When I was at the Cars 3 event in LA, I had the opportunity to do an exclusive group interview with Owen Wilson, Kerry Washington, Cristela Alonzo, and Armie Hammer. This interview was so much fun! To be honest (I always am…) it felt more like hanging out with 4 friends at a party, rather than a question and answer interview. These four actors made it so much fun to hang out! They were able to instantly bring smiles.
It amazes me how much chemistry they had, when most of their voice recording was done on their room in a recording booth.
Photo: Momstart.com, Cars 3 Cast Interview With Owen Wilson, Kerry Washington, Cristela Alonzo & Armie Hammer…#Cars3Event
Owen Wilson was more of the funny father figure (only because he has been part of the Cars franchise for years) of the group. He was sweet, silly, and kept joking an talking about their the others’ mentor. At one point when taking our group photo, he leaned over to my friend and asked, “Do you need a mentor.” This was a total joke on all of the back and forth banter and laughing during this “interview”. Owen has been part of the franchise for years. He got involved in the part after meeting John Lassiter for dinner.
{{Owen Wilson voices Lightning McQueen! }}
Photo: Momstart.com, Cars 3 Cast Interview With Owen Wilson, Kerry Washington, Cristela Alonzo & Armie Hammer…#Cars3Event
Cristela Alonzo brought complete laughter into the room. I couldn’t help but LOVE her laugh. She chuckled and laughed with everyone and about everything. She is so funny and definitely loves to make people laugh! When getting involved in Cars 3, we learned that they inited her to visit Pixar. While she was there they asked her to sign papers. “And it wasn’t until they gave me a tour and then they sat me down in an office and broke down this Cruz character, and immediately I thought wait a minute, this is a job interview, like I would have dressed up better for you,” explained Cristela. She got signed onto the film and started working on it in 2015.
{{Cristela Alonzo voices Cruz Ramirez! }}
Photo: Momstart.com, Cars 3 Cast Interview With Owen Wilson, Kerry Washington, Cristela Alonzo & Armie Hammer…#Cars3Event
Kerry Washington was everything you would expect! She has true charm and poise! She gave one of the best responses in the interview and was very humble! Yes, although Kerry shines with confidence she showed some humility when answering our questions. She got involved int he film after Cristela. When she got started she shared, “There was a roll to play, like a super know it all, bossy pants character, super arrogant, so would I be willing to go way against type? I said yeah and I just honestly been a fan of this franchise from a long time.”
{{Kerry Washington voices Natalie Certain! }}
Photo: Momstart.com, Cars 3 Cast Interview With Owen Wilson, Kerry Washington, Cristela Alonzo & Armie Hammer…#Cars3Event
Armie Hammer was very sweet, funny, and charming! He gave us tons of smiles, played with a miniature car toy the entire interview, and was amazingly sweet! He shared with us that he didn’t have a great story on how he got involved in Cars 3, but he did get a call.
{{Armie Hammer voices Jackson Storm! }}
Here are some more highlights from our interview:
Q: Brian Fee said that you were the nicest guy in the world (Armie).
Armie: Lies.
Q: …That you channeled your inner jerk for the character. How hard was that?
Armie: I was funny because, you know, I mean, I had like good, strict parents, always told you to be nice to everybody and all that, so then you get in the recording, but they’re like no, we really want you to kind of really jerk it up, like be like the biggest jerk.
((Insert Spoilers about Cruz Here…Sorry you will have to wait.)) 🙂
Q: Is there a little piece of character that relates to the child in you?
Cristela: “I will tell you that the Cruz character started out as a boy, and they decided to make it into a female, a girl car. And John Lasseter actually came into the sound booth when I was recording one day, and I thanked him for giving me the opportunity to be part of a Pixar movie. And I was just telling Kerry like every time a talk about anything, I try to talk about where I come from, how I grew up, blah, blah, blah, get very personal very quick. And I started telling him how I just never thought I was going to be a possibility, you know.” Then she continued with, “My family always told me to dream small, and it was that thing where they told me to dream small because they didn’t want my heart broken.”
Q: Is there something about this character that you can learn from?
Kerry: “it’s made me think a lot about is sort of this disposable society that we live in, because Natalie Certain is so sure that Storm in going to win, because of the numbers, you know. She’s just so sure, and she’s certain that you can kind of discount everybody else because of the hot, new thing is the way to go. And I think we have to be really careful about that as a society.” She continued, “I mean, I heard a story recently, it’s so random but I heard a story recently about how Rutgers University paid more money than they’d ever paid to any visiting adjust speaker person ever the year that Snooki came to teach. That’s not, there’s no judgment on that, but she’s a reality star and that was the same year that Maya Angelo spoke at their commencement. And it just made me realize that we can sometimes, I think, prioritize hot and new more than we prioritize wise and creative.”
Q: Cars has such a mentor-mentee thread running through it. Who are your mentors, either personally or professionally?
Owen: It just feels good to be a mentor.
Then the other three actors joked about all of their posters they have of Owen and how much he mentors them every day. There was tons of back and forth and lots of jokes in this part of the interview! I wish I could have recorded this!
Q: How does it feel to be a role model for racers?
Owen: “Ah, being a role model for, well, I went to Daytona 500 and, you know, and it just gives you, it’s nice to be a part of a movie that, you know, seems to have meant a lot to people and particularly racers, ’cause everybody at Daytona 500 seemed to like cars, so…”
Cristela: “It turns out people at NASCAR like cars.”
**So many laughs in this interview!**
Armie also shared about his road trip and shared lots of sarcasm about going cross country!
About Cars 3:
Blindsided by a new generation of blazing-fast cars, the legendary Lighting McQueen finds himself pushed out of the sport that he loves. Hoping to get back in the game, he turns to Cruz Ramirez, an eager young technician who has her own plans for winning. With inspiration from the Fabulous Hudson Hornet and a few unexpected turns, No. 95 prepares to compete on Piston Cup Racing’s biggest stage.
Cars 3 will be playing in theaters June 16, 2017! Be sure to check out my Cars 3 World Premiere photos! Don’t forget to read my review!