T
he Secret Life of Pets will be scampering onto the big screen tomorrow, if you need to know if it’s worthy of your coins we already got you covered with our FLY Review. Team SFPL got the chance to attend the press junket for upcoming Illumination Entertainment animated adventure. NYC members of the press were taken to Liberty State Park in Jersey City, New Jersey to meet with the cast and crew of film and talk about film. The press conference featured Lake Bell (Chloe), Bobby Moyniham (Mel), Chris Renaud (Director/Norman), writers Cinco Paul, Ken Daurio and Brian Lynch, Eric Stonestreet (Duke) and Kevin Hart (Snowball) and Louis C.K. (Max). The conferences were broken up into five separate segments.
Each actor and actress touched on the difficult but fun process of bringing the lovable characters to life.Other items touched on of course were merchandise, pets, being a part of such a fun project and favorite characters in the film. We also got a chance to talk to the director of the film Chris Renaud who spoke on his inspiration for the film and the inspiration behind each character. We also got a chance to chop it up with writers of the film Cinco Paul, Ken Daurio and Brian Lynch. The trio clearly enjoyed writing the project and piecing the exciting story together.
Last but certainly not least were the stars of the film Louis C.K. who plays Max and Kevin Hart who voices the cute but maniacal bunny rabbit Snowball. The two spoke on of course their characters in the film, being fathers in the entertainment industry, working on animated features.
Of course Kevin brought his brand of humor when it came to answering questions so it was hard not to laugh during the press conference.
Kevin on becoming Snowball:
I was excited,this is my first animation film. Nothing gets you more excited than seeing your character, see that your character has two sides. They showed me a pictured of the bunny when he was very nice and adorable, then he flipped the page and he was grabbing his ears and his eyes and stuff were angry. They said Kevin we want you basically bring your personality to this bunny. You know give us the cute cuddly side and at the same time make it believable that this guy can start a revolution and have people follow him so I jumped at the opportunity.
Things also got serious when the issue of race was brought up. SFPL’s own Bernard Smalls asked Kevin about an article featured in Vulture that brought up the “issue” of Hollywood hiding black actors behind make-up, prosthetics and animation on the big screen.
Kevin on the issue:
I think people will look for any excuse to play the race card in Hollywood. This day and age look, it is what it is you know, you want it be more diversified you want to see more diversity. But a lot of people draw attention to it by talking about it.Where as if you just work and progress you eventually put yourself in position to where you can help the problem buy bringing more people into the business. Where you draw negative attention you’re only going to get a negative response, I don’t believe into adding to it. I bust my ass and do what i’m supposed to and I’ve been promoting movies internationally now for the last four years. They said movies don’t transfer with black actors internationally, I don’t feed into that, I do what I do. If other people did the same you would look up you would see more multicultural films being received by so many more people. I would just say instead of looking for a reason to say LOOK AT THAT, look at the people who are in those positions and working and applaud them. Applaud those actors that are in those animated movies regardless of color of skin, they’re working and creating opportunities for others.
Amen Kevin!
The Secret Life of Pets is in theaters Friday, July 8th!
Video Source: MyNewYorkEye
Shoutout: Allied Moxy
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