Written by Role Mommy contributor, Kristin Flannery.
Rolemommy sat down with Amy Poehler to discuss her new animated movie, Freebirds, in theaters on November 1st. We talked turkey, what it was like playing the straight man and every mom’s worst nightmare… Forgetting where you are driving to.
Free Birds is the story of two turkeys from opposite sides of the tracks who must put aside their differences and travel back in time to change the course of history – and get turkey off the Thanksgiving menu for good. Before Reggie and Jake become a main course at Standish’s dinner, they are rescued by Jenny (Amy Poehler), the beautiful and fierce daughter of the Wild Turkeys’ Chief Broadbeak (Keith David). Jenny leads the pair to the edge of the forest where the rest of her flock is hiding from the Pilgrims. Jake must teach the wild flock about the future and rally support for his mission to change history, but Reggie is apparently on a mission of the heart: falling beak-over-tail for Jenny.
Rolemommy is all about the strong woman characters and since this is something different from Amy’s usual zany characters, we asked her if it was hard for her to tone it down a little. It didn’t seem to be a problem for Amy, “she’s kind of the straight turkey in the movie. And animation’s so fun because you get to take really big jumps but you do sometimes need a force that’s grounding everything together, which I think the character Jenny is. And I didn’t really do so much of a voice in this because they really kind of wanted it to be kind of natural. But, I’ve played all different kinds of spectrum of that. So, it’s cool to actually play someone that feels like a somewhat normal animated character, if that makes sense. But, she’s also a turkey.”
Spoiler alert, Jenny turns out to be the chosen one of the tribe and we had to know how she felt being the chief, the supreme being of the movie. Always with amazing comedic timing, Amy responded “Oh, I thought you were talking to me, not my character. Yes, it feels great. What did I get chosen for? It’s cool. It’s fun to play a strong female character, natural leader, a girl who’s kind of following in her powerful father’s footsteps. It’s nice. When I read it, I was like, oh, that’s great. Unfortunately, not as typical as it should be and so it was cool to play, yes.”
Now Rolemommy wants to know more about Amy’s personal life. When asked is she had any “mom fails”‘ Amy opened up and honestly answered, “Oh, Gosh. Sometimes, I forget where I’m driving them to. That happens, right? I do just stop in the middle of the road and go, where are we going. That happens a lot.
How are we in this car, and who am I dropping off and where are we going – that happens a lot. It’s just a lot of forgetful stuff that every mother has to deal with.”
Since this fun animated film centers around one of our favorite holidays, we were curious to know if Amy had any traditions with her two young boys. When we asked her if she has made some of your own traditions, she said “I like watching movies with my kids on Thanksgiving night. That’s always a really fun thing, especially showing them a movie they’ve never seen is always really fun. Last year, we watched Willie Wonka, which was a big deal.”
So checkout Amy’s animated performance in FREE BIRDS from Relativity Media and Reel FX Animation Studios In Theaters on November 1, 2013 and to see the trailer click here http://youtu.be/r-RnGP63rpM
Role Mommy 3.0