How Kendall Coyne Schofield became a voice in Pixar's Inside Out 2

Kendall Coyne Schofield was at home in Chicago, pregnant with her first child, when she got the call.

It was February 2023 and filmmakers at Pixar were working on a sequel to the hugely successful, Oscar-winning animated film Inside Out. They wanted to know if Coyne Schofield would be interested in a cameo.

I couldn't say yes fast enough, said Coyne Schofield The Athletics in April after her participation in the film was announced. It was definitely a pinch-me moment.

More than a year later and nine years after the original film came out, Inside Out 2 hits theaters Friday with a major Hollywood cast including Amy Poehler, Maya Hawke and Ayo Edebiri. The film returns to the mind of Riley, now a teenager, as she struggles with new emotions as she prepares for high school. Most of the film takes place at a hockey camp, producer Mark Nielsen said The athletic, and Coyne Schofield will voice a hockey announcer at some of the sport's many moments in the spotlight.

The first film pales in comparison to this one in terms of hockey depiction, said Nielsen, who won an Oscar for his work on Toy Story 4. It's really a core part of the story and what Riley goes through.

The fact that the sport plays such a major role in one of the most anticipated films of the summer comes at a crucial time for women's hockey. The Professional Womens Hockey League officially launched on January 1 and just completed its inaugural season, with Coyne Schofields Minnesota team winning its first-ever championship. Inside Out 2 will showcase girls' hockey on an incredibly big stage with this weekend's international release.

It is so important, as we discussed with the PWHL, that a young boy and a young girl grow up with the same dream of becoming a professional hockey player, said Coyne Schofield. And the fact that Disney and Pixar have this movie and the main character is a hockey player and happens to be a girl (is unbelievable).

Hockey plays a central role in Inside Out 2, but that wasn't always the plan. In the first draft of the scenario, Riley left the sport, Nielsen said. The story still focused on new emotions as Riley transitioned from middle school to high school, but it was told outside the context of youth hockey. At the second test screening, eight were writing the film. The filmmakers decided Riley should become a hockey player again, Nielsen said.

Her love of hockey was captured so beautifully in the first film, Nielsen said. We wanted to go back to that.

In the original Inside Out, Riley was introduced as an 11-year-old hockey player from Minnesota who moves to San Francisco with her family and struggles with the transition away from her friends and teammates. The director, Pete Docter, is from Bloomington, Minnesota. And although he didn't play hockey growing up, Nielsen joked that it was a shame for Docter, he wanted to stay true to the region and keep Riley playing the sport of choice for many kids. in Minnesota. According to USA Hockey, more than 15,000 girls and women played hockey in Minnesota during 2022-2023, more than any other district in the United States.

Hockey was an easy and accurate choice.

Nielsen said the crew also enjoyed distinguishing Riley from other teen Pixar characters and giving young female hockey players, or simply athletes, a chance to see themselves reflected in the film, much like The Mighty Ducks did in the '90s did with Connie The Velvet Hammer Moreau.

“I would love nothing more than to see this film get a new generation of Rileys interested in the sport of hockey and inspire girls to know that this great sport is for them too,” Nielsen said. There is now even a professional women's hockey league to prove that you can push this sport to the limit.

The Inside Out 2 crew spent a significant amount of time researching the sport, relying on the expertise of the Canadian and American members who played as children. Nielsen called them the hockey brain trust which ensured that the uniforms, equipment and gameplay were realistic and that hockey players, coaches and fans could watch the film and feel like they got it right. One Pixar employee, Tracey Roberts, brought equipment such as jerseys, pads, sticks, pucks and helmets that hung on the walls in the film's production capsule.

The animation team was constantly coming into the pod and making references to things like that, Nielsen said. Many of our animators also played hockey. The ones that actually physically animate the characters and they helped us be really honest in the way we went about the skating and the exercises that we did and that we put into this movie.

At one point, Nielsen went to Roberts, who works in the character department at Pixar but was not on the crew of Inside Out 2, and asked for her opinion on who they could bring in to voice the film's hockey announcer. Roberts played hockey growing up and has coached and helped develop camps in the Bay Area. When asked, Roberts said she immediately thought of Kendall.

Roberts recalled watching Coyne Schofield become the first woman to compete in the skills competition during the 2019 NHL All-Star weekend, where Coyne Schofield turned heads in the fastest skater competition, and meeting her at a girls hockey clinic at the Oakland Ice Center. Coyne Schofield also spent the 2019-2020 season as a color commentator for select San Jose Sharks broadcasts.

She is a great role model for young girls and (I thought) she would be fantastic, Roberts said. It just added more depth to the movie, more real hockey.

We want to have authenticity wherever possible, Nielsen said. We thought it would be so cool for hockey fans if even the person they hear off-screen calling to play the game is a voice they can recognize from the sport of hockey.

Although Roberts did not officially work on the film, Nielsen and Mann decided to name Riley's hockey coach Coach Roberts after her in the film. She was like the coach to us on everything we needed to know about hockey, he said.

Coyne Schofield recorded her lyrics in April 2023 at a film studio in downtown Chicago.

Nielsen, Mann, Roberts and Maurissa Horwitz, the film editor, joined Coyne Schofield in the studio via video call from Pixar Studios in Emeryville, California. After an introduction and overview of the film, Mann coached Coyne Schofield through the script. Sometimes he instructed her to speak a little faster, or to bring a different energy to the reading. Sometimes Mann asked Coyne Schofield's advice on the more natural way for a hockey player or commentator to say something. During the hour-long recording session, Coyne Schofield made approximately 15-20 takes on each line.

She said she received the script before heading to the studio and did some practice reading with her husband, NFL offensive lineman Michael Schofield, but largely relied on the guidance of Mann and crew.

We had a blast during that session, Nielsen said. She was amazing and she's never done anything like this before. But she was very receptive to hearing about the story and very receptive to the direction that Kelsey provided.

After the shoot, Coyne Schofield returned home and was unable to talk about the experience until her involvement in the film was announced in March.

“I did it so long ago and now that it's finally happening, it's really cool,” she said. This is of course a huge honor. I've been a huge Disney-Pixar fan since I was a little kid, and now that I have my son, I can't wait to watch this with him.

Coyne Schofield had her son, Drew, on July 1 and said his name will appear on the babies born during the production, part of the film's credits. In the months since the March announcement, she said she's heard from many people wanting their kids to play hockey, just like Riley did in the first film.

The fact that a main character in such an iconic film is a girl who plays hockey makes such a difference, she said.

For (female hockey players) to be able to see themselves in this movie and see Riley and all the other girls playing hockey is super exciting, Roberts said. If they can see people like them in the movies, and they can see people like them in the women's professional league and people like Kendall, it makes (hockey) feel more accessible to them.

(Image courtesy of Pixar)