Sergeant Calhoun is the leader in the game world Hero's Duty, who is driven by personal revenge to kill all the Cy-Bugs in the game. Lynch felt that the character was written for her, and captures her perfectly.
Animation Supervisor for Sergeant Calhoun, Renato dos Anjos said they watched many hours of football to see the correct amount of gear these soldiers would be wearing if really fighting CY-bugs. Besides finding really strong poses for the characters in Hero's Duty, they wanted to give Sergeant Calhoun a warmth to her as well given her back story.
Below is the full interview with Jane Lynch for Disney Wreck-it-Ralph, in theaters November 2nd.
It is like they wrote that character for you. Did it feel like that?
JANE LYNCH: Yes, I did feel that way. And when I went into the first session I thought, do they want me to do a voice or am I here because of what I do and indeed I was there because of what I do, so, it made it very easy.
Kids today get everything, but she had a bum rap...
JANE LYNCH: Oh, she sure does. Yeah, she's a cutting edge… um, she's in a cutting edge game and it's a virtual reality type experience; the first person shooter thing as far as I know. I'm not real up on my games. But she, yeah, she's hot.
I was able to figure out it was you by looking at her face, which is really, obviously sounded like you, but I've never seen them capture an actor…
JANE LYNCH: They did a great, oh well, thank you. That's high praise, too, cause she's hot. Um, I think that's what the genius of what these guys and gals do is they videotape us when we're doing the sessions and by the end, you know, we saw renderings all along of what our character looked like and finally by the end of it, they looked like us. Our lines in the script started to sound like us. I mean, it was a pretty organic, amazing process.
What was it like working with John and everyone, because that's very unusual with animation that you get to work in the same room? Did you do a lot of…?
JANE LYNCH: Improv? He's an improvisational machine. I think he would say it how it was written maybe once, just to satisfy the powers that be; and then he would do it his own way, always. He always dug deeper to find a way to say it that was more appropriate to him and just sometimes shake it up just to shake it up.
Well, you could have refused doing the improv…
JANE LYNCH: Yeah, well, we worked together in "Talladega Nights" too, and so did Jack McBrayer, so I've watched him in action. I've watched Jack in action. I've worked with Jack before, so, um, yeah, I know how these guys roll…
Did you work with Sarah…
JANE LYNCH: No, have not worked with Sarah. I've known her for years but I have not worked with her… a couple years.
Did you actually lip lock with Jack McBrayer then… [OVERLAPPING]?
JANE LYNCH: We didn't. We did not do the lip lock. And I'm glad we didn't. That's… that would have been completely unnecessary. But we did do the whole scene, the Nestle quicksand scene, we did get to do that together. Looking at each other and actually going [POP] and ow! And boom!
Do you find that animation's kind of slow when you're doing a weekly series like…
JANE LYNCH: Oh yeah. Four years. It took four years to do this. Yeah, I did an episode of "The Simpsons", it took a year. [LAUGH] I would go back in and replace a line. Um, "Phineas and Ferb", I'm doing "Phineas and Ferb" and I think we're probably in about the year mark on that. One episode.
"Phineas and Ferb" is also…
JANE LYNCH: I might be doing two episodes. Maybe. Maybe, I'm not sure.
A Disney project. [Right.] Do you find that once you're in the…
JANE LYNCH: The family?
The stable, yeah, the family…
JANE LYNCH: I don’t know. I wonder if that's true. I really don’t know if that is. They told me in the last roundtable, they assured me I'll be in another Disney movie and I said really? [LAUGH] I hope, I hope so.
Judy mentioned the series. A lot of changes on "Glee" [Yeah.] this year. A lot more people, a lot more places, a lot more stuff. [Right.] Kind of get the feeling it's turned into two shows now?
JANE LYNCH: It has in a way because we go to New York and we're following Rachel and Kurt and um, you know, it's just been so much fun. And now everybody's broken up. So that's really good, so we open up the opportunity for them to fall in love with somebody else and also to heal their wounds. I just think it's going really beautifully. I think… [/B]
The "Breaking Up" episode was very dark by "Glee" standards…
JANE LYNCH: Yes it was. It's heartbreaking.
And Sue has been kind of absent.
JANE LYNCH: Yeah. That won't be next week. There's so many people in the cast now. We have the new cast members and we have our old cast members and who are actually back. And um, so everybody's getting a little less, because they're trying to lay the pipe for the new people and um… tie up the storylines and establish the storylines in New York. So this next episode coming up is more heavy and more McKinley, it's more heavy for me. Heavier.
A Radio City Music Hall show? Or you're doing a feature film, right?
JANE LYNCH: Ah, no. Radio City Music Hall? Are the kids going to do something there?
…Live at Radio City Music Hall.
JANE LYNCH: Oh, that might be… yeah, I think that is happening for the kids.
So you weren't involved with that.
JANE LYNCH: I wasn't, no.
But given, I mean, an animated film taking four years is sort of an anomaly in terms of what you have time to do when the show…
JANE LYNCH: Eight days for us. Yeah.
Yeah, exactly. So what about the film projects that you've been finding? Because it seems like you have some very interesting indies [Yeah.] that are coming out. Is that kind of like a delicious part of this…
JANE LYNCH: It is. Because you go back to your guerilla filmmaking days where you know, nobody has a dressing room. They're kind of throwing you into a bathroom and you're doing makeup with a hand mirror [LAUGH] … It's a lot of fun and um… you know, great directors. I did "Adult Children of Adult… of Divorce" with Adam Scott and written by some of the "Daily Show" people so it's really funny.
How are the "Daily Show" people in doing characters? I mean, obviously they're brilliant. I watch the show religiously. [Yeah.] We don’t see character…
JANE LYNCH: I wish I could remember Stu's last name, but Stuart, who wrote it and it's kind of his story. So he knows these people. He knows these people very, very, very, very, very well.
And you've worked with Adam Scott before, too, right?
JANE LYNCH: Yes. In "Party Down". Yeah.
How was that reunion?
JANE LYNCH: Great. Just the best. You know, that was perhaps the most fun thing I've ever done in my life was "Party Down". I had dinner with Lizzy Kaplan last night and she said is it still the most fun thing you've done and I said yep and she did, too.
What happens? You know, you did another show and I forget the name of it and I'm sorry…
JANE LYNCH: "Lovespring"?
Thank you.
JANE LYNCH: Yeah. That might be brought back. [Seriously?] The same cast in a different, I actually am kind of working something out with them, with our original producer. We might… it might not be with me. But we might bring our people back.
Because my question was going to be what happens to those shows… ?
JANE LYNCH: They don’t get… nobody watches them. [LAUGH] Is what happens. And so you know, Lifetime, we were a bad fit with Lifetime and we were this really funny dating show on Lifetime. And you know, we took over one of the "Golden Girl" reruns and people just revolted. And ah, you know, they cancelled their subscriptions to cable and wrote in terrible things, so we were off the air in like 12 episodes. And then "Party Down" was Starz and I think when Adam Scott left they figured they might not have a show. So.
Anything happening with Christopher Guest? I just loved those movies.
JANE LYNCH: You know, not a movie. I know he's doing a series on HBO. Yeah.
"Adult Children", could you just tell us a little bit about that. [Yeah.] Who you play and you know, who you're working with on that.
JANE LYNCH: Sure. So Adam Scott plays this kid who, a kid… a grown man in his 30's now but as a child, he went through a contentious divorce with his parents, played by Richard Jenkins and Catherine O'Hara and they're hilarious. And they still hate each other so much. And so he was, my character wrote a book called 'Adult Children of Divorce' and I was, he thought I was his therapist, but actually I was just a researcher. So he's having problems in his life now and he comes back to me and he says will you see me as a patient and I said well, I'm not a therapist. But I get… now you know, I wrote this great book that I was, it was a best seller and now I'm out of money and I'm lecturing at… community colleges and things aren't going well for me. And I think I'll write another book and I enlist him to be a part of it. And I kind of do therapy with him in a really, probably unethical way…
This is like a low budget…
JANE LYNCH: Yeah, we shot this in Georgia, using somebody's bathroom as a make up room.
You worked with Juno Temple recently? "Afternoon Delight"?
JANE LYNCH: Oh, yes! I did not work with her, but she was in it and I bet she was amazing. I worked just with Kathryn Hahn. And I play her therapist. Yes, there's a theme. Jill Soloway wrote and directed that film and Jill is one of my best friends and was my writer on the Emmys, is a produce of "The Real Live Brady Bunch". I lived with her mother for two years. [LAUGH] And this is her first feature film and um, I was very happy to do it.
So she tries to spice up her life in what way?
JANE LYNCH: Oh. So this is Kathryn, this is Kathryn Hahn, who's married and has a little boy and yeah, she's trying to spice up her life so she brings her husband to a strip bar and she gets a lap dance. And she kind of, not sexually falls in love, but becomes really interested in trying to save the girl who did her lap dance. And bringing her into her house as her nanny and says you don’t have to do that anymore. There are better things for you out in the world. And um… basically she's a person who's always trying to rescue people. And at the very end she sees me as her therapist and oh, I don’t want to give too much away but she almost has to rescue me.
Does the girl want to be rescued?
JANE LYNCH: No. No. She just likes that she gets to hang out a really nice place now. But then of course, there's more to her character than that. She's a little deeper than that. But she's always trying to, Kathryn's always trying to rescue someone from their circumstances and her child is at the point where he doesn't need her anymore and she's at a loss.
Do friends ever come to you for advice? You play a therapist… Do your friends say she's a good ear to listen… ?
JANE LYNCH: Sometimes, yeah. Yeah. I think that's kind of the, you know, I have a very new agey relationship with all my friends. We hike Runyon and talk about you know, deep things and we give each other advice. So yeah.
Why haven't you fixed the world yet?
JANE LYNCH: Yeah, I know. What's going on? I don’t know why it doesn't resonate it outward.
Let me ask you kind of a political question, but really, as an out actress working in television, I can't help but notice this season, gay is apparently in. [Yeah.] But you have to have a baby. It's all about having a baby.
JANE LYNCH: Yeah. Well, it's the 'New Normal', if you will. Which is a great show. Um, I think that there are… because of this, there are all these new stories out there, like what is family and what is… what are your connections and you know, we now have gay people having children that had surrogates and you know, it's getting all messed up. It's all different. It's all different. So there's a whole new world and they're great new stories.
But you think introducing this whole… I mean, honestly, they all have… [Babies…] [OVERLAPPING] working on TV.
JANE LYNCH: I think there is because for the most part, we're people like everybody else and we like to have families. And now they're allowing us to tell those stories in there. You know, it's not all about that we just want to have sex with each other. [LAUGH] It's more than that. It used to be just kind of this perverted sexual practice that people would go oh, don’t do that. And now it's, you know, we're past that, as a society and you know, guys want to have kids. Girls want to have kids. It's kind of a natural thing.
Thank you. You mentioned Jill as your writer on the Emmys. [Yeah.] You hosted a couple of years ago.
JANE LYNCH: Right. It was just a year ago, but obviously it feels longer to you, which means I need to do it again! [LAUGH]
Well, looking at what's happening with the choices, Seth McFarlane to host the Oscars… [Yeah.] Do you get a sense of okay, they are now looking for a different, not only a different generation of talent, but also a different kind of comedy… [OVERLAPPING]
JANE LYNCH: I think so. I think so. I think Billy Crystal kind of set the bar for that era. And um, he kind of changed award shows. Doing the opening number… a medley of all the movies and he was so funny and he was spontaneous. He had writers on hand and I think that upped the ante for those shows and we've been at that level ever since, trying to be as good as Billy Crystal. And now, and I think that this is just another expression of that. You know, Seth McFarlane is hilarious and odd and has his own take on things and um, I think they want to bring that to the Oscars. So I think it'll be great. [LAUGH] He's great. So I think it will be really fun.
And we haven't spoken to you actually since you did it. How did you find the experience ultimately and when it was all over and the dust…
JANE LYNCH: When all is said and done I wish that I had relaxed a little bit more. During the process, I wish I had relaxed a little bit, not have been so nervous. And that was one of the things I said to myself when I accepted the assignment. I said if you're doing this, Jane, you have to be relaxed about it. Don’t get stressed and I got stressed. Um… you know, you get like… 10 jokes and you get an opening number. It's basically your job. And there are about three jokes I would have done… I would have probably cut out two of the gay jokes. So by the end of it, it was like okay, you're gay. [LAUGH] We get it. [LAUGH] And ah, that's really what it is. So it felt really good. But if I were to go back and change it, I would have shifted some of the jokes. And cut down the opening number. It was too long.
But you'd do it again.
JANE LYNCH: Oh yeah. A year ago I said uh, uh. But yeah, I'd do it again.
Are you pushing for more numbers for Sue to sing?
JANE LYNCH: I don’t push for anything. And you know what? It's kind of an unpushable situation. You know, Ryan has very clear ideas. He's got it in his head how he wants things to go and um, you know, I seem to get one really good number a season, so I hopefully will get one this season.
Is Ryan even around anymore?
JANE LYNCH: Not as much. But he's still, his fingerprints are all over it. He chooses…
"Asylum" starts this week.
JANE LYNCH: Oh, which is amazing. When I saw the premiere. If you like scary, um, it is nonstop, it is nonstop. And it's so good. Jessica Lange is amazing. She's so good. But yeah, he's around and he chooses all the music. Or he's not so much around. We don’t see him so much. But he chooses all the music and he's still in charge of the arc. You know, and everything has to go by him. He's still in the studio. He's still choosing the cuts and he's doing the final cuts. He's a busy guy.
Speaking of scary, do you have an action figure…
JANE LYNCH: Yes.
Is that a particularly cool thing… to look at that…
JANE LYNCH: Yeah. You know, my daughter doesn't get excited about much anymore. I'm hosting the Emmys. Oh. Um, I came home with that and she was like… [GASP/SCREAM] And it says '1 of 1000 - limited edition'. So I'm going to sign that sucker and it's going on Ebay and I'm going to pay for that garage I'm building.
Given that you're happy with the action figure…
JANE LYNCH: I love it. She's just so hot and she'll live forever looking like that.
If they came to you and said you know, Jane, your action figure is selling really well. Would you like to do another one from a movie you've done before; what action figure would you…
JANE LYNCH: I don’t think America cares for, would… what could be an action figure? How about Christy Cummings with a little… with a poodle, you know. That might be funny.
Or "A Mighty Wind".
JANE LYNCH: Yeah, or "A Mighty Wind". Yeah, yeah, the sexy… yeah, I've done some vixens in my time, haven't I.
And also you mentioned immortality… I'm sorry…
This action figure, does it do anything?
JANE LYNCH: Ah, I think she just stands there. I think she moves. Maybe she probably moves. I have not taken her out of the box. I'll have the 40-year old version. It loses its value if you take it out of the box.
When you look like… you don’t have to do anything…
JANE LYNCH: Exactly. She doesn't have to do anything but just stand there.
You mentioned immortality with the action figure. You know, and I've kind of beaten the subject to death, but being in a Disney princess movie [Yeah.] with basically a bid for immortality, you're going to live a lot longer on film…
JANE LYNCH: I know.
…than we are.
JANE LYNCH: Yes. I think so. It's true. I never thought about it that way.
Oh, well… any thoughts about that?
JANE LYNCH: No. I think that's great. Yeah, I'm in the Wax Museum, too. So I've kind of had those thoughts. And they don’t amount to much. I've never been concerned about legacy or anything like that. I think it's a really cool thing, but I can't say I'd go [GASP] yippee! [LAUGH] And you wouldn't either. [LAUGH]
We have time for one last question. You mentioned working with Stu Zicherman, is that his name?
JANE LYNCH: Yeah. And he's a great guy. I actually love him and last names always escape me.
Believe me, when you get to be my age…
JANE LYNCH: They all go whooooooo.
The sense of using comedy to make a point. I think, for instance, not that it was so funny, but the section, the play, the… Prop 8 play that you took part in and the idea of getting, using art, using entertainment, whether it's comedy, like they do on "The Daily Show" or on "Glee", where you're getting into people's hearts, how important is that to making a difference? Do you see it?
JANE LYNCH: Yeah. Yeah, it's… more people watch "The Daily Show" for their news and for the 18 to 49 demographic than watch anything else. Which I think is pretty amazing. And I am so glad that we have Steve Colbert and um, Jon Stewart to you know, poke fun at all this stuff and to go how ridiculous and crazy pants this stuff is. There are people who will never change. Like the people out there, I read about some people in Santa Clara at a rally with… go back to Kenya, you idiot, with a noose and watermelon. Okay. So that's crazy pants. These are people we're never going to change. And you know, God bless them. May they die soon. But um, you know, I think it's great that we have the generation that is growing up with Jon and Stephen. It is a great thing. Because I think laughing about this stuff is the only way to do it. Or else you get lost in the void.
…This is all from the criticisms, like I can't they're watching a comedy show to get their news. But watching "The Daily Show", I don’t think it's less…
JANE LYNCH: It's giving the news but it's saying can you believe, it's editorializing, going how crazy this is. And you know, Rachel Maddow does that, too. You know, she's not, you know, ha-ha-ha. But the way she'll just take something and go, look at how crazy this person is. Look how crazy this law is. You know.
It feels as legitimate a source as the other cable networks. [Yeah.] It's certainly as legitimate as Fox.
JANE LYNCH: Oh yeah, ach. That's just a propaganda machine. Right? Maybe not. I don’t know. I don’t know the politics of everybody here. [LAUGH] Oops. Thank you.
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