The new Pixar movie Elemental has been the talk of the town lately, since it has just made its debut in theaters and it looks like an animated film that will be right up Inside Out fans’ alley.
In a recent interview, Mamoudou Athie (who appeared recently in the movie Jurassic World: Dominion) and Leah Lewis (an accomplished actress and singer who played Georgia in the show Nancy Drew and played Peyton in the Disney movie called Madison High) spoke about their experience as Pixar voice actors.
The duo had a lot to say about the arduous audition and recording processes!
Leah Lewis & Mamoudou Athie recently visited #DisneyCaliforniaAdventure Park to talk about elements inside @DisneyParks. Check out their thoughts on the best attractions based on each element & don’t miss seeing Disney and Pixar’s #Elemental, in theaters tomorrow! 💦 🔥 pic.twitter.com/V1o8QWqbLd
— Pixar (@Pixar) June 16, 2023
Six Hours of Auditions?
According to Leah Lewis, there was a long three-step audition process.
“I had two auditions on Zoom and then they brought me in,” the actress (who plays Ember, the fire element and main protagonist) reminisced. “And I didn’t think they were going to bring me in because I couldn’t cry in one of the scenes over Zoom, and I was like, ‘Oh crap, I really botched it.’ But they brought me in for six hours.”
“At the end, they were casually just like, ‘Oh, we’d like to offer you the role of Ember Lumen,’ and I was like — even though I had just done this six-hour audition and thought that I had killed it — like, ‘What? Are you serious?!’” Lewis said enthusiastically.
“Exhausting” Studio Work
Mamoudou Athie’s enthusiasm echoed that of his co-star. The young actor (who plays Wade, a water element) confessed that working in a recording studio all day “was shockingly exhausting,” but still enjoyable.
“I didn’t know that four to five hours in a booth could be so draining, in the most exhilarating way,” Athie mused. “You’re putting every bit of yourself into the performance because you’re creating a lot of images in your mind. You’re doing take after take, and we’re going for it every time. And by the end of it, I felt like I needed to take a nap, but it was a great feeling.”
The “Crazy” Realities of Pixar Merchandise
Lewis chimed in, sharing her own thoughts on the rigors of voice acting and the pressures of playing a character who will soon populate store shelves in the form of Pixar merchandise.
“It’s crazy because when you’re in the booth as a voice actor, you’re just trying to focus on the job and staying present,” Lewis explained. “And then forget about this whole other chapter where you’re a plushie toy and you’re on a T-shirt, and then you push a button and it’s like, ‘Hi, I’m Ember.’ It’s unreal to me because I used to buy this stuff as a kid. It’s been crazy in a good way, too.”
Are you going to head to your local movie theater to see Elemental, or have Pixar’s latest failures been enough to make your enthusiasm wane?
