Exactly what do you mean, I asked, by help out the characters? “I was very close friends with them,” she replied, “and I helped them get ready for whatever show they were doing—or if they needed help when they were meeting and greeting with guests.” I was still confused, didn’t yet know the rules. Although when we spoke Julie had not been an employee for nine years, she still adhered to the coy Disney corporate omertà: the people who play characters in the parks aren’t supposed to say, ever, that they play Snow White or Donald Duck. Because then the fictional beings might seem less real.
