Pixar’s latest animated feature Onward follows two teenage elf brothers, Ian (voiced by Tom Holland) and Barley (voiced by Chris Pratt), who embark on an extraordinary quest to discover whether there is still magic in the world. Upon Ian’s 16th birthday, the boys’ father, who died when they were too young to remember him, wanted them to be able to share one last day together, but when the spell doesn’t go quite as planned, they end up conjuring only their dad’s legs, and they have 24 hours to fully bring him back before he vanishes forever.

At a conference during the film’s Los Angeles press day, co-stars Tom Holland and Chris Pratt talked about what it means to get to be a part of a Pixar film, how they related to their elf characters, the voice recording process, their own real-life road trip experiences, why you should fully experience the world around you, what they’ve taught and learned from their own brothers, and which person in their lives they’d like to bring back for one day. Pratt also shared his grievances about the very uncomfortable couch he was sitting on for this interview.

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Image via Pixar

Question: What did it mean to you guys to enter the world of Pixar?

TOM HOLLAND: I think that every young actor sets goals, and I have mine that I set when I was a kid. They’re still the same today, and one of them was being in a Pixar movie. So, when they were kind enough to fly all the way to London to meet me, to tell me your story, and to pitch me the movie, I was just so humbled. That is the first time anyone had come to me. I was like, “This is amazing. It’s Pixar.” It was a very easy decision. You don’t say no to Pixar. The nice thing about it is that they have this family feel, that Marvel also has. We were welcomed into this wonderful family with such open arms, and it was such an amazing process. I still can’t quite believe that this film is about to come out. It feels like yesterday, that we started working on it. I’m just super pumped to see it and to experience this amazing thing that we’ve all created.

How did you find yourself relating to your elf characters?

HOLLAND: It’s interesting, I’m the oldest brother of four, and Chris is the youngest brother of two, so we switched, and I was playing the younger brother while he was playing the younger brother. It was really nice for us to make that switch. And because Chris and I, obviously, are so close already, before we even came onto this film, so it was almost like we were just playing ourselves. But the similarities between Ian and myself, go back to more when I was in my early teens, 12 or 13. I was a little bit of an introvert. I was a very nervous kid, and I had a hard time in school. It wasn’t until I went on this adventure that was Billy Elliot, where I came out of my shell, and I became more confident in myself and believed in myself. What drew me so much to this character was that we get to see that entire journey that I went on, as a kid, in Ian, throughout this film. So, I just was really happy to pour my past experiences into this process, and I’m really delighted and thrilled with where we got to.

CHRIS PRATT: These couches are really nice looking, but this is built for somebody who has a room that no one will ever sit in. This is a couch for a very rich person. As soon as someone sits on this couch, they’d be like, “Yeah, let’s take this back.” So, that was just a quick criticism of the couch.

One thing that I really liked, and I’m not sure that it was ever intentional, or if I just noticed this while watching the movie, but it was a note that (writer/director) Dan [Scanlon] gave me, that was actually against my own instinct, but I’m very glad we went with what he wanted on this, which was that Barley is never jealous of the fact that he didn’t have the magic gift. That, to me, is something very similar to my own relationship with my brother, in which I was the Ian. I was the younger brother. I was Ian, and my brother was Barley. My brother, for instance, always wanted to be an actor. He did plays. The first time I ever saw my mom cry was watching him do a Christmas play, and I was like, “Wow, that’s amazing! Being an actor is awesome. I wanna be an actor.” My brother did all of these assemblies in high school, so I followed his footsteps and I did all of the assemblies. Anyways, he went into the Army and didn’t become an actor, but I became an actor. And there’s that moment where Barley realizes that Ian has the gift. I was like, “Do you think Barley wishes that he had the magic gift? He’s the one who loves magic, but he wasn’t able to do this, and his younger brother was.”

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Image via Disney•Pixar

I think the heart of the film is the fact that he loves his brother so much, that he’s just so proud that he’s been given this gift. When I saw that in the movie and how they express, it really made me appreciate how my brother was with me. My whole life, my brother has always, during my career, only ever been super encouraging and positive about what I’ve been able to do, as an actor. That’s what makes this brotherhood and this relationship so special. That’s why grown men come up to me and say, “Wow, I was really moved. I really cried. This is like Field of Dreams or Radio Flyer to me.” And the reason why is because it celebrates a love between brothers and that brotherhood, and that oftentimes is not something that you see in movies. What you see is the older brother who doesn’t let the younger brother hang out with him, doesn’t take him to school, and says, “Get out of here, nerd! Get out of here, twerp!” It’s that contentious brotherhood. You see that, all the time. It’s a caricature of what real relationships are with brothers. The truth is, brothers love each other, and so I loved that.

I probably identify more with Ian, in terms of my own relationship with my brother, but I really loved that moment. I’m glad that they stuck with that ‘cause it’s great. I’m always bullying directors into doing what I wanna do, and I couldn’t do that with Dan. He made me do exactly what he wanted, all the time, and I’m just so glad. His vision is all over this thing, and it’s really, really good. It’s very special. It’s like what Bong Joon Ho said about that Martin Scorsese comment, that the more personal it is, the more original it is, or something like that. And this is so personal, so creative, and so original because of [Dan]. All right, fuck this couch.

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Image via Pixar

There’s such a great dynamic between you guys in the film. Did you guys actually get to be in the recording booth together, or did you have to do all of your work separately?

PRATT: Actually, both. There were moments that we were brought together, and I think maybe part of that had to do with just getting a model of what our relationship would be like, how we interact with one another, and goof around. It’s not the most conducive to creating clean audio tracks that are usable in the movie, so ultimately you may see something you’d like to model the behavior on, and then capture that with us separate. That was oftentimes the case. With the LEGO Movie, we did a lot of riffing. There were a lot of improv comedians in there, and there’s a certain magic that’s found in the moment and that doesn’t exist on the page. I don’t think that there was a lot of that in this because what’s on the page here was so magical and so protected. We didn’t colloquialize a ton. Maybe a little bit, but for the most part, everything we say was what was written in the script, so they isolated us to do that. But at the same time, they brought us together, so that we could shoot some promotional stuff, with Tom and I together, ‘cause let’s talk about that chemistry. It’s an explosion and a chemical reaction, and you wanna get that heat.

HOLLAND: It’s funny, with improvising on this job, you’d improvise, and then you’d hear Dan go, “Can you just do it as scripted, please? Just do as you’re told.”

This is very much a road trip movie. What are your road trip experiences like?

PRATT: One really good thing that I learned, right when I was learning to drive, was that the chunk of cement that’s closest to your house, connects to every major monument in this country, through a system of roads. Your driveway connects to a road that connects to another road that connects to a highway, and with enough gas money and an automobile, you can see Mt. Rushmore, you can see the Grand Canyon, you can see Yellowstone, you can see the White House, you can go down to the Florida Keys, and you can see Montana in about 17 days. There’s just a great and beautiful country, and it was designed to be driven across. You don’t have to drive in the city, but don’t sleep on getting behind the wheel and just exploring this country. We used to road trip everywhere, and it’s American. It’s the big, wide frontier, and you can literally get anywhere with enough gas money.

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Image via Disney/Pixar

This movie shows what’s happened, as a result of people having left the tradition of magic behind. Is that a metaphor for kids today not getting out and exploring, and instead sitting in front of various screens?

HOLLAND: To me, the only way to go onward is to look forward, and you can’t look forward, if you’re looking at your phone. I deleted my Instagram, much to Disney’s dismay because I couldn’t promote the movie. The movie is a metaphor for looking at the world because it’s an amazing place. It’s a beautiful place that you should experience through your own eyes and not someone else’s Instagram. It’s right in front of you.

What is something that you taught your own brothers, in real life, or that they’ve taught you?

HOLLAND: How to be gracious losers because I’m a terrible loser. They’ve learned what not to do from their big brother.

PRATT: It’s such a good question ‘cause I could list, for days, the things that I learned from my brother, but I can’t think of anything that I might’ve taught him. I’m gonna call him, immediately, and make him tell me. I would literally wear his clothes, the day after he wore them. I would pick them up off of his floor and put his clothes on because had nice smelling cologne and he had style. He knew how to match his clothes, and I still don’t know how to do that. I did that until we started going to the same school. I caught up in age, and I was a freshman when he was a junior, so his friends started to notice. He kindly said, “Hey, man, I think you need to stop wearing my clothes the day after me because my friends are noticing that.” My first instinct was, “Be yourself, and be comfortable with who you are,” but I didn’t teach him that. He told me that, all the time. So, I can’t think of anything that I know, that he didn’t teach me. I’d have to ask him, but he’d probably say nothing. He taught me everything I know.

If you could bring back one person, who would it be and what would you want to do for that one day that you’d have with them?

HOLLAND: My granddad never actually met his dad. His dad passed away when he was 18 months. So, I would bring back my great grandfather, so that my granddad would have the opportunity to meet his dad.

PRATT: I would probably bring back my dad, who passed away just before Guardians of the Galaxy came out, and then I would show him Guardians of the Galaxy. And then, if he didn’t like it, I’d bring back a known criminal and have him beat him up on Instagram live.

Chris, any last comments on the couch?

PRATT: No, I was just kidding. I think the couch is lovely. I’ll tell you the problem with this couch, okay? It’s designed for an NBA player. No one’s femurs are this long. If I sit with my feet touching the floor, my back is not touching the couch. If I sit back, my fit aren’t touching. The proportions are stupid. I’d have to be Kareem Abdul-Jabbar to sit on this couch comfortably. And I’m mostly concerned because there are cameras and [with how I have to sit], it’s a terrible angle. I don’t know who came up with this couch. Hopefully, if you’re in the room, you feel shame. I can only hope. That’s all.

Onward opens in theaters on March 6th.