Netflix Animation's upcoming film Ray Gunn has been a passion project of legendary filmmaker Brad Bird's for roughly 30 years. For those who may not immediately know, Brad Bird is the man behind some of the biggest and most beloved animated films in the last three decades, such as The Iron Giant and The Incredibles.
Now, his dream project, Ray Gunn, is finally just weeks away from being projected into the eyeballs of audiences around the world. The story follows Sam Rockwell's Ray Gunn, a private investigator in Metropia, a gigantic neo-noir utopian city in the future. After a case comes across his desk and spirals into much more than he signed on for, Ray is thrown into a whirlwind of conspiracies, all of which center around a multimedia star named Venus Nova (played by Black Widow's Scarlett Johansson).
The Direct's Sabeen Faheem caught up with the cast and filmmakers behind Ray Gunn at the film's Los Angeles AFI Fest red carpet premiere, where we spoke to them about bringing this unique futuristic tale to life. The talented filmmakers we spoke to included writer and director Brad Bird, star Michael Chernus (Sam Stelfreeze), and composer Michael Giacchino.
Brad Bird on the Iconic Theme In His Films
"Everyone Relates to the Outsider..."
- The Direct: "I wanted to ask you about a common theme I've seen in your films... the theme of someone who is different and who is asked to suppress that difference in order to survive... What about that attracts you to those stories? Why those stories?"
Brad Bird: Well, there's something—One thing that I've sort of been startled by is that if you make an outsider, everyone relates to the outsider because everyone thinks of themselves as an outsider. It doesn't matter how inside they are; they think of themselves as an outsider, and maybe they've been able to trick someone else into thinking they're an insider, but to their own mind, they're not. And so, if you can put the audience in the frame of an outsider's point of view, everyone's going to relate.
Michael Chernus and How He Brought His Personal Touch to Ray Gunn
"You're Literally Bringing All of Yourself to It..."
- The Direct: "What about this film and your character drew you to it?"
Michael Chernus: A couple of things. I mean, working with Brad, who's just such an artist and such a unique, singular voice and such a legendary filmmaker. I really, really jumped at that opportunity to work with him. And then the movie has this interesting sensibility of sort of existing in the this sort of almost past kind of world, like a noir kind of setting, and then this futuristic technology, and then I feel like some of the themes really spoke to things that are going on today, like in terms of surveillance and privacy and technology, and and then the cast too, like you know, Sam Rockwell, Scarlett Johansson, Bobby Cannavale, Helen Tudyk. These are great actors and friends of mine, a lot of them. So yeah,
- The Direct: "We have a tendency to bring ourselves to our work. So what about you? Did you bring to your character from personal [experience]?"
Michael Chernus: That's an interesting question. It's so different doing a voice for animation because. Like when it's your body on screen, you're literally bringing all of yourself to it, and with animation, you're just using your voice to like create this character and tell a story. So, I guess I just brought the full range of my vocal instrument. I studied at Juilliard, studying theater, training a long time ago, and so much of our work there was focused on vocal training and vocal range. And often I don't get to flex those muscles on camera; it's more of a theater thing. And so it was cool to use my voice as an imaginative tool.
Michael Giacchino Has Never Done a Noir Movie Score Before
Not Only Is It His Rirst Noir Score, But It Also Has an Important Message.
- The Direct: "These kinds of films, they're about such really important topics that are so relevant to our times. But what drew you to this film that you wanted to work on it? And given your genius and sound."
Michael Giacchino: Well, besides the fact that it was a noir movie, and I haven't really had a chance to do a noir score. That was one thing, but the thing that I love about it more than anything is just sort of what it's about, which is it's about identity. How do you treat somebody else who looks at their identity differently from yours? What happens? Why do we as humans tend to want to treat each other badly just because we're different, you know, that's something I never understood growing up, and I love the fact that Brad [Bird] will take that and twist that and put that into something in this movie. I just think it's important for the world to hear. Yeah, you know, identity is everything, and respecting everyone's identity is the most important thing that we could do... [If] we could solve that problem. We're good. We're good.
