Elemental Stars Talk the Challenge of Joining Pixar (Exclusive)

Elemental is the latest film from Pixar Animation Studios, and it’s the first animated feature to star Jurrasic World: Dominion‘s Mamoudou Athie and Nancy Drew‘s Leah Lewis. The duo plays Wade and Ember, a water-based man and a fire-based woman who spark an unlikely romance in Element City. In honor of the new film, ComicBook.com had the chance to chat with Athie and Lewis, who talked about the challenge of their first big animated roles, and explained how they created their characters’ onscreen chemistry despite not working together during their recording sessions. 

“I actually love a challenge,” Lewis explained. “Yeah. This was quite daunting, being like, ‘Okay, how am I going to literally lead a Pixar film?’ I also think it was incredibly exciting. When you plug in and you’re like, ‘Okay, we’re here. I’m dialed in.’ I just got to experiment. Again, Peter, our director, was so wonderful with encouraging, stepping outside of the box, trying different things, and also getting to know us as human beings and seeing what he could draw from our personal lives.”

She continued, “I think it required a great deal of effort to make sure that what I was saying was actually coming through in the animation, because they didn’t really even show us anything played back. I think one of the funnest challenges was just finding the voices and just finding all the different efforts. I’m like, ‘How do I run outside of a train? How do I bump into water? How do I fit into this tiny little crevice when I’m chasing Wade?’ All those things were such a challenge to find in a good way.” 

Athie added, “Yeah. How to talk of a snow globe in your mouth.” 

“Zip, nada. That was all Peter Sohn,” Lewis revealed when asked how much she and Athie worked together. “We spent the most time with him, Denise Ream, John [Hoberg] and Kat [Likkel], our writers, and then Kara Brownie, our script supervisor. It was all of them, but especially just Peter, who was able to direct us in the right way. He played mock Wade for me, mock Bernie, mock Cinder, and he was great at pulling that emotion out of me as well.” 

What Is Elemental About?

Elemental is an all-new original feature film that transports moviegoers to Element City, a place where a host of elements live and work. The trailer showcases each element—air, earth, water, and fire—and what sets them apart according to Ember (Leah Lewis), a quick-witted and fiery woman who’s always stayed close to home in Firetown. In Elemental, she finally ventures out of her comfort zone to explore this spectacular world born from the imaginations of Pixar’s filmmakers and specifically crafted for the big-screen experience. Element City is inspired by big cities around the globe and embraces theorized contributions from each elemental community—from giant pine-tree-like buildings and waterfall skyscrapers to a tornado-shaped arena called Cyclone Stadium. The film also stars Mamoudou Athie as Wade, the watery and lovable man who helps Ember get out of her comfort zone. 

Elemental opens in theaters on June 16th.