Exclusive: Christina Hendricks and Tony Hale talk about Toy Story 4

Last Updated on August 5, 2021

TOY STORY 4 is yet another win for Pixar Animation and parent company Disney (check out my full review of the film here) and a few weeks ago, I was invited down to Walt Disney World on behalf of JoBlo.com. After screening the film, I interviewed some of the cast and crew of the film, including Christina Hendricks (Gabby Gabby) and Tony Hale (Forky). Sitting together in Disney's Feature Animation Building, we got the opportunity to discuss Disney and Pixar's latest film and how it came to be.

We sat down with Christina Hendricks who voices the antagonist, Gabby Gabby, and talked about how her character's voice evolved. Hendricks said that they tried multiple versions of the voice and found that the sweeter they made her sound, the creepier it was.

So we were like “Hi, I’m Gabby Gabby” and we were like why is that so creepy? So we played around with the different tones so they had options as to how they wanted to play it. But I think the ultimate thing is it is nice for kids that it is not as black and white as someone is bad and someone is good. You might think that person is bad, but maybe they’re not. Maybe you see their point of view and I think that is a nice lesson for children. And ultimately it enriches Woody even more to show how he understands her needs and her goals and the ultimate dream of what a toy is supposed to be.

Christina Hendricks also said that she was given a physical doll of her character, one of only four currently available before they hit stores. She says she has it on a shelf in her home next to her Mad Men Barbie doll of her character, Joan Holloway. She also said in seeing the film, she sometimes forgot it was her on screen.

Someone asked me if it was weird to hear my voice and I said because it is not my face, I just watched it like it was a movie and I kind of forgot it was me. I was so involved in the characters and the story that I sort of forgot it was me. Then, every once in a while, I would go, oh yeah that’s my voice. But why does it sound like such a baby? I sound like a baby!

Hendricks also lauded the filmmakers and their attention to detail, especially in Gabby Gabby's home at the antique store which recalled stores the actress has visited across the globe. An avid antiquer herself (you could find her by the chandeliers and lamps if you run into her at a local shop), she also said that being a part of the TOY STORY 4 cast is a wonderful and overwhelming experience because of what these movies represent.

This film is for both adults and children. I think that is why they are so successful and why people are so engaged with them. So I tried to make her as human and real as possible. When I watch these movies, you connect. You know these characters and they feel very human and real.

We also got to sit down with new cast member Tony Hale who voices Forky, Bonnie's DIY toy creation. Hale, a veteran of great comedy series Arrested Development and Veep, both of which were used by the filmmakers to decide on casting him as Forky. Hale has done animated work before, but I asked if there was a lot of improv coming from his background ad-libbing on those great series.

There was. It was a real collaborative feeling. We were in the same room as the director and writer and usually there is a piece of glass that separates the voice actor from the bigwigs. We were in the room and they would hand me pages and none of us really knew what the story was about. They handed us these pages and it became a perfect storm for my character and me who was also overwhelmed to be there. I am still overwhelmed. But as I get these pages, I had questions, and everything was fed into playing Forky where I was like “I don’t know what that is”…Bo Peep was mentioned and I was like “what’s a Bo?”. It was fun to play off of that. Anything that wasn’t written made me constantly ask questions about the universe. It was really fun.

In addition to being an actor, Tony Hale also wrote a children's book called Archibald's Next Big Thing about a chicken discovering his purpose. I asked if that influenced his approach to playing Forky.

It did. the chicken, Archibald, discovers more of the joy of being present rather than the next big thing. I found in my career I was always looking for the next thing and missing where I was. Where Archibald is now, because he is going to have his own series on Netflix which is really fun. He and Forky have fresh eyes to each new experience and Archibald sees the best in everyone. And Forky, even though he has a little more sarcasm to him, but he doesn’t understand that people see characters like Gabby Gabby as bad. He just said “you know, you have great hair.”

During the press conferences for the film, it was revealed that Hale would be voicing Forky for an upcoming series of short films on Disney+ called Forky Asks A Question. I asked about that series and whether Hale would be open to playing the character again in the future.

I’m an actor, so I am grateful for any gig. What is fun about Forky and the web series is his viewpoint. He is a blank slate. There are just a ton of questions and he goes on these explorations of what this stuff means. There are ten questions he is exploring and I don’t remember each question but I do remember not knowing what this answer is but I am excited to explore it with Forky. So who knows what else could happen with Forky.

In discussing his place in the TOY STORY legacy, Hale mentioned he loves the Pizza Planet alien guys and would love to bring characters from The Muppets into the films with Beaker and Scooter his favorites of all time. We even chatted about how the series finale of Veep kills off Tom Hanks and if that made the press tour awkward (don't worry, it didn't), but my big question was how he felt about seeing Forky's basic and plain design alongside the iconic looks of Woody, Buzz, and the rest of the TOY STORY characters.

I will not see Sporks the same way. What I love, what I am crazy about is his simplicity. When I was told they had a character they were thinking about for me, I had this idea having seen TOY STORY. Then I saw Forky and thought that is not even in the ballpark. When my daughter was little, she cared more about the box the gift came in than the gift. These elements were very special to Bonnie and they were placed in front of her when other things were taken away from her. What she made became so valuable to her and meant a lot to her and I love that he is not a lot of bells and whistles.

TOY STORY 4 opens in theaters on June 21st.