Lady Tremaine

Lady Tremaine is a fictional character who appears in Walt Disney Productions' 12th animated feature film, Cinderella (1950) and its direct-to-video sequels Cinderella II: Dreams Come True (2002) and Cinderella III: A Twist in Time (2007). In the original film, Lady Tremaine is voiced by American actress Eleanor Audley, who would later voice Maleficent, the evil fairy, in Sleeping Beauty (1959) and Madame Leota in The Haunted Mansion. For the sequels and subsequent film and television appearances, Audley was succeeded by American actress Susanne Blakeslee who also currently voiced Maleficent, Cruella de Vil from 101 Dalmatians, and the Evil Queen from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. She is given the title of Lady in the original film (her first and maiden name unknown). Lady Tremaine treats Cinderella, her step-daughter, like a scullery maid and focuses all of her attention on her own two daughters, Anastasia and Drizella. She is based on The Wicked Stepmother character from the original fairytale by Charles Perrault. Lady Tremaine was animated by Frank Thomas. In the 2015 live-action remake of the 1950 animated film, Tremaine is portrayed by Cate Blanchett and is given a backstory where she hears Ella's father say that he loved his first wife more. This explains her hatred toward Cinderella. Development Animators Ollie Johnston and Frank Thomas, in their book The Disney Villain, describe animating Eleanor Audley's voice as "a difficult assignment but a thrilling one, working to that voice track with so much innuendo mixed in with the fierce power." Audley, who later performed as Maleficent, the evil fairy, in Sleeping Beauty, provided some live-action recording for both of these characters, to inspire the animators.