Directed by Peter Sohn, Elemental is Pixar's latest film -- while it embraces the goofy world-building and bright sense of design that have long defined the animation studio, its best feat is delivering a surprisingly mature romantic dramedy about two people from very different paths in life finding themselves through an unexpected romance with another. Made universal through its use of elemental forces like water and fire as clear stand-ins for the immigrant experience and an interracial romance, Elemental is a painfully human story that works in large part thanks to the earnest performances from its central cast.
This includes Shila Ommi, who gets to play Cinder, the matchmaking mother of the film's central protagonist Ember -- giving her plenty of comedy, drama, and romantic tenors to play with. Cinder During an interview with CBR, Shila Ommi (Cinder) spoke about jumping at the chance to voice a major role in Elemental -- even without a full script -- what separates Pixar from the rest of the film industry, and the advantage voice-acting provides over live-action performance.
CBR: Congrats on Elemental! I really enjoyed the film's universal appeal.
Shila Ommi: Right? And that beautiful story of a connection between these elements. It's so unlikely for them to be together because you've got fire and water, fire vaporizes water, water destroys fire. And despite their differences, they decide that they learned so much from themselves through this unlikely friendship. There's also the connection between the father and daughter!
And mother and daughter, let's not forget that.
[Laughing] Thank you, that's true.
What was your reaction first time getting to read the script and see all the elements that you were going to get to play with in this film?
So here's the thing -- I never had a chance to read the script. I kind of figured out what's going on by just reading my part, and assessing what the whole story is about. It was such an incredible honor that [Director Peter Sohn] called me. I think he had gone through a number of wonderful actresses and voiceover artists. Cinder is based on Peter's Mom. Somehow, he just wasn't able to find the right voice or feeling of voice, and they asked me to -- and I just melted. I was so grateful to be able to play the part.
You really get to play with a lot of different tenors and tones in the film. Cinder is in comedic sequences, dramatic beats, and genuinely sweet touches -- how did you approach that balance with the character?
It was thrilling because it's written so well. Playing a character that has such a beautiful and nicely defined character arc was beautiful for me. Being an immigrant myself -- I'm an Iranian immigrant and a daughter of immigrants. It was really important for me to represent my fellow immigrant women with honor and respect and integrity and love and humor. So it was just so wonderful. I hope I did that. I don't know if I did, but that was my intention.
How did Elemental speak to your own experience?
With Ember, she has a keen awareness of what her mother and father did, all the sacrifices they made for their only daughter, to give her a better life. So that keen awareness is something that I really related to because I mean to this day -- and my father passed away in 1998 -- to this day, I have such feelings of, I have so much love for him, but guilt. There's a burden of that I felt like oh, I wish I was a better daughter, I wish I was better. That was very relatable.
Definitely not just for myself, but I feel for other immigrant friends that I have, we all share this burden that we carry on our shoulders. When you compare us to people that have just lived in the country they were born in, generation after generation, they don't realize how fortunate they are. I don't want to say easy, no one has an easy life. I mean, I really feel we're all here to learn. But in some respects, there are certain challenges that they don't have that immigrants definitely have. [Exploring the world] really makes you a better person. When you get out of the place where you live, and you see the world, and you see how other people are.
You've done both live-action work and voice-over acting -- what would you say is the biggest difference between the two approaches to performance?
With any art, you walk a tightrope. Regardless of whether you're a painter or you're a writer, it's a tightrope of -- a little too much of one color, a little too much of one emotion, can leave it a little too dry. So it's a tightrope, including the acting that is physical, with your physical body in front of a camera. There's a tightrope of too much, too little, too much, too little. What I love about voice acting is that you're not dealing with [anything] physical, so I get focus on that tightrope that is the voice. In a way, it's much easier for me because there are not three different tight ropes to be walking with the voice and the body and the emotion, but only the voice and the heart.
What is it about Pixar that stands out from the rest of the industry?
The humbleness. You see someone like Peter Sohn -- he's this brilliant animator, he has directed, he's written, he's done voiceover work. He's the voice of Sox in Lightyear, he's the voice of Emile in Ratatouille. And you meet him, and he's so humble. When I was in the studio, I really felt like, oh, I'm just with some friends, and we're doing this independent project together. That is what it felt like. And when he showed me a little picture of what the character of Cinder looked like -- I mean, it's, it's a drawing. So you think, oh, okay, so we're doing an independent project until you see that.
What a feat of animation, to be playing a fire character and this fire -- it's not like a match on fire. It's a fire being, that emits light everywhere it goes. Other beings around it are reflecting the light that it's emitting, it's moving all the time. It's just incredible. Everyone that I've met at Pixar [are] the best people. Just look at any Pixar project that you've seen you've seen, they're masters at work. There's just a humbleness that comes through in their work that is just lovely to see.
What would you say surprised you the most about Cinder?
That she was so human, that definitely surprised me. Initially, I went in thinking that I'm gonna you know be big, but she was so human -- as are all of Pixar as characters. There's a beautiful, natural humanity, an easiness in them that allows you to relate to them -- whether the person you're watching is a car or elements like water or fire. The other thing that really surprised me was to see this movie and to see the incredible, masterful feet of animation that went into it. That was so beautiful. It was so visually stunning, I never imagined that would be as beautiful as it turned out.
Elemental is now playing in theaters.