‘The Pout-Pout Fish’ Interview: Nick Offerman and More

Moviefone recently had the pleasure of speaking with Nick Offerman and Jordin Sparks about their work on ‘The Pout-Pout Fish’, the screenplay, their characters, and the message of the movie.

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(L to R) Nick Offerman and Nina Oyama star in ‘The Pout-Pout Fish’. Photo: Viva Pictures.

Moviefone: To begin with, Nick, can you talk about your first reaction to the screenplay and why you wanted to play Mr. Fish?

Nick Offerman: Well, it’s funny. It’s a very strange luck that Mother Nature created me with my face and my dour, slow talking voice that got me to a place in my career that the business would say, “Hey, we think you would be perfect to play this ugly depressed fish in this beloved series of children’s books.” So thankfully, I’m able to see the good in that and not take it as a personal slight. So, I read it, and I was immediately taken with the story like the rest of the world. Everybody I mentioned it to that was familiar with it just was over the moon and said, “Oh my God, I can’t believe you’re going to get to do this.” So, there wasn’t much about it that wasn’t a no-brainer. It was just being the lucky guy who had the right turned down face.

MF: Jordin, what was your first reaction to this script and why did you want to be part of this project?

Jordin Sparks: Honestly, I related to Shimmer a lot. I related to her on a personal level. She is kind of like this mythical creature, and everybody’s searching for her, and everybody has these ideas of who she is and what she can do. That’s a lot of pressure and expectation to have when nobody really knows who she is. So, for me, being in the spotlight from a very young age, I felt those kinds of pressures too. Obviously, different circumstances, but the pressure and the weight still feel the same of people having expectations of how I should be or what my art should be like or what I should talk like or how I should act. I think it was cool to be able to see the description of her, and I was like, “Wow, I really relate to that.” So, there’s an empathy that I feel like I have that I got to bring to it because even though Shimmer feels like there’s all these pressures on her, she still has the mind and the heart to be like, “How can I help?” I think that’s a beautiful trait to have, and I’m kind of the same way. Not kind of, I am the same way.

A scene from ‘The Pout-Pout Fish’. Photo: Viva Pictures.

MF: Nick, did you give any suggestions to the animators as to how you thought your character should look?

NO: Well, I don’t have anything to offer the genius of the animators, but they take my offerings. They always film you while you’re recording, and one of the things that’s fun about voice work is that I feel uninhibited by my physical body in a way that I obviously am inhibited on camera. I’m constrained by the natural world. I can’t do three back flips, or I can’t stick my thumb in my mouth and blow myself up into a balloon. So, when I’m doing an animated voice, I like to blow away the bounds of physical constraints so that I can sound like anything is happening. So, even though no one’s asked me for additional input, I like to try and inspire the animators with the noises that I make, and the faces that I make. It’s really fun because they really take cues from things that you do, and they work that into the animation. I mean, it’s so fun to watch the finished product because they’ve added so much magic and charm. They make me look a lot funnier and a lot more charming than I could ever be.

MF: Jordin, how do you prepare for a voice role like this? Is it different than preparing for a live action role or going into a studio to cut a song?

JS: That’s a good question. I think going in for a song, it’s kind of comparable to that because you do different takes, and then you try and figure out what it sounds like the best. When I’m on camera, there’s so many more details that must be considered like where my arm is, where I’m looking, or what the outfit looks like. With animation, you can kind of scale back a little bit on the pressure, but at the same time, whatever you’re saying must work and must be perfect because you are representing that character with just your voice. So, there is a little bit more nerves to that. But with this character, because I related so much, I was able to kind of drop into those feelings, and I was able to collaborate with the producers and the director. They were on Zoom because they were over in Australia. I was here in the States, and he’d be like, “Okay, try it this way,” and I would. Then, he said, “Okay, why don’t you try it the way that you think?” Then, we would come together and be like, “Okay, maybe here, it should sound a little bit more like what you were doing on this one.” So, it was a very collaborative process, but I think the thing that brought it all together was my ultimate mom voice. That really helped. With my eight-year-old, I say, “Okay, how do I calm him down?” So, I brought some of that into it as well.

(Center) Nick Offerman stars in ‘The Pout-Pout Fish’. Photo: Viva Pictures.

MF: Nick, the film features some uplifting messages about community and working together. How important is it to you personally to work on a project that has something important to say about the world we live in?

NO: Very much. I mean, whether it’s Shakespeare or something really timely, like this story that’s a lot more modern, I mean, that’s why I got into this business. It’s fun to be part of the medicinal side of storytelling. Human beings will always have weaknesses, we will always fail each other for reasons of selfishness or vulnerability or pain or fear. So, we will always need these stories to tell each other, to remind ourselves to choose love, to take care of each other instead of hurting each other, and to try and endeavor to hug one another rather than punch each other. So, a story like this that exemplifies the diversity of a neighborhood to say, we need to be open to each other’s different households, to rely on the strengths of that diversity to create a strong community rather than to shun one another. It’s great. I love being part of that kind of storytelling because we’ll always need it.

MF: Finally, Jordin, the film teaches the lesson that you can be a self-reliant person, but you can also turn to other people for help if you need it. Was that a message that you responded to personally?

JS: Yes, I relate on the one end of feeling like it’s so nice to have somebody to just lean on even if they might not understand exactly what you’re going through. But on the other side of being that person, you have one hand to help yourself and you have one hand to help others. Any way that I can do that, any way that I can help, any way that I can encourage the youth, kids, anybody is what I want to do. So, I have a lot of that intention in the art that I create in my music, in voiceovers, in acting different characters, in writing, so I’m always trying to leave people better than I found them. Whether it’s after three minutes of listening to a song or being able to see this movie, I want to make people feel and would hope that those things that I create or that I’m a part of can uplift them after they experience them.

Editorial Note: Don Kaye conducted this interview and contributed to this article.

A scene from ‘The Pout-Pout Fish’. Photo: Viva Pictures.

What is the plot of ‘The Pout-Pout Fish’?

Living on a rundown shipwreck, Mr. Fish (Nick Offerman) one day discovers a hyperactive young sea dragon Pip (Nina Oyama) – who had mistaken his home for a junkyard – pilfering his belongings. The heated argument that ensues leaves both their houses in ruin. But there is hope! Embarking on a seemingly impossible quest in search of the mythical “Shimmer” (Jordin Sparks) to grant them a wish, there’s only one problem: someone else is on the hunt.

Who is in the cast of ‘The Pout-Pout Fish’?

• Nick Offerman as Mr. Fish
• Nina Oyama as Pip
• Miranda Otto as Marin
• Remy Hii as Benji
• Jordin Sparks as Shimmer
• Amy Sedaris as the pink Dolphins
• Nazeem Hussain as Archie
• Mark Coles Smith as Hector
• Mel Buttle as Shaz

‘The Pout-Pout Fish’ opens in theaters on March 20th.

List of Jordin Sparks Movies and TV Shows:

Buy Tickets: ‘The Pout-Pout Fish’ Movie Showtimes

Buy Jordin Sparks Movies on Amazon