Charlie Day talks ‘Monsters University,’ playing a scientist in ‘Pacific Rim’ and ‘Horrible Bosses 2’

Charlie Day has been busy and his latest feature film, Monsters University, is his first animated voice work. While promoting the film, Day talked to Collider about joining the Pixar sequel and began by describing what it was like.

“I’ve always wanted to do it.  I always love hearing Tom Hanks, John Ratzenberger, Billy Crystal, John Goodman and all of these wonderful actors, doing such great performances.  I’m aware of what a good job Pixar does, making the animation.  They’re doing all the real work.  You build the performance with the expressiveness of the animation.  So, I’ve always wanted to do it, but I didn’t really know how to go about it.  Fortunately, they just asked me to be a part of one, and I’m really happy to be here.”

Art, on the far left, is voiced by Charlie Day in the Pixar film ‘Monsters University’

Pixar didn’t have a lot of information for the actor, but did have a mockup of his character.

“The very first time I went to Pixar, they had a drawing and a little model of Art, and they had a few clips of him dancing and spinning around.  They had taken clips of lines from It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia and they animated Art to that, so I saw the big picture.  I saw what the character looked like, and that they wanted him to sound a lot like me.  All the heavy lifting was done, by the time I showed up.”

Day is also a part of Guillermo del Toro’s Sci-Fi robot vs. monsters blockbuster Pacific Rim and he says he’s seen the early cut.

“I saw a cut with most of the special effects done, but not all of them.  It was riveting!  It’s another Guillermo [del Toro] explosion of creativity.  I really couldn’t wrap my head around the fact that I was a part of it.  It’s just such a wild ride.  I think people are really going to enjoy it.”

He continued explaining his role.

“I play a scientist.  I play Dr. Newton Geiszler.  It was wonderful to be given a character who can actually read.  It was fun to get to do something that wasn’t just pure comedy.  He is an expert on the big monsters, and he’s trying to stop them using his brains, whereas the guys and the robots are using their brawn and their brains.  He’s a cantankerous little guy, but he ends up being braver than he knows he’s capable of being.  It’s a nice part in the movie.”

Day spoke briefly about Horrible Bosses 2.

“We’re close.  They’re doing a new version of the script.  We just want to make sure that there’s a story that’s worth the audience’s time.  The first one was really fun and great.  Jason [Bateman], Jason [Sudeikis] and myself, and Jennifer [Aniston], Kevin [Spacey], Jamie [Foxx] and Colin [Farrell], all had so much fun working together that we really would like to have a chance to do it again, but we also want to make sure that we’re not wasting people’s time.  So, hopefully, within the next week or so, we’ll get a version of this movie that’s worth starting to really put together.  Honestly, the chemistry of the people is so good that you just need an entertaining story, and we’ll make it funny.”

Check out the full interview here

Monsters University opens in theaters June 21.