Christopher Robin shows what life is like now for the young boy who grew up and left behind the stuffed animal friends he shared countless adventures with in the Hundred Acre Wood. As an efficiency manager at Winslow Luggage, Christopher Robin (Ewan McGregor) spends more hours in the office than with his own family (Hayley Atwell, Bronte Carmichael), who are growing tired of his broken promises, prompting Winnie the Pooh (voiced by Jim Cummings), Eeyore (voiced by Brad Garrett), Piglet (voiced by Nick Mohammed) and Tigger (also voiced by Cummings) to leave the Hundred Acre Wood for the first time, on a mission to remind their old friend of the endless days of wonder and make-believe that defined his childhood.
During this 1-on-1 phone interview with Collider, actor Brad Garrett talked about why he was so excited and grateful to get to voice Eeyore, finding his inner Eeyore for the recording process, balancing the endearing melancholy of the character, what he thought of the look of his Eeyore, what he looks for in a project, the appeal of his upcoming ABC comedy series Single Parents, and why it’s important to take the time to do what we love with the people that we love.
Collider: I have to say that I absolutely loved this movie!
BRAD GARRETT: Nice!
I also pretty much cried every time the characters spoke because I adore them so much.
GARRETT: Did you? Oh, my goodness! Thank you so much.
When the possibility of voicing Eeyore came your way, what was your reaction? Was it something you were immediately excited about, or were you nervous and scared about doing that?
GARRETT: You know, I was so excited and so immediately grateful. I grew up a huge fan of animation. I still am. That was my safe place, as a kid. I loved getting lost in these stories and I always loved animation. Eeyore is something so iconic, and someone I’ve been compared to. There was a lot of Eeyore in my Everybody Loves Raymond character. I loved it. And many, many years ago – almost 30 years ago – I had the opportunity to voice him in a TV special for Disney. It was happening at the same time that I started to get busy as a stand-up, and I remember how excited I was, but then I got this stand-up tour that I had to go on and it got in the way of me recording Eeyore. It was one of the things where I was like, “Oh, gosh, this is really a drag!” And then, when it came around again, all these years later, I was just really, really excited. I’ve been very fortunate. I’ve done a few voices, but there’s only one Eeyore. It was a blast!
What was the key to finding your inner Eeyore, when you were voicing the character?
GARRETT: It’s funny, I’m in a place in my life where I’m looking at where the world is, and I think Eeyore is a reflection of how a lot of people are thinking in this very odd world that we’re living in right now. It’s a very divisive time that we’re living in. I think people feel put-upon and manipulated more than ever. Being a comic, we’re a glass-half-empty people. We just are. If we were glass-half-full people, we wouldn’t be funny. Comically, I come from that place. I felt a real responsibility when it came to voicing Eeyore. They handed me this iconic, internationally-loved character and I thought, “What can I bring to it? How do I stay true to it?” That’s where the director, Marc [Forster], who is brilliant, really, really helped. We wanted to keep him in that register. He has that monotone thing to it, but we also wanted to make it a little more human. He really helped me with that, greatly, as far as giving me direction that kept Eeyore a little more hopeful and a little more excited to be in London. This is the first time that these characters have left the Hundred Acre Wood, so what does that do for them? I wanted to take little points, here and there, while staying true to the character. Maybe Eeyore is a little excited to be on this adventure, or feels a little responsible having to hold these very important papers, but at the end of the day, he’s got to be Eeyore.
Eeyore is a little bit sarcastic and he likes to wallow in misery a little bit, but he has this endearing melancholy to him. Is that a difficult thing to balance?
GARRETT: Yes, it is. I love sarcasm. That’s very much in my wheelhouse. But how do you be sarcastic and not be too bitter? It’s these fine lines. You almost have to create it, where he’s succumbed to the fact that it’s always going to rain for him. He’s not angry about it. He’s not bitter about it. He’s just prepared. And I love rain, personally, so that helps.
These characters have had some different looks, over the years, and they look a little bit different in this movie. What did you think when you got to see what your Eeyore would look like, and how did you feel when you saw that character with your voice coming out of it?
GARRETT: It’s funny, when I knew, early on, how they were going to do it, I was like, “Gosh, how are you going to take stuffed animals and give them a life, and still have it seamless with live actors?” Leave it to Disney. When I saw some of the early footage, I was like, “This is unbelievable!” What helped me with it was when you see the characters in their vintage stuffed animal state. They have that vintage look. That helped me greatly with Eeyore because Eeyore has always sounded like he has an age to him. He’s really the only character in the group that sounds like he has a lot of life experience. Pooh does, too. Pooh is the Yoda of all of us. But looking at the vintage feel of the way the characters were animated, really helped me even more. He’s a little tattered, and one ear is maybe longer than the other, and the tail is still tacked on. The vintage vibe for me was how I was able to be even more true to his voice. I was familiar with all of the other wonderful actors who played Pooh before me, but I stayed away from listening to what they did. I was familiar with Ralph Wright’s rendition, Peter [Cullen] is brilliant, and Ron Feinberg was even a friend of mine when I started in animation. I knew that he had to have that monotone. His rhythm is very succinct. For it to last longer, I had to find the different moments to tweak his level and his rhythm.
I loved that Eeyore is the one that gets to read the goodbye poem to Christopher Robin because it’s such an important moment, and it was left to Eeyore.
GARRETT: Yeah, that was probably my favorite thing, actually.
At this point in your career, what is it that gets you excited about a project, and what gets you to say, “You know, maybe that just isn’t for me”?
GARRETT: That’s a wonderful question. I know this sounds corny, but I try to stress this when I teach – because I teach a sitcom class, once in a while, to actors – that you’ve gotta stay grateful. It’s a difficult business, but you’ve gotta keep that gratefulness, knowing that whether you’re working or not, you’re pursuing what you love, and few people get to do that. I’ve been very lucky. I’ve worked very hard, but I’m very fortunate that good luck has shined on me. This opportunity with Eeyore was really a full circle for me. It was something that I really, really wanted to play again. But the key, for me, is to continue to try to reinvent myself. I got an opportunity on the Showtime series I’m Dying Up Here to do a really dramatic role. They were so wonderful. They wrote the role for me, and it’s something that I rarely get to play. He’s a dramatic, flawed, messed up character, and though I was able to relate to him, very well, for a lot of reasons, I try to find the roles that are different, that scare me, and that make me happy. I love animation because it just takes me back to that time in my life when things were simpler. I started in voice-overs way before I got any on-camera work, and it’s just a cool place for me. It grounds me, and I get to be a kid because of my love for animation. I try to find things that challenge me because I get bored really easy. I want to try to find that thing that fills me again, which I think is the key to anything. I’m staying grateful, knowing that I’m doing what I dreamed of doing when I was 10. I’ve got nothing but gratefulness right now. I’m sure I’ll get an attitude in a week, but today, I’m in my grateful Eeyore mode, if there’s such a thing.
I thought you were great on I’m Dying Up Here and on Fargo.
GARRETT: Thank you! That’s sweet.
You’re sticking with the Disney family and doing a new ABC TV series, called Single Parents, which looks like a ton of fun. Was that the appeal doing that show? Did you want to work with a really fun ensemble?
GARRETT: That had a lot to do with it, and that Taran Killam was involved in it. I’m such an SNL fan. And then, I read the pilot script and went, “Wow, this is unique!” I’ve never seen a show where single parents – which I have been for the last 14 years – are represented, and we’re not trying to be great parents and examples. We’re average parents, just trying to get through difficult situations with our kids. The ensemble is just terrific, the writing from Liz Meriwether is awesome, and J.J Philbin is great. Leighton Meester, from Gossip Girl is great. It just had that chemistry during the pilot, which is very, very rare. Are people going to watch it? That would be great! I think they’re gonna relate to it. But at the end of the day, it’s about what the writing like and what the ensemble like. I have very high hopes for it. I feel very, very fortunate to be in this group.
One of the biggest aspects of Winnie the Pooh is that he just likes to hang out and do the things he loves with the people that he loves. Nothing is really more important to him than that. Do you feel like that’s something we really should all make a little extra effort to do, in our lives?
GARRETT: Absolutely! I was raised like that. I was raised that it’s about family, it’s about relationships, and it’s about friendships. I hate to say it, but you’re seeing it, less and less, in our society, for whatever reason. No film is gonna change anyone’s life, but what you hope it does is turn on a light, even if it’s just for a couple of hours. You hope it just renders people the ability to know that what it’s about is really a lot simpler and maybe right in front of us. I’m just so happy and thrilled that Pooh didn’t have a cell phone, or something like that. I was like, “Oh, thank goodness!” I just hope the film harkens back to the simpler times of all of our childhoods. Children will be watching it, for the first time, and it’s gonna be so different. It’s not gonna be one of those loud, explosive films. It has a kindness about it, which is what Pooh is all about. He’s about revelation without being preachy. He helps you discover, on your own. He gives you a clue, as opposed to telling you how to live. He’s like, “What about this?” That’s the vibe that I love.
Christopher Robin opens in theaters on August 3rd.
