Sony Pictures welcomed press to their Culver City studio lot and gave journalists a “Sneak Beak” at the crazy animated universe that is leaping from one of the world’s most popular video games to the silver screen on May 20, The Angry Birds Movie.
The first look at The Angry Birds Movie also included a post-scenes chat with the film’s stars – Jason Sudeikis, Josh Gad, Danny McBride and Bill Hader.
In The Angry Birds Movie, Sudeikis voices Red, a bird living on an island of fellow flightless birds, who has a slight problem with anger. He is joined in his anger management issues with Gad’s speedster Chuck and one who has a perfectly moniker — Bomb (McBride).
When their island is visited by a group of pigs (one of which, the leader, is voiced by Hader), it is up to the irate trio to get to the bottom of the real reason those piggies are here… and why!
After the impressive footage was shown off… the stars of the highly anticipated film stopped by for a chat.
Q: How would you describe your characters?
Jason Sudeikis: Angry, from the get-go and feeling a little bit like the wise man — or at least the angry man on a ship of fools. He’s a contrarian. He’s a little frustrated. He’s definitely the black sheep. You know who he reminds me a little bit of, is McMurphy from One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.
Bill Hader: This movie is a sacrifice. It’s a journey. It’s the beginning of a journey.
Jason Sudeikis: You have to take sequels into consideration. He’s one of a kind and he definitely sticks out for what we would assume are the wrong reasons, at the beginning. But by the end, he may have been onto something.
Josh Gad: Chuck has a much better metabolism than I do. He’s a speed demon. What I was immediately attracted to, aside from the color of his feathers, when I signed on, was this idea that he just can’t stop himself. He’s always going. His mind is going faster than his mouth can keep up with. There was something so fun about that. It’s just one of those characters that is so fun to play because he’s out of control and he can’t stop himself. I think that that’s the heart of who he is. He’s such a beautiful little bird.
Danny McBride: Bomb is also angry. He’s also a bird, too [everyone laughs]. He has an explosive personality. He explodes when he gets angry and he wants to improve that. He wants to be able to focus his anger. He’s embarrassed that he gets so angry and that he can’t control his anger. That’s a lot like me, and that’s why I took this role. I explode. It was therapy.
Bill Hader: I play Leonard. My agent called me and said, “They’re making an Angry Birds movie and they want you to play a pig.” You guys draw your own conclusions. That’s some David Lynch (expletive), right there. You guys have to go see the movie to make sense out of that.
Q: Did any of you become obsessed with the game, at any point?
Bill Hader: I got obsessive with the game on a lay-over on a plane. That’s when I discovered Angry Birds and it was wonderful.
Josh Gad: I became obsessed with Star Wars Angry Birds. I was on a set and I would literally not speak to anybody, in between takes. I would just play, obsessively, as Darth Bird, or whatever it was. It’s such a great game.
Danny McBride: I just buy my way to victory.
Jason Sudeikis: I played the old version where you just throw birds at things.
Q: Do your kids play Angry Birds?
Bill Hader: They love it.
Jason Sudeikis: My kid only plays Beyoncé videos right now.
Q: Jason, has playing Red put you in touch with your inner anger, and have you learned to let it out?
Jason Sudeikis: It has put me in touch with my inner anger. There’s just a ton in my world that makes me really angry and ticked off. It’s one thing after another, from the person that I get to sleep next to and my child to my supportive family and cool sisters and great friends. There’s one thing after another. My anger Bingo card is full. Something will turn. It’s peaks and valleys. When wanting to access anger, it does help, going through these sessions. Five hours at a time of pretending to be an action hero, or yelling and screaming, does exercise or exorcise those demons, as does a really long, late, drunken night of karaoke.
Q: Josh and Danny, what makes you angry in life?
Josh Gad: I don’t know. Hypothetical things, like how a reality TV star could be the next President of the United States. Just things like that, I guess. What makes me angry is being woken up on my birthday, when I am supposed to be able to sleep, with my wife giving me the news that, “Oh, I have to volunteer at school in an hour. Can you watch the kids and let Time Warner Cable in, and also make coffee and make egg white omelets for everybody? Happy birthday, love.” That makes me angry.
Bill Hader: That would be a great morning for some people. To have someone that you love and an offspring and a kitchen would be great.
Danny McBride: I rarely get angry, except for when I drove here this morning. Waze, when it makes me take a left in four lanes of traffic, makes me furious.
Q: What is the message of the movie, that it’s a good thing to be angry?
Bill Hader: This is very much a hero’s journey.
Jason Sudeikis: That is one of the things that I liked about it. We’ve gotten better at acting like anger doesn’t exist, but it clearly still does. Letting it out, every now and then, actually is a healthy thing. Don’t hold it all the way in and don’t let it all the way out, but a little toot of anger, every now and then, is a nice thing.
Q: How do you bring your brand and style of comedy, just by using your voice when we can’t see what you’re doing?
Bill Hader: You’re moving around a lot. The directors on the movie really allowed us to own it and act things, which was great.
Jason Sudeikis: I ended up doing a lot of it with the gestures. I ended up doing a lot of it with my eyes closed, as crazy as that may seem, just to picture what’s going on. You’re being catapulted in the sky and you’re whipping by a bunch of things, so to be in a little room in Manhattan. It does help when you go for it. You’ve just gotta put your trust in the visuals. That’s another good thing about having a background of SNL. You just put your trust in the people that know what they’re doing versus second-guessing it. You’re not going to get that much done, that way.
Q: Did the voice come to you, as soon as you saw the character?
Jason Sudeikis: Mine is an amped of version of myself. It’s not too dissimilar. We toyed with the idea of maybe making a big swing or a medium swing, but it just felt like, in order to play the sarcasm, the frustration, the cynicism and the anger, I should just do it in my own voice, for one reason or another.
Josh Gad: I have a friend, who I grew up with, who talks a mile a minute. We called him Motor Mouth, growing up. That put him in therapy for a couple of years and I feel bad about that, in retrospect. But, I based the character on his mannerisms and that idea of never being able to shut down with the words coming out faster than you can compute them.
Danny McBride: I just tried to find the bass in my voice and get it gravelly. You know you got it if you can’t talk after a three-hour session. You’re in the sweet spot.
Bill Hader: After all these sessions, people go, “Isn’t it so easy and fun, doing it?” I’m so braindead after ‘cause you’re just yelling for five hours, and saying the same line, over and over and over again.
Jason Sudeikis: It’s like being in a [David] Fincher movie. It’s just 70 takes, and they beat the acting out of you.