1 of 5 | Tony Hale, seen at the premiere of “Woman of the Year” in October, stars in “Sketch.” File Photo by Jim Ruymen/UPI | License Photo
Tony Hale and D’Arcy Carden say their characters in Sketch, in theaters Wednesday, are close to themselves in real life. Hale plays Taylor, a father to two children, with Carden as his sister and the kids’ aunt, Liz.
The movie centers on Taylor’s daughter, Amber (Bianca Belle), who draws pictures of monsters to deal with her emotions. When the sketches fall into a lake, the monsters come to life.
In a recent Zoom interview with UPI, Hale, 54, and Carden, 45, shared how their characters were similar to their real selves.
“I am kind of a cool aunt,” Carden said. “Sorry to brag. I just took my nieces to Disneyland. That’s pretty freakin’ cool.”
Hale, who has played absurd characters like Buster Bluth in Arrested Development and the vice president’s personal assistant on Veep, said Taylor felt closer to himself than such roles. Though not a widower like Taylor, Hale is also a parent.
“He felt grounded and that was fun,” Hale said.
Liz is also a realtor and Carden said they used one of her actual headshots as her character’s realtor photo on the sign in front of a house.
“That was definitely an actor photo that we thought looked the most realtor-esque, taken by the great Luke Fontana,” Carden said.
The characters in Sketch experience magical moments when the drawings come to life but also navigate real-life issues, like grieving the death of Taylor’s wife and the children’s mother. Taylor copes with the loss in a believable, if misguided way.
“Beginning with thinking, ‘Hey, this is too much for my kids to handle. I’m gonna compartmentalize these emotions. We gotta move forward. Let me keep them happy,'” Hale said. “Then his daughter teaching them we gotta process this. To me, that is an authentic journey. It’s not just a set formula.”
Sketch reminded Carden of movies that made her feel empowered as a young child.
“It reminds me of movies in the ’80s that I watched as a kid, Goonies and E.T., movies I felt seen watching and didn’t feel like it was an adult talking down to me,” she said.
Hale added that he had asthma like Sean Astin’s character in The Goonies, so also felt seen by Astin’s use of an inhaler on screen.
Bianca, 14, said she related to Amber as well. Amber expresses her emotions in her sketches as she struggles to talk to her father, her brother (Kue Lawrence) and classmates.
“I feel like I could either be not trusting enough or too trusting with telling people how I feel,” Bianca said. “So I feel like I could relate, trying to seek comfort in people.”
Seth Worley, 41, wrote and directed Sketch. He believes art is a healthy way to express reactions to life’s turmoil, and wanted the movie to appeal to viewers of all ages.
“We wanted kids to walk out of the film feeling empowered to process their more complex and darker emotions through art and creative self-expression,” Worley said. “We wanted parents to feel empowered to create a safe space for that to happen and we wanted people who aren’t parents to walk out and feel empowered to create that space for themselves and for others in their life.”
Sketch made real-life friends of the young cast, too. 12-year-old Kalon Cox, who plays classmate Bowman, still communicates with Kue daily via messages, in person or via their video games.
“We play some Marvel Rivals, Roblox and a new game that just came out, Grounded 2,” Kalon said. “Not sponsored by the way, but great game. I love it.”
Worley said early drafts of his script attempted to correlate each of Amber’s drawings with a specific emotion, but that felt too contrived. Some of the creatures reflect Amber’s struggles, such as eyeball monsters who steal things because Amber is afraid of people looking in her notebook.
“In real life, our kids draw weird stuff or we draw weird stuff and it’s not immediately traceable to a specific emotion or a place or a feeling,” Worley said.
Bianca said she also relates to Amber because she likes to draw herself. Her artwork is not featured in the film, however.
“I feel like mine aren’t as cartoony and death-y,” Bianca said. “I mostly just doodle stuff.”
Worley credits his visual effects team for bringing the creatures to life. He said it took trial and error to present the effect of childlike pictures in the real world.
“Our goal was to make monsters that felt simultaneously threatening and goofy looking as hell,” Worley said. “We wanted them to be somehow both scary and funny.”
Hale will return to the family movie genre in Toy Story 5, which he said he recorded some lines for last month. He said he does not want to see too much of the film in advance so he can enjoy it when it is finished.
His character, Forky, was introduced in Toy Story 4 and continues to evolve.
“He’s asking so many questions all the time,” Hale said of Forky. “He’s just a sponge.”
