Food Fight: A Chat with Janeane Garofalo and Patton Oswalt — Jul 5th 2007

By Stephen Head

Let's forget about sequels, if only for a weekend, and turn our attention to Ratatouille, the newest offering from the wizards at Pixar. Director Brad Bird, the man responsible for The Incredibles, has delivered once again. And the setting couldn't be further from Metroville. Welcome to Gusteau's, the most famous restaurant in Paris, where the meat-and-poultry chef, Colette (Janeane Garofalo), isn't afraid to throw a knife or two--and where the new resident, Remy the Rat (Patton Oswalt), is stirring up trouble. In Boston for some stand-up gigs, Garofalo and Oswalt spoke to Netscape's Stephen Head about their foray into the highly animated world of Ratatouille.


Netscape: Janeane, you're not immediately recognizable as Colette, which fits in with Pixar's voice-casting philosophy. I heard some audience members asking, "What part does Janeane play?"

Janeane Garofalo: Everybody has said that. I think it's a compliment.

Netscape: Maybe it's your character's French accent, which you really got down. How did you prepare for that?

Garofalo: I didn't do anything other than what Brad [Bird] told me to do. As far as the accent goes, I was very nervous. I had a CD of a French gentleman speaking English, and I would just mimic what I heard. I wanted to do the best job I could, because I don't speak French--I took Spanish in school.

Netscape: With voice-over work, there's a certain amount of room for performers to come up with their own stuff, as you often do. But Pixar was very specific about what they needed. You really had to stick with the script, right?

Garofalo: There are people animating while you're working, so it would be impolite to change dialogue. You say something new, they like it, and then someone says to the artists who've been working through the night, "Guess what? That paragraph you animated? Start from scratch! It's gone!'

Netscape: Was there any pressure? Anyone get upset when you screwed up?

Garofalo: They would hit me occasionally, but not on my face. Just with a sack of oranges, so you can't see it--like in The Grifters. They stole it from Angelica Houston's boss. Pixar is notorious for beating their employees.

Netscape: Do they pamper their voice-over artists?

Garofalo: Apparently if you don't pamper Patton, he won't work for you.

Netscape: So tell us, how did you two land the Ratatouille gig?

Patton Oswalt: Brad Bird heard my first album [Feelin' Kinda Patton] and said, "Hey, I think that's the voice we want--that kind of nerdy, enthusiastic voice." [Looks to Garofalo] And they were also fans of yours. They really do follow stand-up at Pixar.

Garofalo: Brad Bird got me from listening to Air America. And for Patton, I think he liked the genuine sound of his voice. The sound, the tone, the timbre.

Netscape: Patton, you've previously said, "I follow chefs the way people follow rock stars."

Oswalt: Yeah. I admitted to Brad that I was such a foodie. When I was in high school, I would follow these extreme writers, like Harlan Ellison and William S. Burroughs--guys who were on the outskirts of everything. In college, that got transferred to rock stars. People like GG Allin.

Garofalo: Yeah, he loves it when people throw poo at the audience. He loves excrement thrown at people.

Netscape: We were talking about food?

Oswalt: [Laughs] My point is, I've been following these four-star chefs, and they're all out of their fuckin' minds. You read Anthony Bourdain's book [The Nasty Bits], or Thomas Keller's [The French Laundry Cookbook]--they're so obsessive compulsive, and they've turned their mental disorders into this delightful, artistic career. So they're like rock stars to me.

Netscape: You've done quite a bit of voice work, Patton, but how does working with Pixar compare? And what was your reaction to seeing the character with your voice?

Oswalt: This is a whole different league. I don't have a reaction yet to my performance. You're so gobsmacked by the whole thing, I haven't had a chance to go, "Oh! That's my voice! As the rat!" I'm still marveling at the cityscape and food and every little detail. [Turns to Janeane] And you are such a distinctly original character. I've never heard you do anything like that before.

Garofalo: True. I have not been an animated French lady. This is my first time.

Netscape: One has to wonder how this will play in France.

Oswalt: That'll be interesting to see. It's being released there later in July. But they're dubbing our voices. It's not our voices with subtitles.

Netscape: [To Janeane] And what's your final take on working at Pixar? You mentioned before that you liked their non-competitive approach.

Garofalo: I think the reason that Brad Bird and [producer] Brad Lewis are exceptional is that they aren't competing with anybody. There's a kind of Napoleonic vision. They don't take network notes, and they don't take notes from the studio. They have a vision derived from asking the questions: "What would I like to take my children to? What do I want to see as a parent sitting with a child? And what would I want to see 8,000 times on DVD after my child receives it?"

Netscape: And what would Patton watch 8,000 times?

Oswalt: [Laughs] When I was a little kid, I'd come up with the craziest stuff and say, "Why can't this just be in a movie?" The artists at Pixar have the ability to access their childhood immediately. In Brad's long career, he's made three movies--and they're all masterpieces. And he would rather do those beautifully than just crank out a movie a year.

Netscape: The older set will love Ratatouille. It isn't really completely for kids.

Oswalt: Every Pixar movie has these very deep adult themes. Toy Story 2 is way more about parenting than it is about little toys having adventures. It's about watching your kids grow up and losing them for a while. It's also about fighting mediocrity, and not clinging to nostalgia, which what the Bush administration is all about. "Can't life be like it was in the Fifties?" And that's what that movie is about. Don't make up some fake past that was never there.

Netscape: [To Janeane] Have you been in any movie that came out the way you wanted it to?

Garofalo:: There's really nothing where I could say, "Well, I would have done that differently." There's another movie I did with Steve Kessler, called The Independent, that I love. I also loved the idea of the Abbie Hoffman movie [Steal This Movie], but it didn't work out, it suffers from biopic-itis. But the best movie I've ever been in, quality-wise, is this one.

Tags: janeane garofalo, patton oswalt, pixar, ratatouille

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