Posted in: Exclusive, Interview, Movies, Pixar | Tagged: elemental, interview, John Hoberg, Kat Likkel, leah lewis, Mamoudou Athie, peter sohn, pixar

Elemental Writers Likkel & Hoberg on How Film Examines Relationships

Husband & wife writing duo Kat Likkel & John Hoberg talk to Bleeding Cool about their latest in Pixar's Elemental, relationships & more.

Writers Kat Likkel and John Hoberg have had a long and fruitful creative relationship as a husband-and-wife duo working on shows like NBC's My Name Is Earl and ABC's Better Off Ted. Their combined over 40 years of experience in Hollywood transitioned their TV backgrounds to their latest animated feature in Pixar's Elemental, which follows Ember (Leah Lewis) and Wade (Mamoudou Athie), physical opposites of fire and water entities, in a city where fire, water, land, and air residents live together. Likkel and Hoberg spoke to Bleeding Cool about the inspiration behind the film, working with director Peter Sohn, and how their relationship played into the storytelling and their creative process.

How Elemental Was Born from Empathy & Relationships

What was the inspiration behind 'Elemental?'
Likkel: What's interesting about Pixar is that you get a call, and they bring you in. It's like getting a call from a spy. Suddenly, they got a movie. They needed a writer. You come in there, and the director generates them. Pete Sohn, our director, is the one who initially came up with that story. We worked with him to help bring the whole idea to fruition.

Hoberg: Usually, that comes with they have a general idea, and it's specific in a lot of ways. There's so much development in the characters; who's the main character, what are the main character interactions, and what story comes out of those character interactions? It's interesting when you jump on board. It is an in-depth character exploration, and it's cool. Having worked on many TV and movies, I know things are so generally plotted first, and Pixar approaches it from a character and what they want and then what's in the way of what they want. That's what it was for us, coming in there and understanding Pete's vision and then working with him to explore it as much as we could and find that story that spoke to what he was trying to get across.

Before settling on Ember and Wade and their fire and water areas, how many ideas did you consider?
Hoberg Pete [conceived that] from the very beginning because he is Korean, his wife is Italian-American, and they're from different cultures. Pete wanted to explore that, so he always wanted to have Ember as a female character in a situation not unlike his upbringing; his family had a shop in New York. He wanted this love story in there and what the cultural clashes are within. There was a lot of development: How do you develop a fire character? How do you keep some truth in the element of fire where there's a bit of danger and a bit that it can hurt and burn you? There's also this person inside that can be like a soft flame.

There was an explanation with Wade about how this concept of water usually goes with the flow. When we were there, there was a lot of discussion about what it would take this person to finally stand up and push back against the flow, taking a big chance like he did when he showed up at the retirement party. See, through this course, you watch Wade go from when he's washed away at the beginning. That's how he ends up in his pipe. You find out with his father; he never told him how he felt because things flowed. When he meets Ember, there's a moment where he stands up to this deluge of water. He puts his hand there; he gets giant. That's the first time he ever stands up against the flow, and his journey goes against it. There was a lot of like, "How do we explore this core thing that Pete wanted, then now add the elements to it and see where it takes us?

Were there any external factors or past experiences you've worked on before that inspired the mold of your characters?

Likkel It's funny. Pete is breathing these characters in Wade and Ember are him and his wife in some ways. There are some elements of that, no pun intended. John and I one of the reasons we got along with Pete so well the first time we met is I believe John and I have that same kind of interaction. Pete found me like I think John might find me sometimes, a little fiery and outspoken, especially when we're in a writers' room. I don't have any problem giving my opinion or sometimes in probably more blunt words than I should most likely be using. John, I'm so envious of this because I blunder right into things, and I have a little bit of a temper which Pete and I talked about a lot with each other.

John can play a long game and be nice and cool. He thinks things through before he says them. Connecting it with this movie is like, "You never apply to Pixar; Pixar finds you." When they sent us the little bits they already had in the script they were talking about, John and I immediately said, "Wow, there's a lot of us in there!" Our experiences and Pete's experiences regarding relationships and the culture in our relationship are similar in a great way that worked for this.

Hoberg Our first meeting with Pete, they flew us up there, and we met him for lunch. We didn't know anything about what the movie was about, and looking back, because we're married, he was quizzing us on our relationship, backgrounds, and how we are in a relationship. He was seeing the same thing that he's got in his relationship. You can't help but put yourself into these movies. Everybody who works on it has a bit of themselves in there, but when you try to solve problems in a script or a film, you all end up sitting around and telling personal stories you relate to.

You might say, "There was one time I remember Kat and I were talking with one of the story artists, Anna Benedict, about a time when we almost broke up early on in our relationship, and we had a logical conversation about all the reasons why our relationship wouldn't work. We got to the end of that, and we're like, "That makes a lot of sense. We should break up." The other one said, "But I don't want to break up." I'm like, "Yeah, I don't either." Anna Benedict said, "What if that's how Wade shows up at the retirement party? He's not showing up to say, 'Take me.' He's showing up to say, 'Here are all the reasons it doesn't work, but there's one reason it does work, and that's love.' That came from a personal place.

Elemental, which was co-written by Brenda Hsueh, also stars Ronnie del Carmen, Shila Ommi, Wendi McLendon-Covey, Catherine O'Hara, Mason Wertheimer, Joe Pera, and Matt Yang King. The film is currently in theaters.

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