I know there are people who want it to be a bigger thing than it is but I think it is just about doing what is right and having equity in the industry. To be honest, I was like, "Good." I think this is the right thing that should have happened. It's all very overwhelming." What did you make of the journey they had already sent Missy on and how they handled it?Ī very good joke. My mom's white, my dad's Black, I'm voiced by a white actress who's 37 years old.
Much of season 4 was already about Missy struggling with her racial identity and, like you said, discovering her Blackness, so, as someone who didn't have a hand in that, what was your take on what they did? There is even the meta line of her saying, "It's just that I'm really struggling with my racial identity right now.
#BIG MOUTH S2 EPISODE 3 CAST HOW TO#
And then I got an email that was like, "Do you want to send in a tape for this?" I weighed the pros and cons for like an hour, because I overthink everything, and then I was just like, "Well, I'll just do it and then if I don't get it they'll just clown me in the room and that's great because I know how to deal with that." And then I got a callback and had more callbacks and producer sessions where I worked with Nick and the EPs on finding the voice and there were a few of those to the point where I was like, "Okay, each call that happens either this is good news or bad news, so just let me know." Then one day on a call, an EP was like, "Do you think this call is good news or bad news," and I was like, "Because you asked that question please say good news!" And they were like, "Yeah, you got the part, good job." I was very excited. In my head I was like, "I'm very excited for Angela Bassett to get it!" Or Dame Judi Dench if she was Black. And I was not thinking necessarily about myself for even auditioning, because the comedians who are voice actors on this show and people who are guest stars to me are like celebrities that I admire. I knew it was going to happen and we all talked about it internally and got the email that the press announcement was going to happen. I had been doing small voiceover work before and auditioning for things. How did you end up taking over? And was there any hesitation on your part? It's like, okay, we realized it, and we're seeing it happen in real time that what we thought was acceptable maybe isn't, and we're learning why and learning to have conversations about it in real time, too. And so I think, to me, this is a faster version of that in a way. Sometimes I'll watch older movies, and often not even that old, and they're using slurs that are unbelievable and people are pretending to be people with disabilities and winning Oscars, and you're like, "Huh?" We discovered that this was wrong and we've corrected it. I've thinking about a lot about how so much has changed, like even in my lifetime. And it was interesting then getting to be in the room and getting to actually see how it was dealt with and how the change was dealt with and how the conversation was dealt with. Yeah, as a Black person who works in animation, I had thought about it, but I had never really talked about it. So, as you entered the world of Big Mouth, what were your thoughts on Jenny voicing Missy? And then what was your reaction when she decided to step down?