Elemental is set in Element City, where fire, water, air, and earth live together. Although the elements don’t mix, Wade, a water element, and Ember, a fire element, become an unlikely pair as they work together to help her family’s business. Along the way, they grow closer, slowly falling for one another. Elemental examines the age-old idea that opposites attract, with Wade and Ember potentially changing everything because of their unexpected feelings.
Elemental is directed by Peter Sohn and produced by Denise Ream. Elemental is written by John Hoberg, Kat Likkel, and Brenda Hsueh, although the story hits close to home for Sohn, with much of it based on his own life experiences. Elemental stars Leah Lewis, Mamoudou Athie, Ronnie del Carmen, Shila Ommi, Wendi McLendon-Covey, Catherine O’Hara, Mason Wertheimer, Joe Pera, and Matt Yang King.
Screen Rant spoke with Leah Lewis and Mamoudoud Athie about their new Pixar movie, Elemental. They share how they related to the characters, revealing that they initially didn’t receive the full script and hadn’t met until D23. Athie also explains why it is important for audiences to see a male lead in touch with his emotions.
Leah Lewis & Mamoudou Athie On Elemental
Screen Rant: I absolutely love this movie! I related to it on so many levels as a biracial kid that didn’t follow in his father’s footsteps. He worked in the aerospace industry, I did not obviously, I completely related to this movie top to bottom. It’s amazing. When you guys first read the script, and the story, what spoke to you the most about Ember and Wade’s characters.
Leah Lewis: So interesting enough, we didn’t even get the full script,. I didn’t even get to see what the whole story was until we actually watched the film for the first time. When I popped on to a meeting with Peter Sohn, and he showed me the drawings and the renderings, one, they blew me away, because they’re just gorgeous, but it’s his own personal story. That also really resonated with me how honest he was about his immigrant experience, and how he ended up following his own path as well.
Me relating to Ember, I just relate so much to her self discovery journey, how close she is to her family, and the sacrifices that they’ve made for her. My parents did the same thing. Similarly, they kind of did a reverse where they really encouraged me to follow my dreams, but they did sacrifice a lot in the cost of that. I felt like I was telling a bit of my story as well, when he brought it up to me.
How about for you?
Mamoudou Athie: I just saw like the best parts of me in a character. Then I was in a sullen kind of mode. It was a dark space and I got to celebrate all of that. Actively go back to that every couple of months and just do this beautiful story. I didn’t get the full script either, but just working with somebody like Pete, Denise, and the writers John and Kat and Brenda’s beautiful script and Kara.
Leah Lewis: Shout out to Kara Brody! She’s the best.
Mamoudou Athie: It was just a balm for the soul. I just love this guy. It’s just love. It’s pure love.
I completely agree. Look, speaking of Wade just for a second. I love how emotional Wade is. Can you talk to me about the importance of showing especially kids, a male lead that is in touch with his emotions and feelings?
Mamoudou Athie: I am inwardly a lot like this character and it’s very easy for me to cry. I felt very ashamed of it as a kid or very shy about it rather. Not necessarily ashamed, but very shy about ita nd I didn’t feel like it was like a very public thing to do, even though sometimes I couldn’t help it. When I went to school, and I saw some of my classmates, they [were] so beautifully open and vulnerable. I was like, “Wow, what a gift, what a power. That they’re able to share that and it can affect people in such a way.”
I felt like obviously, I got to that point, but I was like, “Man, I wish young Mamadou hadn’t stunted himself in that way. And just like allowed himself to really go in those places publicly.” Because my friends knew me and it still came out anyway. I didn’t do a very good job hiding it, but I certainly grappled with it in kind of a sense. I’m really excited for people to see this and feel like “Oh, no, this is okay and it’s actually healthy.” That’s really important.
Absolutely. Something that adds to this movie is your guys’s chemistry. were you guys able to record it together to capture that?
Leah Lewis: Wow. So no, we didn’t meet until D23, but if you can gather, Peter, Denise, I and Mamadou as well and Kat and every single person who was a part of this, John as well,. We all lead with the same message and same motivation. I think it’s that clear, clear message of love and gratitude and just putting our 115% into it. That made everything cohesive and really flow in a way that it looks like we were in the same room together. Peter was just such a dang good director too. Our writers were so good at being very clear about what they needed and wanted that I feel like we just stepped into the shoes and they helped us.
About Elemental
In Element City, where air, fire, earth, and water live together, Wade, a water element, and Ember, a fire element, become an unlikely pair. As they work together to try and save Ember’s family shop, they slowly begin to fall in love and ask the question, can fire and water ever be together?
Check out our interview with Elemental director Peter Sohn and producer Denise Ream.
This story originally appeared on Screenrant
