When I attended the world premiere of Disney/Pixar’s Brave, I had the chance to interview Kelly Macdonald, along with the other bloggers in attendance. Today I want to share with you some of the questions and answers that we had during the press event. It was wonderful to get the see the real person who makes the voice come to life.
The following are questions that were asked by different bloggers during the interview portion of this trip. I hope you enjoy getting to learn what we learned for the amazing and talented Kelly Macdonald. The first question is the questioned I asked, the others are from different bloggers in the room, I am not sure who asked which one or I would be sure to share.
My question to Kelly: What do you hope girls will take from this character?
Kelly: I think to me the biggest thing is I don’t think about Merida as being a princess particularly. I think she happens to be a princess, but it’s not who she is. And I think the biggest thing is that Merida’s a teenage girl who makes some bad choices. And she doesn’t need a prince to come in and rescue her and make it all better. She acknowledges she’s made mistakes. Then she sets out to try and repair the damage she’s done. And she apologizes. It’s a big thing, apologizing. I think that’s the real message.
Q: How did you channel your inner teenager?
Kelly: To be honest I didn’t really think about it when I first went in. When I first went in it wasn’t really like an audition situation. They asked me to go in and read a couple of pages. I kinda thought, “I’ll go in and do that.” I hadn’t really thought about the fact she was a teenager. It was when I got there they told me all about the character. Then I suddenly was in front of a microphone and I didn’t quite know what I was gonna do. And then, I think the dialogue just really helped because, you know, most of her dialogue is directed to her mom in a very obnoxious teenage way. So, as soon as I started saying the word “mom” [LAUGHS] I was like right back to being a teenager. [LAUGHS] Which is what happens when I go home as well. So yeah, I’m looking forward to my mother seeing the film. I think she’ll be a nervous wreck when she comes out.
Q: Were you able to relate personally to such a strong character?
Kelly: Well I must have quite a strong personality. I’m not overtly sort of, um, I’m not aggressively sort of, uh, [LAUGHS] anything. I kind of, I’ve known what I wanted to do and I’m doing it. So I must have had some sort of drive. And I think the characters I play have usually it’s like an inner drive. With Merida it’s outwards and she’s very vocal about it. And she’s much more feisty, openly feisty, than characters that I normally play.
Q: What was your favorite scene in the movie?
Kelly: I love the montage where — where she’s seeing her mother in a different light. When she’s teaching her mother how to fend for herself in the wild. And her mother, the bear. I just think that montage is really lovely. And I really liked, at the very beginning of the film, when she’s saying, “This is my life and this is what I do and this is my perfect day.” And she gets on Angus and rides out of the castle to sort of have her ideal day. And I just think like that kind of made me tearful for some reason. I like the whole thing. I have to see it again. I can’t wait.
Q: Do you do the voices with the other actors at all?
Kelly: No. You’re not completely on your own. You’ve got the directors like Mark Andrews and the crew director and producer, Steve Purcell. I would read my dialogue with them. I think when you’re recording voices you would end up talking over each other. And I think maybe in certain situations — certain scenes in certain films — that works if people are improvising. You know, I think John Goodman and Billy Crystal did some of their stuff together, um, just so that they could do a bit of improvisational stuff. But I suspect that they then would have to do — do it separately themselves after they’re done.
Kelly Macdonald was such a sweet, down to earth person. I loved her voice as Merida and to me she fit the part perfectly. I could not imagine another voicing Merida. Don’t forget to go see Brave, which hit theaters today! Check out us bloggers with the wonderful Kelly Macdonald:
Don’t forget to keep up with all things Brave on their website, check out Brave on Facebook and follow@DisneyPixar on twitter for all the latest happenings. It opens today so head out and see it in theaters, even the crowds are worth dealing with for this one folks. Also, check out and keep up with all my other #BraveCarsLandEvent posts!
Disclosure: Disney/Pixar sponsored my travel, accommodations and activities during the #BraveCarsLandEvent. All opinions expressed are 100% honest and my own.
Toni Patton
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Kelly Macdonald: Yeah. I think ’Brave’ has these great themes of family, fate and bravery. And I think everybody can relate to those things. Then you add this sweeping Scottish landscape, and then these really interesting, loveable characters. ‘Brave’ is set in a sort of medieval Scotland, it’s not very time specific. It’s a kind of magical kingdom. You get this strong sense of Scottish folk-lore, they’ve got these Will-o’-the-wisps that are talked about, but nobody believes in them. Merida sees one when she’s a young girl and knows that they’re real. So there’s this magical aspect to it as well. It’s really a young girls coming-of-age story. It’s that time, it’s time for her to grow up and she’s reluctant.