Chris & Tom: Superheroes now play elves
In their new movie together, Marvel mainstays Chris Pratt and Tom Holland leave their superhero characters behind to play two teenage elf brothers who embark on an extraordinary quest to discover if there is still magic left in the world in Disney/Pixar’s latest animated masterpiece Onward.
Inspired by writer/director Dan Scanlon’s own relationship with his brother and their attempts to connect with their dad who passed away when they were both very young, Onward tells the story of brothers Barley Lightfoot (voiced by Chris) and Ian Lightfoot (Tom) as they race against time to bring their father back just for a day on Ian’s 16th birthday.
“He’s always been a mystery to us,” Dan said of his father who left them one keepsake that formed the soul of the movie. “A family member sent us a tape recording of him saying just two words: ‘Hello’ and ‘Goodbye.’ Two words but, to my brother and me, it was magic!”
In Onward, those two words take on a whole new meaning and audiences are in for a wonderful, heartwarming treat! Bring tissues, I suggest.
“We just set out to try to tell a personal story and something that came from an honest place,” Dan told this writer during our interview two weeks ago. He added that he and producer Kori Rae had fun making the movie with the rest of the artists because everyone felt a connection to the story through a sibling that they lost or a parent that they miss.
Chris, recognizing how good the movie was, commented to Dan during the press conference, which was held separately, that he was “just so glad” to be a part of the movie. “Like your vision is all over this thing, and it’s really, really good. It’s very special,” he remarked.
Interestingly, Tom couldn’t comment about the movie because nobody had shown him the film yet.
“They won’t show me until the premiere. I’ll spoil it,” he joked before telling us how excited he was to be starring in a Pixar movie. “I think for every young actor, you set yourself goals,” he said. “I have mine that I’ve set out since I was a kid and they’re still the same today — and one of them was being in a Pixar movie.”
Dan and Kori traveled to London to personally offer him the part of Ian.
“It was a very easy decision,” he disclosed. “You don’t say no to Pixar because they’re the best. And the nicest thing about it is they have this kind of family feel that Marvel also has, and I feel, like, we were welcomed into this wonderful family with such open arms — and it was such an amazing process! So, I’m just super pumped for people to see it and to experience this amazing thing that we’ve all created.”
Playing younger brother to Chris only fueled Tom’s excitement.
“I’m the oldest brother of four and Chris is the youngest brother of two and a sister, so we kind of switched, so now I’m playing the younger brother and he’s playing the older brother,” he said. “It was really nice for us to kind of make that switch and, because Chris and I were obviously so close already before we even came on to this film, it was almost like we were just playing ourselves!”
It’s true, the two are so close that they had to separately record their voices because when they interact they just goof around and “it’s not the most conducive to creating clean audio tracks that are usable in the movie,” according to Chris.
“I think there were moments where we were brought together but, for the most part, everything we say was what was written in the script. And so they isolated us to do that, but at the same time, they brought us together so we could shoot some promotional stuff of Tom and I together ’cause let’s talk about the chemistry here.”
Chris, a jokester in real life (he hilariously critiqued the couch he was sitting on during the press conference), saw similarities to his real life in the relationship between his character Barley and Tom’s character Ian.
Chris has an older brother who always wanted to be an actor but was not as lucky as him to break in the business. “My brother for instance always wanted to be an actor. The first time I ever saw my mom cry was watching him do a play,” he shared.
His brother eventually gave up acting and went to join the army.
Chris didn’t realize until he saw the movie that he was Ian. “I was the younger brother,” he observed. “There was that moment where Barley realizes that Ian has the gift. And he comes in, and the line... My instinct, I was like, ‘Do you think Barley wishes that he had the magic gift? Because he’s the one who loves magic, he wasn’t able to do this, but his younger brother was.’ And I think this was really the heart of the film — he loves his brother so much that he’s just so proud of him that he’s been given this gift. And when I saw that in the movie, how it was expressed, it really made me appreciate how my brother was with me ’cause he’s, my whole life, he’s always only, and during my career, only ever been super encouraging and positive about what I’ve been able to do as an actor.”
And Chris has one wish if, like Barley, he could magically bring back a loved one and spend a day with them.
“I would probably bring back my dad, who passed away just before Guardians of The Galaxy came out,” he thoughtfully said. “I would show him Guardians of The Galaxy.”
Guardians… is a Marvel movie and Chris’ breakout Hollywood film.
Onward opens in cinemas today.
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