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Tom Hanks, Tim Allen, and Annie Potts talk of memorable experiences in ‘Toy Story 4’
Los Angeles — When the first “Toy Story” animation came out in 1995, it marked a milestone as the first full length computer-animated feature film.
But more than the milestone the movie achieved, "Toy Story" featured characters so loveable that 24 years later, the remain as loveable as ever.
Woody (voiced by Tom Hanks), Buzz Lightyear (Tim Allen), and Bo Peep (Annie Potts) are back in the fourth installment of the box-office franchise.
In “Toy Story 4,” which is helmed by first-time director Josh Cooley who also co-wrote the story, the old toys get to meet new toys like Forky (voiced by comedian actor Tony Hale of “Arrested Development” and “Veep”), a spork-made from trash-turned-toy who does not understand why he’s alive or what a toy even is.
Cooley, who was just in high school when the first “Toy Story” came out, exclaimed that he was excited to direct the newest installment. “I think I have an interesting point of view because I didn’t work on any of the other films, so I came into this as a fan,” he said.
Producers Jonas Rivera and Mark Nielsen revealed they were thrilled to be a part of this again because they are aware that ever since the first “Toy Story” came out, the characters have been loved by generations.
“I’ve known these characters literally half my life,” said Rivera, who joined Pixar in 1994 as the studio’s first production intern. “They’re more like family to me than characters in a movie. So, I felt a sense of responsibility and excitement—and a little nervousness, to be honest—to help lift these characters and carry them forward.”
We recently interviewed Tom Hanks, Tim Allen and Annie Potts in Orlando, Florida and they shared with us some of their thoughts on toys they had during their childhood, people who inspired them, listening to their inner voice, and what their characters have given them through the years.
Below are excerpts of our conversations with them:
Tom Hanks
Can you say something about the new character Forky? Can you relate to self-made toys? Did you ever make one?
Oh God, I constantly made my own toys. I would take a wine cork and put four toothpicks in it and make a little lunar lander. I would use can openers and pretend they were helicopters. A good set of pipe cleaners and some Play Doh. I didn’t do it a lot because I’m not engineering-inclined but a big box of Tinker Toys and the instructions of how to literally make a hand cranked Ferris wheel out of Tinker Toys, I did that. But by and large I would take my Major Matt Mason…this was all space related now… and play with him for hours.
I was not big on the store-bought toys who had one purpose, you wind it up like the Duke of Boom kind of thing, and I never had things like that. I would have one little thing and turn it into imagination.
But Forky, this movie might as well be called the “Toy Story Forky” (laughs) because his introduction as the catalyst of absolutely everything and it is this kind of obtuse intellectual concept of Woody and the toys trying to explain to Forky, no you don’t understand, you have been made into a toy therefore you have great responsibility. Bonnie has invested in you something that is sacred to us and that is, delight and imagination and therefore you are not a piece of trash, you’re actually one of the most important beings in Bonnie’s life right now and you have to understand that.
Again, the folks at Pixar came up with this. We never really read a script; we sort of just always had the movie explained to us before we would go onto the next recording session. When I realized that that was what the theme of this was, I said, ok you guys have once again, you’ve made a brand new movie out of a whole cloth and it’s actually something that is unique and important.
Tony Hale, he doesn’t realize it yet but for the rest of his life he’s going to be Forky to an awful lot of people in elevators with kids…look, it’s Forky, say hello to Forky. And Tony Hale is going to be saying that a little kid is not going to understand that a guy in an elevator is actually Forky, but he is and he’ll just have to live with that burden.
The biggest responsibility of a toy is to give comfort and to protect a child in “Toy Story 4.” So what do you feel is your biggest responsibility as a man?
To live an authentic life, I think. To, in some circumstances, tell the truth and in other circumstances tell just enough of the truth... I think at the end of the day our job on the planet is to give everybody a fair shake and to test the limits of our own empathy with other folks. Look, because I’m a quote/unquote…I’m known, people have this, because I’ve been in their living rooms for many, many years and you have written about the work that I do, I think there can be a connection that people have with the work that I do and I guess, the franchise that represent to them. They have a connection to me. And I think my job is to respect that, is to understand it.
There’s no hiding some aspect of the responsibility, at the same time sometimes you’ve got to avoid some really major assholes on this planet earth. And I don’t think it’s hard to do that because people define themselves right off the bat. It’s an example of the empathy that you give, it has to be in some proportion to what you receive. So even though celebrity and acknowledgment and attention can ultimately infantilize you sometimes, you have to understand that that’s a head game.
You should try to be kind to people because on any given moment they’re dealing with a crisis of their lives. If you’re coming across somebody whose job it is you think that they’re not doing well it may be because they’re experiencing something else in their life that would cripple anybody else. So why don’t you give that person just a little bit of slack?
That being the case, you’ll find out that honestly, 97% of the people in this world are just trying to get by the same way you are and only 3% of them are just big assholes.
How much does music influence you in your acting?
I am constantly, newly inspired by things I never heard before. I’m on a constant quest now to hear music, artists, who I’ve never heard before. One of the reasons is my wife Rita (Wilson); she’s on this kickass tour of her own records and songwriting as well so she has exposed me to an awful lot of people I’ve never heard of before. But now I’m actually going out. We live in L.A. KCSN at Cal State Northridge, 88.5, is the greatest radio station on the planet earth.
Public radio so there are no commercials, a lot of pleas for fundraising and stuff like that…but I have heard more new artists and more new music on that radio station that has turned me into a fan. I’m constantly on the lookout for a song or a piece of music that spurs me along as an artist.
I don’t necessarily marry up music to the work that I do but I am moved to pursue other creative endeavors based on something I heard that I said I never heard anything that good. Whoever wrote that is a great artist. And how did they get there and what’s that going to do to me? I’m listening to more music now than ever before. I don’t watch TV. I listen to the radio and sort my socks and do stuff like that all day long. I have it playing all the time.
Tim Allen
Forky had Woody inspire him to be what he is — a toy. Who inspired you to be an actor when you were not sure of yourself?
When I was in some trouble in my life, I read biographies of men and women that I admired, because I lost my direction. There were many of them and I wish I could remember them. I read Johnny Carson’s biography because I always admired him, and I wasn’t the same as him. And I think it was James Earl Jones and I can’t remember exactly, and I read about Martin Luther King and I read Camille Paglia, I read a lot of people’s visions of how their lives were.
I found certain things, gender non-specific that people do that I could do. I certainly couldn’t be a woman of color, but certain things that women of color did in their lives in biographies that I read, like make lists, show up on time, be of service, little different things. What inspired me was how people who are successful share certain traits that are the same.
One of the great morals of this story is about trusting one’s inner voice. Looking back on your career and your life, when have you trusted your inner voice and when have you not? When did you say no that is not what I want to do?
Interestingly, I was a philosophy student in college and my family is quite religious. So, I combined those two and I have had some problems with my interpretation of religion, but a long time ago, in 1988 actually, I was in an airport and I was saying judgmental things about an overweight guy in front of me in my head. I said to myself, my inner voice said why do you think you have the right to say that about another person? I said, that’s a good question, where does that come from, I am no longer going to do that, I am no longer going to say judgmental things about anyone for any reason.
In 1988 I did that, and I watched my inner voice. Then the conflict in my inner voice and I have been only 30 percent effective in that process to me, since 1988, that’s how difficult it is to listen to that inner voice.
Because inner voice to me is very calm and says say thank you, use his first name. And to me sometimes the inner voice is very quiet and I transitioned to this and I told my brother this and now I think, I was telling Keanu Reeves this about “Matrix,” that Smith is the inner voice, and Smith eventually, in all of us can mimic the inner voice, and the evil part of us eventually goes, oh that’s what the inner voice sounds like. So, it becomes conflicting and it’s a very large concept to me the inner voice because I am not sure, sometimes just when you begin to trust the inner voice, sometimes the dark side of our personality goes oh okay so that’s what it is.
What would you say has Buzz given you through the years? I guess parents with kids ask you all the time.
Yeah, way too much of that. And Tom just taught me a trick. I have done it and my kid, all the kids from Kindergarten on, I told my kid, please don’t tell them that I am Santa Claus and the Santa Claus thing was really creepy, because it’s so well done that kids really think I’m lying, I am not Santa, yeah, sure you are not. So, there’s nothing I can say to get out of that one.
But Buzz, it’s difficult for the kid to understand that I play the voice, because as soon as I say I am doing the voice, I am taking the magic out of Buzz. But the parents, I just get into this weird thing, but Tom said just tell the kid to close their eyes, I never even thought of that.
Because I had done it one time and I have never done it since, a kid was misbehaving in a public situation and I thought I would help the woman out because he was horrible, and I said “come on little one, pick up that thing and Buzz will take you to infinity and beyond.” And the kid froze, (laughs) he turned around and looked and there was nobody but me in the elevator and he starts crying and he yelled to his mom, “that ugly man swallowed Buzz Lightyear.”
You shouldn’t do these voices in public, but it happened in my family many times, where the kids will go are you all of a sudden Buzz, because the voice comes out, “Let’s Go” and they go what are we doing, Buzz here? And vice versa, sometimes in a long session of Buzz Lightyear, the studio will say, you are starting to sound like Tim Allen here, cause I slide and if I get a little weak and I don’t push and don’t act, and Tom and I are both, this is starting to get a little creepy, where you are doing Buzz Lightyear naturally in public situations and it isn’t, so I think I need some therapy.
You just mentioned your own birthday present, therapy.
We all need a little therapy. I think it should be required for everybody to do, just a week or two a year in therapy. I think all of us need it, a little bit of time to reflect.
What does therapy mean to you? Is nature therapeutic or is it restoring cars?
I have been very fortunate to have gotten sober 21 years ago. It’s great, it’s the best thing that has ever happened to me and I am allowed to be around a group of men and women of the same ilk that are comfortable enough to say on a weekly basis what is bothering them.
I get to relate to people of all different shapes and sizes, that we all have the same difficulty processing information. Then you have another group of people who go, okay that’s good and then you move on. Having a group of people share what they feel, and they feel safe in that place and with no judgment, is a very remarkable experience.
How long have you been doing that?
21 years I have been going to meetings.
Annie Potts
Tom Hanks mentioned that you recorded at the same time and it was kind of intimate. Can you please talk about that experience?
It was such a joy to work with him. We don’t normally do that when we record but because of the nature of the relationship and just getting the chemistry going to aid the animators we were allowed to do that. It was so much fun. He is, of course you’ve now had the pleasure of being in the room with him and everything, so you know how sensationally special he is and that is certainly true of working with him as well.
Talk about the comeback of Bo Peep.
What a nice present for me. As I said to the director after I viewed it the first time…we never saw the script so we didn’t really know…each time I went in they go, that’s when that happens and then Gabby Gabby (voiced by Christina Hendricks) goes there, it’s like, and who’s Gabby Gabby?
But they started to show us, as it developed, they would show us renderings and then more pieces of animated things as they filled it in, but I didn’t really know. So, I didn’t really know till I saw the film last month, what my role was. It was, wow, I have a really big role. (Laughs) And I’m very pleased with the way she turned out as I told Josh (Cooley) after I saw it.
I just collapsed into him and said, thank you so much for putting this crown on my head. I think she’s so wonderful and such an inspiration especially for young girls. But for everybody, I think grownup women will appreciate it and she’s just a wonderful opportunity for me and super inspiring.
What were the toys that generated the imagination of your childhood?
I grew up on a farm in rural Kentucky and my playground was a 250-acre farm with woods and ponds and two barns. I really didn’t need any toys; nature was my great inspiration and I had a pony, cows and a pet lamb and it was fantastic. So now when I see kids with their screens, it’s like, look up. There were hours when my mother wouldn’t even allow us in the house. 'Get out, get out of my house!' For children, they don’t always have that option now. But when I get bored, I can hear my mother’s voice, get out, so I get out of the house.
There’s no toy that you’ve hung onto since childhood?
No, I would say my most enduring toy has been my own imagination.
This is also a movie where Bonnie, the little girl, goes to kindergarten for the first time. So What do you remember of your first impression of school when you were a child? Did you like going to school?
I did like to go to school. But when I went to nursery school that would have been in 1955 or 1956, the girls and the boys were divided. And in one corner they had the doll corner with little dolls and toy beds and dollhouses and in the other corner was for the boys, which were building blocks. I didn’t want to have anything to do with the dolls. For my own self, I played with dolls in private because I like to keep my imagination…that was a very private thing for me, me and my imagination, it has been.
So I wanted to play in the boys’ corner and I tried to breech the boys’ corner one day and the teacher pulled me out of it and I came home crying. I told my mother that I didn’t want to play with those dolls; I wanted to play with the boys with the bricks. She said, well I will ask. She asked the woman and she was very reluctant but finally they let me play with the boys and the blocks in the corner. I thought that was such an achievement. And again, I’ve breeched the boys’ club. — LA, GMA News
