AN EGOTISTICAL, POWER-HUNGRY FEMALE DIRECTOR? I WANT THAT PART
▶ Kristen Bell tells Chris Newbould why her role in ‘Teen Titans Go! To The Movies’ was empowering
Compared to the usual fanfare surrounding a new DC movie release, Teen Titans Go! To the Movies is almost sneaking into cinemas this weekend. The animated characters are clearly somewhat lower profile than the likes of Batman or Superman – in fact, they can usually be found on the small screen. Teen Titans Go! is one of the most popular properties on The Cartoon Network, and serves as a comedic spin-off to the main Worlds of DC (WDC) films and comics.
The official WDC films have been accused of being too dark, but that’s an accusation that could never be levelled at the Teen Titans. The Titans, including well-known teen characters from DC such as Robin and Cyborg, embark on a host of madcap capers and crazy storylines, in the process offering a juvenile parody on the whole superhero genre.
Recent storylines on the TV show include Robin having to get a driving licence after totalling The Batmobile, and the traumas of getting all the blood and dirt out of the team’s uniforms after a particularly bloody battle with the bad guys.
The new movie continues the post-modern irreverence – when the team discover that all the grown-up characters in WDC have their own movie, they naturally want one, too, so they approach famous movie director Jade Wilson, voiced by Kristen Bell of Bad Moms and Forgetting Sarah Marshall fame, to rectify the situation.
Bell admits that, having seen The Titans’ crazy antics on the small screen, she wasn’t quite sure what to expect on set – the film is co-directed by the show’s developer Aaron Horvath, who also co-writes, and producer Peter Rida Michail. “Peter and Aaron are shockingly calm,” she says, sounding somewhat surprised. “Maybe I expected them both to be in lime-green polka dot suits because the Teen Titans TV show is so crazy. What I love about them is that they’re weird, and I mean that as the highest compliment. Peter and Aaron do what makes them laugh. They do what they think is funny, and that’s why this franchise is so successful.”
Bell adds that what her directors thought was funny usually crossed over with what she thought was funny, too, leading to a jovial atmosphere on the film’s set: “Their sense of humour is definitely in sync with mine. It was a joy to watch them whisper jokes to one another and see which joke really tickled them,” she says. “Because sometimes it’s the smallest and most unexpected joke in the middle of a scene that worked best. When that happened, the two of them would be unable to stop giggling about it.”
Bell is no stranger to comedy, having taken lead roles in the surprise hit Bad Moms and its sequel A Bad Moms Christmas, the geek road movie Fanboys, and the Judd Apatow hit Forgetting Sarah Marshall. Some of her best-known work, however, as with Teen Titans, has taken place off-camera.
Marshall played the unseen narrator for six seasons of the hit TV show Gossip Girl and is the voice of Princess Anna in Disney’s record-breaking, multi-award-winning animated Frozen franchise. The actress admits that voice-over work is something she enjoys, perhaps even more than straight acting: “I love voicing animated characters. It’s my favourite part of being an actor,” she says. “Creating something from nothing before it’s even drawn and using only my voice is challenging and stimulating, and I love that Jade is a self-assured, egotistical, power-hungry director – and a powerful female character,” she says.
Bell adds that she worked closely with the film’s directors to establish the character of movie mogul Jade: “Before I began work on the film, Peter [Rida Michail] and Aaron discussed with me what they wanted from the character and where she fit in the story. That context was very helpful,” she says. “It answered some of my questions, like: ‘do you want Jade to be abrasive? Do you need her to be more comforting because the Teen Titans lean on her in the third act?’”
In the end, it seems the trio came down on the abrasive side of the question: “We ultimately leaned into Jade being a bossy, powerful, passionate loudmouth. We played around with how much we could push those traits, while still making her feel semi-realistic. But since this is an animated feature, there was a lot of fun to be had in playing with Jade’s extremes. That worked well for the film, because the Teen Titans franchise is known for being funny, quippy, irreverent and sassy – just like Jade.” Bell adds that, by extending the Teen Titans to feature length, she and her fellow cast, which includes cameos from Nicholas Cage as Superman and Jimmy Kimmel as Batman, were able to explore their cartoon alter egos in more depth than the TV show format may have allowed: “The longer form allows you to travel with the character, emotionally,” she says. “With television shows, it can sometimes seem like you’re watching the characters do things, while a movie can let you feel like the characters are doing and experiencing things. You can push everything – including the action and humour. This film presents a much bigger world than you see on the Teen Titans TV show. It’s a complete, 360° feel, which immerses you in this world and the characters you love. Audiences will love how the Teen Titans go out of their comfort zone and out of their depth.”
‘Teen Titans Go! To the Movies’ is in UAE cinemas from today