According to a report from Vibe, Jason Weaver recently came out to shout out gratitude to his mother for making the right career decision on his behalf. Reportedly, when Jason Weaver was cast in Disney’s Lion King as a child, his mom made sure he’d be compensated properly for the rest of his life.
Speaking with VladTV, Jason dished on what it was like to learn a key lesson regarding the entertainment industry. Weaver provided the voice for Young Simba in the very first Lion King movie in 1994, the animated classic featuring songs like “Hakuna Matata” as well as “I Just Can’t-Wait To Be King.”
Rather than taking the $2 million check as they had originally offered him, Jason’s mother chose to take the royalties instead, which turned out to be a fantastic decision. According to Weaver, Disney always had a reputation for re-releasing their classic material.
Jason claimed that he thought at that time, Disney had just released Sleeping Beauty among other films from when Walt Disney was still alive and well. According to the Lion King alum, his mother asked herself if it was a good idea to get royalties, on the chance the movie would continue making money in the future through re-releases.
While the check for $2 million was tempting, his mother chose not to do it that way because the potential of future earnings from royalties was just so great. In other words, they chose to play the long-term game instead.
Weaver added that he wanted to make sure his mother was compensated for that because it was arguably one of the most important decisions of his business career thus far. Moreover, had he taken the $2 million check, instead, he would’ve missed out on future earnings.
Since then, Weaver explained, he has made way more than just $1.9 million since the release of the first movie. This past summer, The Lion King was released and it earned $1 billion.
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Weaver has since made other good choices in the acting and entertainment world, including in roles as Michael Jackson in The Jacksons: An American Dream, in addition to Dysfunctional Friends and Drumline.
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