Interview With Director Gary Rydstrom #StrangeMagicEvent

Disclosure – I received an invite to the #StrangeMagicEvent. All expenses were paid for and covered by Disney. This post is not a paid post and the opinions stated herein are 100% my own.

If you have been following along the last couple weeks you probably know that I was able to screen the movie Strange Magic and also interview George Lucas, Elijah Kelley and also Academy Award winner Director Gary Rydstrom. It can be fun to interview the cast of the movie but it is also fun to learn more about the film from those behind the scenes.

Below are some of the questions that were asked during our interview with Gary Rydstrom during the #StrangeMagicEvent at Skywalker Ranch earlier this month.

Q: It was such a pleasure to work with you. You’ve had an incredible career, you’ve got seven Academy Awards for sound design and editing. You the directed Pixar shorts Lifted, and Toy Story Toons: Hawaiian Vacation, and you’re also the director of the English language versions of the Secret World of Arrietty, From Up on Poppy Hill, and The Wind Rises. Wow. I’d love for you to tell us a little bit more about what it was about this story that attracted you as a storyteller and filmmaker.

The karma and the irony of this movie for me is that I did have a long career, in this building mostly, a career as a sound designer, doing sound effects for movies and then by the end, I found that I often felt at odds with the composer, so it was kind of a fight between the composer and I to, you know, have our stuff heard.  So I thought of it as karmic revenge from the universe that I get to direct a feature film here and it’s a musical.

But I was really attracted to it as, as George is, and American Graffiti is one of my favorite movies and the use of song to help tell a story was really attractive to me and this was such a great idea to tell a love story.  And if you think about the songs in the movie that are love songs, there aren’t that many positive love songs, which I always like to point out, you know, because love is hard, it’s not, it doesn’t always, it’s not always happy. But I love that part of it and making a musical was really fun.

Q: Did you have a character that was a muse to you, that kind that you were most engaged by? Or was it everybody?

I think I actually like the Bog King because that thing we talked about earlier about having your heart broken.  And I think we all go through a thing that’s a completely natural thing, it’s when you get your heart broken, you say that’s it, I’m not going to, I’m not going to let myself be vulnerable ever again.

He goes to an extreme but it’s something that I can relate to, you know, it’s so painful to go through something that makes you feel hurt and less than you should be, and you just don’t want to do it again.  So your solution for it is to put up this shield and never let anyone in again.  And I know we all do that and I thought he was someone I could I could relate to.  So  once you get past that veneer and let your real self come out, it’s so much more satisfying both for him and for the one he falls in love with.

Q: You assembled an incredible cast for the film, we have Elijah here, but can you tell us a little bit about what it was like to work with them and what they brought to their characters. 

Well cast- casting is pretty key for a movie like this and as George said, you have to find people who both act and sing and that the whole Alan Cumming, both actor and singer amazing, Evan Rachel Wood is as good a singer as she is an actress.

Alan Cumming, both as actor and singer, amazing. Evan Rachel Wood is as good a singer as she is an actress. Sam Palladio who plays Roland is an amazing singer, as well as a very funny actor. Kristin Chenoweth who is funny and as I have said before, I was in the room with her as I was with all the actors when they were singing their songs, and when she hit some of those high notes in Love Is Strange, it was like my glasses broke. It was amazing.

I love being in the room with actors and it’s really hard for them, because they’re acting alone, they’re not acting with other actors, it would be great if they did but it just doesn’t work out so it’s just them. You describe the scene as best you can, you do line readings with them to set up the scene. Elijah made me work the hardest, because I would line read with him, but he’s very active and it requires a lot of energy, so I was often playing either the Sugar Plum Fairy or Dawn.

Part of directing the actors for animation is taking on that role and working with them. That’s why it’s fun. It’s fun to help draw that out from the actors and be surprised by what they brought to it, and they all brought their own personalities to the characters once we cast them, they all brought something of themselves to it.

Simple things, like Alan Cumming is Scottish and the Bog King has, you know, we talked about it, give it about a twenty percent Scottish accent, so it’s a twenty percent Scottish accent. And Evan Rachel Wood is very much like Marianne but she’s the sweetest, she’s got the most amazing happy laugh.  And she’s the sweetest thing but she can be tough as nails if she needs to be and, you know, so they all brought something of themselves to the role.  So I love that part of it, I love what the actors brought to this and I’m, I’m actually most proud, as George said, and I’m going to quote this, I’ve never heard it before, but it’s a great idea.

It’s that it takes twice as many actors to make an animated film, that’s brilliant.  I’m really proud in this movie of that combination of the animators drawing on what the actors do with the voice and creating that side of the acting, and together creating a character that it’s still magic to me when that works.

These were just some of the questions. For more Strange Magic interview coverage with Director Gary Rydstrom be sure to follow the #StrangeMagicEvent hashtag on Twitter.

STRANGE MAGIC is playing in theaters everywhere!

More Strange Magic Links To See & Follow:

• Strange Magic Interview With George Lucas
• Strange Magic Interview With Elijah Kelley
• STRANGE MAGIC on Facebook
• STRANGE MAGIC on Twitter