Disney and Pixar‘s latest film, Lightyear, finds Buzz Lightyear fighting an interstellar battle as he works to get himself and others off of a faraway planet and back home to Earth. But the key to Buzz’s success comes from his ability to let others in. However, asking for help, isn’t his strongest quality, even amid the unforgiving nature of time passing him by.
For Shadow and Act, Sharronda Williams spoke to the cast of Lightyear, including Chris Evans, Taika Waititi, Keke Palmer and Dale Soules about if their personal lives and careers line up at all with Buzz’s personal struggles in the film.
“I think for me, the biggest sacrifice has been time,” said Palmer, who voices eager resistance soldier Izzy Hawthorne. “Lightyear is so much about time and how you spend it toward your ambitions and your personal desires as a human being. I think for me we don’t think how extensive time actually is. I’ve learned through my personal pursuits and ambitions and drive and following my dreams that the biggest sacrifice has been time.”
“I agree with that. I mean, for me, it’s time, time with family and time with yourself,” said Waititi, who voices one of Izzy’s compatriots, Mo Morrison. “We’re surrounded by people wanting something from us all the time. There’s barely a moment to check in with yourself and log in and get grounded so those moments you got to really take.”
“I’ve got children and sometimes…it’s an ever-going cycle [in the industry] and it’s very hard to spend time with your kids and give that quality time so you’re often feeling guilty about that,” he continued. “But also the sacrifices you make with that to work and to provide a great life for them, you have to balance that out.”
Soules, who voices Darby Steel, the third member of Mo and Izzy’s crew, said that her biggest struggle is similar to Buzz’s–being open to receiving help.
“That’s a really hard lesson for me in real life to learn,” she said. “I would say I definitely have the Buzz Lightyear, Type A [personality], ‘I messed this up, I have to fix it,’ and keep moving in that it has to be perfect, it has to be right. But like many other people in the past couple of years in particular, we’ve had a bit more time in one way for another to look at ourselves and be by ourselves in a lot more different ways.”
She said that getting help, particularly as an actor, is vital.
“If you do not ask for help when you need it, you will surely destroy the part of you that allows you do to this work in particular,” she said. “Any team but for this kind of work, something has to be not entirely used up for you to be able to bring the spirit forward through all the technique…It’s very important to take care of yourself.”
Evans, who voices Buzz, said that a big part of the industry is hearing the word “No.”
“You have to prepare yourself for a lot of rejection. This industry is full of no’s for every job you get there’s a hundred you don’t,” he said. “And even when you get the job, you’re taken away from family and friends for a long period of time, sometimes not the most pleasant locations to kind of throw yourself into something for quite a while. It’s an unpredictable schedule and it can certainly toy with your perceptions of yourself, but I can’t imagine doing anything else.”
He also admitted that he could be better at asking others for help.
“That’s something I struggle with just like anyone else, knowing that it’s not only okay to ask for help, but to forgive yourself,” he said. “Mistakes aren’t necessarily something that define us, if anything they’re opportunities to grow.”
Watch the full video below to hear more about Evans’ time in the sound booth as Buzz and what types of films he’d love to get cast in.
Lightyear comes to theaters June 17. Watch the full video above.