Ryan Reynolds Races On The Today Show! Plus, My Interview With Him! @GoTurbo #TurboMovie

“From the makers of Madagascar and Kung Fu Panda, TURBO is a high-velocity 3D comedy about an underdog snail who kicks into overdrive when he miraculously attains the power of super-speed. But after making fast friends with a crew of streetwise, tricked-out es-car-goes, Turbo learns that no one succeeds on their own. So he puts his heart and shell on the line to help his pals achieve their dreams, before Turbo-charging his own impossible dream: winning the Indy 500.”

Starring the voices of Ryan Reynolds, Paul Giamatti, Ken Jeong, Maya Rudolph, Ben Schwartz, Snoop Dogg, Samuel L. Jackson, and Bill Hader!

To get us all excited for the film, a select group of bloggers were invited to watch Ryan Reynolds race, in person, using Skee Balls. Crews had worked around the clock to transform the TODAY plaza into an Indy 500-style racetrack.  Matt, Savannah, Natalie and Willie joined Ryan Reynolds to compete in a race – between snails! :

Guess who won:

And the fun did not stop there! We were invited to an intimate round table to chat with Ryan afterwards.

This is Ryan’s 2nd animated feature so I asked him how they compared. He said he enjoyed working on animated films, that they were actually quite easy work. And he did give credit to the animators who do the hardest work on these types of films, Ryan said that while the folks directing and producing were quite different, basically animated work remains the same:

Ryan: “You show up once every three months, you do a couple of hours of work, you play around, and come back three months later, and the entire story’s changed again.You do some stuff over and add some new stuff. It’s a collaborative yet simple process for the actor.”

The other interesting item to note is that when actors work on animated movies, they often work alone. I enjoyed hearing that some of the work involved Ryan working in person with one of his co-stars, Paul Giamati.

Ryan: “Yes. I did a little bit of work with Paul Giamatti, because we have that fraternal kind of relationship, so we had fun together. I’ve known Paul for a long time. We did a movie together maybe 16, 17 years ago. But, yes, I worked with him a little bit, but oftentimes, you don’t.”

In the movie Paul Giamatti plays Turbo’s big brother, Chet. Getting the 2 actors together helped to enhance their on screen relationship, I am sure. And it was funny, Ryan said he did not see Samuel L. Jackson until they started press for the movie, and you could not tell from listening to their characters in the movie that they were not right there opposite each other in the studio! Ahh, the magic of the cinema!

This is a movie about a snail with a big dream, so one of the questions asked was, what was Ryan’s big dream growing up? He answered that as a teenager his dream was to become an actor, and he didn’t even care if he got famous, he was just hoping he could earn a living. He said there were always naysayers who suggested a more practical career, but clearly Ryan made the right choice!

This was my 2nd meeting with him and he is a great guy. He also added at the end how he loves taking his many nieces and nephews to these types of premieres, he has a large family and he sounds to me like the best Uncle a kid could ask for!

And here’s Ryan, as the real Turbo, in another snail race:

TURBO – in theaters July 17 in 3D!

Visit the official website
Like Turbo on Facebook
Follow @GoTurbo on Twitter, and #TurboMovie
Watch the trailer & more on YouTube

Disclosure: I received no compensation for this post. I was hosted by 20^th Century Fox and DreamWorks Animation.

Here’s Ryan Reynolds and I chatting during the Today Show (thanks Lauren Conlon!):

 

And with the bloggers (thanks Susan Pazera!):