Lupita Nyong'o, Stephanie Hsu, and Catherine O' Hara Deubt 'The Wild Robot' At TIFF

[Music] um this is all about a robot rosm 7134 that wakes up on the shore of an uninhabited Island um she is lost but does not yet know it um so she simply moves Inland and does what she was designed to do which is find whoever it is that bought her and find tasks and complete them and that journey is going to change everything about her and the island that she's on all the themes and the emotional depth that Peter built into the book um is what made me want to do it um it was a everything about it was a space that I felt I could operate in this is the it was the kind of thing that I feel comfortable with and um as I read the book all the stuff I saw made me kind of frankly desperate to to do it uh well it was definitely uh a workshop with Chris uh talking through uh where R starts off and where she ends up in the beginning she has the naivity almost like of a child you know uh she's kind of like a blank slate in terms of yes she's a very sophisticated robot but she doesn't have any like uh you unique or identifying features from all the other robots that exist and so um and but then by the time by the end she has uh adapted and evolved so much that she has something akin to empathy and compassion right and so Chris mentioned uh that the one of the reasons why he thought of me as a good fit for Ros is that he liked the warmth of my voice that was in the beginning so we knew that I we would end up closer to what I sound like uh but finding that initial where we start RW was quite the workshop it took a few tries I definitely tried very extreme things uh but in the end we ended up with something that is like I call programmed optimism that you hear in like Alexa and Siri and them uh and then as she colors in uh she develops more I guess um Dimension and texture in her voice yeah I mean a lot of that too was found with Chris we wanted to create a villain that's not just like I'm big and scary but you know a a robot that is so chipper is like Ser like who really is Siri do you know what I mean and like what does Siri want yeah um yeah she's listening to all of us um and so if I disappear you know who took me it's Siri um but yeah so creating a a villain that is so chipper that it's um disarming and and uncomfortable and that was really fun to find with Chris yeah had a lot of fun doing that you know what Siri means it's Swahili for secret that is that right I don't know why I don't know whether they named her that because of that but yeah oh nothing that's a that's Jordan peele's next film wow that's good wow that's I'm more scared than I was you know there are times I'm in my kitchen and suddenly my little Alexa thing says would you like pumpkin caring ideas I'm like how did you know I was thinking about pumpkins it's so chilling right I'm like well I didn't it say that I you know I I'd like to think I could be funny sometimes and and I tried to give you know uh as much humor as I could to what was already there on paper but in every I swear every line of dialogue Chris just would just you know or you could try no you never did that do it like this it's what you said I think it's no no just always like the best inspiring notes and and bringing every possible bit of humor out of every line that I had just uh and out of the character just and I also you know channeled my mom my mom had seven no six no seven oh kids actually seven uh in our family and my mom was just had her great days and her not so great days and you know but really took the job on of raising all of us I can't I only have two and it's a killer I love the speech that arz gives and then your warranty what's that that amazing speech about basically what motherhood does to you or par that's such a great speech me damage me yeah yeah oh so good there's a lot of Truth in the thing in in in in your character and and yeah the the assessment of motherhood without Romanticism and that's what makes it so funny because it's so true like saying all the things that mothers don't dare to say out loud exactly and allowing us to all laugh about it thankless job but not but yeah yeah the visual style um I thought was really really critical everything we've been talking about um I don't think would have worked as well if it had been in like a traditional I think CG style um and the more Illustrated style that we were able to achieve I think elevates it to I think a level of of of sophistication um that this particular story really and truly needed because it's not a simple story um it's simple in its construction but it's it's its great depth and complexity of characters and messages is is I think worthy of of a of a style that that I think reflects that so I think I thought it was very very critical that it that it have that sophistication and and softness and beauty and I think it helps like it pulls you in in in a very different way and you were saying to that everything was hand painted right yeah it is yeah we were able to every single surface is is has a human touch quite literally um um the feathers on the birds and Ros is the only character that is traditional CG but only when she first arrives and because we wanted her to not fit in and she has a CG surface it's perfect and very quickly she begins to weather and we have about maybe 15 to 20 different like levels of transformation so that midf film she absolutely is 100% P hand painted and belongs there now visually so she's settled in and which is the fun think about when vontre arrives and she's shiny and new and she has that more sort of plastic surface again and I think at that point hopefully people detect the the difference like when RZ steps into the light and um and um Stephanie's character sees her it's a bit of a shock because she actually has she has things growing on her and she's weathered and she's she's got kind of a Chia Pet sort of thing going on um but and but she's beautiful she's beautiful the more she's weathered I think the more beautiful she really becomes that's honestly one of my favorite parts of the film because when I imag I feel like the movie is also so much about imagination and storytelling and what that brings to a community and when I imagine all the little ones little creatures in my life getting to see this film and that that feeling of the texture of I can like pick up a marker and draw that I think that is like something that is so lost now and this movie really is such a nod to what we all grew up with in the world of Animation that I just it's so awesome and alive and human it was such a beautiful open audience yeah there were there was not a self-conscious crowd that you can get at a festival I think you know it was just so open and I thought just and the movie started out right away so beautiful uh just instantly thought oh my God I didn't I didn't know this did I read this part did I know this did I it was just a just want to see it again right away um but also the the picture and the sound and that crowd I just I don't know you you explain what I'm trying to say well we were both crying yeah well trying to save makeup but also it was so funny the first like I was talking to Jeff our producer the first 20 minutes I was like that was like slapstick that was like Lucille Ball in the woods and he was saying that there was a lot of research with like Buster Keaton and that that was like amazing physical comedy that I was not expecting so fun to laugh with everybody and also how what I guess I didn't know because I guess when I went and worked with you it was mainly about what I was doing my my role um uh but the the Wilderness and how it's such a it's so violent and it's all about survival it was just raw and had nothing to do with Compassion or you know what what all these animals learn throughout the movie but not in a hit over the Headway at all it's so subtle and beautiful and natural uh but just I yeah made me realize what a rough world that is the Wilderness sorry you say no no that was perfect that exact that was the thing was so exciting the idea that like this is an unforgiving place and that RZ sees it as their programming and that's how I like that that's how um that's how RZ like she's putting it in terms that she understands so she says you're programming and it's a beautiful moment um and it is their program to survive and that's it's it's incredibly selfish if they are not absolutely selfish they won't see another day they don't see any other way to to get through their lives [Music]