‘To see what the animators bring to your character, they make you a better actor’
Tina Fey talks to Danielle de Wolfe about her role in Pixar’s new featurelength animated comedy Soul, which has skipped cinemas for streaming
If there is one thing Pixar Animation Studios knows how to do well, it is transforming emotionally complex subject matters into easily digestible and relatable cinematic offering.
New feature -length film Soul is no exception.
B est known for his roles in Django Unchained and Dreamgirls, actor, singer and comedian Jamie Foxx voices the character Joe Gardiner, a Manhattan middle -school music teacher with a burning passion for jazz music.
Taking viewers on a journey to uncover what really makes our personalities unique, the animated comedy sees Joe transported from the streets of Manhattan to a place known as The Great Before–a world where new souls are shaped with quirks, traits and curiosities before they arrive on ear th.
Led by Academy Award winning director Pete Docter (Inside Out/up) and co - directed by Kemp Powers (One Night In Miami), the pair’s unique vision combines a creative musical world with a mystical realm we know little about.
“Joe wants more than anything to become a professional jazz pianist,” says Pete Docter, 52.
“S o when he’s offered a rare, once -in-a-lifetime opportunity to play with one of the greats, Joe feels he’s reached the top of the ultimate mountain.”
It is a storyline that began close to home for the director, who notes that the initial idea spawned during the early days of fatherhood.
“It star ted with my son, he’s 23 now, but the instant he was born, he already had a personality,” says Docter.
“Where did that come from?
“In our story, everyone is born with a soul. And those souls don’t just show up unprepared, they’re trained and given personality and interests.”
It is a film that also stars actor and comedian Tina Fey, taking up the reins as the voice of precious soul 22.
Following on from Joe’s arrival in The Great Before, it becomes apparent that 22 fails to understand the appeal of the human expe - rience.
“Sometimes souls have a little bit of trouble finding that special spark to earn their way to Ear th,” says co - director Kemp Powers.
“The Counsellors at The Great Before call on mentors to help inspire these souls–extra o rd in arypeopleinh is tory like Abraham Lincoln. And that’s worked for ever y single soul except 22.”
Paired with Joe’s desire to return to ear th, he unsuspectingly takes on the role of 22’s mentor in an attempt to inspire a change in her petulant, pre -teen attitude.
“It was very cathartic to tap into that 13-year- old snarky, sarcastic, sceptical – but really just fearful, energy ,” recalls Fey ,50.
“I don’t do Twitter, so this was a great escape for that kind of energy .”
With production kicking into gear prior to the global pandemic, Fey’s initial ideas surrounding the film were shaped in person by the directing duo, as opposed to receiving a prospective script.
“When you first go in they tell you the story, you don’t actually see the whole script,” she continues of the film’s pre -production pro - cess.
“S o to have Kemp and Pete tell the story, I was like‘ yes! This is so cool’.
“And you can imagine, we’re beginning to see The Great Before and The Great Beyond–but it didn’t surprise me because I think Pixar are always going for big topics and big ideas.”
With a knack for creating rose -tinted, metaphysical worlds that appeal to all ages, Pixar Animation Studios are back doing what they do best with the help of Docter’s distinctive vision.
It’s precisely the reason Soul finds itself bearing marked similarities to Pixar’s 2015 hit offering, Inside Out.
“My friend Amy Poehler was in Inside Out,” remarks Fey.
“When I found out I was going to do( Soul) It old her and she was very excited for me because she had such a great time making Inside Out and she loves Pete and Dana so much.
“She had nothing but praise for the whole experience.
“I think (Pixar) do some of their best work when they aren’t afraid to talk about scar y things.
“They take a really long time to get the script ready; I think they do a better job of that than any other film company – live action espe - cially.
“They just really think about what they want to say and that affects the end result.
“To see what the animators bring to your character, they make you a better actor than you were.”
Without the need to appear on-set and in front of the camera, Fey says she fully embraced the upsides of working on an animated project.
Similar to swathes of the population during the pandemic, dressing down became ever y-inch the norm, “it’s freeing to go in your sneakers and sweatpants and still get to be a part of the movie,” she notes.
“I’m back to work now as much as I can be but there was along time when everything stopped.
“If you were lucky enough to be well, you could find the beaut y in being with your family and how hap - py your pets were that you were always home.”
In a similar vein to many other big-budget titles that were set to premiere during 2020, Soul’ s release has been impacted by the ongo - ing global pandemic, swap - ping mainstream cinemas for online streaming platforms.
Launching directly onto Disney +, Soul, Fey hopes, will one day get the opportunity to shine on the big screen.
“The movie is so visually beautiful that I hope peo - pleat least watch it on the lar ge sttv they can get to ,” remarks Fey.
“I do hope someday people can see it again on the big screen.
“But I think that it’s more important that people are smart and safe at this time .”
● Soul is available to stream exclusively on Disney+