To help families learn more about The Bad Guys film, I'm sharing highlights of my interview with the voice cast Marc Maron (Mr. Snake), Craig Robinson (Mr. Shark), Zazie Beetz (Diane Foxington) and Lilly Singh (Tiffany Fluffit).

Note: I was invited as media by Universal Pictures/DreamWorks Animation for #TheBadGuys movie screening and film cast interview. However any personal views expressed are always 100% my own.

For Zazie and Lilly, I was able to ask:

What advice for young girls/women dealing with judgment, while trying to do something different or new?

Zazie Beetz: I think, and this is actually sort of what I took away from the film, --- these other people aren’t leading your life. So, you really have to dictate what you want to do and what you want to bring into the world.

I find any time that, you feel like you want to do something a little different or new, and other people are nay saying you, I find any time that has happened to me, when I go for it, the people that accept that you -- are the people that you end up also attracting in your life.

Zazie Beetz: And you end up opening so much more for yourself and you find out that you’re much more resilient than you thought you were. And then, that judgment almost feels negligible.

So, I think it all depends on the situation, naturally. But, I think in sort of broad terms, I would say, you gotta just kinda go for it and, you know, they’re not leading your life. You are.

Lilly Singh: A lot of my career was founded on just people commenting on every part of my life, and so I had to really think about judgment and analyze it.

What I concluded was that judgment involves someone else telling me, what they think the truth is. The reason it would get to me, was because I would then give them permission to tell me that. So, I would give people who have never met me permission to tell me who I was.

Lilly Singh: I can’t control that person. But what I can control is me giving that person permission. It doesn’t hold that value to me anymore. So, I think that’s really what has helped me, is not giving them that power and instead placing that power within me.

Relating to Their Bad Guys Characters.

Zazie Beetz: I hope I’m a good person like Diane, but also not take everything so seriously. I think it can be easy to want to be good, moral and be the best at everything. But I think it’s important to remain grounded and also understand that having, sort of a mischievousness about you, can also be an asset.

I think that all character traits are -- have place in the world. I hope that I have a little bit of that inside of me, in the way that I think Diane does.

Lilly Singh: We’re both really extra. My character and I are so extra. We’re both over the top. I think I tapped into a lot of my earlier YouTube days when I did Tiffany, which is the extreme expressions and the lots of hand motions and the exciting tone and cadence that’s kind of roller coaster.

Like, oh my God, you won’t believe this. This is amazing. To try to get people’s attention, which is like kind of YouTube, in a way. So, I think I tapped into a lot of just that performative exciting, over-the-top, crazy energy.

Favorite Scene of The Bad Guys

Zazie Beetz: I love the scene when Mr. Wolf is saving the kitty, but he’s actually saving it and it just kind of made me emotional. It kind of really hit me hard. Much harder than I expected. But, yes, good does you good and the little kitty becomes his friend. I love that.

Lilly Singh: What was most enjoyable for me, was all the comedy that made me laugh out loud. I knew it was going to be good, it was gonna be funny. But, as an adult, I was like, oh, maybe I’ll think it’s cute, but I thought it was hysterical at moments.

I think the guinea pig scene for me was, like peak comedy, where I saw that in the script, but to hear it performed and see the visuals, it all came together so well. So, probably that scene.

Craig Robinson: I we went back and forth laughing about, ‘I’m having a baby.’ When I would go to those high-pitch numbers, we couldn’t stop laughing. It was fun making those guys laugh in the booth. And then, you know, being silly with it.

Message of The Bad Guys

Marc Maron: I think, from my point of view, the message is a lot of about, judgment. Not judging people on one thing, or one behavior, or whatever you’re projecting on to them. But also, I think it has a lot to do with friendship and loyalty and people changing.

Lilly Singh: I think this movie is so timely, especially with the internet and just the way headlines and media and all that stuff goes on down today, everything is usually very black and white. I don’t think humans can operate in these extremes. I don’t think there's one category or the other.

I think people exist in this gray area of they need context. This movie teaches you that bad guys aren’t just bad. Everyone has context. Everyone deserves context. Everyone has lived experiences and I think we owe people. We owe it to ourselves to treat each other like human beings.

Lilly Singh: Even though these are animals in the movie, I think it is really about human nature and how we love to easily define and label and we don’t need to do that. We can give people context.

Zazie Beetz: I completely agree with that. I also think that this movie encourages you to be your highest self, in whatever format that is. To not allow an expectation or a narrative around you to dictate what you’re going to do with your life. And I think that it encourages, as we were sort of discussing before, breaking out of molds that were made for you and to create your own mold. And I think that that’s important as well.

The Bad Guys book series by Aaron Blabey has become an animated movie! After screening the film and interviewing the voice acting cast, I can't wait for families to watch the film!

SYNOPSIS

Never have there been five friends as infamous as The Bad Guys—dashing pickpocket Mr. Wolf (Academy Award® winner Sam Rockwell, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri), seen-it-all safecracker Mr. Snake (Marc Maron, GLOW), chill master-of-disguise Mr. Shark (Craig Robinson, Hot Tub Time Machine franchise), short-fused “muscle” Mr. Piranha (Anthony Ramos, In the Heights) and sharp-tongued expert hacker Ms. Tarantula (Awkwafina, Crazy Rich Asians), aka “Webs.”

But when, after years of countless heists and being the world’s most-wanted villains, the gang is finally caught, Mr. Wolf brokers a deal (that he has no intention of keeping) to save them all from prison: The Bad Guys will go good.

Under the tutelage of their mentor Professor Marmalade (Richard Ayoade, Paddington 2), an arrogant (but adorable!) guinea pig, The Bad Guys set out to fool the world that they’ve been transformed. Along the way, though, Mr. Wolf begins to suspect that doing good for real may give him what he’s always secretly longed for: acceptance.

So when a new villain threatens the city, can Mr. Wolf persuade the rest of the gang to become … The Good Guys?

THE BAD GUYS | Trailer 2



Cast: Sam Rockwell, Marc Maron, Craig Robinson, Anthony Ramos, Awkwafina, Richard Ayoade, Zazie Beetz, Lilly Singh and Alex Borstein

The film co-stars Zazie Beetz (Joker), Lilly Singh (Bad Moms) and Emmy winner Alex Borstein (The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel).

Based on the blockbuster Scholastic book series by Aaron Blabey, The Bad Guys is directed by Pierre Perifel (animator, the Kung Fu Panda films), making his feature-directing debut. The film is produced by Damon Ross (development executive Trolls, The Boss Baby, co-producer Nacho Libre) and Rebecca Huntley (associate producer, The Boss Baby). The executive producers are Aaron Blabey, Etan Cohen and Patrick Hughes.

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