One of the Finding Dory cast members we had the privilege to meet and interview was Eugene Levy…I really enjoyed chatting with him about his role as Dory’s father in Finding Dory.
He was so nice and you can tell that he was extremely happy to be a part of this film.
Here’s what he had to say…
How he became a part of Finding Dory
“I got a phone call…asking me if I wanted to be a part of it…of course I said yes, I kind of jumped at it. Didn’t take too much thinking to be involved in the sequel to Finding Nemo.”
Voice Recording experience
“Well I recorded by myself…I did have one session that I worked with Diane and we were in two different cities. I was in Toronto. She was in Los Angeles and they hooked up cameras so that I could see her on a monitor in my studio and she could see me on a monitor in her studio and we were able to do the scene together which doesn’t happen a lot when you’re doing these things because mostly you’re working by yourself…that was fun and the great thing too was when I was working with Diane was that I was kind of mesmerized by just watching her on the monitor working even though I was doing a scene with her. I was very aware that it was Diane Keaton behind the mike and I’m just like just fascinated, just watching the way she was working behind the microphone and then I’d have to go “oh, yeah, I’ve got a line here”…”.
Biggest challenges in doing this role
“The character was written to be kind of a bit of a jokester in a dad kind of way, you know, which is not necessarily really funny but thinking he’s really funny, sometimes embarrassingly funny but also having a child who is memory impaired…and the idea of how dangerous that can be when your kid doesn’t really remember…so there that big part of it too and still trying to keep everything kind of light and charming and funny which is the brilliance of the script that Andrew came up with because it’s all packaged in one. You have all these emotions kind of snowballing through the movie and you’re kind of laughing and crying and feeling and touching and it’s great. It really is.”
On having a parenting role that affirms his child
“…it’s always great to play a parent who is that supportive and kind of life affirming. It was a slightly different story in American Pie where you have a discovery like I did walking into my kitchen and then thinking as the parent instead of okay, we’ve gotta do something about this, taking it upon himself thinking it must be something I’ve done or not done as a parent…but in this case you do have to be kind of very positive with Dory…One of the great things about how this was written is because this dad always tries to be funny, to lighten the load sort of speak and not make it quite so heavy and not make it quite so scary for Dory…”
On watching the film for the first time
“Oh, I think the thing that kind of impressed me the most about it was…just the brilliance of the entire project and how beautifully the animation is. What a great, fantastic job they did…just when you think you’ve got a handle on where the story’s going, it just kind of opens up and then it opens up some more and just when you think you’re bringing it home it’s opening up some more and then it gets into such an adventure,…It turns into an action movie at some point and it’s so incredibly real…”
Finding Dory is officially in theaters and you definitely want to see it with your family!
***Have you checked out my Finding Dory interview with Ellen DeGeneres & Ed O’Neill, Kaitlin Olson or read about my Finding Dory World Premiere Experience or the time I Danced with Ellen DeGeneres? Get caught up by clicking on the links for the full story.
