Patton Oswalt: Ratting Out in Ratatouille

The rats in Disney/Pixar's new animated film Ratatouille [Rat-a-too-ee] are resourceful, kinda cuddly and nice to have around. So, it seems, is the "lead" rat Remy, voiced by stand-up comic Patton Oswalt who, in 2002, was named Entertainment Weekly's "It Comedian". The cute, friendly fellow has been in TV specials on HBO and Comedy Central. You might have caught Patton playing Spence on TV's "The King of Queens" and he was a writer on the mega-funny "MADtv" as well as acting in Starsky and Hutch, Zoolander and Man on the Moon.

Patton thoroughly entertained us when answering our questions recently in Beverly Hills. Seems he's quite the animation fan, since childhood. He has a great respect for both classic and modern animation and was delighted when Ratatouille screenwriter/director Brad Bird heard one of his comedy routines about overkill steakhouse commercials and decided he and his voice were perfect to play Remy, the rat who yearns to be a gourmet chef.

Picture Patton in jeans and an amazing long-sleeved, checked shirt covered with appliqued grim reaper and skull designs!

TeenHollywood: When you were a teenager, what was the animated film that you thought was really cool?

Patton: When I was a teenager I remember I really loved Yellow Submarine [by The Beatles] because it was so simple and also, there was a lot of TV animation, the Japanese stuff like 'Marine Boy' and 'Starblazers', 'Battleship Yamato' and stuff like that. And then, when I was in college, I saw Akira and it was like 'oh my goodness gracious'. Oh yeah and now, because of Brad Bird and John Lasseter I've discovered Miyazaki, you know My Friend Totoro and Swept Away and stuff like that. There's so much good stuff out there, it's ridiculous.

TeenHollywood: Just how shocked were you when you got a phone call that said 'we want you to star in a Pixar film'?

Patton: I was very shocked. That was exactly it. I said 'this has got to be the most expensive episode of 'Punk'd' ever done'. Brad Bird heard my first CD and said 'that's the rat. That's the guy' and then brought me in and pretty much said 'you're gonna be the rat' and we really bonded over the fact that I'm a big foodie and I'm into chefs and good restaurants.

TeenHollywood: Has your stand-up comedy led to any other gigs like spokesperson for a food product?

Patton: [laughs] No, I've done a lot of voice overs but I haven't really gotten 'oh, we should have that guy be our spokesman. Let's have a pale, sleep-deprived fat dude come out and make people buy our products'. That doesn't normally happen.

TeenHollywood: What, exactly, did Brad Bird hear that sold him?

Patton: I was riffing on the fact that I'm so delighted at how horrible the Black Angus restaurants are. I mean, I'm sure the restaurant's fine but if you're watching the ads it's like this gauntlet of threatening food. It doesn't even look pleasant, [does a Western voice] 'we'll start you off with an appetizer platter with eighteen big'... 'we're all gonna split that' 'No, you're each gonna get your own' and it just goes on and on and it's so brutal [according to Patton, you can download his bit on i-Tunes].

TeenHollywood: How do you personally feel about rats?

Patton: I actually kind of like them. There's a little bonus thing on the [upcoming] DVD about humans and rats that's really well done. They're actually kind of cool creatures. They're pretty extraordinary. They travel all over the world. That's why Remy doesn't have an accent because they're constantly moving. Rats can squeeze through a hole the size of a quarter. They can just shift all their bones like that dude on 'The X-Files' [laughter]. Their teeth can chew through concrete, steel, lead. They can chew through anything. They can digest anything and, after they did the Bikini Atoll nuclear bomb [test], the rats were the only things that survived with, apparently, no ill effects. They were fine. So, they'll be around.

TeenHollywood: I like them too, the clean ones.

Patton: Oddly enough, humans and rats really do depend on each other because, without rats, our garbage really would overwhelm us and, without humans, rats would die because they live on our garbage and they live in our warm buildings. So, if all that collapsed, we'd both be gone. So, protect the rats.

TeenHollywood: Did they show you a drawing of Remy, the rat you would be playing?

Patton: They showed me the clay models which they render the 3-D from so that things have weight and they showed me all the drawings. They also showed me the other rats who I'd be interacting with. It was great. I saw my whole family. My dad Django is played by Brian Dennehy and there used to be a mom character and they wrote the mom out for some reason and there were a bunch of brothers and they just kind of coalesced them all into Emile. It was really cool. Big, dumb Emile.

TeenHollywood: As a physical comedian, did you hope that some of your gestures would get into the film and did they?

Patton: Doing the work of voice-over is very physical. You use your body in everything but they had me come in in the middle of the process and do stand-up for them and just tell them stories and answer questions and they filmed me. So, you'll see that a lot of my gestures are in the character. The whole second act, he's mute. He doesn't talk. He stops talking because [he's hiding]. But, if you notice, the acting is still amazing because the Pixar animators are such good actors. There were scenes where I was like 'wow, wait a minute. I'm not doing this. The animators are doing this'. That's how incredible they are.

TeenHollywood: What were some of your gestures that stayed in the film?

Patton: Just like when I'm excited and I'm talking and my hands will go over my head and I'll do a lot of this [gestures with his hands, like pointing] and that. There's little touches. And also just my face when I'm thinking. You'll see. There's stuff like that.

TeenHollywood: We understand you didn't meet the person who played Linguini [Remy's partner in being a chef] until at the wrap party?

Patton: At the party on June 2nd, I finally met Lou Romano. He's an animator at Pixar and I finally met him the night that we saw the completed film. It was nuts. He's sooo like the character and Pete Sohn is sooo like Emile; this big, sweet guy. He has that great voice. He's really sweet.

TeenHollywood: Was that challenging for you not to be able to play off of him when he wasn't in the room while you were recording your voice?