Lady Tremaine

"Cinderella will be put in her place."

- Lady Tremaine

Lady Tremaine (also known as the "Wicked Stepmother") is the main antagonist of Disney's 1950 film Cinderella and its two sequels. As the arch-enemy of Cinderella, Lady Tremaine doesn't harm her stepdaughter physically. Rather, she seeks to punish and abuse her psychologically, motivated by her jealousy of Cinderella being far more beautiful than her own daughters, Anastasia and Drizella. Lady Tremaine is also a socialite, determined to gain higher status by marrying one of her daughters to Prince Charming or another bachelor of noble blood.

She is often considered the most "hateable" Disney Villain for her long–term cruelty, which is committed without any rational motivation and lack of "cool" or otherwise entertaining qualities to offset her despicableness.

She has been voiced by Eleanor Audley and Susanne Blakeslee.

In the 2015 live-action version of Cinderella, she is portrayed by Cate Blanchett.

Personality
Unlike most other Disney Villains, Lady Tremaine doesn't possess any magical powers (barring her use of the Fairy Godmother's wand in Twist in Time) or exert any physical force. She strongly believes in maintaining grace and self-control, reminding her daughters of this when the two fight during their music lesson. The only time she herself breaks this rule is, ironically, at the point when Cinderella interrupts the music lesson to bring Lady Tremaine the invitation to the Royal Ball (at which point she frustratedly slams her hands onto the keys of the piano). She has a sinister glare and is very cruel to Cinderella; an example is when she silences her harshly twice when ordering Cinderella to do chores in the chateau. She even does the same to Anatasia and Drizella occasionally.

She holds a great envy towards her stepdaughter simply for her beauty and wholesome charm, so she treats her stepdaughter like a servant in her own home. A tyrant who employs subtle methods, she is deviously manipulative in controlling Cinderella by maintaining a sham benevolence in her authority of the household; she never physically abuses Cinderella and leaves that to her daughters instead. For example, when she slyly noted that Cinderella fixed up her dress with the help of Drizella's beads and Anastasia's sash, her daughters took the initiative to rip Cinderella's dress to shreds. She then cruelly bid Cinderella "good night" (since she couldn't go to the ball in rags), ultimately maintaining her ostensible fairness. By Cinderella III: A Twist in Time, however, she was implied to have become physically abusive, specifically towards Anastasia; Drizella briefly suggested she and Lady Tremaine beat Anastasia with a stick she had found.

Almost all of Tremaine's actions are motivated by a narcissistic hunger for prestige, as she wants to marry her daughters off to those on the top of the social-ladder. Tremaine expects her daughters to be utterly obedient and is infuriated when they are not, as seen when Anastasia chose not to marry Prince Charming.

In the Kingdom Hearts games, she is also shown to be quite reckless when she doesn't get her way, as evidenced by her summoning an unversed to kill Cinderella and Aqua, apparently neither being aware or even caring if the unversed in question harms her or her daughters in the crossfire.

Design
Lady Tremaine appears to be older, but has aged quite well. She has very sharp facial features including a notably large hooked nose with pronounced creases on both sides of it. She has green eyes which are notably quite fierce and evil-looking when she is angered or has evil thoughts in mind and she wears green orb-shaped earrings to contrast her eye color. She has gray hair (with a small light gray streak in the middle) worn in a high pompadour slightly resembling a heart. Her casual and most commonly seen set of clothes consists of a large red gown with a golden brooch near her neck that has a green gem in it and the gown has a high purple collar with extended purple sleeves. She wears a large green ring on her right ring finger that matches her earrings and brooch, and in the finale certain close ups show her nails are painted a lavender hue to compliment her sleeves. Her formal attire (which she wears to the ball) is a long purple gown with short sleeves.

Behind the Scenes
Lady Tremaine was voiced by Eleanor Audley, who also provided live-action reference for the character. She was animated by Frank Thomas.

Significance in Story
"The villain-victim relationship was one of the very best we had on any feature... Lady Tremaine was the only villain to live beside her victim day by day" - Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston.

Thomas commented that Lady Tremaine was the driving force throughout the film, and that she had to be believable, even though she was far from human, to be considered a serious threat to the realistically animated Cinderella. The fights between Lucifer and the mice could be seen to reflect the (much less physical) conflict between their human counterparts, Lady Tremaine and Cinderella.

Animation
Like all of the character animators for "Cinderella" (excluding Ward Kimball, who animated Lucifer and the Mice), Thomas used live-action footage as reference when drawing the frames of animation. Eleanor Audley, dressed as Lady Tremaine, was filmed performing every action the character was required to make; the individual frames from this footage were then placed under animation paper. The actions were not traced exactly, but used as guidelines.

Whenever the photostats were followed too closely, or a piece of human action was directly copied, the results seemed to the animators to lose the 'illusion of life'. The live-action reference was therefore used primarily to suggest to the animator movements and mannerisms, he may not have thought of otherwise. These were then applied to the animated character within their context. Thomas praised Audley's cold, regal performance, the inspiration for his animation of the character.

Cinderella
Lady Tremaine is introduced in the prologue of the film. Young Cinderella's father, a widower, desperate for his daughter to have a mother figure, married Lady Tremaine, who is described as "a woman of good family", with two daughters of her own, and a cat named Lucifer. Lady Tremaine showed her true colors when Cinderella's father died, mistreating Cinderella while spending extravagantly on her biological daughters in hopes of molding them her in her own image. (She spoils Anistasia and Drizella as a result). After the prologue, it is revealed that Cinderella lives in a small room at the top of the tower in her house, as she has been forced to become a servant in her own home. An incident occurs in which Anastasia finds a mouse inside her teacup (Lucifer caused this to happen when he chased Gus). Lady Tremaine responds by piling a further order of chores on Cinderella as punishment. She then, as a sense of poetic justice on Lucifer, adds onto the pile the request to give the cat a bath.

Lady Tremaine consents that Cinderella may attend the Royal Ball - that is, if she can finish all her chores and find a suitable dress. She then proceeds to heap chore after chore on Cinderella. Despite this, when Cinderella appears ready for the ball in a suitable dress (her mother's, altered to be more fashionable by her mice and bird friends), Lady Tremaine indirectly (but intentionally) points out that Cinderella is wearing Drizella's old beads and Anastasia's old sash that they threw away earlier in the day. This prompts Drizella and Anastasia to viciously tear Cinderella's dress apart, leaving her unable to attend the ball. When Cinderella, with the help of the Fairy Godmother, nevertheless attends the ball, her step-family does not recognize her. This was because of a combination of their belief that Cinderella was at home with her dress in tatters, the fact that Cinderella's new dress was in a different style from her old one, and the fact she was made up so very differently to her usual appearance. Lady Tremaine does note a familiarity about her as she dances with Prince Charming. She is not, however, permitted to study Cinderella long enough to make the connection, as the Grand Duke closes the curtains to give them privacy.

At the news that the Prince will marry the girl whose foot fits in the glass slipper left behind at the Ball, Cinderella becomes quite distracted and falls into a dreamlike state, dancing and singing "So This is Love" to herself. Lady Tremaine realizes that Cinderella was the mysterious girl who danced with the Prince at the Ball. She quietly follows Cinderella up the tower and locks her in her room, putting the key in her pocket.

As the Grand Duke then arrives with the glass slipper, Lady Tremaine instructs her daughters not to fail her. She watches as both Anastasia and Drizella try their hardest to force their enormous feet into the slipper. While this is happening (the stepsisters prolong the process with their repeated attempts to get the slipper to fit their feet), Cinderella's two mice friends, Jaq and Gus, steal the key from Lady Tremaine's pocket and bring it to the door of Cinderella's room. The mice succeed in freeing Cinderella from her room despite Lucifer's delaying them. When Cinderella appears and calls to the Duke, Lady Tremaine insists to the Duke that Cinderella may not have attended the ball as she has been a household servant, despite having deduced that she has. The Duke orders Lady Tremaine to step aside. Tremaine, however, remains determined to preclude her stepdaughter from trying the slipper on; she trips the Footman as he walks over to Cinderella, causing the slipper to fall off its cushion and shatter into pieces. Cinderella then reveals that she has the other slipper, and her stepmother watches in horror when it fits her foot.

Cinderella II: Dreams Come True
Lady Tremaine made her second film appearance in the 1st Direct-to-DVD sequel Cinderella II: Dreams Come True. Here she is voiced by Susan Blakeslee. In this film, she only appeared in the An Uncommon Romance segment. Lady Tremaine is shown to be cold towards her own daughters. When Anastasia falls for a common baker, Tremaine harshly forbids her to do so much as speak to him again or even enter his bakery again. (As before, Lady Tremaine's ambitions reflect her aristocratic narcissism, for she still wants her daughters to choose wealthy noblemen as husbands.) Thus Anastasia must defy her mother's wishes for the first time, and the segment ends with her attending Cinderella's ball with the baker boy she presumably will soon marry.

Cinderella III: A Twist in Time
Her latest appearance - and her most significant role so far - was in another Direct-to-DVD Cinderella sequel, Cinderella III: A Twist in Time (once again voiced by Blakeslee). She is more evil and physically antagonistic here than in the other two films. This time, she acquires the Fairy Godmother's magic wand after Anastasia finds it. Intent on ruining Cinderella's happy ending and stealing it for her own daughter, Tremaine uses the wand to reverse time and undo Cinderella's "happily ever after" (turning Cinderella back into her virtual slave). She also enchants the glass slipper to fit Anastasia so that Cinderella never gets to try on the slipper herself, then uses the wand to enchant Prince Charming into forgetting Cinderella and marrying Anastasia instead. Tremaine makes her most notable—and horrific—use the Fairy Godmother's wand when she transforms Anastasia into the mirror image of Cinderella (making her beautiful), then teleports the genuine Cinderella into a pumpkin that becomes a nightmarish travesty of the original coach from the first film. (The travesty includes transforming Lucifer into a lethal coachman to drive Cinderella far away from the palace and cause her death.)

Ultimately, Anastasia is her mother's undoing: She comes to feel reluctant to marry somebody under false pretenses; she does not care for the prince, he does not truly love her, and she cannot bear to live the rest of her life pretending to be something she is not (even if it means finally possessing beauty).

Angrily, the King tells all his guards to arrest Lady Tremaine, who defends herself by turning the guards into various animals—the guards coming at her from the front turn into chickens, the guards coming from the right turn into pigs, and the guards from the left turn into rabbits, so that they could not stop her. Tremaine tries to turn Anastasia and Cinderella into frogs, but they duck and it hits herself and Drizella instead. Anastasia then restores herself to normal before giving the magic wand to Cinderella so that she can undo all the wrongs that have been committed.

During the end credits, Lady Tremaine and Drizella have been restored, but are wearing scullery clothes identical to those Cinderella used to wear, implying that they will be working in the palace under Cinderella's authority as punishment for the cruelty they showed her. This was most likely an act of mercy by Cinderella, who did not wish to see her stepfamily in prison regardless of the fact they deserved such a sentence. Besides, it can be implied that the king, who was absolutely outraged by their actions, will not go easy on them and instead start screaming at them if they refuse to follow orders. As the same end credits also depict Anastasia's romance with the baker boy from the Uncommon Romance segment of the previous sequel, this may also imply that Lady Tremaine and Drizella's status as scullery maids is temporary (as they were not maids in that segment).

House of Mouse
Lady Tremaine was given a few cameos with her daughters and Lucifer in House of Mouse. In the episode "Pete's House of Villains" she makes Pete clean the floors as punishment for attempting to take over the club. Other cameos include her sitting alongside the Evil Queen.

Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep
In Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep, Lady Tremaine's role is identical to that of her film role. Treating Cinderella as a mere servant and showing no love towards her, the wicked stepmother does all in her power to see that her daughters are successful in life. She is upset by their constant sibling rivalry, also showing an extreme affection for her devious cat named Lucifer, despite the animal's cruelty to Cinderella's mouse friends.

After discovering the identity of the maiden that had won Prince Charming's heart at the royal ball to be none other than Cinderella, Lady Tremaine immediately locked her in her room when it came time for Anastasia and Drizella to try on a single glass slipper that had been left behind when the girl fled. Enraged when Cinderella was let out of her room by Jaq and the slipper fit her, Lady Tremaine used the jealousy in her heart to turn Cinderella's pumpkin carriage into an Unversed, the Cursed Coach, in an attempt to eliminate Cinderella and Aqua. Her scheme backfired when one of the fire bombs the Cursed Coach produced landed on her and her daughters, leaving their fate unknown.

Once Upon a Time
In Once Upon a Time, Lady Tremaine appears in cameo only in the Season One episode "The Price of Gold", portrayed by an unknown actress, as inhabitants of the Enchanted Forest. A carriage is seen parked on the outside of her private property, and she, with her daughters, Anastasia and Drizella, make their way toward it, wearing evening gowns. Lady Tremaine enters the chariot first, followed by her two daughters. Soon afterwards, we are treated to the sight of the fair Cinderella, dressed in rather unfair rags. The poor blonde looks with sadness at her stepfamily as they leave their property on the carriage, headed to the prince's ball. After the curse thrown by the Evil Queen, it was explained that Lady Tremaine lives with Drizella in Storybrooke and has cut any ties with Cinderella.

Once Upon a Time in Wonderland
Lady Tremaine débuts in the fifth episode of Once Upon a Time in Wonderland, portrayed by Sarah-Jane Redmond. She is Anastasia's mother, who has worked restlessly to better her family status and has always had high hopes that her daughters will marry well. Anastasia proves to be a disappointment to her after choosing the infamous thief Will Scarlet as a future partner. She stops the lovers from leaving through a looking glass to another world, and harshly criticizes Anastasia for being an utter failure. She also claims the way only Anastasia could ever set foot in her household again is by working as a chamber maid who cleans chamber pots. Despite the likelihood of never seeing her daughter again, she remarks that at least Anastasia's sisters won't prove to be such a disappointment. In tears, Anastasia says goodbye to her mother, who watches stoically as her daughter and Will disappear into the looking glass, stolen from Maleficent, to run away to Wonderland. Despite disowning her daughter, Anastasia becomes the Red Queen.

Cinderella (2015)
In the live-action re-imagining of the original film, Lady Tremaine is played by Cate Blanchett. Her first husband, Lord Tremaine is mentioned, and it is revealed that he and Lady Tremaine married for love. Lady Tremaine is also shown to have red hair like her daughters Drisella and Anastasia.

Printed material
In one of the Disney Reading Series, Lady Tremaine and her daughters visit Cinderella and her husband at his castle. She keeps up the pretense that she no longer harbors any ill will towards Cinderella, but is later shocked when her daughters inform her that Cinderella is apparently planning to supplant them with "special people" (unaware that Drizella and Anastasia were the special people she was referring to) and plotted alongside them to sabotage Cinderella's efforts.

Disney Parks
Lady Tremaine appears in the Disney Parks as a meetable character, particularly Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom and Disneyland Paris around the Fantasyland area. She is known to be considerably vain and sarcastic to the visiting guest(s), just like how she treated Cinderella and her daughters in the film. A picture of her was shown in the attraction Cinderella Castle Mystery Tour.

Entertainment featuring Tremaine and her daughters include Celebrate A Dreams Come True Parade, A Christmas Fantasy Parade, and Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party.

Along with Anastasia and Drizella, Lady Tremaine can sometimes be found for meet-and-greets at Disney's Grand Floridian Resort & Spa in Walt Disney World. She also takes part in the Disney Villains meet-and-greet sessions at Disneyland during Halloween time.

Disney Cruise Line's Twice Charmed
Lady Tremaine makes an appearance on Twice Charmed, a show on the Disney Cruise Line. Lady Tremaine grows a deeper hatred for Cinderella as the days go by and soon enough she gains her very own Fairy Godfather, a male counterpart of Fairy Godmother. Unlike Cinderella's magical friend, Tremaine's godfather is an evil and dark magician-like man. She uses his magic to reverse time to take control over the King's kingdom.

Trivia

 * In Ever After: A Cinderella Story, the stepmother's name is Rodmilla de Gent; a baroness.
 * Lady Tremaine was nominated for a place in 'AFI’s 50 Greatest Villains list', along with the Evil Queen, Stromboli, Man, Maleficent, Cruella De Vil and Ursula. Still, she wasn't chosen and the only Disney Villains to make the final list were the Queen (10), Man (20), and Cruella De Vil (39). But even with no nomination she's known for being one of the best Disney Villains with no powers because of her manipulative personality.
 * Lady Tremaine makes a cameo in the Who Framed Roger Rabbit Special Edition DVD on one of the menus, but does not appear in the film itself.
 * Lady Tremaine's behavior is similar to the Evil Queen, for she, too, is jealous of her stepdaughter's beauty though she contrasts Grimhilde in that she doesn't try to harm Cinderella physically.
 * Both women's husbands died prematurely, lending another dosage of similarity. The main difference is that there's no indication of how the King died; with Tremaine, the possibility that she killed Cinderella's father is subtly suggested when she gloated at the latter's demise.
 * Both villains also exhibit narcissism (albeit different forms). Queen Grimhilde derives her sense of merit from stately outer beauty coupled with panache and (icy) charm. Lady Tremaine, meanwhile, sustains her ego by means of propagating and maintaining an image of aristocratic poise, refinement, and prestige. (This is evidenced in the prologue when narrator describes her as being "of good family", and later when she shows obsequious hospitality to the Duke.) In addition, Tremaine seems to view her biological daughters as extensions of herself; she instructs them to show "grace and self-control", depleted the family fortune on cultivating their nonexistent dignity, and persistently remains oblivious to their gauche and antisocially dysfunctional behavior.
 * Lady Tremaine, along with Anastasia and Drizella, are all apparently killed in Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep, but in the Disney universe and the Cinderella films, all three are alive (and in the case of Anastasia, redeemed).
 * She is the first of three Disney Princess villains not to be killed, other two being Governor Ratcliffe and Hans. Although Jafar did not die in the first Aladdin, he did in the second.
 * Lady Tremaine is similar to Judge Claude Frollo from The Hunchback of Notre Dame, as they are both French, both don't use any magic powers in their debut films, have gray hair, a pointy chin, they are also of high-rank in society (Frollo being the Minister of Paris, and Tremaine's rank of "lady" strongly implies that she had either married into the nobility, was born into noble blood, or both), and they also mistreat and abuse their stepchildren (Cinderella and Quasimodo). Only that while Frollo cared for Quasimodo because of charge of conscience, Tremaine does it both because she is forced to by law, and needs a housekeeper.
 * In addition, both characters also had their actors roles tied to another role (Eleanor Audley portrayed Maleficent in Sleeping Beauty largely because of her role as Lady Tremaine, while Tony Jay, the voice actor for Frollo, was chosen for the role largely because of his performance of Monsieur D'Arque from Beauty and the Beast)
 * In the original French story, the stepmother receives only a very minor mention in the beginning; it is the stepsisters who are noted throughout the rest of the story.
 * We learn that her last name is Tremaine at the ball when they announce the young ladies and their parents. This is the only time that her last name is referenced.
 * In the opening of the 1950 film, Lady Tremaine is depicted with brown hair in her younger years, a trait which Drizella's brunette hair color somewhat resembles. Since Anastasia is a redhead, a chance exists that her deceased biological father was also red-haired.
 * Considering her power-hungry and manipulative character, there is a chance that Tremaine killed Cinderella's father in order to take control of his fortune and house.
 * However, in the beginning of the film, it seems like Cinderella's father died of a sickness, as he is seen on his bed with a young Cinderella crying over his body. If one looks closely, Lady Tremaine can be seen in the corner with her daughters. She does not seem to show any sign of grief or sadness, however, which may make some wonder if Lady Tremaine had anything to do with it.
 * Eleanor Audley, who was the voice of Lady Tremaine in the original 1950 film, also voiced Maleficent in Sleeping Beauty. In fact, her performance as Lady Tremaine was partly the reason why she was given the role. Similarly, her succeeding voice actress (Susan Blakeslee) also voices Maleficent.
 * Lady Tremaine has a few similarities to Mother Gothel from Tangled. They're both stepmothers to a beautiful blonde, are psychologically abusive to them. However, unlike Lady Tremaine, Mother Gothel at least shows some concern and (rather distorted) affection for Rapunzel, while Lady Tremaine shows nothing but hatred towards Cinderella. Another difference is that Lady Tremaine gained legal custody of Cinderella after her father died, while Mother Gothel abducted Rapunzel from her actual parents.
 * Lady Tremaine is also similar to Madame Medusa from The Rescuers in a few senses.
 * Both keep a girl for selfish reasons. Lady Tremaine uses Cinderella for slave labor while Madame Medusa uses Penny to get her the Devil's Eye from The Black Hole.
 * Both psychologically abuse their unfortunate girls.
 * Both have beloved pets (Lucifer the cat, Brutus and Nero).
 * Both are outwitted by mice duos (Jaq and Gus, Bernard and Bianca).
 * Lady Tremaine's first name is never stated in any of the Cinderella movies, nor in any books, games, or TV shows in which she appeared. Rather, she is always referred to as her regal title of "Lady", possibly meaning that Cinderella's Father was a lord. It is possible that this is the reason why she tries to force her daughters to marry into royalty/nobility, so the family can keep a high status in the kingdom. It is also why she frowns upon Anastasia's marriage to the Baker.
 * The Into the Woods official website at one point implied that Lady Tremaine would be the Wicked Stepmother role in the upcoming live-action adaptation. However, this was later revealed to be an error, and Disney confirmed the characters would not be Disneyfied.