*I was invited by Sony pictures to attend the junket of Pixels. All my opinions are my own and not swayed by outside sources.*
I was so excited to be invited by Sony to screen the Pixels movie and attend the press junket for Pixels. As a huge Adam Sandler fan my entire life, this was a dream come true for me to actually interview him, as well as the rest of the spectacular cast including Josh Gad, Kevin James, Michelle Monaghan, Adam Sandler and director Chris Columbus. This interview was only between a few bloggers and some press, so we really had a chance to find out all about this brand new movie Pixels opening July 24, 2015!
On Friday you will be able to see my full review of Pixels but I will say that it is an extremely fun and interesting movie that will take all of you back to your childhood. The special effects in this movie were second to none and I for one, am so excited to take my kids to see it on the 24th! It is truly a spectacle that will come alive right before your very own eyes! All of your childhood favorites including Donkey Kong and PacMan are seen in this movie.
When the interview started Josh Gad, told us it was absolutely amazing that Dave N Busters had a press conference for this movie. It was so cool because they set up all the childhood games on site. It was a perfect setting for the movie since it revolves all around gaming.
We first asked Josh Gad what it was like working with Kevin James and Adam Sandler for the first time?
“It was a nightmare. LOL! It was a truly a dream come true. I grew up in the generation of Adam Sandler being on Saturday night live and watching it religiously. And I feel like Kevin and I are from the same cloth and always wanted to work with him. He originally didn’t want me to do the movie.
I am also obsessed with Michelle and I can’t say enough about Chris Columbus.”-Josh Gad
Josh told us that Goonies and Gremblins were the movies that defined Josh Gad and made him the nightmare that he is today. SO funny! He joked around about being a Jewish actor! From a Jewish girl, this was so funny!
Next we asked Michelle Monaghan, how it felt playing the girl power role?
“It felt awesome! The job title and the name of the movie got me. She was Lieutenant Colonel Violet van Patten. She is a weapon designer for the president and developed the weapons used to conquer the world. She is cool..She is strong.. She is confident.. She has beauty and brains all together.”- Michelle Monaghan.
Then we asked if they played classic video games in preparation for the film since the movie was all about this?
Chris Columbus told us he only played Donkey Kong and PacMan growing up. When he got the movie, he had to learn a lot of the games like Centipede. The rest of the cast were experts because they all grew up with these games. Kevin James told us that he was too hip for the standad games which made me laugh. Adam Sandler told us around 11/12, the arcades opened up and they played tons of video games growing up. It was a staple of his childhood. He used to take a bus to the Electric Dream Factory where all the standard games were. It was the time of their lives back then.
The soundtrack for the movie is completely awesome. We were curious how they narrowed down the soundtrack?
“Surrender was in the movie since the very beginning. Working for the weekend they tried in the editing room but when they put it in the movie, it was really cool and worked. Some of the songs that you didn’t think were cool in the 80s, are cool today. The Queen song became Brenner’s theme and was put in at the end of the movie.”- Chris Columbus
Adam Sandler told us that the movies back then were a little less violet and more gender neutral. The games back then and today are quite different.
We wanted to know if they ad -libbed in the movie?
“Josh Gad loves to ad-lib. He is the best at this. We were shooting an R rated movie for some of it and had to cut some of it. There is a lot of amazing improv especially from Josh Gad.”-Adam Sandler
For their favorite quotes, Josh Gad said he loved when PacMan went “WagaWagaWaga”. For Michelle, he loved when they said, “He is my sweet boy”. For Josh, he loves Dinklage’s lines. They all said Peter Dinklage was hysterical.
To get the rights, Chris Columbus needed to meet with the licensing characters. In the movie you will see the creator of PacMan telling PacMan to be good and that he is like a son. The inspiration from this came from Chris Columbus knowing how die hard the creators of these games are and he wanted to make it right with them too.
At the end there is a fabulous Donkey Kong scene. We wanted to know if this was CGI?
“We were pretty high up there. There was a giant scene that was 70 feet high. All the platforms were built and we were all wearing harnesses.”- Adam Sandler
Chris Columbus said he didn’t want to do everything CGI and wanted a tangible set that they could actually perform on. He said it was a pretty gruesome couple of days filming this end scene. The CGI was basically only on the Donkey Kong and on the barrels. They were able to see the computer generated action as they filmed this.
Chris Columbus said it was basically like a complete animated cartoon with the lenses. The actors knew exactly what they were looking at when filming the scene.
Kevin James then joked that he would make the Mets go the World Series and make it mandatory to have a siesta if they he was president. Quite funny! I think he should make these things happen.
Lastly we wanted to know how it was on the set everyday? Adam Sandler told us everyone was great and one big team. Everyone had a great time. They all had a lot of fun making Pixels. He said Chris Columbus went for a 5 mile run every day during lunch while everyone else napped.
Chris Columbus said it was not the easiest shoot but they all worked so hard ogn very long days. It certainly payed off because the movie is terrific.
Stay tuned because my review is coming soon and don’t forget that Pixels opens July 24th!
This movie looks so cool! I love that you got to interview them. These are some great questions and answers!
Actors of fully Jewish background: Logan Lerman, Natalie Portman, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Mila Kunis, Bar Refaeli, James Wolk, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Julian Morris, Adam Brody, Esti Ginzburg, Kat Dennings, Gabriel Macht, Erin Heatherton, Odeya Rush, Anton Yelchin, Paul Rudd, Scott Mechlowicz, Lisa Kudrow, Lizzy Caplan, Emmanuelle Chriqui, Gal Gadot, Debra Messing, Robert Kazinsky, Melanie Laurent, Shiri Appleby, Justin Bartha, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Margarita Levieva, Elizabeth Berkley, Halston Sage, Seth Gabel, Corey Stoll, Mia Kirshner, Alden Ehrenreich, Eric Balfour, Jason Isaacs, Jon Bernthal, William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy.
Andrew Garfield and Aaron Taylor-Johnson are Jewish, too (though I don’t know if both of their parents are).
Actors with Jewish mothers and non-Jewish fathers: Jake Gyllenhaal, Dave Franco, James Franco, Scarlett Johansson, Daniel Day-Lewis, Daniel Radcliffe, Alison Brie, Eva Green, Joaquin Phoenix, River Phoenix, Emmy Rossum, Rashida Jones, Jennifer Connelly, Sofia Black D’Elia, Nora Arnezeder, Goldie Hawn, Ginnifer Goodwin, Amanda Peet, Eric Dane, Jeremy Jordan, Joel Kinnaman, Ben Barnes, Patricia Arquette, Kyra Sedgwick, Dave Annable, Ryan Potter.
Actors with Jewish fathers and non-Jewish mothers, who themselves were either raised as Jews and/or identify as Jews: Ezra Miller, Gwyneth Paltrow, Alexa Davalos, Nat Wolff, Nicola Peltz, James Maslow, Josh Bowman, Winona Ryder, Michael Douglas, Ben Foster, Jamie Lee Curtis, Nikki Reed, Zac Efron, Jonathan Keltz, Paul Newman.
Oh, and Ansel Elgort’s father is Jewish, though I don’t know how Ansel was raised. Robert Downey, Jr. and Sean Penn were also born to Jewish fathers and non-Jewish mothers. Armie Hammer and Chris Pine are part Jewish.
Actors with one Jewish-born parent and one parent who converted to Judaism: Dianna Agron, Sara Paxton (whose father converted, not her mother), Alicia Silverstone, Jamie-Lynn Sigler.
You are so lucky! I’m so excited about this movie, thanks for the great post 😀
This is seriously the coolest! I was obsessed with Pacman and Donkey Kong back in the day.
My son’s been talking about this movie a lot but I really didn’t know much about it! Now I understand why he wants to see it. It looks great!
Wow! Lucky you…I love all of these actors! I would love to have an opportunity like this!
This movie looks like it’s going to be good and of course I love the entire cast. Adam Sandler looks like he’s lost weight?
I know by looking at the cast that this will be a great film. It will be hard to pick which great movie to watch first but this one will be towards the top.
This movie I am super excited about. I love all those old games, so I know I will like this.
It sounds like these guys had a great time making this movie. It is one of the ‘must see’s” on my teens list and on my list for this summer.
This looks like it will be a really fun movie! I can’t believe you got to interview the cast! Starstruck!!
What a great interview. I love me some Adam Sandler, he is hilarious. I’m going to take my son to see this movie.
That looks like a good time. I hope I can get a gig like that.
I would absolutely love to be a voice over actor…my cousin is an Oscar nominated actor and I always think that his life would be so much simpler if he just did animated films…but then again, Ghostbusters and Caddyshack would never be the same without him!
What a fun interview. I have always loved Adam Sandler and Kevin James. They are so funny. Can’t wait to see this movie!
I saw the trailer for this movie and thought it looked very unique! It must have been a blast to interview the cast.
This sounds like a great movie. I love Adam Sandler. It must have been so fun interviewing the cast.
What a great interview and looks like ti would have been heaps of fun! I can’t wait to see this movie! I am a big fan of Adam Sandler as he makes me laugh and makes me cry! I honestly don’t know why!
ADAM lost a lot of weight! What an awesome lovely interview by the way.
Sounds like a great interview. My son realy wants to see this movie, he was telling me stuff about it.
I can’t wait to see this movie! I’m a fan of all the old video games and so is my husband so were really looking forward to this!
I can’t wait to see this movie. It looks like it will be awesome. Especially to see some of the old games again. Like Centipede.
What an awesome opportunity for you! I would love to interview them too. 🙂 This movie sounds great! I would love to see it.
I was a little excited about this movie before, but now that I know that Adam Sandler and Kevin James are going to be in it, I am super excited for it. I love all those old video games, too!
I am so excited to go see Pixels. It is going to be so funny. There are so many great actors in it.
Ooh Kevin James is always so funny!
Now that I know the cast involved, I am more interested in the movie 🙂
OMG how cool Would it have been to actually have been there!!so jealous you got to sit threw this interview. Sounds like a fantastic film!
I can’t wait to see this movie. I know my boys will enjoy it too.
How excited! My little guy has talked about this movie for a while now. We cannot wait to see it :]
I remember playing Donkey Kong and PacMan, I would always beat my cousin’s butts too LOL!!! 🙂
Sounds like the cast really enjoyed making this movie. That’s always a good sign that it will be good and it should definitely be funny with this cast.
I cannot wait for this movie. It looks like it will be a really great one. This is a great interview, really enjoyed reading!
Wow! That is so awesome! This movie looks great and I can’t wait to see it.
This movie looks so cool my kids can’t wait to see it.
What a great interview! I can’t wait to take my kids to see Pixels. Mostly because I want to see it! LOL!
We saw the preview and my son wanted to see it. I am considering it. 🙂
I definitely don’t watch enough tv. I have no clue what this movie is and now I need to run to google to soak in as much info about it as possible.
I’ll be seeing this one for sure. It looks really COOL! Great cast and interview.
I had an invite to this event and I was unable to attend. It looks like it was so much fun! I love Adam Sandler and Kevin Hart.
Ah, the glorious carefree days of my youth. I had a paper route at eleven and a large part of my earnings got turned directly into quarters to spend at the gas station in town that had a small video game room in back.