toe is channeling major ocean vibes. Her signature color in the movie is a teal shade, and China revealed that the color is paying homage to Uma’s mother, Ursula! “You know what, if you watch The Little Mermaid back, she [Ursula] had this amazing teal eyeliner/eyeshadow… I think that’s what inspired a lot of the outfit and Uma’s color. It’s a very original color and I love that they pulled something from her mother to set up her style.”

Descendants 2 premieres Friday, July 21, at 8 p.m. ET on Disney Channel, Disney XD, ABC, Freeform, Lifetime, and Lifetime Movies.

HollywoodLifers, are you excited for Descendants 2? Let us know!