LEGO Monsters University

As a fan of many of their movies, I’ve been wanting to go to Pixar, for some time now. And since you have to either work there, know someone who works there, or get an invite to go there, I jumped at the recent opportunity to make the trip to Emeryville, Calif. to do interviews for their latest feature film, Monsters University, and had a great time while I was there. The film follows Mike Wazowski (voiced by Billy Crystal), who arrives at the campus with the dream of becoming a Scarer while James “Sulley” Sullivan (voiced by John Goodman) feels like he doesn’t have to put in the time or work to succeed because he was born with his talent. When their journeys both prove to be a bit more complicated than they anticipated, they find help and friendship in the unlikeliest of places.

At the film’s press day, actor Charlie Day (who voices Art, Oozma Kappa’s most free-spirited and mysterious monster) spoke to Collider during a roundtable and 1-on-1 interview about how he came to be doing a Pixar animated feature, finding out what his character would look like, how exciting it was to record at Pixar, his character’s backstory, how much he stuck to the script, what he was like in college, and what scared him as a kid. He also talked about his work in Pacific Rim and what a wild ride the film is, just how much fun he’s had making It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia for so many seasons now, his trick to get over writer’s block, his comedic inspirations, doing a cameo for The Lego Movie, and the status of Horrible Bosses 2. Check out what he had to say after the jump.

How did you come to this? Had you been actively seeking an animated feature?

CHARLIE DAY: No! I’ve always wanted to do it. I always love hearing Tom Hanks, John Ratzenberger, Billy Crystal, John Goodman and all of these wonderful actors, doing such great performances. I’m aware of what a good job Pixar does, making the animation. They’re doing all the real work. You build the performance with the expressiveness of the animation. So, I’ve always wanted to do it, but I didn’t really know how to go about it. Fortunately, they just asked me to be a part of one, and I’m really happy to be here.