Before the release of “Vice-Versa 2” in cinemas this Wednesday, June 19, director Kelsey Mann and producer Mark Nielsen spoke about the creation of the film in an interview with Linternaute.
What is happening in the adolescent brain? A little envy and boredom, a lot of embarrassment… And a good dose of anxiety. This is what it says Vice-Versa 2, the latest film from Pixar Studios. The sequel to the event film released in 2015 finally arrives in French cinemas this Wednesday, June 19, 2024, when it has already broken the record for the best start of an animated film at the global box office.
It must be said that the first episode, directed by Pete Docter (Soul, Up there, Watches & co), which recounted the torments of Riley, a young girl after a move by embodying the chaos of her internal emotions in the form of characters, was a critical and popular success. For this second episode, Riley has entered the thankless age and confronted with new, sometimes violent emotions. As director, Kelsey Mann takes over, supported by producer Mark Nielsen, to tell the story of Riley’s entry into difficult old age. The duo was present at the Annecy Animated Film Festival to present this highly anticipated new opus to the public. The Internet user met them to talk behind the scenes of the creation of this film.
Vice-Versa 2 tells of the upheavals that take place during adolescence. But far from the usual clichés, you chose to focus on the anxiety and social pressure that we feel at that age. Why did you make this choice?
Kelsey Mann (director) : I’m someone who likes to make lists, that’s how I think: so I listed all the possible new emotions that could arise now that Riley is a teenager. Anxiety was on that list, and I was immediately drawn to it. Then, as I started working on this film, in January 2020, I did a lot of research into what teenagers were going through. This was before the pandemic, anxiety was already on the rise among adolescents, especially girls. Then there was the Covid-19 pandemic, and anxiety among adolescents became much more serious… As much among adolescents as among adults in fact! While we had already decided that it was worth telling this story, we realized since Covid that it was now essential to talk to each other about adolescent anxiety and to focus on this emotion.
“A group of teenage girls brought authenticity to the story we were telling”
You asked a panel of teenage girls to help you write the character…
Kelsey Mann : Yes, it was “Riley’s team”!
Exactly. What was their impact on the writing of the film?
Mark Nielsen (producer) : Above all, they brought authenticity to the story we were telling. We brought them together early, three years ago, and we shared each version of the film with them, treating them like an advisory board. Already, every four months, we showed the film to a group of Pixar filmmakers and collected their notes and thoughts. And we did the same with them, we presented the film to them and we asked them several questions: what do you identify with? Is there anything that bothered you that didn’t seem authentic or realistic? What emotions did you feel the most? What have you not identified with? They helped us shape the film in subtle ways, simply giving us their authentic, heartfelt reaction to what we were presenting to them, which helped us determine what stayed and what went.
Were there any plot elements that they changed from your original ideas?
Kelsey Mann : Probably… (thinks) Probably horrible dialogues that we had written, and where they told us: “but no one says that!” (laughter).
Mark Nielsen : They definitely helped us with the dialogues…
Kelsey Mann : I wish I could remember specifically what it was… Sometimes you’re so embarrassed that you immediately forget what just happened (laughs).
I understand. Especially against teenagers.
Kelsey Mann : (laughs) Yes, completely!
It is the French actress Adèle Exarchopoulos who plays Ennui in the original version (and in VF as a result). Why did you choose this French actress?
Kelsey Mann : In our version too, this character is called “Ennui” (and not “Boredom”, editor’s note) and she is French!
Mark Nielsen : Adèle is incredible above all. And we love his voice. It’s all in the voice! We met with our casting department and demanded: “we want the actress who plays Ennui to be French, so only come back with French actresses.”
Kelsey Mann : We didn’t want someone who could imitate a French accent, we wanted someone who had an authentic one.
Mark Nielsen : We were made to listen to around 30 voices of French actresses without giving us their identity. And we looked at the images of the character design while listening to the voices, and then we settled on the one that worked best. Adèle’s. Then they said to us, “Oh, do you know who that is?” and we were like, “Wow! No kidding?!”
Kelsey Mann : And then we asked them: “but do you think we can have him for this film?”
Mark Nielsen : “Do you think she would accept?”
Kelsey Mann : And luckily, she said yes.
“If my own stress took over, I wouldn’t be able to be creative.”
The first episode of Vice versa has become a great Pixar classic. Did you feel a certain pressure working on this sequel?
Kelsey Mann : No, never, not a single day (laughter).
Mark Nielsen 🙁laughter) Maybe a little bit
Kelsey Mann : Maybe a little bit. It’s not for nothing that I made a film about anxiety! I tried to take the lessons from the movie about this and apply them to my own life. It was important to us that Riley’s issues weren’t easily resolved at the end of the story and that she never had to deal with her anxiety issues again because in real life that’s an emotion with which we must constantly learn to deal. Me included, because if I let myself be overwhelmed by the pressure, it would block me completely. If my own stress took over, I would be unable to be creative. I must approach the creative process with joy. Although a little anxiety helps. I like to have a deadline to be honest, to make sure I turn in my work!
Mark Nielsen :And I like to give deadlines, so this worked out perfectly for us!
Kelsey Mann : That’s why our relationship works so well! We make a good team.
And how do you manage to make such an ambitious film when you suffer from anxiety?
Kelsey Mann : We can let ourselves be paralyzed by the pressure or we can just say to ourselves: “this opportunity is incredible”. If I could go back and tell my 10 year old self that the opportunity to achieve Vice-Versa 2 was going to show up, this little boy would be very excited and very happy. And that’s the feeling I have to remember every day when I walk into the studio. And I really felt it! There was definitely pressure, and every movie at Pixar is very difficult to make, but if you come to work in the morning with a feeling of joy, that’s when success is going to come.
Mark Nielsen : It’s also thanks to the passion of our team: everyone who worked on the film loves Vice versa, and we only recruited people who really loved it and wanted to give their all to a worthwhile sequel. All of this is obviously thanks to the talent of our team.