If you’ve been living under a rock and haven’t seen Despicable Me, you better hop to it, because Despicable Me 2 is coming to a theater near you THIS Wednesday!
Our man Pharrell Williams just happens to be one of the musical masterminds behind the sequel. Being involved with the music, Williams sits down and talks all “Gru” about his involvement and what he likes about the whole Despicable Me brand.
Check out our exclusive below!
GlobalGrind: On the “happy” music behind Despicable Me 2:
Pharrell Williams: People have become so desensitized to all of the tragedies and travesties, us as a species, we needed to go to a lighter place. I think these guys ingeniously predicted that this is where things would go and they actually used Gru, (the film’s protagonist), the guy who was least likely if you look in your yearbooks to ever be happy about something, and they chose him to be in a really good mood and attitude. I was just so happy to express that for him.
How he approached the music for the first film and how the approach changed for the second:
My first contribution to the first film was more the songs came from things that different characters would say or their behavior, the things that they would do. This time I just chose a different approach, I went with the overarching theme. Still consider myself a novice. Filmmaking and scoring is a really comprehensive job that takes a lot of years and experience to get to a level of expertise.
On his favorite character in the film:
I like Gru’s humor, I love that dry humor, the funniest things that he says are under his breath. I just think that’s so genius and so relatable.
On hitting Jimmy Kimmel over the head with a chair:
I was horrified. And they only had one chair to get it right. It was like “one shot kid.” And the camera is rolling and it’s Jimmy Kimmel and I’m like swinging a chair. It was weird because I did it and I was so timid about doing it that I didn’t want to make a mean face after I’ve done it. I was uncomfortable!
On the Neptunes’ sound and how he continues to evolve and push in a different direction:
I just follow the same philosophy. If someone asks me what inspires me, I always say that which is missing, because I don’t want to copy everything that is already happening. I feel like when you copy you sort of blend in and when you blend in, you get lost. When I try to make music, I try to make something that is super colorful and something you’ve never heard before, so when you hear the whole album, it’s a good feeling.
On why he wanted to work on Despicable Me:
It’s animation and as a child growing up in Virginia Beach I was always obsessed with cartoons. When my aunt used to watch me it was like a real serious tug of war. She wanted to watch General Hospital and I wanted to watch The Flintstones. It was a real thing, so now being a grown up and now being able to afford a television and my own satellite service, Boomerang is on all the time. And as far as working with these guys, it’s animation, who turns down that job? It’s not afforded and offered to many people, so I know that I’m blessed. I know that I’m super fortunate and so what I try to do is repay it with diligence and research and going super hard.
PHOTO SOURCE: WENN
