Back in March, we were invited to Pixar Animation Studios, where the team was hard at work on the final touches of Inside Out 2. Visiting the studio on my very first press trip, I was assigned to the “Anxiety” group (how fitting!), joining other journalists for an exclusive, behind-the-scenes look at the making of the highly anticipated sequel.
© 2024 Disney/Pixar. All Rights Reserved.
If Inside Out sent you on an emotional rollercoaster, then the sequel is guaranteed to throw you for a loop.
Leading up to the film’s summer release, we visited Pixar Animation Studios to discuss Inside Out 2 with director Kelsey Mann and producer Mark Nielsen, who also worked on Inside Out.
The day before, we were treated to an early sneak peek of the first thirty minutes of the sequel. As a longtime Pixar enthusiast, I was thrilled—though perhaps not as excited as Mann was to push the big red button.
Kelsey Mann, who saw Inside Out as an audience member in 2015 while working on Pixar’s The Good Dinosaur, described his reaction to the first film’s ending as he pointed to Mark Nielsen. “You guys set up [the puberty button] on the console and I’m like, ‘I want that thing to go off. If you don’t set off, I’m gonna be upset!”
He finally gets the chance to do just that as the director of Inside Out 2. He went on to explain that he also set out to cause more chaos than just a blaring puberty alarm.
“[The first movie] ends in a great way where she’s like, ‘we’ve got new friends, a great new house, after all, she’s 12, what could happen?’” he says, “She has such confidence in herself and I wanted to crush that.”
Mann also detailed how they explored challenging Joy’s traditional ideas of who Riley is in this new phase of her life. “That’s where the new emotions come in,” he said, “because they’re like, ‘we understand this teenage world and we know how to play this game better than you do. So you know what? We need you to step aside because we need to take over.”
Once again, filmgoers will see some push and pull at the controls in this new story—just in a different way. “Joy, in the beginning of [Inside Out] learned that lesson that all emotions are valuable, she learned to let Sadness go to the console.” Mark Nielsen says, “And now in this film, she’s like, ‘maybe not ALL of them.’”
© 2024 Disney/Pixar. All Rights Reserved.
The new movie features new additions to the cast, including Maya Hawke (Anxiety), Ayo Edebiri (Envy), Paul Walter Hauser (Embarrassment), and Adèle Exarchopoulos (Ennui). During a press conference session earlier that day, Mark Nielsen had nothing but praise for what they brought to the film. “They’re all very funny,” he said, “Some of them are actual straight-up comedians.”
“[Envy] wasn’t as developed as some of the other emotions,” Mann jumped in to say, “Ayo really helped flesh out who that character was in a positive way.”
Nielsen was also wowed by Maya Hawke’s performance as Anxiety, describing her as the “fastest talker I’ve ever met.”
“She brought an element of humanity to the character,” Mann added.
During those first thirty minutes of the film, we didn’t get the chance to become well-acquainted with Embarrassment, but Mark Nielsen gave us an idea of what to expect from the character.
“Paul Walter Hauser as Embarrassment was amazing—what a gem of a human being,” he said, “We met with him beforehand to talk about the role. On the script, it doesn’t look like much because he’s too scared to talk and barely has any lines, but he’s a really important character in the film. It’s actually a really big role, which is a beautiful relationship he ends up having with Sadness.”
You can check out our interview with Kelsey Mann and Mark Nielsen at Pixar Animation Studios in the video below. “Inside Out 2” will be hitting theaters on June 14th, 2024!
“Julia Mazza?”
I was eating lunch in a room off of the main atrium when I heard my name called by a member of Disney’s publicity team.
‘Ok not to be ok’ – ironically, the lyrics to Demi Lovato’s latest single and soundtrack behind the trailer of MTV’s newest film, ‘Pink Skies Ahead’ completely reflect the attitude of this coming of age movie that surrounds a young woman dealing with an anxiety disorder.
Based on an essay from her 2017 book, ‘When You Find Out The World Is Against: And Other Funny Memories About Awful Moments’, writer/director Kelly Oxford says the idea to transcribe her essay into a script “hit her” after noticing how drawn her readers were to it.
“I was like wow, if I can help readers I should try to get this on screen and help more people and get this story out,” Oxford says of her directorial debut behind ‘Pink Skies Ahead’. “It was really fun to do it, and I knew that I wanted to direct it myself because I had lived through it and it would’ve felt really weird to pass it off to somebody else and watch their version of it…. as the creator and writer, I was very excited to make it my first film.”
That excitement was shared with Greg Silverman, former president of Warner Bros. Pictures turned CEO and founder of Stampede Ventures. Silverman, whose resume includes films such as, ‘A Star Is Born’, ‘Crazy Rich Asians’, and ‘The Dark Night’ just to name a few, coins Oxford as a “force”.
“As soon as we started [Stampede Ventures] it was like ok well, who can we get behind that’s gonna’ make a difference and gonna’ make something incredible, and Kelly was the first person that popped into our minds,” Silverman says. “We all are so proud that we were able to be a part of [Oxford’s] first film.”
While the film is set in a 90’s-centric vibe, it deals with an all too common occurrence that everybody can relate to today – this was especially true for actress, and film lead, Jessica Barden.
“Winona was like myself…. I was very defiant, I have anxiety,” Barden says of her character. “I just hope that people watch [Pink Skies ahead], and I wanted this to contribute to people understanding that there isn’t a certain type of person that is going to get anxiety….[or] depression.”
‘Pink Skies Ahead’ follows 20-year-old Winona who struggles with accepting her anxiety disorder diagnosis while managing her life in adulthood as a recent college drop-out still living with her parents. The audience watches Winona’s feeble attempt at ignoring both the physical signs and emotional manifestation of her anxiety, which often leads her into peculiar situations.
All too familiar with dealing with Winona’s struggle within the film, Barden hopes her role can help those who may feel alone in their battle with anxiety and other issues with mental health. “If you get to a place where you can be healthy and own [anxiety], you can do amazing things with it,” says Barden with a smile.
While Lewis Pullman who plays the role of “Ben” and Winona’s love interest expressed not completely connecting to his character, he did get the sense that the audience might.
“I think everyone connects to some character [in Pink Skies Ahead],” Pullman says. “I think [Ben] is a good representation of a scape-goat of [having] this huge thing that needs to be dealt with… [but looking for] some other alleyways that I can postpone this thing that’s haunting me.”
As a part of MTV Entertainment Studios’ newest mental health initiative titled, “Mental Health Is Health”; series’ and films shown on the station will display a diverse range of stories in hopes of de-stigmatizing mental health and promoting behavioral and cultural change.
According to MTVE’s president, Chris McCarthy, “the power of storytelling….can frame the way we look at an issue”, and films such Oxford’s can create “a bigger conversation that leads to systematic change that becomes the norm.”
Tune in to MTV on Saturday, May 8th at 9:00 ET/PT on MTV for the premiere of ‘Pink Skies Ahead’!