Elizabeth Banks, Kumail Nanjiani, Keegan-Michael Key, and Awkwafina Talk Migration and Taking Risks
The Mallad family is in a bit of a rut in Migration. Dad Mack just wants to keep his family safe in the New England pond forever, while mom Pam is eager to shake things up and take their kids on an adventure. Together, the family goes on a whirlwind family vacation to get to Jamaica. Pop Culture Planet’s Kristen Maldonado spoke with director Benjamin Renner and actors Keegan-Michael Key, Awkwafina, Elizabeth Banks, and Kumail Nanjani about the new Illumination animated film including voice acting, taking risks, and behind-the-scenes fun facts.
Illumination founder and CEO Christopher Meledandri initially came up with the concept for Migration after reading an article about how ducks have stopped migrating because they were too lazy and winters had gotten warmer. “They preferred to stay home,” said director Benjamin Renner. “He was relating that to himself and his life and the way […] there's a father who wants to stay home and the mother is more like, ‘We need to challenge life. We can't just stay like that if we want to grow, especially our kids.’”
Renner continued: “The fact that we were telling the story through the eyes of ducks was also a very interesting idea. There was this fable aspect to it that was very exciting.”
When casting for the film Renner was excited to find a cast that embodied some of the essence of their characters, which made it a really collaborative process on set as he was able to take inspiration from their improvisations. He felt it was very important for them to be a part of really “creating the character” versus coming in and just reading lines. “I was very open for them to come up with ideas that we would incorporate later in the movie. In one session, I was talking to Elizabeth about a scene, telling her that now they're flying towards Jamaica. They're just flying and and the kids are in the background and everything. She said, ‘Oh yeah, I can see what they're doing. They're just complaining because they want to take a bathroom break.’ She started portraying Gwen and just having fun. She was not even recording. But the thing is, I was just laughing hysterically when she was just doing this improvisation that next time we had written a scene based on what she said.”
While we know these actors from both their live-action and animated works, they shared how they tackle each medium. “They're challenging in different ways. I think that going to set and acting with your fellow actors is really rewarding. You build energy together. You create the scene together. You have the other person to look at and react to and it's a collaboration in the moment,” said Banks. “The voice acting, you have to like imagine how the dialogue is going in your mind. There's just so much more active imagination that has to happen. I find typically when you're doing animation you're not doing anything for real. Like you're not flying, you're not driving the car, you're not flying through space, you're not you soaring over Manhattan.”
Key called voicing Delroy “liberating” as he got to “yell and scream in delight” in the booth — but still made sure to have a lot of tea to sooth his voice. “Sometimes the challenges of live-action acting is how subtle you can be […] whereas in voice over work you can be almost as broad as you want to be because you're trying to match the exaggerated qualities of these animated characters. You're trying to fill them up as best you can,” he Key, while Nanjiani added: “The advantage is that you get a lot more cracks at it. If I act in a scene and I feel like I didn't do my best, that's probably it. But, here, a year later, you can think of an idea and be like, ‘Oh, can we do that scene again? I have a new idea for it.’”
Banks’ favorite scene to voice was the beginning when they meet the other ducks. “It’s calm. It goes off the rails after that,” she said, while Nanjiani enjoyed a scene where the married ducks find themselves trapped in a cage. “We sort of switched roles. Now I have to talk to you. I have to give you the pep talk. I have to cheer you up and usually it’s the opposite. I found that scene very moving.”
Meanwhile Renner loved the duality of the scene with the herons. “When you watch it the first time, you will feel one way. Once you understand what’s happening for real, you can […] watch it two ways,” he said, sharing he also loved animating New York through the perspective of ducks. “Ducks can't perceive New York the same way as humans are perceiving it. We see a building […] but, the duck, he has no idea what it is and it's going to be a shock. A building could be a monster for all that he knows. It could be a Colossus that's going to eat him or something like that, so we really wanted to show New York in a way that the audience itself would be scared. […] That's why we we chose to show New York in a very mysterious way in the mist. The buildings are appearing, but it's like shadows. It's a sleeping giant or it's a sea monster.”
Another interesting choice Renner made as a director was to only have the ducks be able to speak, not the humans. “If they're ducks, they have no idea what humans would be saying. That's why we reduced as much as we could the the dialogues of of human characters to the point where they're not speaking anymore and they're just acting like animals,” he shared. “We tried a version where the humans were talking but we couldn't understand their lines. There's a character in the movie who is a duck and he's called Googoo. The reason he was called that is because there was a scene where the humans were talking to him and they were saying they saying something like, “Blah blah blah blah goo goo.” They were doing this sort of sound that you make when you find someone cute and Googoo felt it was his name because that's the only thing he could understand.” It got a bit confusing about if they were speaking a foreign language or not, which is why they ultimate cut that idea.
In a world where original IP is getting increasingly harder to get made, Renner is very grateful for the opportunity to bring Migration to audiences. “The fact that it's an original thing is really, really great, especially as a director because you can bring up new ideas. You're completely free to build everything. It's very stressful because you have no references to anything so it's a bit scary, but at the same time it's really exciting,” he told me. “It's really about family dynamic. […] It's important to get out of your comfort zone, which is what we're trying to share with this movie.”
He continued: “Even if you're scared, you have to get out of your comfort zone. It's important to do so if you want to grow and evolve.”
The animated film dives into deeper themes of being afraid of change, but taking the risk anyway. “I feel like I do it all the time. Sometimes there's a choice that you'll make when you're acting […] on the fly and go, ‘Am I about to do this?’” said Key. “Then you do it and it works out or […] it feels like it didn't work out but it inspired another idea. […] It’s still important to get it out there.”
Both Banks and Nanjiani brought up going to new cities for college as risks they took that paid off. “I moved from from Pakistan to Iowa to go to college on my own and that felt very scary. Then doing standup for the first time felt really scary and it felt scary for years and years,” said Nanjiani, who’s character Mack struggles to take a leap of faith. “You just have to think about the next step. At least for me, I can't think about the big picture. I have to be like, ‘What's the next thing I got to do? All right, I'll just do that.’ And then from there, figure out the next thing.”
Migration hits theaters on December 22, just in time for the holidays.
