Based on the popular children’s book, “Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs” is a story about awkward inventor Flint Lockwood (Bill Hader), who sets out to save his town with the help of an invention that turns water into food. When one of his inventions goes awry, it’s up to brainy weathergirl Sam Sparks (Anna Faris) and Flint’s trusty monkey Steve (Neil Patrick Harris) to save the town…and the world. The film also features an eclectic supporting cast of James Caan, Mr. T, and Bruce Campbell.

During the film’s press day, I had the opportunity to interview co-stars Anna Faris and Bill Hader about the making of the film.

Q: Did either of you read the book before or after the film?

Anna Faris: Yes, as kids. It was really great to see it come to life like this.

Bill Hader: Yeah, before the movie. We were big fans growing up.

Q: We asked the directors why they had selected you to play the roles?

Anna: Hey! What are you saying? (laughter)

Bill: We were the cheapest actors. Everyone else was too expensive.

Q: During the film, how much ad-libbing were you allowed to do?

Anna: We talked about this. We really didn’t do a ton. You’re saying one line over and over again. Actually, you’re pretty constricted in some ways in terms of ad-libbing.

Bill: It’s not like you do a full scene. It’s like you say “Hey guys, what’s going on? HEY guys, what’s going on? Hey GUYS, what’s going on?” You know what I mean?

Q: How do you get your inspiration because you guys are doing it by yourselves, right?

Anna: It’s hard. We were lucky enough to have meetings (with the directors). That gave us a good sense on how we were playing the roles. We’d have to be told “She’s really frustrated right now.” or “This is the scene where she goes into anaphalactic shock and there’s a peanut brittle cave and you lower a licorice rope” (laughter)

Q: Does it get really exhausting?

Anna: That was the most surprising element.

Bill: We were both not prepared for that at all.

Q: Which is harder for you, voice acting or motion pictures?

Bill: Voice acting is really tough, because your whole performance is channelled into your voice. I would do something and add all this physicality to it and they would go “It looks great what you’re doing in front of us, but the voice is not…. could you put that energy you used in your body into your voice. So, that was difficult.

Anna: I think the exact same thing. They would film us doing it and use our gestures and whatever we put into the characters movement, they used. You’re giving a full performance, but you’re alone for the most part. So, you have nothing to react to.

Q: Were you in the sound booth with Mr. T or Bruce Campbell?

Bill: No. Anna got to meet Mr. T.

Anna: It was one of the highlights. He was coming in as i was leaving. You could hear him from a mile away. Someone introduced me to Mr. T and he grabbed me and bear hugged me and picked me up and said “This is so awesome. Isn’t this awesome?” I said “Yes, Mr. T. This is awesome.” I’ve never met anyone more enthusiastic in my life and it was just incredible.

Q: The role that Sam plays, how do you think it’ll inspire young girls who see this film?

Anna: Oh, I hope that it does. it’s interesting how girls go from nerd to ‘cool’ and ‘hot’, and this is a flip of that and I think she’s adorable both ways. it would be awesome some girls let their inner nerd out. When i was a kid, I was really into bugs and wanted to get into biology. But it wasn’t one of the ‘coolest’ things.

Bill: If the biologists knew you were into biology, or you could’ve been a biologist, they’d be so ticked off and go “Aww man”.

Q: What do you guys have coming up?

Anna: I have “Alvin & The Chipmunks: The Squeakquel”.

Bill: I just finished a movie called “Paul” and we’re going to do the new season of “SNL” coming up.

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