Go behind-the-scenes of the new Universal Pictures’ animated film this exclusive The Bad Guys interview, actresses Lilly Singh & Zazie Beetz Have A Message for Young Girls. #TheBadGuys May contain commissioned links.
The Bad Guys’ Lilly Singh & Zazie Beetz Have A Message for Young Girls
The movie may be called ‘The Bad Guys,’ but not if the women have anything to say about it.
When I sat down with actresses Lilly Singh and Zazie Beetz, I had no idea that we were in for a DEEP, DEEP girl talk conversation. Two of the few lady actors in the film (along with Awkwafina), Zazie Beetz who plays Diane Foxington and Lilly Singh, aka Tiffany Fluffit in the all-new Universal Pictures’ animated film The Bad Guys in theaters on April 22nd had a lot to say about being 2 of the few girl characters cast in the movie. Judgment, power, context, and whew, growing up as a young girl in today’s society, these powerhouse women actresses dish on behind-the-scenes of making movie and giving hope to the future in this exclusive The Bad Guys interview.
Challenges of Making The Bad Guys Movie
You go into a booth, repeat a bunch of lines, and call it a day. What can be so hard about that? If anyone ever tells you that voice acting for an animated film is easy, they’re wrong. Both Zazie Beetz and Lilly Singh confess to the challenges of creating their lady characters for The Bad Guys book series turned movie. And it wasn’t all fluff and stuff.
Zazie Beetz admitted that finding co-star Diane Foxington’s voice was her biggest challenge. “I think it was the first two sessions, it was like I don’t know if we’re totally landing this character.”
But Beetz wasn’t beat down by failure. Instead, she rose to the challenge. “It took a few sessions before we really honed in on…who [Diane] is today. And then, once we finally did it was so clear and then we ended up re-taping a bunch of stuff.”
While Lilly Singh had no trouble finding the voice of bunny reporter Tiffany Fluffitt, time was her biggest challenge. Being a blogger/YouTuber herself, she was used to instant results. But with over 3 year span to create The Bad Guys movie, she admits time was not on her side.
“…coming from the interwebs, I’m not used to things taking so long. And so, we’ve been doing this voice-over work for, like three years.”
“So, each time I would do session, I’d be like ‘wait, what is this scene about? What is this part of the story?’ That was tough for me to put myself back in that headspace again, after months and months would go by in between sessions.”
Singh admitted that making a movie is not easy, at all. “Animation is really, really hard work.”
A Little Advice on Passing Judgment
Critique can be harsh, especially in the movie industry where people are constantly watching and judging who you are and what you do. Beetz and Singh are no strangers to the world of judgment. And with The Bad Guys movie focusing on judgment in particular, these co-leading ladies have a few words for young girls.
Zazie Beetz did not beat around the bush, telling girls to not let people lead your life, “You really have to dictate what YOU want to do and what YOU want to bring into the world.
“The people that accept who you are the people that you end up also attracting. And you end up opening so much more for yourself and you find out that you’re so much more resilient than you thought you were.
And then, that judgment almost feels negligible.”
As a fellow blogger, Lilly Singh has had a lot of time to analyze judgment as a content creator and now an actress. Passionate and unwavering, she had no problem articulating what years of opinionated internet trolls have taught her about judgment. “What I concluded was that judgment involves someone else telling me what they think the truth is and then, the reason it would get to me was because I would then give them permission to tell me that. I would give people who have never met me permission to tell me who I was.
“In that equation the part where someone else tells me something — that’s probably not gonna change. I can’t control that person. But what I can control is me giving that person permission.
And that’s what I’ve been trying to work on, is being like, ‘you know what, I actually no longer give you the permission to tell me this about my life. You can keep doing it. But it doesn’t hold that value to me anymore.’
So, I think that’s really what has helped me, is not giving them that power and instead placing that power within me.”
The Bad Guys Movie Message…Hope
So what can kids expect from watching The Bad Guys movie this April? That movie titles can be deceiving. And that Bad Guys may not actually be bad.
According to Beetz, “[The Bad Guys] encourages you to be your highest self, and to not allow an expectation or a narrative around you to dictate what you’re going to do with your life. It encourages breaking out of molds that were made for you and to create your own mold.”
If bad is black and good is white. People are gray, according to Singh. “I think this movie is so timely. Everything is usually very black and white. It’s usually good – bad, yes – no, wrong – right. I don’t think humans can operate in these extremes. I don’t think [people] belong in one category or the other. I think people exist in this gray area.
“And I think this movie teaches you that bad guys aren’t ‘just bad,’ Singh admits. “Everyone has context. Everyone deserves context. I think we owe people, we owe it to ourselves to treat each other like human beings.”
Singh begs people to see beyond the animal characters and look at our hearts. “Even though these are all animals in the movie, it is really about human nature and how we love to easily define and label. We don’t need to do that. We don’t need to be that lazy. We can give people context.”
If there are any bigger takeaways from this exclusive The Bad Guys interview with Lilly Singh and Zazie Beetz, it’s how much they care about getting out the positive messages to kids everywhere – and give them the inspiration to change the world, for the better.
See Diane Foxington and Tiffany Fluffit in Universal Pictures’ The Bad Guys Movie, racing into theaters on Friday April 22, 2022. Will your little girls (and boys) be watching?
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Ready to see your kids’ favorite book characters on the screen? After reading this The Bad Guys Interview, my family is! The Bad Guys crashes into theaters on Friday April 22, 2022. Grab your 19 pages of FREE The Bad Guys Coloring Pages & Kids Activities! Be sure to follow The Bad Guys on social for the latest trailer releases, sneak peeks and more. And be on the lookout for The Bad Guys Movie Review | Safe for Kids? Parents Guide to the film – with a full breakdown of the PG rating for parents coming soon.
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I was invited to The Bad Guys Press Conference in exchange for this The Bad Guys Interview with Zazie Beetz and Lilly Singh. All photos courtesy of DreamWorks. Be sure to follow Raising Whasians for more movie updates, celebrity interviews, entertainment and behind-the-scenes info!
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