I realized while we were awaiting Kyle MacLachlan’s interview that I’ve been watching him on television for years; as Charlotte’s husband Trey MacDougal on Sex in the City, then Dr. Orson Hodge on Desperate Housewives, to more currently The Captain on How I Met Your Mother (who he credits the role loosely based on heroes Thurston Howell III and Jethro Bodine). Kyle MacLachlan plays the Dad in Inside Out. Dad is a fan of family, hockey and new adventures. So when opportunity knocks, he’s game—even if it means moving across the country. Admittedly, he can’t always figure out what the women in his life are thinking, but he loves them with all his heart. Inside Dad’s mind, his Emotions are prone to distraction, particularly if there’s a hockey game on.
With an impressive resume of television, film, and stage roles, indelible charm and quirky sophistication, Kyle has it all. Add winemaker to that list (Persued by a Bear and Baby Bear named in honor of his son) and he’s essentially my dream man!
Just kidding honey!
So Kyle walks into the meeting room with all 25 of us bloggers sitting at a conference table and we applaud and hoot. His warm smile lights up the room and we are just thrilled that he’s made the time to chat with us! I personally am excited as he’s already conversed with me via Twitter. Well it was almost a sentence, but it sure made my day and made us all realize how in tuned with tune with social media he really is! I had included him in a tweet asking my followers what I should ask him during this interview. His reply:
I admit that when I saw Kyle’s character, I didn’t see the resemblance. During the interview he touched on this question a bit…
There’s a couple of facial gestures that I see that I’m like Oh God that resembles me, but only for a split second, do they get me? It looks so different. You know, when they gave you the folder and said here is the character, I was like he’s got a moustache and I was like OK, that’s me, OK.
I still needed to know a bit more and found out that the mustache started as a goatee, but filmmakers wanted to emphasize that Dad doesn’t exactly fit into his new city. “We wanted to make them stand out as a conservative kind of family that just got dropped into San Francisco,” says Pixar character designer Chris Sasaki who adds that the San Francisco crowds characters are pretty stylish. “You’d be able to pick our Minnesota family out of a crowd for sure.” Now I got it!
The movie Inside Out revolves about Riley’s emotions, but we wanted to know what emotions run Kyle MacLachlan. Come to find out we are so much alike!
What would they be, controlling me? It would be Wino. He controls me after 6. I don’t know if Pete Doctor and Jonas and those guys thought of that one, and it maybe not appropriate for Riley. Coffee would be another one. Um, they’re pretty much the same. Don’t you think? And I would put underneath that silliness, just because that’s just kind of my nature. I’m pretty silly.
Kyle MacLachlan is Dad to an almost 7 year-old son Callum with wife Desiree and because he plays a father, this is a huge departure from the characters he typically plays. We asked how much of the character is really him.
It was fun to do this guy because being a Dad myself, I was able to bring a little bit of my relationship with my son in and it was encouraged actually by Pete and Jonas and Ronnie, they wanted my personality so I was happy to try different things. Some worked, most didn’t but it’s always good to throw them out.
Of course we’re moms, we ask more and more about his son and wanted to know if Callum had seen the film, if he could see and understand his son’s emotions more now, and which emotion would Kyle want to ‘babysit’ his son.
-No, he’s seen a few trailers on the Dinner scene. He loved the Dinner Scene. He says, the foot is down, the foot is down. He loves that part. He’s seen a couple moments but I’ll take him to see it at some point this summer.
-I totally see it in him. He’s coming up on 7 so they’re still trying to figure out how they all work together. Joy is the dominant one for him but he can bring in some disgust with attitude, which I’m sure he’s picked up at school. He definitely has the silly gene from me, from my Grandmother in fact. But you begin to see and recognize not only in him but in other people as well.
-Well the Protective Dad would say fear because that would keep him from doing anything, but then he wouldn’t experience everything that I would want him to experience so… I think Joy. I think kids are pretty resilient, you know, and if they got into trouble, they’d figure a way out. I love watching him come to me with an idea like Dad can you just hold this. He’s got something in his hand or something cause I want to be able to. There’s something fantastical idea in his brain, it makes complete sense, this sequence of things and I’m like, well if you do that, you’re gonna end up falling in the toilet, you understand that. And he’s like, No, No, No, No, cause he sees it a completely different way. And that to me, is the fun of having a little kid, just to listen to them, listen to their logic because it’s so completely not logical. I love that.
Kyle is so down to earth, it is easy to talk to him and he’d be a friend I’d love to spend time with and share family outings with. Maybe I’ll tweet him that. Nah, makes me sound like a stalker.
We continued with the interview and asked what specific challenges came about making an animated film.
It was all challenging just to capture the reality to get him, that the voice would have enough going on in it, you know, enough emotion, enough intensity, would match the visual, trying to get the levels just right. As I said, I’m playing him in my head but I’m not seeing him to match my performance to him. I would walk away from a session and be like OK, I think that was OK, I hope it’s OK. They’ll tell me if it’s not OK. I hope they don’t fire me. But it was one of those where there was a little bit of uncertainty each time. And I relied them to let me know OK, we need more here, less here, move this around a little bit so they really were instrumental in guiding the levels of the performance.
One of the more relatable parts of the movies between the parents is when the Mom is trying to signal the Dad and he’s tuned out, focused on something else entirely. The mom wants him to be tuned in, Riley wants him to be paying attention, it’s important to kids at this age to have their parents present physically and emotionally! Kyle told us how he felt about that scene.
Funny, that moment is so perfect in so many ways because it’s recognizable from everybody. You know, it’s Universal whether it happens to be the Dad or the Mom but it’s funny that it’s the Dad. On a deeper level, you realize he is probably had like a crazy busy day where his brain is totally fried and he just wants to come home and sit down and sort of not think for a little bit and he chooses the wrong time to go into his fog.
It’s challenging especially when you have little ones. You know, you really need to be present with them. I try to be present with my son as much as possible without being sort of intrusive, you know, and asking all sorts
of questions and you kind of want to draw them out. You have to be I think up for wherever that little brain decides to go, often times it’ll be bedtime, I’ll be sitting down and we’ll be just sort of reading a book, tucking him in. He’s getting all his Animals around him. And he’ll just pop out with something and then like ok I was tired, but I’m ready. OK, hold on a second and you want them to be OK, you want them to feel A, that they can talk to you about stuff, and B, that if they have any kind of weird stuff that they’re holding onto. I think it’s the one thing that the Dad, in that particular moment, wasn’t…
Kyle has a few years before his own son hits those tween and teen years. Since I’ve been there it’s tricky how you maneuver through but he has the right idea that you need to support the kids, help them find their way through life. Lastly we asked what Dad’s will take away from this film.
He is soft spoken kind of Dad. He’s a gentle Dad. And I think really attempting to connect with her, to understand what is going on in her brain. Pete [Docter, the director of the film] talks about that inspiration of course was his daughter and trying to understand where this vivacious outgoing joyful little creature, she turned 11. Just giving your kids a little bit of space to figure it out I think would be good. And also I think, one of the things in doing the scenes with her, you know, I attempted to connect with her. Do you want to talk about it? And you realize with kids, a lot of it is about timing so if you come to them and you’re prepared to have a nice conversation, they’re not ready. So you have to take them when they’re ready. You have to engage them when they’re ready. That could be at the most inopportune times. 4th Quarter, you know, in a great football game, you just have to walk away from the football game and engage, ’cause that’s when they’re ready.
I was already in love with Kyle MacLachlan and after this interview it’s more apparent why. After a round of group photos I ran to the restroom and returned to see Kyle still chatting with some of the bloggers. I stood back and admired him once again and then overheard the BEST thing ever, he said “ALRIGHTY!” If you’re a Sex in the City fan like I am, you know what I’m talking about! I squealed as quietly as I could as I walked past him one last time before saying goodbye. That literally made my day!
Inside Out is in theaters RIGHT NOW, if you haven’t seen it, you must! If you have seen it, go again!
You can follow Kyle MacLachlan on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. He may respond to you!
Disney sent me on a 3 day all expenses paid adventure but all the opinions are 100% my honest opinion!
MY ON-SET EXPERIENCE
Prior to arriving to the set, us bloggers sent a some questions in for Steve Harvey. Often during taping breaks, Steve heads over to the audience and chats. Well, he also got a hold of our questions and answered mine live! I was curious if he’d watched the show with Richard Dawson and got any tips from him before he began. He answered that yes he watched, but that originally he did NOT want to do the show. How could he stop himself from teasing a contestant for giving a silly answer, but ultimately he joked (I think) the money changed his mind!
My “little” nephew Jakey had graduated and we were getting together to celebrate. It was the perfect time to break out the newest members of the HandCraft Artisan wine family; the Malbec and Pinot Grigio. All 
The HandCraft Pinot Grigio is harvested in the cool evening hours to help retain the grapes natural acidity where it is cold-settled and delicately pressed. Then slow, cold temperature fermentation takes place entirely in stainless steel tanks to capture and enhance the fruit flavors and floral aroma.
Cheryl Indelicato is a third generation vintner and ensures that HandCraft wines honor their Italian heritage while celebrating their California home. HandCraft wines are available in retail outlet nationwide and pride themselves on giving back to causes such as Breast Cancer Awareness.
The story of the film develops as we see a major life change happening to Riley. This now 11-year-old hockey-loving midwesterner is uprooted and moved to San Francisco for her father’s new job. Inspired by Docter’s own daughter Ellie who at age 11 herself became a more quiet and withdrawn child, he wondered what was going on in her head and why is she changing from that effervescent child? “It’s a very personal story about what it means to be a parent,” says producer Jonas Rivera. “As a parent, there are so many perfect moments when I wish I could make time stand still forever. But that’s not right. That’s not our job. Our job is to be their guides.” “As our kids grow older, we tend to miss those days when they were little and would sit on our laps and hug us,” adds Docter. “And while all parents want their kids to go out into the world—I’m happy for my kids and want nothing more than where they are right now—but it’s bittersweet and a little sad when childhood passes by. That’s a key
In a new place, a new school, a different hockey experience, Joy gets less and less time behind the wheel of Riley’s emotions and when Sadness begins putting her hands on some of the important memories chaos begins to ensue. The relationship between Joy and Sadness forms the root of the story, and when they’re accidentally pulled up into the far reaches of Riley’s mind leaving Fear, Anger, and Disgust in the forefront of Riley’s mindset and decision making. Amongst the strife we see that Riley’s Core Memories (those that we think about and remember the most and have made us who we are) that have shaped her personality are collapsing. Joy and sadness are lost in Imagination Land (enter the cute imaginary friend Bing-Bong), Dream Productions, and Long-Term Memory very much like human emotion evolves during those tween years. “It all lines up with being an adolescent,” says co-director Ronnie del Carmen. “Riley no longer feels happy—she can’t express empathy. It happens to a lot of kids her age.” Having 3 kids aged 16, 14, and 9 this movie just speaks to me and how I can change the way I understand their thought processes and emotions. Just don’t get me started on how embarassed I was loudly sobbing when we meet the Forgetters and they’re job. Whoa.
