You can vote to help nominate “Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs” for a 2010 “People’s Choice Award” by voting at PeoplesChoice.com!
The top five nominees in each category will be revealed at the People’s Choice Awards annual press conference on November 10, 2009. Only those announced on November 10th have the chance to win a People’s Choice Award on January 6th, 2010.
“Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs” is set to be released on DVD and Blu-ray on January 5, 2010!
Special features will include: Directors’ commentary with Bill Hader; A Recipe for Success: The Making of Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs; Key Ingredients: The Voices of Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs; Flint’s Food Fight Game – enhanced for Blu-ray; Extended scenes; Early development scenes; Progression reels with introductions by visual effects supervisor Rob Bredow; “Raining Sunshine” music video by iCarly’s Miranda Cosgrove; Interactive “Raining Sunshine” sing-a-long; Behind the scenes of Miranda Cosgrove’s “Raining Sunshine” music video; Make It Rain Food.
The Blu-ray will also include a DVD copy of the film as well as an interactive “Splat” button enabling viewers to throw food at the screen during the movie.
Anna Faris doesn’t want it to be cloudy with a chance of meatballs. Try cloudy with a chance of Dunkin’ Donuts or Krispy Kremes.
“My indulgences are always sweets,” says Faris. “I would ask for it be cloudy with a chance of doughnuts. But I must caution that I’m a bit of a salty/savory gal. I wouldn’t mind if it was raining cookies and then later potato chips, but chips are always trouble.
“You can’t just eat a few,” she says. “I raided the mini-bar last night at the hotel. The empty bag of chips is the proof.”
Faris lends her voice to the character of Sam Sparks in the new animated film, “Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs.” The movie is based on the 1982 best-selling book by Judi and Ron Barrett, and also stars the voices of Bill Hader, Neil Patrick Harris and Andy Samberg in the story of an inventor who builds a contraption that turns water into different foods. Then the thing goes out of control and starts shooting spaghetti tornados and meatballs raining from the sky. (Do we hear a brownie hailstorm in the future? Pretty please?)
1 What was your inspiration during the scene where burgers rain from the sky?
The director got us In and Out burgers. They wanted us to talk with our mouths full. It was a great excuse to eat an In and Out burger without feeling guilty about it because I was required to eat one for work. No one can argue with that fact.
2 How did you get into character for animation?
Basically, I was shown a drawing of the character before I started recording and that’s pretty much all I had. But it was amazing because I worked on this for about a year. The great part of animation is that it isn’t about your hair or clothes or makeup. You get to record and then watch this story come to life. I did just think it would be easy, but it was incredibly challenging.
3 You’re so good at light comedy. Who are your inspirations?
I grew up watching all of the great female comedians and wanted to be like all of them. I would sit for hours watching “I Love Lucy” wishing I could be like her, but then I’d watch really old movies with greats like Judy Holliday and Carole Lombard. I loved watching Betty White and Goldie Hawn. Even though I was this kid, I would sit there and think, “Maybe someday I could be in a movie with some of these women — the ones who were alive.
4 When you were younger, did you think you had a chance in this business?
I started as young as many of the audience members for this movie. I was 9 when I did an Arthur Miller play called “Danger Memory” at the Seattle Repertory Theatre. I even got paid $250, which was all the money in the world to me. I was rolling in the dough and I might still be using that money to pay bills. Actually, I do have to confess that I used that movie to buy a phone that looked like a piano. You had to press the keys to dial. It was the coolest thing in the world.
5 Congratulations on your marriage this summer.
I did get married and I’m super-happy. It’s been a great summer. I’m cooking for my new husband, which has always been my favorite hobby and pastime. Of course, I love to try out new things on him. In fact, if I wasn’t an actress, I would like to be a food critic or a restaurant critic. We’ll just see how it goes in Hollywood with the movie business.
From Chicago Sun Times
Getting in touch with her PG side for a change, sexpot Scary Movie scream queen vet Anna Faris decided, as she explains in her own strange way during this giggly gab session, that she was ready for a big switch extreme makeover in movies.
Especially to finally be able to make a movie that her parents can see. Hence her moody but modest female cartoonish stint in the high carb animated feature, Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs. Anna dropped by to spout all these sweet nothings in this NYC candy store press encounter, including doing the newlywed thing, as well as more binging type of indulgences like chips, donuts and especially In-N-Out Burgers. And exactly what a salty savory kinda gal, not to mention geek reversal, may be.
ANNA FARIS: I hope you’re easy on me!
Oh, not to worry! And congratulations, didn’t you just get married this summer?
AF: Um…Yes, I did. And I’m super-happy. It’s been a great summer.
So what are your guilty pleasures when it comes to the candy all around us in this candy store?
AF: Oh, my indulgence, sweet-wise, like definitely donuts. But I’m definitely a little bit of a salty savory kinda gal. Chips. Chips are trouble! I raided the mini-bar last night at the hotel!
But at one point, when the cheeseburgers were falling from the sky, they got us In-N-Out Burgers. Because they wanted us to talk with our mouths full. And it was a great excuse to eat an In-N-Out Burger, I’ll tell ya!
So how did you get into character for animation?
AF: Um…They showed me a drawing of the character before I started recording, and that’s pretty much all I had. But it was amazing. We worked for about a year. And it was pretty incredible to see it all come to life.
But we all thought it was going to be easy, basically. And it is incredibly challenging. And when they asked me to do this movie, I was so excited. It was a book that I loved as a child. So I was really honored to be asked to do it.
I did some voice work early on in Seattle, when I was growing up. And I loved the idea of doing it again. And it’s finally a movie that I’ve done, that I think people can…see! I guess. My parents are happy!
Did you relate to this movie in terms of geek reversal, and bringing the geekiness out of you?
AF: Yeah, I was a geek in high school. I used to wear a Christmas tree sequined skirt as a cape. And now I’m…comfortable enough to talk about it! And I was really into bugs. I still do love bumblebees, and bees in general. Honeybees, not carnivorous bees!
But I managed to capture the queen bumblebee, when she was just leaving her nest in the winter. And they were a little drowsy at that point, so I was able to capture her. And I attempted to make a bumblebee hive. But she died. That’s pretty geeky, I think!
Bummer. How old were you?
AF: Probably a little too old! Like fourteen or fifteen.
Anna Faris is best known to moviegoers for her comedic turns in the Scary Movie quadrilogy and more adult fare like The House Bunny and the controversial Observe and Report. Her parody of the infamous Ring phone call in Scary Movie 3 is classic. Now she has lent her voice to the family-friendly, 3D animated film Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs, in which she plays aspiring TV meteorologist Sam Sparks, who stumbles upon the story of a lifetime when she visits the town of Swallow Falls, where food literally rains from the sky. While in New York to promote her latest movie, she spoke about her character, working in animation, memories from her childhood and her geeky high school years. With her film career continuing to grow, she is indeed proof that geeks are inheriting the earth — and that many are cuter than people think.
How did you develop your character? Did you get a chance to go back in and do more voiceover work once you saw the renderings?
They showed us a drawing of our character before we started recording, and that was all we had. They wrote pretty specific characters, so it wasn’t a huge search [to find her]. We worked for about a year and went back in to tweak all the animation. It was pretty incredible to see it all come to life.
What do you find appealing about voice acting that is different than being in front of the camera?
It is incredibly challenging. They asked me to do this movie, and I was so excited because it was a book that I grew up with. I felt really honored to be asked to do what I love doing. I did some voice work early on in Seattle when I was growing up, and I loved the idea of doing it again. It’s finally a movie that I’ve done that people under 10 can see. My parents are happy.
Do you recall your first acting job?
I was nine and did an Arthur Miller play called Danger: Memory! at the Seattle Repertory Theatre. I got paid $250, which was huge. I was rolling in the dough. I think I’m still living off of that. Then I went out and bought a piano phone. It was pretty awesome.
What was Comic-Con like this past summer?
I had never been to Comic-Con before, and I had a fantastic time. I mean, it’s a show. What surprised me was how happy everybody is there. They’re looking forward to this all year, so you’re in an environment that for the most part is really supportive and really joyous. I can relate to the idea of escaping through a character, so it was really cool to see all of these people doing the same thing.
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.
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs star Anna Faris began performing at nine-years-old. Faris was drawn to acting because of its ability to make a tiny person feel enormous. “I was a really short child,” Faris admitted exclusively to SheKnows from a suite at the Four Seasons Beverly Hills.
Faris is starring in Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, in theaters September 18, an animated spectacle based on the beloved children’s book by Judi and Ron Barrett.
Meatballs also stars SNL’s Bill Hader as an inventor who seeks to create a device that turns water into food for his island-town that is surviving only on sardines. Faris’ weather reporter arrives on the island for another story and explosively becomes part of the food falling from the sky story.
Faris is widely known for her priceless comic timing in the Scary Movie films, The House Bunny and starring opposite some of Hollywood’s hottest funnymen including Ryan Reynolds in Just Friends and Seth Rogan in April’s Observe and Report.
The Cloudy with a Chance of Meatball star recently wed sweetheart Chris Pratt July 9 and with her star ever-rising, the forecast for Faris is blindingly sunny.
Anna FarisFaris’ firsts
SheKnows: First of all, congratulations on your wedding.
Anna Faris: Oh, thank you!
SheKnows: When actors discover they want to act very young as you did, what was it about performing that first appealed to you?
Anna Faris: When I was six, my mom enrolled me in an acting class. I loved it. Most kids were into swimming or soccer and I just loved acting. There never was any pressure to do it. See, I was really short! It was my identity that I was the short girl. I think out of that I needed to find a way to express myself. Also, in many ways too I was terrible at public speaking — but, through escaping in a character…
SheKnows: …that gave you more confidence to do it.
Anna Faris: Totally! Plus, I worked with adult actors. That was really big for me to be surrounded by adults hearing them complain about, I don’t know, adult things (laughs). It was really fun for me. I didn’t have too many friends. I really cherish those memories.
SheKnows: You have the most impeccable comic timing…
Anna Faris: Oh my God, thank you.
SheKnows: You do, like a Lucile Ball for the modern era.
Anna Faris: That is so nice of you…
