I was invited by Sony on an all-expenses-paid trip to the Angry Birds Movie 2 press junket in LA and I had a great time seeing the movie (stay tuned for my review publishing next week) and talking with the talent from the film.
The flightless birds and scheming green pigs take their feud to the next level.
The Angry Birds Movie 2 opens in theaters August 13th!
I had the pleasure of sitting down with Jason Sudeikis (voice of “Red”) and Rachel Bloom (voice of “Silver”). They are both really kind and genuine people in real life and I enjoyed our conversation about this fun movie!
Rachel told us that she was excited to be a new character “Silver” the film. Silver is a very smart bird and Rachel told us, “It is rare to see female animated characters who are in STEM fields, and I feel like if a little girl out there, even a little boy, can see this character and think ‘I can be an engineer, it never occurred to me’. We need more women in STEM and more people in STEM in general. So that is very exciting to me.”
I also love seeing this new shift as female characters become stronger and smarter in movies and entertainment. Silver is an inspirational character who will influence young people in such a positive way.
Rachel shared with us, “I think this film is about cutting through toxic masculinity and the way that we train men and boys to feel their emotions with compassion and empathy. Not being like ‘Oh Red you are angry, stop being angry and just be nicer’, no it’s like reaching across and saying ‘Hey you seem sad right now, it’s okay to feel those feelings, I know you feel really scared right now.’. I think its a really good exploration of when anyone lashes out, but especially boys or men. With Red his issues come from a deap fear of abandoment. And that radical compassion and empathy is so cool for little boys to see in a male character. When I’m feeling threatened, it’s okay for me to feel scared.“
Jason joined in with, “It’s okay to be grumpy. The last movie was more about own your anger and use it to motivate action in whatever community, your nest if you will, your bird island. How do you go beyond that when that anger is then keeping you from an ultimate goal or love connection. It’s a good lesson, to stay with the angry people, to keep asking and trying.”
Rachel added, “To believe in them. And not in a way that…I don’t ever feel like my character ever gives up her own autonomy or her own respect in trying to reaching out. And I think that is really cool. The more that we can show in practice, people, or birds, being empathetic and understanding where other people are coming from, the better off we all are.”
I love that about this film, they don’t tell Red to change but instead show him love, understanding and compassion.
Rachel then told us, “I really relate to the scene where it’s the fear of what will happen if there is a truce? I actually really relate to Red’s fear, I think we all so. Abandonment and I’m gonna let everyone down, and that kind of fear, everyone is counting on me, what happens if I fail? That’s so human.” To which Jason jokingly added “and bird“. We were all laughing.
The message being that we can’t let fear control us or stop us from living our best life. And what a wonderful message it is!
It was a wonderful interview and I absolutely loved meeting both Jason and Rachel. They are smart and very kind people!
Completely separate from the movie, the topic of being afraid of the dark came up to which Jason said, “Sometimes the light is scarier than the dark.” Wow! So much to take from that I had to share.
Take the whole family to see this movie, it has great messages and will have you laughing super hard!
The Angry Birds Movie 2 opens in theaters August 13th!
