Interview: Jared Stern Talks DC League of Super-Pets

Jared Stern has been involved in a few fantastic features. As a screenwriter, he brought us The Lego Batman Movie, The Lego Ninjago Movie, and Dr. Suess territory with the Netflix animated series Green Eggs and Ham. His latest feature is the animated adventure, DC League of Super-Pets. Because even animals can be heroic. The new feature stars Dwayne Johnson as Superman’s pup, Kevin Hart as a good fit for Batman’s pooch. Other cast members include Vanessa Bayer, Kate McKinnon, John Krasinski, Diego Luna, Natasha Lyonne, Keanu Reeves, and many more. I recently sat down with Stern to discuss the latest, working with Johnson and Hart, and watching fun trailers with Kate McKinnon. Jared is extremely enjoyable to speak with, and he and his co-director, Sam Levine, have made a movie that is a great time for the entire family. Check out Super-Pets this Friday.

I wasn’t sure what to expect from Super-Pets. But you start with a familiar moment in Superman lore, something that will connect to Superman fans. I think audiences will love that. That instantly put me into the story. Why did you start there, Superman’s escape from a dying planet?

That’s a good question. I think there were a couple of reasons we decided to start there. Most importantly, it’s an emotional connection between baby Superman and Krypto. It sets up our whole story. These two love each other, and Krypto sees himself as there to protect Superman. And so it’s this bond that they’ve had since birth. It was nice to get that from the beginning of the movie. And then also, we constantly had to remind ourselves in making this film that not everyone knows Superman. Children, that’s their first entry into DC; they don’t know that he’s an alien from another planet and that his world didn’t make it. He was an immigrant who found his way to our shores. So we wanted to do that, too, as deftly as possible without annoying people who have seen the origin stories already. We wanted to make sure that people understood the backstory. So I would say those are the two big reasons. And yeah, we had fun with it. There were some nods in there to the classic ’78 Donner Superman and the costumes. There’s even a nod in the score, which John Williams was kind enough to allow us to use, to the Krypton theme from the original film.

You could feel the energy in the screening room when that theme popped up. Speaking of paying homage to what we’ve seen before with all these characters, was it… And there are quite a few moments with little Easter eggs here and there. I’m assuming you are a comic book fan?

I am a comic guy and a fan. But again, this is always that balance of you want stuff for people that are super fans and you want things for people that don’t know anything and the same way we think about doing things for adults or kids, to me, the best is when you don’t go, oh, that’s for them over here, and that’s for them over here. I love it when it’s like, no, this movie is for everyone. And at every moment, you feel like it’s for everyone, not just oh, that was a thing just for kids for this moment. And oh, that was a wink for adults. There are winks and Easter eggs and stuff like that, but hopefully, they’re there in the flow of the story so that it just feels like no, this movie is always for everyone. So that’s kind of how I looked at it and hopefully smile. But you’re constantly wrapped up in the story, most importantly.

It is just a movie that I think everyone can enjoy it. You succeeded in what you’re trying to do, I think. You have a couple of heavy hitters here, this cast is loaded. You’re dealing with Dwayne Johnson and Kevin Hart. How did they get involved? I know Dwayne is also one of the producers. How did they get involved, and what was it like working with them and finding this story?

So when I pitched the movie to Warner Brothers, often you’ll say this character thinks so and so. And for Krypto, I said, Superman’s dog, I think Dwayne Johnson. And that was eight years ago, and magically it came true. And he exceeded, I think, what I had in my head when I just threw that out to probably make the executives happy. It’s going to be a big star, the biggest star.

But he came onto the movie. He and his company were very additive, with really smart, thoughtful ideas about the entire story, especially the character of Krypto. We shaped it a bit; what’s so great in his voice is his literal voice and his voice as an actor. And I think the reason he was great for Krypto is that he does cocky really well. Right? Obviously, he’s confident. This guy has all these superpowers, not like all the other dogs. He flies over them. But he’s got this vulnerability, and he’s got this sweetness to him. And when I met him in person, I was very nervous, but then I quickly saw how soft-spoken and sweet of a man he is. And I think that part of Krypto really comes through.

Yeah. And with Kevin Hart, he’s shown a lot of range lately, and obviously, this is very in his wheelhouse, but there’s a lot of fun seeing him in this role as well.

Yeah. Thank you. I think there were some initial things like, oh, great, I mean, there are a lot of people who love those two guys together for a good reason. They’re really fun together. And they enjoy performing with each other. They enjoy promoting stuff together. How rare is that? But when we were casting Ace, it was like, it still has to be the right voice for Ace. He has to be the right Ace to Bat-Hound.

We listened to Kevin’s voice, we didn’t just go, oh, those two guys are great, they’re stars. This is going to be awesome. We listened to his voice. And particularly the stuff that he’s done like you’re saying, he’s really a fantastic performer with great range. And we knew he’d be able to do this character Ace when we talked to him about it that was different than some of the other voiceover work that he’s done. It’s lower in his voice register, and he’s a bit of an older character, and he’s a little more grizzled. He’s the guy that’s been in the shelter his whole life. And so he brought this warmth and realness to it. And I think hopefully, people will be pleasantly surprised when they see it, and they’ll go, oh, no, Kevin Hart is the exact right guy to be Ace the Bat-Hound.

It was a really good choice. I think my MVP, though, for the film is Kate McKinnon. I mean, what a performance, what a character. Where did that come from for you?

Yeah, she’s wonderful. I always want the villain to be a great character. You want the villain to be someone who, even though they’re evil, you like them, they have a point, or they’re captivating. And so that’s what we try to do in writing the character of Lulu. She’s capable, even though she’s a tiny hairless guinea pig. And she has good reasons behind everything that she’s doing. She cares as much about people and that the pet is the way the other pets do, just in a darker way. And so Kate brought so much to it.

I always loved the characters that she would do on SNL that were kind of old-timey movie people in that area. I saw her doing an interview about how she loves those sort of dramatic actresses. And when she came in to meet with us, it had been written in a sort of melodramatic way, but she took it to a whole other level.

And there’s a particular movie starring Olivia de Havilland. I think it’s called Lady in a Cage. And Kate, on the first time we met her, showed us the trailer, and she has this one line in it where she says, “Help! I’m trapped in small private elevator.” And I believe she drops the word “a”; she doesn’t say I’m trapped in a small, private elevator. She’s on the phone in her home. She gets stuck in an elevator in her own mansion. And these weirdos break in and try to cause trouble. And she says, “Help! I’m trapped in small private elevator.” And it just made us all laugh. And so that was sort of the genesis of Lulu for her. And we would laugh when she would sometimes just say one word. There’s a part in the movie where she’s just like, “No.” And every time she says no in that accent, it would make us laugh.

You mentioned earlier eight years ago, you started. How long have you been working on this? How long did it take to get this thing in theaters?

I pitched it about ten years ago. The very initial pitch of like, hey, here’s an idea for a movie, and everyone liked it, but there were other movies ahead of it in the order. And so I had to wait my turn a little bit, and then we got it going. And then eventually we went into the real production about four years ago. So it was four years of every day working on this movie, which is like going to college to make a movie. Which definitely doesn’t put more pressure on it when it comes out. Dive into it.

Well, but it’s actually great. Because as much as while you’re making it in year three, you can be like, oh my God, I can’t believe I’m stuck with these same people. Oh my God. I’m still telling this story. The truth is that having that time allows you to make it good. It allows you to go back and fix things that aren’t working and rework and iterate and iterate. And it actually allows you; I was joking that like, oh God, I’m stuck with these people, but you really form a tight bond, and you become a family with the people making the movie. So with Patty [Hicks], the producer, and Sam [Levine], my co-director, and everyone else in the film, we went to college together for four years. We just had our wrap party, and you really feel like it was graduation. And now we’re all friends for life. So, yeah, it’s a crazy thing to make one of these movies, but I think hopefully worth it.

What was the co-directing process like for you guys?

Well, Sam and I, we worked together at Disney animation almost 20 years ago. So we’ve known each other for a long time, and it can be tough because you’re just in it together, and you’re constantly pushing one another. But I think that was why it was great. I think I came up in the business as a writer. Sam is an artist. And so I have my taste about how I want things to look, but I’m not an artist. And he has his taste about how he wants the writing to be, and honestly, he’s a good writer. He can do both things, and it’s not fair [Laughing]. But I think we complimented each other really well. And he did an amazing job supervising all of the animation and the look of the film. And in addition to the story. So it was just another set of eyes, somebody to push, push, and push. He was always pushing me, which is what you need never to settle.

Well, we’re in an age where, obviously, we’re in a world of the franchise, and obviously, now you’re a part of the DC world. Do you think, okay, yes, we can go forward with a sequel if we do this? Or have you thought about that far ahead?

It’s definitely that we don’t want to jinx it, but I will say we loved making this movie. We loved building this world, this universe, the tone of it, and these characters. And so, if we’re lucky enough to keep going in this universe, I think it would be great. I mean, we had so much fun building this metropolis; how cool would it be to build Gotham City for this world. So I hope we get that chance, but yeah, we’re definitely not planning on it until we’ll see how it goes.

Yeah. Well, you do have Green Eggs and Ham. What’s that been like working during the pandemic during kind of a weird time with this and Green Eggs?

Yeah. I mean, the pandemic was crazy, but in animation, it was a blessing because we could keep going. We were all in our houses, and we could really keep working thanks to the amazing production people who made that happen. I mean, we had recordings that we were doing for this movie where the actor was in a closet in Bulgaria with a mattress, and someone had to ship all the equipment to them and then talk through with someone else how to set it up. And just the logistics of getting this done, two of the four years were during COVID of this movie, and it was the primary two years of recording the voices and doing the animation. So it was just thank you to the people’s families that were okay with people working in their houses. And the same one for Green Eggs and Ham towards the end there. It was weird. They overlapped quite a bit, but I was able to do the writing for Green Eggs and Ham before we really got going on Super-Pets, which is the bulk of my work on that.

Considering that you’re more known for your writing, is directing something you want to continue with?

It absolutely is. I spent years as a writer on oftentimes animated movies and oftentimes wishing, ah, I wish I could make it this a little bit better. But the nice thing is that you also then get to just kind of walk away. You’re just sort of like, okay, I helped, I did my best, and now it’s on you. When you’re in charge, you’re in control, and good or bad, you’ve got to deal with everything, all the decisions. So it’s both, be careful what you wish for.

But that being said, I loved it. I like being the storyteller in chief. I had amazing artists and production people and actors working to make me look good. And I just had to kind of keep the story in mind, and I loved it. And I loved overseeing animation. I learned so much. I loved watching the dailies every day, taking the great work by our actors and then this second group of actors animating, bringing that to life, and just working on that. So I’d love to do it again. I think it was fascinating, and I’m very lucky to have done it.

Well, you did a terrific job. I believe we’re supposed to wrap up. Jared, this is a really, really sweet and fun movie and I think people are really going to love it.

Thank you. That’s very kind. I’m glad we won you over, and I appreciated this chat.