INTERVIEW: Incredibles 2 Actors Bob Odenkirk and Catherine Keener
Bob Odenkirk and Catherine Keener are both new to the Incredibles family playing a brother and sister Winston and Evelyn Deavor. They both work for Devtech, a company their Father, a huge supporter of superheros, founded.
Catherine walked into the room first and was pleasantly surprised to see a room full of women. “Oh, my God, you’re so my people!” she exclaimed excitedly. Setting the tone for the room we were excited to get to know her and how she came to this part. Just like many of the other actors in the film, Brad Bird reached out to her directly to offer her the part it was literally a minute and that was it, she had the part.
Bob entered the room as she was answering and went on to discuss working with Brad, “Well, he’s not different from all of the directors. He’s a lot like the best directors. My experience – these guys know what they want, and they dial it in just so and that could sound like oppressive to an actor. It’s not though. Somehow it’s like a challenge that you wanna meet, and it’s a neat thing to do it. You feel accomplishment when you do it.
Catherine likened it to an aperture, “Once you go through it, it’s a crazy, open space for you. It’s so exciting because you go into somebody else’s world and then create your own. It’s really exciting when that happens, which is why all actors wanna work with great filmmakers.
Being in an animated film and seeing yourself for the first time as an animated character has to be fun, so we wondered what they thought when they first saw themselves. Bob’s friends and family loved his character, saying how much he looked like Winston, of course, he jokingly exclaimed that he wasn’t anything like him, nor did he dress as well. In the end, both he and Catherine really just wanted their family and friends to like the characters.
Of course, we had to know which superpower they would like to have in real life and I have to say that I definitely would like to have both of theirs. Bob would like the superpower to be able to eat whatever he wanted and not gain weight, um, hello, that would be awesome! Catherine stated that she would love to be able to go home at any time but just home no other place, like she would just pop home where she would be in her pj’s, her bed is made, the clothes are off the floor and she is ready for bed. That sounds awesome to me, especially when I travel, it would be so nice to just blink and be home.
Catherine again touched on what it was like to work with Brad. She said she would doublethink some lines and Brad would go, “That was good. What are you doing?” She went on to add, “You have to trust Brad because he’s putting that movie together, and he knows the tone of it all and the other characters, and it’s changing over time.”
The movie took a few years to develop so both Catherine and Bob spent a considerable amount of time in the recording booth, around a year and a half for both. During this time both of their characters changed a bit, which is normal for animated features like this. Bob mentioned how people often mistake him for the characters he plays, “People think you’re like your character, and I’m so not like my characters it’s crazy. One journalist said, if you saw Saul in a room, would you wanna hang out with him. I’m like, no, I wouldn’t go near that guy.”
There is a scene in the movie with Elastigirl and Evelyn that is just awesome to see and Bob commented on how much he liked seeing two women characters fully (imagined) intelligent, super strong, taking the time, picking each other apart, picking apart the themes of the movie for an extended moment. When you see the film, you will definitely get that from the scene in question as well as throughout the film.
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Disclosure: I was provided with an all-expense trip to LA by Walt Disney Studios to attend these events. All opinions are 100% my own.
