The Angry Birds Movie 2 is the latest sequel coming our way in a summer full of franchise fare. But this one looks like it’s going to stand out amongst the onslaught of blockbusters as, rather amazingly, it’s currently the highest-rated video game movie ever on Rotten Tomatoes. Could this be a late summer surprise?
Part of what helps the situation here is that the animated flick boasts an absolutely amazing voice cast. Jason Sudeikis, Josh Gad, Bill Hader, Danny McBride and Peter Dinklage are all returning, but they’re joined by a talented bunch of newcomers. One of those newcomers is Rachel Bloom, who people may know from her show Crazy Ex-Girlfriend. But Bloom also has a budding career in voice acting, having played Batgirl in Batman vs. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, as well as roles on Robot Chicken and Rachel Bloom in honor of The Angry Birds Movie 2. We discussed her character Silver, her new comedy tour and more. Without further adieu, here’s our interview.
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Congratulations on the success, by the way. The early word out of the gate is people are loving it.
Rachel Bloom: Yeah, I think it’s on track to become the highest, on Rotten Tomatoes, the highest rated video game movie of all time, which is really cool.
Yeah, as right now it is. So Congratulations. That’s amazing!
Rachel Bloom: Yeah. Thank you.
Of course. So, first off, you’re playing a new character. Your name’s Silver. Just for anyone who may be coming into this, how does Silver kind of fit into everything? And can you tell us a little bit about her?
Rachel Bloom: Well, if you recall from the last movie, the birds and the pigs are kind of at odds. But now there’s a third island. There’s an Eagle Island that’s threatening the birds and the pigs. And so everyone has to come together and they need an engineering science genius, Which is me, my character, Silver. And she kind of puts… the best idea wins out. It’s not about ego, which is literally the opposite of what Red, played by Jason Sudeikis, believes.
So that that the the that must be nice getting to play a science genius. That seems like a flattering sort of way to come into this.
Rachel Bloom: Oh it’s awesome. I mean, as a writer, when you’re pitching characters all the time, you hear the note, “well, do we root for this character? Do we like this character?” And sometimes you roll your eyes and you go, “Oh, okay. It doesn’t matter. People are flawed.” But oh, man, it’s fun to root for this character. She’s really great.
So as far as the cast goes, both returning and new, this is an absolutely stacked, amazing cast. What was it like for you just to be like included amongst those names?
Rachel Bloom: It’s incredibly surreal. I mean, you record alone in a studio and so it doesn’t seem real. And then you see the trailer and my name, Jason Sudeikis, Bill Hader, Nicki Minaj. It’s incredibly surreal. It’s one of those moments that you think of as a kid. that’s the most surreal moment. Those very familiar pop culture moment, like watching a trailer.
I have so much respect, genuinely. Like voice acting is one of my favorite things out there. I have so much respect for it, because I just don’t think everyone totally understands what goes into it. But you’ve been doing quite a bit of that? What is it about the voice acting specifically that is attractive to you as an actress?
Rachel Bloom: Well, it’s also that I get offered these parts. I mean, this part was offered to me and I was so thrilled. I think that because I was on a musical show people, I think when you sing, there’s a certain malleability to your voice. You know how to play with just the sound of your voice. That’s theoretically attractive to people. And it’s the ability to play all sorts of different characters. Regardless of how I look. I mean, I can play a wide eyed bird in I’m in the new Trolls movie coming out and I can play like a hard rock troll. You’re not limited by how you look. The only thing that matters is what’s coming out of your mouth. It’s very egalitarian in that way, and I can play up math and science genius. And I could be in all these action scenes, and I didn’t have to train or get ripped at all. You record at the end of the session. You do these things called efforts where you spend an hour going, “Huh! Ooh! Eeeeaaah!” That’s all I had to do!
So I know we’re probably getting a little close to time here, but you did, recently, you were in the Ninja Turtles Batman animated movie, which I absolutely loved. Are you gonna be doing any more work with DC do you think down the line? Because I knew you were back girl on that and they tend to keep a lot of the same people in their rolodex.
Rachel Bloom: I would love to. That was such a ball. I think one of my favorite parts of doing that gig was I did a solid five minutes of just doing pizza eating sounds, cause, of course, that’s how the movie ends. Everybody eats pizza. Which I like. I like that they embrace the pizza lore of the Ninja Turtles. But just just kind of into the mic going, “This pizza’s good. It’s good pizza.” Delightful.
Well, Rachel, thank you so, so much for taking the time. Just as we’re wrapping up here, iss there anything you got coming up that you’d like to talk about? What you working on next?
Rachel Bloom: I have a live tour going around. It’s of my standup, songs. Old songs and new songs. It’s called What am I gonna do with my life now? Because after my show, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend ended, that’s all anyone asks me. So this is the answer to that. So check out the tour dates.
Awesome. Thank you so much, Rachel. I really appreciate it. Again, congratulations on the movie.
Rachel Bloom: Thank you.
The Angry Birds Movie 2 is set to hit theaters Tuesday from Sony Pictures.
