Incredibles 2 Interview with Bob Odenkirk (“Winston Deavor”) & Catherine Keener (“Evelyn Deavor”)
I received an all-expense paid trip to L.A to attend the #Incredibles2Event, #BigCityGreensEvent, & #PixarFest Events. No additional compensation was received.
Let me just say out of the bat here, all these amazing Incredibles 2 interviews we have shared with you thus far, have been quite entertaining and we all had so much fun with the entire Incredibles 2 cast who were truly funny and oh-so-welcoming during the #Incredibles2Event junket. Today, we get to share with you our interview with two of the new characters in Incredibles 2, they are Bob Odenkirk (voice of “Winston Deavor”) & Catherine Keener (voice of “Evelyn Deavor”).
Our first question for Bob and Catherine was, how was it working with Brad Bird different from working with other directors in Hollywood?
Bob: “Well, he’s not different from all of the directors. He’s a lot like the best directors. My experience, Spielberg and Alexander Payne and Vince Gilligan. These guys know what they want, and they dial it in just so, and that could sound like oppressive to an actor. It’s not though.
Somehow it’s like a challenge that you wanna meet, and it’s a neat thing to do it. And you feel accomplished when you do it. But also they’re all willing to hear, especially in the early stages of a scene, what do you wanna try. Try something or even maybe after they got exactly what they want, you can say, yeah, but I don’t know, I had a different thought about how to say that line. And they’ll go let me hear it. And then they go down that road together, but they all are dialing it in just so.
And it’s great. You feel like you’re in really good hands. And somehow it doesn’t steal your own inspiration and creative input.”
Catherine: “It is like an aperture that kinda closes like that.
And once you go through it, it’s like crazy, open space. But they’ll show you that thing. And it’s so exciting because you go into somebody else’s world and then create your own. It’s really exciting when that happens, which is why all actors wanna work with great filmmakers. That’s really where it goes.”
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After completing their voice work on Incredibles 2, how was it like seeing yourself animated on the big screen?
Bob: “I don’t know. People have said my character looks a lot like me, and there’re ways I think. And then there are ways I’m like, wow, I’m not remotely like that. Obviously, I don’t dress as well as the character. That’s for sure.”
Catherine: “He’s so handsome, right?”
Bob: “You’re so nice.”
Catherine: “I know.”
Bob: “And you’re alluring in your character. Don’t you think? She draws you in.”
Catherine: “Shut up.”
Bob: “I’m not sure. I kinda like him. I have to get more familiar with him. My family’s proud of it, and they’re like, yeah, Dad, it’s a great character.”
Catherine: “But that’s always what it is. You want your family to be happy. It really narrows down to that.”
Bob: “So. Yes, believe me. I asked over and over. Like, now that we’re alone, tell me again.”
Hey, we would all love to have a superpower, so our next question for Bob and Catherine was: If you could have one superpower in real life, which one would it be and why? Of course, their answers were super awesome, but trust me, I am with Bob with his Florida answer.
Bob: “I’ll say mine, ’cause it’s dopey. I would like to be able to eat whatever I want and not gain weight.
I mean really. It’s an obsession. It’s a part of my life too much, and that’s what I wish I could have. But I like hers. It’s a better idea, and it’s really, but it would be wonderful.”
Catherine: “I would just like to be able to go home instantly– that’s all I wanna do.”
Bob: “Right away.
Just to understand in case any labs are working on this teslar. It is like teleportation in a way, but it’s only one direction though. She’ll still go to the airport, wait in line, go through to get somewhere– but then going home is always [CLAPS] like that.”
Catherine: “And I’m home. I’m in my pajamas. My bed’s made. Clothes are off the floor. And I’m ready to go to bed, you know? Like, I’m gonna watch some TV– it’s like I’m set.”
Bob: “Wouldn’t that be the best?
Yes, so, we were talking if it was limited to Florida, my powers, what I would be? I would be the dehumidifier. And I just go like this and everything within 300 feet is dehumidified.“
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It is safe to say, that both Bob and Catherine’s character will indeed become infamous. So, in playing these roles: were there any challenges? Were there any scenes that maybe you went, “oh, let me try it again?”
Catherine: “It was like one run on tape for hours and I would start and I’d be, oh, wait, wait, and he’s like that was good. What are you doing? Sometimes you feel honestly, okay, I was in the pocket there. I’m gonna walk away. But, you know, often you don’t. And mostly you don’t really know the truth anyway. So, it’s more like when you forget about what you just did, then you can, that must’ve happened. “
Bob: “You have to trust Brad, because he’s putting that movie together, obviously, up at Pixar. So, you’re not really seeing that. And he knows the tone of it all and the other characters, and it’s changing over time. So, you could feel it changing in the script, the tone, a little bit, but you don’t know really know where or how. And you never have the whole script. You’re guessing at what might work. So, you give him what he wants, get that first and then maybe say what if I tried this and that.
Last night, he said I used a lotta your stuff. So I think he was saying that a fair amount of the things that I tried or offered up, he said he used. But I don’t know what.”
Catherine: “But that’s also the mark of a great filmmaker. It might be another way to go or an improvement. They want their worlds widened too.”
Bob: “Because they have confidence in their own vision, they can listen to anybody. And if it’s better, they just go, yeah, let’s go there.”
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If you are wondering what goes into making such a super film, I bet the answer is a lot of creativity with a heavy dose of tech help. With that said, how many sessions did Bob and Catherine had to do and how long did you record for?
Bob: “I think I did over a year and a half. Maybe it was a less than that time.”
Catherine: “But didn’t your character change a lot?”
Bob: “I felt like he kinda changed tonally between the first and second and second and third a lot. And then not. And then it was, you know, different lines and story that was collapsed or expanded. That was it. That’s all that remained. But there was this — he was more like Saul and that when he started, if you know that character I do on Better Call Saul. And then he became more innocent and genuine, which I love.
Cause I get to play a lotta sleazy, double-talkers. And that’s fun. But it was fun to play somebody who was kinda not. He was kinda — meant everything he said.”
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Finally, during our interview with Catherine and Bob, Catherine let us in a little secret. Did you know that Catherine’s character was originally a man? This is what she had to say about it:
Catherine: “I just wanted to say that Brad told me last night, he said my character was originally a man? Which clearly [LAUGHS] I mean, then you thought what woman could play this man?”
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Incredibles 2 is now in theaters everywhere!
Everyone’s favorite family of superheroes is back in “Incredibles 2” – but this time Helen (voice of Holly Hunter) is in the spotlight, leaving Bob (voice of Craig T. Nelson) at home with Violet (voice of Sarah Vowell) and Dash (voice of Huck Milner) to navigate the day-to-day heroics of “normal” life. It’s a tough transition for everyone, made tougher by the fact that the family is still unaware of baby Jack-Jack’s emerging superpowers. When a new villain hatches a brilliant and dangerous plot, the family and Frozone (voice of Samuel L. Jackson) must find a way to work together again—which is easier said than done, even when they’re all Incredible.
Official Trailer