Filmmakers & Actors Talk Pixar’s TURNING RED at Press Conference

The latest Pixar movie TURNING RED is an energetic and funny adventure that centers on a Chinese-Canadian girl that magically turns into a red panda when she enters puberty.

Desde Hollywood had the chance to participate on a virtual press conference with voice talent Sandra Oh, Rosalie Chiang, Ava Morse, Maitreyi Ramakrishnan, and Hyein Park, alongside Academy Award® winner director Domee Shi (“Bao”), producer Lindsey Collins, and screenwriter Julia Cho.

Read below some of the most interesting things that the talented artist had to share!

TURING RED is now streaming exclusively on Disney Plus.

The performers on their characters:

Chiang: “I voice Meilin Lee. She is a 13-year-old Chinese Canadian who’s confident, ambitious, a little dorky, and a bit of an overachiever. In this movie, she goes through these huge changes and she’s dealing with this, but at the same time, she doesn’t want to lose herself as well.
There are so many odd, really weird coincidences. First of all, my mom’s middle name is Ming. There’s no way they could have known that! And my favorite animals were actually red pandas—before the whole project even started. But the main thing is that my mom, since way before this project, actually calls me Mei Mei! It means ‘little sister’ in Chinese… So, when [Ming in the film] says, ‘Oh, perfect little Mei Mei,’ I’m like, ‘Hey, that’s what I literally went through!””

Morse: “Miriam is the best friend that you could ever want. She’s funny, she’s always there for you, she’s a party animal, and she just always knows how to cheer you up when you’re down.
I’m currently a high school student, and everybody is just growing and changing together. It can be very stressful and even dark at times, ’cause everyone is going through a lot, and not everyone knows how to handle that. But at the same time, it’s kind of a beautiful thing. Everybody’s in that together and putting their all into living their lives the best they can… I was really inspired by my own friends, putting them into Miriam herself; she is such a supportive and amazing friend to Mei and the other girls. My friends are so supportive and always there for me, no matter what, so I thought it was really cool to kind of ‘give back’ in that way.”

Oh: “I play Ming, Mei’s mother, who is…I’d like to call her a hypervigilant, loving mother. We basically go through this change in our relationship…a natural change between mothers and daughters when daughters have to become their own independent people. I’m also not afraid of that concept of tiger mom. I mean, I love my mom, and she’s a fierce, fierce person. Tiny. Tiny, but fierce. You know, I actually do have something that I posted a very long time ago on Instagram because it was such an unbelievable quote that my mom said in the kitchen. I had to write it down on a Post-It, and then I put it up on Instagram. Basically, she said (I’m not joking) ‘If only you were neater, I would love you more.’”

Ramakrishnan: “Priya is pretty sarcastic, dry, very deadpan…but you know what? She’s really cool. I think she’s one cool cat. And, yeah, she’s always down to clown, but always with a cool attitude.”

Park: “Abby’s like this little ball of energy–very loving. Very passionate, but comes up a little too explosive at some times. I would say she loves her friends so much, especially when they’re fluffy.”

On portraying a very positive female friendship:

Park: “When we finally got the chance to make this female friendship, it was very important that it was authentic. So, Domee talked a lot about her own experiences with her friendships, and how she would hate to add on to those tropes. So we actually shared a lot of different stories of the moments that we love in terms of female friendship. Then she actually asked a lot of different people within the studios too, to get a really, authentic insight on how girlfriends are.”

Oh: “I’m just gonna jump in. I think that question is extremely important, because, having young women and young girls in my life, watching television and films with them over the years, you just realize I don’t know who sets this up that girls are like this. Because I don’t think it’s very true…I think this is an extremely good representation of deep friendships, and the highs and the lows.”

Ramakrishnan: “Yeah, but also on that, I think with TV and film, we always portray that your love interest is the one that you should be closer with. You know, like, that’s, the real bond. That always made me sort of skeptical, because wouldn’t the childhood best friend know you better?”

Shi on how Pixar empowered her as filmmaker, and the would she hopes this film could impact young girls:

“Being able to find a support system and a community at Pixar, that was so valuable for me—and really built my confidence and my voice as a filmmaker and a storyteller. When I first started at Pixar, there were four or five women in the story department—and we started having lunches together and sharing stories. I remember this one lunch where we all went around and said our goals out loud—and that was the first time that I actually said, aloud, ‘I want to direct!’ Then I was embarrassed and thought, ‘Oh no. Why did I say that?’ But everyone responded, ‘Yeah, yeah, yeah!’ And I think just saying it and putting it out there—and being with people that support and validate you—that can make you not feel so alone… That was huge for me.”

“The inspiration behind Turning Red just came from my own life—growing up in the early aughts as a Chinese Canadian dorky, sassy, nerdy girl who thought she had everything under control,” she continues. “She was her mom’s good little girl. And then boom, puberty hit. And I was bigger. I was hairier. I was hungry all the time. I was a hormonal mess and I was fighting with my mom like every other day. Making this film was kind of my chance to go back to that time—to make [something] for 13-year-old me, the teenager who thought, ‘What’s happening to me? No one’s telling me anything!’ I think it’s so cool that audiences can take comfort in the story, but it’ll also make them laugh as well.”

TURING RED is now streaming exclusively on Disney Plus.

Disney and Pixar’s “Turning Red” introduces Mei Lee (voice of Rosalie Chiang), a confident, dorky 13-year-old torn between staying her mother’s dutiful daughter and the chaos of adolescence. Her protective, if not slightly overbearing mother, Ming (voice of Sandra Oh), is never far from her daughter—an unfortunate reality for the teenager. And as if changes to her interests, relationships and body weren’t enough, whenever she gets too excited (which is practically ALWAYS), she “poofs” into a giant red panda!