I Am Groot Director Kirsten Lepore Fit Right in With MCU Work (Exclusive Interview)

I Am Groot was director Kirsten Lepore’s first foray in the Marvel Cinematic Universe but hardly her first go with animation. With an award-winning resumé, Lepore stepped into oversee the first Guardians of the Galaxy title not to be directed by James Gunn (though, the characters have appeared in a few other titles under different creatives). To bring I Am Groot to animated life, Lepore faced a challenge others who step into Marvel often face: fitting into the MCU. This process called for collaboration with Gunn, researching moments in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and other marvelous challenges for the director.

“Guardians 2, I studied it like front to back, you know, as research for this character, obviously,” Lepore told ComicBook.com. The series mostly takes place between the events of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2’s main story and its post-credits scene where Groot has grown into an adolescent. “We really carefully made sure we went through all those moments and also had conversations with James Gunn about the character, just to make sure that we could really do him justice and sort of keep his heart and soul throughout our series. That opening sequence when he’s dancing and they’re all fighting and everything, incredible, very inspirational for the series.”

Gunn seems to have been involved in those early talks for I Am Groot quite a bit, as the Marvel Studios teams collaborated to bring this animated project together. “I had great meetings with James at several points in the process, the most pivotal one being like our initial kickoff meeting, where we basically just discussed this amazing character that he created, just to make sure we could do Baby Groot the way we’re supposed to,” Lepore recalled. “And I remember him telling me like, ‘Oh yeah, he’s a bad baby. And also he’s like an emoji guy,’ which cracked me up. And I kept like repeating that in meetings. I was like, ‘We gotta make sure that we’re just like nailing these poses and facial expressions,’ because you know, all he has is two eyes and a mouth. He doesn’t even have a nose it’s a very limited face. So it’s like just like an emoji, nails and emotion and expression, we had to do that with Groot, as well.”

Of course, you don’t have Groot without Vin Diesel’s voice (except when you do, in times of the production where Lepore had to use her own voice for that of Groot). According to the director, Diesel brings his own flair to the character in ways which are often his idea. “It’s all his own flavor. It’s like, it’s really become his character,” Lepore said. “We had a fantastic record session with him and he just like, you know, came out swing and it was awesome. It was like he would watch the episode. It was the first time he had seen it and then stepped up to the, you know, stepped up to the plate and just ran through the whole thing and just nailed it like the first time. So he just gave us like such a wealth of incredible stuff that it made our lives really easy.” 

With Diesel’s Groot being the only consistent character in the series, a cameo from Rocket Raccoon was “a luxury” afforded to the animated series, something which made sense as both characters are computerized in the Guardians of the Galaxy movies and fit naturally into the photo-realistic animation of I Am Groot. “I just love their dynamic so much because it’s sort of like this parent-son dynamic, but also they’re just buddies in the end,” Lepore said. “So, it was awesome. And recording Bradley [Cooper] was awesome, of course.”

I Am Groot is in the midst of getting positive remarks from fans watching it today on Disney+, many complimenting its animation and the fun laughs it offers. Marvel’s head of streaming Brad Winderbaum credited Lepore for its success before it was released. “We wanted to bring Baby Groot back to the screen for a long time after Guardians 2 and the question was like, ‘When?’ but also, ‘Why?’” Winderbaum recalled. “In talking to Kevin [Feige], there was an idea of doing them as short films, kind of like the original animated shorts that launched Walt Disney in the first place where he didn’t have to be a perfect angel all the time. He could be a little mischievous scam. And in looking for filmmakers and looking at Kirsten’s past films, it became really clear that she would be the person that that would bring voice to this little guy.”

What do you think of I Am Groot? Share your thoughts in the comment section or send them my way on Twitter! Watch ComicBook.com’s full interview with Lepore and Winderbaum on the Phase Zero YouTube channel. I Am Groot is available now on Disney+.