Chatting With The Cast & Filmmakers Of Disney Pixar Inside Out! ⋆ Brite and Bubbly

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Written By Jesse Delia

Hey All!

I recently had the amazing opportunity to attend the purple carpet premiere and press conference for the amazing new Disney Pixar’s film Inside Out. Do you ever look at someone and wonder what is going on inside their head? This film ventures inside the mind to find out. It’s such a unique and heartfelt story that is brought to life by the amazing Director Pete Docter, Co-Director Ronnie del Carmen, Producer Jonas Rivera and the amazing voice cast that consists of Amy Poehler, Bill Hader, Lewis Black, Mindy Kaling, Phyllis Smith, Diane Lane, Kyle MacLachlan, and Kaitlyn Dias. I’ll share more on my thoughts of the film in my review post.

Director Pete Docter, Producer Jonas Rivera, Amy Poehler, Bill Hader, Lewis Black, Mindy Kaling, and Phyllis Smith were all in attendance a this press conference and I have to say it was one of the funniest press conferences I’ve ever been too. With such amazing comedic talent like this in one room, there was bound to be non-stop laughter. We were lucky to get the chance to ask them all a few questions about this soon to be animated classic and this is what they had to say.

First up was Director Pete Docter and Producer Jonas Rivera.

We began by Pete Docter chatting about the inspiration and thought behind the idea of Inside Out.

PETE:

Well, I noticed my daughter growing up and being a little less goofy and wacky and funny and a little more shy and quiet because she had turned 11. At the same time, I was looking at different ideas for a film and thought about emotions as characters.

So the basic pitch that I gave to Jonas at first, and then ultimately John, was, “What if we have an 11-year-old girl who’s moved across the country, but she’s actually not the main character; she’s the setting, because inside her head are her emotions that help her deal with everyday life?”

And it was pretty much just that simple of a concept. I didn’t really have a story yet. That came from working with Josh Cooley and Ronnie del Carmen and all the amazing story talents that we have. It slowly developed over the next four years. But we all kind of know that it doesn’t have to be perfect. We’re gonna make a lot of adjustments and refinements as we go.

Jonas chimed in about how everyone at Pixar thought it was going to be so difficult to pull off. But they truly have in my opinion!

JONAS:

I remember when we first did our first kind of pitch, slash, screening to the rest of the group there, the brain trust. I remember it was Brad Bird that said, “This is a great idea. I’m glad you guys are doing it.” It was a tough nut to crack, right?

These guys make such amazing animated films together. I of course wanted to know if that was something they consciously always want to do together and do they pitch themselves as a team when they are going to pitch a new movie. Are they always going to be a team as a team to make films for Pixar? And I also needed to know why do you like to make people cry as they have said this in multiple interviews.

JONAS:

I think we found, as we were working, we both kind of grew up at Pixar. I’ve been there 20 years. Pete’s been there longer, going back to the first Toy Story, and we’ve found along the way that we just realize we love kind of the same movies, and we love the Disney movies of the ’40s and ’50s and ’30s, just that Golden Age. That is sort of echoing what you were asking about, just that feeling we had when we were kids that we didn’t want to ever lose, going to Disneyland for the first time and all those things.

And I think, as we talked and started to work together, even back on Monsters, we were sort of craving a similar movie, which was completely different, whatever it was, different than the movie we did last. That was something we talked a lot about. And even finishing the film, Up, which came out six years ago, the very first thing was, like, “How can we do something completely different than that?” We’re very proud of that, but it is always about character and emotion and that feeling.

And so I don’t know. We don’t sit around consciously going, “All right. Let’s make a great movie.” I mean, we hope that happens, obviously, but I think it’s just like, “What do we wanna see? What did we love seeing when we were kids? What do we wanna take our families to? What are we gonna be proud of? Let’s aim for that.” And I’m lucky. Pete thinks them up. I just have to figure out how to make them. And so I feel very honored that this is my job.

PETE:

I think we have similar tastes and different but complementary skills and a mutual respect for each other and what each other brings to the show. I feel like, man, I can’t see how I could be able to do these without Jonas, and I don’t know if you feel the same way, but I think it’s been a really great relationship.

JONAS:

But it’s also not just us. It’s our key collaborators. I’ll tell a quick story about Michael Giacchino because he scored both films. We got into the car. This is the first scoring day on Up back in 2009. And I knew we were gonna get along. Michael had done some of the films at Pixar, but we had never really worked with him. And we get in the car at Warner Bros. after we’re done scoring that first day. We were gonna do what you do. You go to Disneyland after you’re done scoring your movie.

PETE:

Of course.

JONAS:

And so we’re driving down the freeway. We get in Michael’s car. And he turns on his car, and he had had some CDs…

PETE:

Blasting out of the stereo.

JONAS:: Blasting out of the stereo was the theme of the Muppet Show, right? And I’m in the back, and Pete says, “Oh, wow, I was listening to that same disc on the way to the airport.” And I thought, oh, my God. What two cars on the planet earth had those two songs in, right? It’s like we all, somehow, we’re born to somehow mess around with all this stuff and try to make things out of it.

A match made in heaven in my opinion. We then moved on to chatting with the spectacular cast! We started out by them talking about what was it like for them to read the screenplay and to wrap their heads around the scope of what was going on in this movie.

PHYLLIS:

I was speechless no, I was very excited to get the call and I really don’t know the magnitude of it even now. I don’t believe. I was just really happy to go to Emeryville and have Pete and Jonas tell me the story and see the pictures and immediately without a beat, without missing a beat I said yes, yes please and I had a great time and I don’t know take it Bill.

BILL:

I kind of stalked them (Pixar)! I went to them. I said, “I wanna take a tour of Pixar.” This was back in 2010. I’m a giant fan, so I just said, “Can I please take a tour?” And I went around and I met Pete and Jonas and there was actually a scene…They didn’t tell me about the movie that there is a scene in the movie that deals with a live television element. They were like we’d like to come to SNL and I said, “Come to SNL.” And they hung out at SNL for a week for reference of that sequence and so they let me come and hang out at Pixar as a thank you and well kind of like a thank you really they said “Do you want Fear?” and I said, “Sure.” My stalking worked.

AMY:

I came to the project later and they had done so much work already and a lot of people had already recorded, so I kind of got this PowerPoint presentation of what the idea was and I couldn’t believe the setting was the mind of an 11 year old girl. I just loved that it was the setting. I just thought – I honestly believe from the minute they told me the idea I was like “This film is gonna be the best Pixar movie ever made, and it’s gonna make the most money and it’s gonna win an Oscar;” that’s what I thought from the minute they told me. I was like this is the best movie ever made, and it will be the only good movie I’ve ever been in and I can’t believe I’m in it. I actually thought about the day when the film comes out because as you can tell, I’m kind of a pessimist when it comes to these things.

LEWIS:

Apparently I found out I was like the first one cast so I was really the tipping point as soon as the others heard I was in it, they couldn’t wait to be with me.

Bill chimed in…

BILL:

Yes, they said, “You wanna be in a Lewis Black movie?” And I went “Yes.” And they said. “You got to go out to Pixar.” “Oh Pixar is doing it, oh boy.”

LEWIS:

But they did send me a box like I had never see anything they’ve done or really in this industry, but the humility that is really almost psychotic because they sent me a box of stuff with a letter in which they said that I may not know who Pixar is –which meant that they were crazy or they thought I was just some sort of a recluse. So they said that they had this role of Anger that fit and would I be interested in it? And maybe if I didn’t know them, then they sent me all their stuff; all these things that I’ve seen.

Bill chimed in again…

BILL:

They sent you their reel?

LEWIS:

They sent me everything and a big nice book. I think I made out better than any of you and I leapt on it but they also sent me about a 20 page book of kind of what they were thinking and kind of a rough draft of the script and I thought as I read it I said, “Oh my God, this is going to be a flop and I’m going to be in the worst thing that they’ve ever done and maybe they’ll be something to that in its own special way.” Then I went out there and they’ve already done 12000 changes and I went “OH yeah you’re an idiot Lewis.”

MINDY:

Well that is really true, it’s almost if Pixar and Pete and Jonas in the experience of working with them it’s like dating a guy. It’s like this really well raised guy that doesn’t know he looks like Tom Brady and has the title of Tom Brady and it’s just like amazing and we did these other movies and we have these other things and you’re like “I’m in” and what do you want me to do for you…

Amy chimed in…

AMY:

Totally, it’s like I’m about your pleasure.

MINDY:

Yes and I wanna just make you happy and you feel so honored to be with you and you say to your friends because they don’t have to be that way frequently, much less wonderful organizations teeming with talent treat you much worse and so you’re kind of like “This is great, how do I take advantage of this? It’s really wonderful.”

Bill chimed in…

BILL:

They act like it’s a real privilege that they get to do their jobs. It’s like they can’t believe they get to do what they do which is really nice.

MINDY:

Yes and that was so great you know?! A lot of the people hear we have to create our own opportunities or we enjoy doing that, being the orchestrator of own projects and to be part of something where you don’t have to, they want you to collaborate but you need to because the standard of excellence is so high, it’s such a treat.

I of course had a question is for the whole cast which was if they could play another emotion, what would it be and why?

AMY:

I’d like to play Anger. That feels like the one that next to Joy and Sadness for me is kind of in the driver’s seat and it’s just so funny, Anger is so funny.

BILL:

I would say Anger is the fun one, yes, I would like to play Anger. It’s just very therapeutic, you know. I just felt like when I was watching Lewis’ thing I’m like “God it would be nice just to go into work and be like aaaahhh.” Yeah because sometimes in these things you got to do take after take and then you get some breathing room and then you get time to relax and you do it again but in this they do a series so they say, “Do a series of that line.” So it’s like “Open the door, open the door; open the door.” And you just start to go crazy so it would be nice to be Anger.

PHYLLIS:

Bill, I wish you would have told me that’s what I was supposed to have done. I didn’t…I’d like to be Angry as well as Disgusted. Yes, Anger and Disgust.

LEWIS:

Yes Disgust, that’s really my second place. I’m really of the idea of that. I spend a lot of time on the road in restaurants listening to people talk and I’m just disgusted.

MINDY:

I think I would be Anger. It’s not necessarily socially acceptable to be angry especially for a woman, So that would be a fun thing to be able to do.

PHYLLIS:

What does that say about us that we all wanna be angry?

AMY:

No one wants to be Joy, isn’t it interesting?

BILL:

Yes, isn’t that weird? We’re older; we’re bolder, Inside Out 2.

It was such a fantastic experience to chat with this super talented cast and film makers. They are absolutely amazing in the film and in real life. Check out this new feature for the film so you can get a taste of what this spectacular new Disney Pixar film is like: