An Interview with Ginnifer Goodwin from Zootopia
Ginnifer Goodwin plays Judy Hopps, an extremely optimistic bunny, in Walt Disney Animation Studios' new movie Zootopia. We sat down with Ginnifer at the Zootopia Event to talk about her role in the movie and how motherhood has effected the roles she takes.
After meeting Ginnifer Goodwin a year ago during the press event for the Tinker Bell and the Legend of the Never Beast release, I was certain we'd be seeing her in another Disney movie. She was not shy about proclaiming her love for the company and I could really feel it emanating from her. I mentioned this before in my previous interview post with Ginnifer, but she is a Disney natural. She's likable, optimistic, and pretty much everything you'd want your heroine to be. That's why it was no surprise to hear that she was cast as the leading lady in Zootopia. Goodwin plays Judy Hopps, the lovable bunny from Bunnyburrow, who truly believes that anyone can be anything. She overcomes the odds to become the very first bunny to join Zootopia's police force, but it isn't all smooth sailing after she realizes her dreams.
We were able to meet with Ginnifer via satellite at Disney's Animal Kingdom Lodge to discuss her character and how motherhood has affected her choice of roles.
Q : How did you prepare for your role as Judy Hopps?
Ginnifer Goodwin (GG) : would like to say that I have a lot of artistic integrity and lived on a rabbit farm for a month, but I really just relinquished all control, which was new for me because I think control is something for which actors are always fighting and creating and protecting characters. But, this is a new world for me - animation, and I really did, I understand that everything physical, everything making up everything that you see, with as much as they might have filmed me with cameras in the recording booth, everything was really in the hands of the animators. This is not an actor’s medium. So, all I did was show up and try to be completely emotionally available and said my lines and tried different things and wore sneakers so I could jump around and that's about it. It’s the most fun I’ve ever had. No one should get paid to have this much fun... except me. I’ll totally take it.
Q : What made you want the role?
GG: To be honest, the, there was one word that convinced me that I needed to take this role and that was Disney. That’s the truth. I was sitting in Mickey Mouse pajamas in my kitchen. I was pregnant. I was in Vancouver shooting "Once Upon a Time" and I got a phone call that I was being offered this job and I had never heard of Zootopia and I took it immediately. And my representatives, who were all on the phone because they knew I’d burst out crying, which I did. My representative said, "Don’t you want to know anything about the character or the script?" and I said, "Well, of course. Just accept the job first and then call me back." So they did and I actually didn’t read the script for a little while. I went in and I sat down with the filmmakers. They showed me the storyboards; they created the world for me and walked me through everything and I was shown a version of the script that's similar to what we made, but definitely would have been a different movie.
One of the things that I love most about Disney is that it's the only studio of which I’m aware that will start from scratch to make something better, even if they’re years into the process which happened with this one. But reading the script, I was really taken with not only the scenes, but the fact that like every great Disney film, it could make me laugh. It could make me cry at the same points every time I read it. I related very much to the character. I understand why I was cast. I was typecast a bit and I’m proud of it. There was no question that I was going to take it the second I knew that it existed.
Q : What was the best thing about playing Judy Hopps?
GG: What was the best thing about playing Judy? I don’t know if this answers your question. It’s less about playing her, and more about her effect on me as an audience member. I was really surprised when I saw the final product because I had given the directors just a million different versions of everything. They crafted her performance. It’s not like when we’re doing live action and we feel we’re in control of creating a through line. I provided them a million different pieces and then they made her and what I was ecstatic to find is that they created an action hero and a real butt kicker who is kind and generous and girly and uncompromising, and frankly, didn’t have to have any of what we associate with masculine qualities, in order to be that action hero. I don’t remember the last time I saw any character in any kind of film that was what I would call feminine. Which is actually more like being a being-ist or something because it’s not about her femininity. I love that she didn’t have to become jaded to be strong. I think that those are qualities, we assume have to go together and they don’t. I love that she was forever kind and I don’t think that kindness is something that we always associate with strength, and so I found her extremely refreshing and I was really proud to have gotten to contribute to the pieces that made her.
Q : What qualities do you find in yourself that you see in Judy Hopps?
GG: We’re both fiercely optimistic. We’re both idealistic. I think we’re both a bit self-righteous, which can then get into the flawed territory which I also love. I don’t like playing characters who don’t have some flaws and I think that that our flaws are similar. I love that she, which is something that I hadn’t really, honestly articulated for myself ever until playing Judy, believes that before one can of course, make the world a better place, one has to make one’s self better. There’s nothing more responsible than that. I would love to be that responsible. I also wish I were as fearless as she is because I’m a tryer like she is, but I try things ,and when I try things, I’m often secretly a bit scared and I feel like she didn’t get the scared gene somehow.
Q : Have you overcome any stereotypes in your life the way the two characters have in the movie?
GG: I think becoming an actress in the way that I’ve become an actress was overcoming other perceptions because I am proud of the fact that I am not some like stereotypical, classic package of a Hollywood actress. Early on, I was told I would never be a leading lady, and I thought that was ridiculous because there are all kinds of ladies and all stories need to be told, so why wouldn’t my kind of lady lead a film at some point? I think that being an actress in general, takes exceptionally thick skin in that we’re rejected on a daily basis for a number of reasons, and I think I’ve always been pretty good at letting it all roll of my back.
Q : We learned from Jason that you don't get to see a lot of the animation at first, so what did you think when you first saw Judy Hopps with your voice? Did she really look the way you were envisioning her? Was it better? What did you think?
GG : Oh, it was a dream. He’s right, I didn’t see anything. Honestly, I didn’t see an entire scene until I saw what became the first trailer. The sloth-DMV scene in its, edited trailer form at D23. So, I had saw it while standing backstage with a monitor at the same time that all of the thousands of fans did. And before that, I had seen animatics and I had seen all of the artwork that they had put up for me as reference. They would always decorate the sound booth in artwork which was incredibly inspiring and anything new would go up for me to see. I was really blown away. I still can’t get over it. Thank goodness, when I’m watching the movie, I forget that it is me and I can get completely lost in it, which is something that I can’t unfortunately do when I’m watching something live action. Because when I’m watching something live action, I’m just going, "Ugh, I need to lose five pounds, and I hate the way I said that line. I wish they'd have used a different take," and this was a completely different experience. I was swept up in the story, but sometimes I am brought back into it by realizing that Judy has raised her eyebrows in a way that I raise my eyebrows or does something with her hands that I suddenly find very familiar, but I only just saw the entire movie six weeks ago and it did blow my mind.
Obviously, I’m a bit quick to tears, but I start crying the second the castle comes up and says Disney.
Q : Has your son seen the movie and does he know that’s your voice?
GG : He hasn’t seen it and we only recently decided that we’re not going to let him see it for a long time, but not for reasons that we was expected of ourselves. We kept him from all technology-based entertainment until this point. He’s about to turn two. He just had the flu and we let him watch "Winnie the Pooh" for the first time. Up until this point, he’s a reader. He’s extremely physically active. He’s a player and we really encouraged him to let that be his forms of entertainment. I thought that we were going to let him see Zootopia and then we saw Zootopia and it’s almost out of our love for it that we’re going to keep animated things of which we are a part as parents, away from them because we realized that Oliver thinks that Winnie the Pooh is real, and we would never want to shatter the illusion that he’s not. And, not only does he think that the animated Winnie the Pooh is real, but because he’s almost two, he thinks that the Winnie the Pooh that he met at Disneyland last month is the same exact Winnie the Pooh that was onscreen when he had the flu, and I don’t want to shatter any of his illusions. I’m just terrified that he would see Zootopia, and he’s a smart kid, and he would say, "That sounds an awful lot like Mommy," and so I’m going to keep that from him as long as possible. I want to push him to be imaginative.
Q : As a mom, what would you like kids to take away from the film and this character?
GG: There’s so many incredible themes in this movie. The one that I gravitate towards the most, because it’s the one my character articulated, was that anyone can be anything, and I absolutely believe that. I believe that’s in keeping with the answer to the question [earlier] about defying other peoples’ expectations and in stereotyping me and how I am received. I do believe anyone can be anything. I believe that there are infinite amounts of opportunities for everyone. I’ve never understood this idea that there’s so many pieces of the pie. If actresses are fellow actress haters, and are extremely competitive, and not any more so than men - I’m just using actresses because I’m an actress and I’m sure it’s the same in many, many different fields, but I’ve always felt like why can’t we just look at it as there’s an infinite number of pies? There’s enough to go around and there’s enough for everyone to carve their niche in life, and so that’s the thing that I would hope on the surface that I hope my kids take away from seeing Zootopia. There are some incredible underlying and very timely and timeless themes, about the human condition and the state of our world that I think are powerful. t may take a little more maturity and social interaction for them to understand them, but I can’t wait for my kids to be old enough to really talk about it.
Q : Has becoming a parent affected what kind of roles you take?
GG : Absolutely, but I would say, nesting and wanting to become a parent affected the roles I wanted to start taking when I hit about thirty. I never desperately wanted to have children. It wasn’t something that I really consciously thought about and I hit thirty and suddenly realized this is something that is not just something that I want, but it is going to be unacceptable, for me, to go life without children. This is something that I must have for myself. I think it was doing that, that made me look at a job I was on at the time which was "Big Love," and I had success with Big Love, but my kids - any future kids, would not be able to watch that for a very long time. I wouldn’t even let like my boyfriends at the time watch "Big Love" and then I looked at even [some of my other roles]. They were not exactly family fodder or family friendly. And I hadn’t really made much of anything that a kid of mine would be able to see at a young age, and so I know that that affected my decision to take "Once Upon a Time," which then led to "Tinker Bell and the Legend of the Never Beast" with Disney Home Movie, and my first real experience doing an extensive amount of voice work for animation. Then, Zootopia was a no brainer. But, yeah it definitely changed the kind of entertainment that I wanted to put out into the world. That’s not to say that I don't want to go back because I do want to explore darker things again, but I love that I have this now as part of my career world.
Q : Lastly, do you have a favorite scene in the movie?
GG : As an actress, I would say that because I’m a glutton for punishment, that I love the scene in which Judy takes responsibility for what she has not only has done in the world of Zootopia, but what she has done to Nick, and goes back and apologizes, but also calls him to action. The scene under the bridge - that was one of the most fun to film because it just required me to be the most emotionally available and as an actress, I love to go to those places. But as an audience member, I think that that sloth scene is one of the strongest scenes in the movie. I think it’s hysterical.
Thank you so much to Ginnifer Goodwin for sitting down with us to chat about Zootopia!
Amber Ludwig says
OH she sounds like just such a bright ray of sunshine in the Hollywood world!! I wish I could be fiercely optimistic too lol!! I do find it a little strange that she feels animation stifles imagination! My son is 3 and he loves animated movies and has the craziest imagination Ive ever seen lol!!
Deborah D says
You got to interview Ginnifer Goodwin! I'm so jealous!
Sarah L says
Great interview. Glad you got to participate in this.
Sarah L says
Just saw Zootopia and loved it. Judy was great.