Based on the New York Times bestselling book series “The Search for WondLa'' by Tony DiTerlizzi, Apple TV+'s WondLa centers around Eva, voiced by Jeanine Mason (Roswell, New Mexico), a curious, enthusiastic and spirited teenager being raised in a state-of-the-art underground bunker by Muthr, a robot caretaker (voiced by Teri Hatcher).
Eva has been raised to believe that she will someday return to the surface to reunite with the rest of humanity. But when she gets to the surface, she discovers dangers she's not prepared for and a world filled with people who are not human.
I recently spoke with Mason about the show and the conversation has been lightly edited for clarity.
Obviously, voice work requires a different set of skills than live-action acting, where you can respond to the other actors and receive immediate feedback about your work. How do you navigate that experience as an actress and make sure that your performance is where it needs to be?
I was really lucky with this gig, Skydance Animation, Apple TV+, the producers, the writers, our showrunner Bobs Gannaway, they are just such pros. They have all been in the game for so long that I had wonderful team partners. They just weren't actors (laughs). They helped me get all of these comedy bits that I wanted for her so desperately. Of her enthusiasm just bubbling over. And her mouth running as fast as her ideas occurred to her. And they were so encouraging in that way. We just spent so much time giggling in the booth.
And because it's such a long process, a lot of those ideas that came early on, those little bits that we started to create or nicknames we were giving characters, and I would refer to someone in a certain way and that would end up in the series. It was just really fun, the collaboration on this thing, just by the nature of how long a show like this takes to make, was just wonderful.
How did producers describe the show to you? Because if you haven't read the book, the worldview is very distinctive, and the characters are different and original. How did they explain "This is how we see your character and this is what the show is about?"
I had a meeting early on and they said to me "We want this to be essentially on-camera acting. We don't want this to be speeded up and tempered down in any way. We really want to raise the bar. We want this to be quality story-telling. That's what young people are going to respond to."
And that felt like such a fun challenge to step into. To realize "I only have my voice as my tool." And I wanted it to feel so honest. Like it was straight out of the mouth of an energetic 16-year-old. So the acting challenge at the top was just embracing what everyone else was trying to do. Having them raise the bar was wonderful. It was a dream gig.
It's also an interesting acting challenge because you're playing a character who doesn't have any experience with other humans. Or really without anyone, other than a robot. And you have to find that space that makes sense, without veering too far one way or the other. Either being too extremely giddy and goofy and awkward. Did it take you a while to get to the point where you felt that you had it dialed in and were where you needed to be with Eva?
Yeah, of course. They would be so loving. We would start the session and they would say "We're just going to play this piece from our last session and see if you hear what's going on in this one little line here." (laughs). It was to help me match what we were starting to settle on. And it was so helpful to be that honest about what a 16-year-old would sound like in that situation.
And it is a journey and throughout the season she just matures so much. I wanted her to feel close to me in terms of tone. In some of the previous animation work I've done, I've geeked out about it and really disguised my voice. But this felt like it was the opportunity to bring myself to it. And I am really glad I made that choice, because man, we had such a journey ahead for her.
So she ends up sounding a lot closer to where my natural register lies.
When you had the opportunity to see the finished episodes for the first time, were there some moments where you thought, "Oh, I didn't realize how this came across," or "Hey, this is a pleasant surprise, this scene resonated more than I expected."
Oh my God, yes. It was truly emotional watching the first bits of it. Because it's not often that you're pitched "We're trying to do this next-level thing. We're trying to move the medium of animation ahead." And I just couldn't believe what they came up with. Visually, it was just unbelievable.
It was emotional watching the trailer for the first time. And seeing her and seeing the resilience on her face. The nuance of the performers that the animators captured. It was inspiring to me, so I hope it will be inspiring to young viewers to watch.
WondLa premieres Friday, June 28th, 2024 on Apple TV+.
