The first Sing movie introduced us to an especially lovable group of characters including Tori Kelly’s Meena, Taron Egerton’s Johnny, Reese Witherspoon’s Rosita, Scarlett Johansson’s Ash and Nick Kroll’s Gunter. One might think you can’t get much better than that, but thanks to the first film’s warm reception and great success, director Garth Jennings had no problem adding more huge talents to the voice cast.
Sing 2 introduces us to Bono’s Clay Calloway. Once a megastar, Clay’s been out of the spotlight for over a decade, struggling to cope with the loss of his wife. When Buster Moon (Matthew McConaughey) promises ruthless mogul Jimmy Crystal (Bobby Cannavale) that he’ll get Clay involved in their big city show, he’s got to figure out how to do the impossible and get Clay to perform again. Adding to Buster’s challenges, he’s also pressured into including Jimmy’s daughter, Porsha (Halsey), in the production. Yes, she’s fearless and can sing, but can can she really headline “Out of This World?”
With Sing 2 now playing in theaters nationwide, I got the chance to talk to Jennings about his experience making the move from the first film to the sequel. Again, 2016’s Sing features a large main ensemble. It’s quite impressive that Jennings and his team managed to give all of them meaningful arcs in a sub-2-hour movie. Now in Sing 2, Jennings does it again — with an even bigger group of lead characters.
“Finding that rhythm to go from one story back to another to another, that’s actually probably the trickiest part of the entire process to get that rhythm right, to make it feel natural and easy. I don’t know. What’s the secret to that? Effort! And trying and trying, and making sure that you feel it.”
Jennings also took a moment to narrow it down to one particular character, pinpointing the Sing 2 storyline that was the most challenging to get right.
“I suppose the hardest one for me was the Clay Calloway story because it’s dealing with grief and you want to honor that feeling. You don’t want to shortchange people and be superficial, but at the same time, you can’t be too heavy because you’re gonna then push people away, so it’s finding that balance and that was the one that we were fine tuning right until the end of just how much you show.”
There was no way I was wrapping up our conversation without bringing up Halsey who is downright electric as Porsha. Yes, one might expect her to nail the musical numbers, but her work bringing the character to life beyond the songs is equally as impressive.
“Halsey just can do anything! Every five minutes she’s doing something spectacular, whether it’s painting — have you seen her paintings? They’re amazing! They’re not just good, they’re amazing. And obviously she’s an amazing performer and singer. And then turns up and just nails it in front of a microphone being Porsha, with real gusto. There’s no half measure with her. She was like, ‘Oh, I get it,’ and bang! You can’t ask for more when you’re directing a film like this to have people of that caliber give everything they’ve got.”
Looking to hear more from Jennings about the making of Sing 2? Be sure to catch our full chat in the video interview at the top of this article!