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1on1 with Dana Canedy (A Journal for Jordan)

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I recently had the chance to speak via Zoom with Dana Canedy, who wrote the book A Journal for Jordan about her fiancé 1st Sergeant Charles Monroe King who wrote a journal for their yet unborn child prior to being killed in Iraq. The film version of the book is directed by Denzel Washington and stars Michael B. Jordan and Chanté Adams. Ms. Canedy is a Pulitzer prize-winning journalist who is now Senior Vice President of Simon and Schuster. She has written for the New York Times

I’m sensitive to the fact that even though it’s been a number of years since the events in the film, the writing of the book, the making of the movie, and now all these interviews you’re doing can stir up many emotions for you and for your son. So how are you feeling about it all at this point?

Thank you for appreciating that. I have a mix of emotions. I’m mostly really humbled and grateful. The fact that people all across the country care about the story and are sending me hugs and sending me emails is very healing for me. There are some days I’m really overjoyed and other days are difficult. When we were shooting the scene in Arlington Cemetery was one of the worst days of my life. One the whole I think it’s a beautiful story. I’m grateful for this experience and hopefully there are some words of encouragement in the movie that will resonate with people with their own struggles, to help them get through. So if I can serve in any way, my story and my loss, and how to deal with tragedies and serve to inspire someone else and help them through, then it’s okay. I’m happy to go through it.

In the production notes you’re quoted as saying you were willing to trust Denzel Washington with this project because “In this order, I knew Denzel was a Christian man and a good family man. And then I knew he was the best at what he does.” Can you speak a bit about the importance of who Denzel Washington is as a person as it relates to this project?

I think who he is as a person as it relates to this project is as important as who he is in Hollywood, in the sense that he made this personal. He started many of the shoots in prayer with the cast. He got to know me and my son over time. We’ve been thinking about and talking of doing this for thirteen years. So Jordan’s sixteen and I have pictures of him holding Jordan on the set of one his other movies when Jordan was three years old. He made this very personal. In fact, at one point several years ago, he was reading through the script and he was pretty emotional about it and called me about it. I told him “We’re no longer characters on a page to you; we’re people.” And so, I think part of the beauty of the movie is that everyone involved made it personal, and you can see that with the performances.

You also mention that part of what your fiancé wrote about was his love of God? How did you see that form him as a man?

He was a deeply Christian man who grew up in the church and read his bible every day. I used to watch him read and pray and he wrote in a prayer book. He’s the only man I ever dated who I felt comfortable praying with. God was at the center of his life. He really was. In fact, his pastor at his childhood church asked him, “You’re such a Christian man, how can you be in the military?” He said, “The military needs Christians, too.” Faith was at the heart of everything he did. I grew up in a very nontraditional religious household, and he helped me, actually, grow in my faith. That is one of the blessings of having known him and spend so much time with him, to watch a man of faith practice his faith.

Also in the production notes, you talk about the two different ways your fiancé was known: The warrior that the soldiers knew as “Top” and the man you describe as the gentlest man you ever met. What was it like to discover new dimensions to this man?

Incredible. It was absolutely incredible. Incredible for the soldiers and incredible for me. When I described the man I knew to the soldiers, they said “Ma’am, we never met that guy.” He was so different at his home. He had all these little flecks of gray in his mustache, and he used to let me take my mascara wand and color it in. That’s who he was at home. Of course, that’s not who he was as a military leader. He really had these two different parts of his personality that he balanced very well. To this day it makes me smile and laugh that this fierce warrior could also be so gentle. Though I shouldn’t be surprised because he was an artist who specialized in pointillism—creating beautiful three-dimensional drawings with dots of paint. He would draw children and old people and soldiers and landscapes

As I mentioned I haven’t seen the film yet, but how do you feel Michael B. Jordan did in capturing that complexity?

First of all I was struck by how much they looked alike, so that was incredible. He, again, put in a lot of time researching the role. The first day I went to the set, I took a small duffle bag that had the actual journal in it and Charles’s dog tags, and his Purple Heart. Michael wore the dog tags on set that day, and was very emotional about it. So I think he really understood that there was a boy at the heart of the story, whose name was Jordan, who’s a real person, and he had this unbelievable measure of respect for Charles. So he put in the time to talk to me a lot, to read through my book and the journal to understood us as people. And he brought all that to bear on the performance. He captured him perfectly.

NEW YORK, NEW YORK – DECEMBER 09: Dana Canedy and Jordan Canedy attend the World Premiere of “A Journal For Jordan” at AMC Lincoln Square Theater on December 09, 2021 in New York City. (Photo by Theo Wargo/Getty Images for Sony Pictures)

 Is there a kind of weirdness to watching yourself being portrayed on screen?

Oh, no. I mean, I’m so grateful. This is such an awesome, amazing experience, by the grace of God, to be able to tell my story—our story—to share that. I don’t think of it that way at all.

This is a story about fatherhood, but in a very different way than most films. How would you describe the concept of being a father that this film creates?

I think what it does is it doesn’t create an example of fatherhood. It gives an example of the epitome of fatherhood. You know, a man who found a way to be present for his family and his son after he was gone. I tell Jordan all the time “You’re having an ongoing conversation with your father that many people don’t have with fathers who are living.” The fact that he tried so hard and worked so hard at anticipating what he’d want to say to Jordan over the years is unbelievable. There are entries in the journal that mean a lot to Jordan at sixteen years old, but, as you can imagine, there are other things that are going to be even meaningful for him on his wedding day or when he becomes a father. Charles was able to anticipate all of that while writing this from a war zone. I can’t think of a better example of a father who is loyal and thoughtful and caring and loving. It’s why I chose him.

A Journal for Jordan is now available on Blu-ray and On Demand.

Colony of Bats: Toronto’s Eaton Centre goes Batty

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The CF Toronto Eaton Centre has officially gone batty.

In partnership with Warner Bros. Canada, the Eaton Centre is celebrating the release of Matt Reeves’ The Batman with a stunning exhibit in the central concourse that will surely draw attention. From now until March 8th, The Batman’s Colony of Bats invites viewers to stop by to untangle a mystery of their own. 

Created by Rooftop Agency, Colony of Bats is a striking piece that uses forced perspective to move seamlessly between a flock of more than 10 000 bats mid-flight and the logo for The Batman. In celebration of its unveiling, David Videka, the president of Rooftop Agency, notes that the exhibit’s massive size makes it a particularly unique experience in the famed shopping centre.

“It’s certainly large,” muses Videka. “It’s 32 feet long by 12 feet high by about 9 or 10 feet wide. It’s one of the largest things ever to go into the Eaton Centre. They usually cap build at about 10 feet. So, I think only their Christmas tree has us beat at this point for the height.”

Inspired by The Batman’s noir aesthetic, Videka wanted his installation to offer the same sorts of surprises that Matt Reeves’ film gives audiences. As such, the most important question in the development of Colony was how they could turn the piece into a ‘riddle’ of its own for viewers to unravel.

“Without a doubt, the movie inspired us the most,” Videka recalls. “To start with all these things, you have to take it back to the very beginning and try to really get a good grasp of what are the writers, the directors (and) the talent are all trying to say. What’s trying to come across in the movie, right? It’s one thing to sit around and say, ‘Oh, this would be cool to do.’ And, you know, sure, that’s a fantastic way to come about things, but this is art. This is a movie, this is cinema. The idea that we need to use that as the starting point is kind of the most important thing. We work alongside with Warner Bros. [and ask] how do we do these movies, especially something like Batman, justice.”

“What we really wanted to reflect [from] the movie is that things aren’t always as they seem, especially when we have a character like the Riddler involved. That was a really key component for us. So, by playing off of all the different twists and turns and the edge-of-your-seat sort of moments of the movie where there’s always something different happening and you’re never quite sure if you gotten to the right answer or not, we took these twists and turns and [wondered] what if we used a forced perspective art installation piece? It provides a multitude of different ways to look at a problem before you realize that, if you get it just right, everything would be revealed the way it was meant to be. We feel that this really comes to life when we look at the installation from all angles. When you’re looking at it from pretty much every perspective, it just looks like a flock or a colony of more than 10,000 bats mid-flight. But, if you stand in just the right place and figure out the riddle in just the right way, it reveals the logo, which is really striking and visually attractive… You know, so it’s been really fun to kind of mess with people’s minds in the same way that the movie does to the viewer.” 

While any art installation of this size would be a massive undertaking, Videka recognizes that Colony of Bats was particularly intricate in its detail. Even so, he and his team were excited to take on the challenge.

Says Videka, “There’s over 10 000 bats, all digitally cut through 3D rendering. [It was a challenge] to establish the individual bat sizes, how many bats per layer, and the amount of layers required to make it the most effective illusion. Again, it’s when you get up close and you look at it, there’s a lot going on. That’s sort of the fun. When you step way back and you take those 10-15 feet back and you look at it, it looks so simplistic. It says The Batman, but when you get in on it, you realize that we have to take into consideration how many bats to hang, but also there’s 56 different… opaque, hanging apparatuses that the bats sit on. So again, 10 000 divided by 56 equals how many bats and what direction do they go? Which way do they hit the light so that it reflects properly and spells the proper letters in the name and then the name itself? What vantage point do we need? Again, you’re going into a mall with a pre-conceived walkway so people are coming a certain way and you want to make sure that they see The Batman when they’re coming in.”

“So, there’s a lot of technical sort of things that go into the idea and the mathematics behind it. But, I think that’s what the challenge and fun is, right? Hey, look at it like this. Batman, he’s the best. He is badass. He’s got these gadgets. He’s all these things. And he uses technology to his advantage. And again, like as nerdy as that might seem, that’s really how deep we get. [We say,] ‘Hey, this is so difficult to do. Only maybe one person could do it and that’s probably Batman. So, you know, let’s give it a shot.’” 

In addition to the technical challenges of Colony, Videka also points out that he had to consider the different types of people that will see his work. From casual passersby to avid fans, his goal was to create something that was meaningful for everyone. 

“When you’re building something like this, you have to think of what are the different levels of consumers or fans that are going to come by and how do you relate to all of them?,” he identifies. “You’re going to have someone that’s going to come by and just be like, ‘Wow, this is really cool. I like the Batman. I know the Batman, and I’m really intrigued with this’ or you’re going to have people that come by and [think they] know everything about Batman and want to pick it apart to find out what’s wrong with what’s going on. The idea is you have to cater to all of those people. That’s sort of the fun of it because, if you can connect with all of them in a very unique way yet all within the same sort of structure installation, then you’ve accomplished your goal.” 

“Batman’s an 18-49, very mainstream movie. It has a lot of different audiences. It has a lot of different communities and sub-communities of people that love it for different reasons. It’s a heritage franchise. So, there’s a lot of people that grew up with it, like myself with Michael Keaton and Kim Basinger. That’s where I fell in love with it… So, you have to cater to all those different sorts of perspectives and mindsets. Yesterday, [we had] little kids freaking out because they saw the Batman artwork, elderly people, people that were in art or just working in the malls coming out of the stores, saying, ‘This is crazy!’ I certainly think we’ve more than achieved that goal and that was only the first day.” 

When he considers how he wants his audience to respond to Colony of Bats, Videka hopes that they’ll recognize that there’s always a mystery to life. For him, Colony is an opportunity for them to take pause and look for something deeper. 

“Things aren’t always what they seem and don’t take them for face value,” states Videka. “Everything is deeper, if you take a longer look and try to get to the solution versus just taking it and walking by. That’s what we heard a lot yesterday… From our perspective, we have brand ambassadors on site and they spent more time talking to consumers yesterday that I’ve ever seen them in 14 years. People just had so many questions. And again, I think that’s what you’re looking to do with the movie like this. There’s a lot of layers and don’t just take everything for face value.” 

The Batman’s Colony of Bats is on display now in concourse of the CF Toronto Eaton Centre through until March 8th.

Seeing Past the Smoke: 1on1 with Tony Hale (POUPELLE OF CHIMNEY TOWN)

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As we continue to move through the haze of the pandemic, sometimes it can feel like an endless haze has descended upon us all. Stuck in a seemingly endless mid-point, we continue to look beyond the COVID world, squinting to see some form of hope on the other side.

It’s for that reason that actor Tony Hale (Toy Story 4, Arrested Development) believes that his latest project, Poupelle of Chimney Town, is the movie we need right now.

“The story itself is based in this very popular children’s book of the same name and takes this little character named Lubicchi,” he begins. “He’s a little boy who lives in a town full of smoke and the father tells him that there’s stars above the smoke. And everybody in the town says, ‘You’re crazy. You’re crazy. You’re crazy.’ But Lubbichi believes [his father] and my character comes along and helps him on this journey to find the stars. I just think, man, after what we’ve all been going through these two years, just that hope of like, ‘Hey, we’re gonna get past this. There’s something on the other side.’ In addition to that, the animation is crazy beautiful. It has this kind of ethereal-like jewel-tone watercolor. It’s just so stunning. We, as voice actors, are a very, very small slice of this pie. Most of the pie is all the artists working on it.” 

Directed by Yuusuke Hirota, Poupelle of Chimney Town takes place in a city covered by a thick layer of black smoke that has prevented its people from ever seeing the sky. Though the people have accepted the darkness, young Lubicchi (Antonio Raul Corbo) clings to the stories of stars told to him by his late father, Bruno (Stephen Root). Working as a chimney sweep in order to pay the bills and care for his sick mother, Lola (Misty Lee), Lubicchi has become a social outcast and struggles to connect with other kids. However, his life changes when a man made of garbage stumbles out of the night. Naming his new friend Poupelle (Hale), Lubicchi accepts this ‘monster’ when others won’t and the two begin to look for the stars together. 

Branded a monster by the townspeople, Poupelle is kept at a distance by others out of fear. However, in Lubicchi, he finds a young man who (eventually) is willing to see beyond his exterior of garbage to the beautiful soul that lies beneath. In doing so, Hale believes that the film begins a conversation about the poisonous nature of labels and how they limit our ability to connect with people. 

“[A label is] so toxic because it kills uniqueness and what somebody is bringing to the table when they’re being forced to fit into a category or a mold,” he explains. “And the fact is there’s a lot of different branches to the tree of humanity. There are so many different branches, but we don’t feel comfortable with that almost, you know? And so [a label] is incredibly toxic because it’s restrictive. That made me think of when I did Toy Story 4, there was this character named Gabby Gabby in the store and she was considered the evil doll. Forky, my character, didn’t know anything so he just kind of got started getting to know her. Everybody was putting a label on her and he just got to know her, much like Lubicchi was Poupelle. And because of that breaking through, that union, the labels came off and you be able to hear the person’s story. You can be able to get past their trauma and see their humanity and man, what power is that?” 

Although Lubicchi cares about Poupelle, their relationship definitely has its conflicts. As their push/pull dynamic comes into play, Hale sees that both characters have issues that they’re working out. Even so, he also believes that the trust between them is rooted in their willingness to truly see one another.

“It’s like any friendship, kind of,” says Hale. “Also, Poupelle is kind of this being made of garbage come into the town and he’s dealing with his own [questions about] what’s going on. But I think it’s always about trust. Lubicchi hasn’t had a lot of support from the town [in regards to] believing his vision and where he’s going and you know, trusting that this Poupelle does believe in him. What I love about this relationship is it just takes that one person who believes in you and sees you that gives you the strength to do it. Poupelle really sees Lubicchi and he really believes in him.” 

With this in mind, one of the key tensions within the film lies between Lubicchi’s decision to ‘keep looking up and the Inquisitors’ commitment to snuffing out such beliefs. Asked why he believes Lubicchi’s views are such a threat to the powers that be, Hale argues that there is a certain amount of danger that lies within change itself.
“I think it’s a threat because change is scary,” he suggests. “Even though they live in a town of smoke and even though there’s this hope, change is scary. They don’t want to believe beyond their framework because they’ve created that [sense of] what I’m comfortable in. And so that’s scary. So, they’ll fight against that, but man not look up. I mean, I personally am a person of faith and I look up all the time because it brings a reference point to my life. It makes me know that I’m not in charge, which is a huge gift because it gets scary. So, it’s a huge source of strength for me.” 

Having said this though, Hale also argues that the sense of hope embedded within the film is what makes it so essential for audiences right now. Coming at a moment when we have all been beaten down so many different cultural issues, Poupelle of Chimney Town offers a message of strength and encouragement in a troubled time.

“Honestly, I think there’s a lot of beautiful movies, but there’s something [about] this movie that, for this point in time, [is] life-giving. It’s redemptive [and] it’s strengthening. Obviously, there are a lot of dark things out there. That’s also strengthening people because they might feel seen in certain ways, but the hope that this provides I think is the medicine that we need right now. Definitely.” 

Poupelle of Chimney Town is now available in select theatres.

To hear our complete conversation with Tony Hale click here (YouTube) or here (podcast).

1on1 with Clint Bentley (Jockey)

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I recently had the chance to talk via Zoom with Clint Bentley, the director and co-writer of Jockey. The film is the story of an aging jockey coming to the end of his career. He discovers one of the new young jockeys claims to be his son. The film won an Audience Award at AFI Fest, and has been nominated for two Film Independent Spirit Awards.

I saw this at AFI Fest where you said your father was a jockey and you were raised in this world behind the barns. What was that like and how did it shape your view of the world?

You know, it didn’t feel weird at the time. We grew up in Florida, but we lived all over the place following my dad around the circuit to the point where my sister was born in Oklahoma City, just because that’s where we happened to be when she was born.

It’s such an interesting world, and such a lovely world. But I think in terms of shaping my worldview, it was seeing there’s a lot of people on the backside who all come from different places and all come from different backgrounds. A lot of them are wounded in different ways emotionally. But they create this family for each other and give each other what they need. And no matter how competitive they get in terms of winning, they all really want to take care of each other for the most part and I think that really shaped me going forward.

 You spoke of some of those people and you have several non-actors in the film. What was it like getting them to share their lives?

The first time actors in the movie are such interesting people in their own rights that it didn’t take much to get them to be interesting on camera. It really was just a process of winning their trust and letting them know what the intent of the movie was, and then working in such a way that it didn’t feel like it was taking advantage of them in any way or manipulating them, just letting them be themselves on camera. Once I was able to do that and earn their trust, the rest flowed out. I have to say huge props to Clifton Collin Jr. for being able to guide a lot of them through those scenes. None of them had been in front of a camera before.

As they recite their injuries, that really gives you an idea of what it’s like to live that life.

Yeah. There’s a line in the movie that’s a direct quote from having hung out with a jockey. He was only like 24 at the time. I asked him “Have you ever been hurt bad?”  And he just listed off his litany of injuries: “I’ve broken my ankle and I’ve broken both collarbones, my nose so many times. I’ve broken my arm. But no I’m lucky, I’ve never been hurt bad.” I was thinking “Holy shit!” That tells you enough about the world and the job right there.

Jackson Silva, the main character, is struggling with aging and a body beginning to deteriorate. That’s an issue we all face at some point. But that seem to be less an issue for riders than fear. Does that seem like a fair statement of what Jackson is going through?

That’s a good question and it’s a really astute reading of it. Because it’s something that jockeys… they talk about getting hurt and it’s just part of the job as like if you’re delivering mail, getting a flat tire on the way to work or on the route is just part of the job. For them that’s breaking a collarbone; it’s that mundane for them. It’s not a question that they talk about in terms of if but of when. But breaking a bone and getting back on a horse or getting knocked unconscious and getting back on a horse, those aren’t things that mess up their career. It’s really getting the Fear –capital F Fear. They know it inside. If they’re nervous up on a horse on their tiptoes running forty miles an hour down the track with ten other horses around them, they’re not going to do well in the race, and they’re also potentially going to get their friends hurt, or the horse hurt or themselves hurt. It really is the thing that it’s really hard to come back from that once you get it. It’s what every jockey… it’s their fear to get the Fear.

One of the things that I found very interesting in your film was the number of scenes that were at dawn or at sunset. Sunset seems especially appropriate of Jackson’s story. Can you comment about how you used that visual aspect in your storytelling.?

It really came from, first, limitations opening up opportunities. We had a small crew and just a very small light kit, so we were going to be using natural light to shoot the movie And then Adolpho Veloso, our brilliant cinematographer, really lit on this idea that the connection between the sunset and the sunrise season of Clifton’s character Jackson being at the sunset of his career, and Moises being at the sunrise of his career. We leaned into that. And something that I didn’t even notice at the time, until Adolpho pointed it out, was that the rhythms of the life of a jockey match that of what we put in the movie. They wake up before dawn and they get on horses to exercise them. They exercise them until it starts to get hot in the day, then they take a break. They go off and they work out, or they try to figure out how not to eat a meal. Then the races are over by the evening. It really follows that same rhythm that we portrayed in the movie. It’s also very beautiful at that time.

You have an interesting relationship with your filmmaking partner Greg Kwedar. What kind of dynamic does that bring to making a film like this when you both consider yourselves directors, producers, screenwriters?

Actually, it’s a real blessing to be able to work with Greg. We’ve been working together for about ten years. Yes, both of us are writer/director/producers. We switch off back and forth. We write together and one produces for the other to direct, then we switch back and forth. It’s really not only supporting your friend. I do go through that and being able to support who you know very well, and know them not as a artist, but as a person. But then also having that person over your shoulder when you’re shooting something who’s also a director. Directing is a very lonely job. To be able to look back at someone else and say “I think it’s good, but is it good?” And for them to be like, “No, it’s not good,” or “Yes,” is really and amazing thing to have. Also, we’re different as artists and as directors. That difference makes each of our projects better because you’ve got somebody working on it who has different sensibilities and different thoughts and brings different things to the project that you’d never think of.

What are the two of you working on for the future?

We’ve got a film of Greg’s that hopefully we’ll shoot in the new year that is more in the vein of our first film, Transpecos, kind of a thriller with something more on its mind. Then, I love the way Jockey feels. Just trying to make more movies that feel like that.

The Voices of (Three) Generations: 1on1 with Rob Paulsen & Maurice LaMarche (ANIMANIACS)

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They’re Pinky and the Brain. One is a genius. The other’s insane.

Taken from their famed theme song, these simple words summarize the lovable relationship between the two animated laboratory mice from Hulu’s revived series, Animaniacs. Committed to taking over the world, the maniacal Pinky and the Brain have been beloved by millions since they first popped on screen almost thirty years ago. 

Beginning its original run in 1993, the rebirth of Animaniacs has meant that its unique brand of humour has impacted multiple generations of kids around the world. In light of this, voice icons Maurice LaMarche (‘The Brain’) and Rob Paulsen (‘Pinky’) are often amazed that these characters continue to endure and bring families together.

“It hit me at Comic Cons. I already knew that the generation that watched our show had hit their mid-thirties,” LaMarche points out. “It was when their little kids started pointing to Pinky and the Brain and wanting an autograph from them. And I’d ask, ‘how old is he?’ And they go, ’10’. I’d ask, ‘How does he know about Pinky and the Brain’? ‘Because I show it to him on the DVDs, the box sets, all of that.’ Now, we’re noticing that the dads that sat with their kids in the 90s are now the [grandparents] of the little kids who were asking for that picture with their kids. Three generations are standing in front of our tables at Comic Cons, asking for autographs. So, that’s kind of fun.” 

“That’s really unusual too,” chimes Paulsen. “I think the only other show I can think of that’s still in production is the Simpsons, where that would have happened. But we have gotten this incredibly glorious opportunity as a result of the stars aligning and Hulu. With a twenty-five year break in between, it’s so unprecedented to do it again, and then have all these world-class journalists talk to us about season two, and the show is now an unqualified hit again with an exponentially larger audience.”  

In light of their lasting legacy, it begs the question of what makes Pinky and the Brain such endearing characters? While their antics to take over the world are always hilarious, Paulsen argues that he believes it stems from the adorable relationship between the two characters.

“I think that what sets it apart for me is that it’s just a love story,” Paulsen explains. “Pinky and the Brain really love each other. I think one of the reasons that, um, that it translates pretty well to the screen is that life is imitated art. I love Maurice. We are the dearest of friends… So, if you’re going to be authentic, acting is acting. The whole idea is that you embody these characters. You don’t acknowledge the fact that it’s silly or otherwise. This is the truth. You are about taking over the world and supporting your guy, supporting the man (or the mouse) whom you believe has the best interest of the world at heart. Whether it’s nefarious or not is not, Pinky’s MO is that [he] believes that the Brain has the best of intentions and [he’s] going to do everything I[he]can to help him achieve his goal. Then, he hits [him] on the head for doing something stupid. So, that’s why I think they work together.” 

“It’s a show about a friendship,” LaMarche echoes. “It’s a show about what Peter Cook and Dudley Moore described as the ‘uninformed idiot and the informed idiot’. So, Brain, being the informed idiot who, though he is supposedly a genius, isn’t smart enough to know that a two-inch tall lab mouse that can’t possibly take over the world. So, he’s rendered harmless at that point. That’s another reason that people can get with him because they know he’s no danger. (Of course, setting aside the fact that he’s an animated cartoon.)” 

Thinking back to the very beginning, LaMarche notes that his voice for the character stemmed from the remarkable similarities in appearance to the great Orson Welles.

“The original design of Brain was very Orson Welles-ian and to the point that I actually, in my hubris, believed they’d created the character with me in mind,” LaMarche laughs. “I was notorious for doing Orson Welles whenever there was a break in recording so, I just thought, ‘Oh, they’ve created this Orson Welles lab mouse for me. The audition is a mere formality, my friend.’ So, I just laid down my Orson Welles, and then we went. He’s more angular now. I don’t know that I might’ve seen Orson Wells in there now and ergo, may not have ended up with the job. So, I’m glad we started it when we did.” 

With this in mind, Paulsen suggests that he also prefers the opportunity to bring his own unique take on the character, rather than attempt to meet the expectations of the director.

“For me, it was a six-week audition,” he continues. “I had five or six callbacks over a six-week period because it was a big deal. It was all a brand-new clean sheet of paper, lots of music. and it was a lot of ‘We’ll know it when we hear it’. To me, [that’s] a boon. I love it when a director or producer says ‘I want to hear your take on this and you give me what you got’. If somebody says ‘we’re very specific in what we want’, I can do my best but, if they’ve got it stuck in their head that no, that’s not getting close to what I want. I love it when I have a little control over what I can give them. When Moe walked into read for the Brain, once he opened his mouth and did Orson Welles, they were done… Had Mo not had the—he calls it hubris, I call it genius—but that ability to say, ‘Oh, wait a minute. I know what’s going to work here.’ He does it. Behind the glass, they just go, ‘Oh my God. All right. All the rest of you. Thank you very much.’ That’s what happens when you open it up to the actor’s interpretation.” 

Known for its boundary-pushing animation and style, Animaniacs has clearly found a new audience with its revival. Asked what he believes is the most exciting aspect of the series for him, Paulsen beams and immediately points to the series’ ability to remain self-aware and current with its humour.

“I love the fact that we’re self-aware and that we lampoon everybody, including ourselves,” Paulsen exclaims. “In fact, if you guys recall, in the revival’s… theme song, the first half is the old animation and the old lyrics. Then, it switches to the new stuff where we become self-aware. In fact, they even say ‘gender-balanced, pronoun-neutral and ethnically diverse. The trolls all say we’re so passe, but we did meta first’. That is freaking genius because it’s self-aware and right out of the shoot before one word of dialogue is spoken the theme son, lets you know what you’re in for? I find that really just so bad-ass really.”

Animaniacs is now available on Hulu.

To hear our complete conversation with Rob Paulsen and Maurice LaMarche, click here (YouTube) or here (audio).