skin 2023 | Pete Docter: “This is a new band, a new version of Pixar”

body of a basketball player – 1.95 meters; cowboy head Toy story whose screenplay he participated in, barely from school; and Disarming Hand: The multi-Oscar winning director (up there, On the contrary) Pete Docter is here elementaryby Peter Sohn, in theaters Wednesday, June 21, and presented at the closing ceremony of the Cannes Film Festival. It is the latest from the American animation studio Pixar, of which he became the artistic director five years ago.

You were very close to John Lasseter, who was the head of Pixar’s mind – he was even a witness at your wedding. What was your reaction when he admitted, in 2017, in the wake of the Weinstein case, that he had engaged in inappropriate behavior that led to his resignation after a public apology?

It was very difficult, very difficult. I had several conversations with him. The man has brought so much to animated film, especially Pixar… but we’re like a rock band from the start. Toy storyIn 1995, Andrew Stanton, Joe Ranft, Lee Unkrich and I, we were there, we knew what kind of music we were going to play. It was organic, we hardly needed to talk to each other. If I made a film, John and Andria would support me, and if Andria directed, then world of nemo For example, we helped him. Generally, one of us developed the project, then the others looked at it and multiplied criticism: here it is missing, there we don’t understand it. The group exploded with this case.

At the time, you wondered if you could take his place. Do you have an answer today?

No, I’m still interested. The biggest challenge for me is knowing how to do it with the best artists, because it’s their voice that’s captured, that’s what speaks in the movies. To be honest, we still work like that, but this is a new group, a new version of Pixar.

Do you miss making movies anymore?

Of course I miss it. Anyway, I hope it’s not a one-way street, I hope one day I can do it… Now, five years later, I can say I found unexpected joy there. To be able to support the principals, to see that my advice can put them on the right path, help them solve a problem… some ask for supervision, some need a free hand… but the truth is that each of us needs help. others.