INTERVIEW: John C. Reilly talks new Disney Animation Wreck-It Ralph

John C. Reilly is perhaps best known for his comedic work like Step Brothers and Walk Hard, however, in person he is very serious indeed. 

In the innovative 3D animation Wreck-It Ralph which went on release in Irish cinemas on Friday, Reilly plays the title character, a “bad guy” in a computer arcade game named Fix It Felix Jnr. Jealous of the relationship goodie two shoes Felix has with the rest of the games characters, Ralph sets off through the various games in arcade land in order to win a medal and prove he can be also be the good guy.

Interestingly, Reilly became involved with Wreck-It Ralph through Cedar Rapids when he worked alongside screenwriter Phil Johnston. “Phil told me ‘I’m working on this Disney project at the moment and I keep hearing your voice in my head when I’m writing this character. I think you should meet the Director.’ And so Rich Moore thought it was a great idea and here we are!”

The stars of Wreck-It Ralph were fortunate to work on the animation in question, Reilly insists, with Rich Moore allowing the characters and on-screen relationships evolve through improvisation. “It’s not like working on a live action piece where you have to get all your ducks in a row before you start shooting, we’re always miles ahead of the animators so there’s always time in the studio to explore things, try different readings... It was a beautiful process the way it organically grew over the 2 years we were recording the voices.”

 

Although the film certainly parades the nostalgia factor with arcade games, Reilly explains that this is not really important. “The truth is that it’s not about video games, it’s about being inside a video so I think that people who have no interest in playing video games will hopefully find the story really captivating because even though we are talking about video games and from video games, it’s a very human story. The movie has a lot of flash and dazzling visuals, it’s almost like five different animated films at once the way the look changes so dramatically. I think what people are taking away from this is how much heart this has and how much real emotion is there.”

Reflecting on his career as a whole and how he approached the character of Ralph, Reilly noted that he always attempts to transform with projects, however this wasn’t the case with Ralph. “I tried to be as honest as possible. This guy is on a journey of self-discovery so I just tried to approach the character as simply as possible and as honestly as possible without adding a lot of layers or voices on top of it.” Despite working on such varied projects, he is clear about the reason he wanted to work on Wreck-It Ralph; “Its heart. It just seemed like such a real story. You know, I’m in my 40’s so 30 years of doing the same job?! He’s beginning to wonder what it all means and whether things will change. I can relate to that! And once I saw the level of creative input I would have, I thought I would be a fool to pass it up.”

 

On top of his work with animation, Reilly possesses a social consciousness that’s really quite humbling. Following his work on We Need to Talk about Kevin and the subsequent heartbreaking events at Sandy Hook, he had hoped these tragedies would stop in the U.S. “It’s one of those things that is very fresh. We’re still grappling with this in the States, an unimaginable tragedy what happened in Sandy Hook. We Need to Talk about Kevin looked at the internal story of a family, if you notice in the film there is no onscreen violence, just the aftermath. What is it that sends a child off in that direction where this story goes off in? You would think after you make a film like that, things would shift a bit and then something like Connecticut happens. I’m so proud to have worked on that film.”

Reilly is also looking forward to a possible sequel for Wreck-It Ralph, “I’m heavily invested in this guy! I’m not just going to hand him over to somebody. I would love to do more animation, particularly if it would be like the experience of working on this film. It’s a fun day at work!”

Wreck-It Ralph is on general release throughout Ireland now. For our own review, click here.