The film's entire recording process took approximately three years to complete, during which Kelly's sessions were held in both the United States and Canada, while her co-stars Broderick and Jeremy Irons, voice of Scar, were recording in the United States and England, respectively. Each main cast member recorded their dialogue separately, which took Kelly some time to get used to because she had grown accustomed to working with several other actors at a time on the sets of her live-action films. For "The Lion King", a director would often take the place of another actor for Kelly to act opposite of. Vocally, Kelly decided to approach the role as though she were reading to a child, explaining, "it's kind of fun to play with different voices and try to color the lines for the child so they can imagine it more fully", which she admitted is different than how the actress would approach a live-action role. Because Nala is a "very straight character", determining what kind of voice she would use for her was not a particularly challenging task. Additionally, the filmmakers would also film Kelly's performances in order to incorporate her own facial expressions into her character's design, the process of which impressed the actress. In her film debut, actress Niketa Calame voices young Nala. According to Calame's official website, Nala remains the actress' "biggest role to date".