Based on the children’s book series of the same name, the live-action film adaptation of Clifford the Big Red Dog is now available to own digitally.
“When middle-schooler Emily Elizabeth meets a magical animal rescuer who gifts her a little, red puppy, she never anticipated waking up to find a giant ten-foot hound in her small New York City apartment,” reads the synopsis. “While her single mom is away for business, Emily and her fun but impulsive uncle Casey set out on an adventure that will keep you on the edge-of-your-seat as our heroes take a bite out of the Big Apple. Based on the beloved Scholastic book character, Clifford will teach the world how to love big!”
RELATED: Clifford the Big Red Dog Sequel in Development at Paramount Pictures
ComingSoon Editor-in-Chief Tyler Treese spoke with Clifford the Big Red Dog star Tony Hale about playing a villain, his appearance on The Sopranos, and much more.
Tyler Treese: I thought your character was very interesting as a villain because his company is like trying to solve hunger and create like sustainable food, but his priorities are also clearly for profit. How do you ultimately view him? Because in real life, a lot of people would say the potential good outweighs the harm of this adorable, lovely, giant red dog.
Tony Hale: [Laughs] Yeah, he has no good motivation, but I think to your point when playing him, I had to kind of find something to connect to him, or you’re just kind of playing an idea of a villain, you know? And I connected with the fact that he built this company. He’s seeing it fall apart. It’s all coming from anxiety and I’ve had anxiety. So I kind of connected with that, like, oh my gosh, everything’s about to fall apart. So I kind of went that angle, but yeah, he didn’t care about any of that. Like fixing hunger, it was all for profit and he was the worst, but very fun to play.
A tech CEO is a very modern villain. It’s not really like twirling your mustache. What did you find most interesting about that role? We see a lot of these real-life tech CEOs be a villain, so were there any real-life inspirations?
I don’t know about real-life inspirations, but I do know that interestingly enough, and I just thought about this now because I’ve been saying with the message of this movie, what I love is that it’s love that made Clifford big. I feel like, In social media, we’re just breaking everybody down. Everybody’s breaking each other down and we’re thinking, “Oh, if we scream at them, well that’s gonna bring change,” and it’s like, that’s not gonna bring change. That’s not gonna do anything. You have to give people space and love and understand and listen. My character is like tech. My character is like this head of this tech company. It’s not that all tech is bad because it’s been used for good, but it’s giving a lot of noise out there, you know? There’s not a lot of voices of love and understanding, honestly.
John Cleese is in this film and obviously a comedy legend. I know you don’t really directly interact with him much in the film, but did you get to meet him on set or doing press?
Yeah, I did. It was really hard not to fanboy because I grew up on Monty Python and even though there was a broad comedy, they had such subtlety in their performances many times. So I remember we were going to the van for the scene and my scene was being shot somewhere else than his, but I was just kind of in the backseat just staring at him and I’m sure he was like, “All right man, settle down.” But I was just like, that’s John Cleese. That’s John Cleese. I mean, I was just trying to not make a complete fool of myself.
Yeah. I bet you don’t want to just bring up a bunch of sketches constantly. It had to be tempting though.
Totally. Yeah. I’m sure. You’d just be like, “Okay, let’s talk about something else. Because I’ve talked about that for like 50-60 years.”
So what’s your relation with Clifford? Did you read the books when you were a child and was that something you were able to share with your daughter?
Yeah, Clifford started, I think it was 1968 maybe and I was born in 1970, so Clifford‘s been around since I’ve been around. Then yeah, Clifford was always around with my daughter and the movie obviously has that kind of message that I believe, that I was telling you about, but in the books, there was just always something really cool about here’s this massive red dog walking around with all these kids and nobody thought it was weird. Nobody was like, “Look at that freak.” Talk about acceptance. It was just like, “Yeah, that’s Clifford,” and I think that message is really permeated through the books for decades, you know?
It’s interesting to see Clifford in this live-action setting because it makes you think about just taking care of such a huge dog. Like we see there’s a scene where he pees in it, but my Lord, how are you keeping that dog? Like it just blew my mind. It makes you think about it in a whole different way.
A whole different way. Also, I have such an admiration for just special effects. I mean it’s how do you get a dog running through the streets of New York over bridges and all that kind of stuff and make it look real? That doesn’t even enter my framework. I don’t even understand that at all. And you know, all that fun stuff up in the park and the ball and just the scope of him in New York City, which is just so crowded. I mean that is quite a feat, huge feat.
There’s a lot of great young actors in this film and I watched The Mysterious Benedict Society, there are some very talented kids in that as well. How rewarding is it just working with such young talent?
I’m just so impressed. Cause I always think, gosh, I was definitely not that mature at that age. Like Darby who plays the lead in Clifford just really grounded and kind and talented, obviously. I was just like, I think all I cared about was like the mall food court at that age. I didn’t have that kind of [drive], I was just a little obnoxious. I don’t know. I just really have a lot of respect for her and then the kids I work on in Mysterious Benedict Society. It’s really amazing.
In Benedict Society, you’re playing two characters, you said in Hocus Pocus 2 that you’re playing two characters. What’s your approach to juggling multiple roles?
It’s fun. The Mysterious Benedict Society was challenging, but again, it was this kind of thing where playing twin brothers, the temptation is to go to like good brother, evil brother, rather than both broken. Both misunderstood, both have stuff that’s all stemming from, and you just kind of had to, I had to dig a little deeper or again, I’d be playing kind of this superficial idea of them. Same with anything you do.
During the pandemic, it seems like everybody was rewatching The Sopranos and you had an appearance in Season 3, not as a gangster, although I think you could pull it off, but as a male nurse. What was your biggest takeaway from that experience?
Dude, I was so checked out during that. I was so like, first of all, how did I get here? Because I mainly did commercials, and so that was my first kind of TV gig. I remember, I was that nurse oncologist giving chemo, and when it nervous, my hands will shake. That tends to be kind of where my nerves will manifest themselves. I remember holding that tube and I’m like, “Oh great. I’m a, I’m a nurse oncologist giving chemo and my hands are going to shake violently on camera,” and Uncle Junior’s gonna be like, “Look at this guy, look who’s giving me chemo.” So I was just petrified, petrified.
You’ve done so much voice acting over your career from Thomas the Tank Engine to Toy Story. Has your approach changed any over time? Were there any lessons that you learned doing that?
That’s a good question. I think having done thankfully so much, I’m really grateful for that. The more I do it, the more free I get with it and it’s because I used to have a lot of anxiety coming into it because being a physical comic actor, where so much is in the nonverbal, I was thinking, gosh, how do you transfer that into just a microphone? Then you just kinda learn to do the performance as you would on camera in front of a microphone and then just trusting that will transfer through the microphone. So I think I just kind of freed up a little more and experimented and not judge myself and I think that just takes time.
I’ve seen you in just so many projects these past two years. You prefer to stay busy, I assume. How do you figure out what projects to take on? Do you ever say no to anything?
It is a challenge to say no. It is a challenge. I mean, there have been other things that I have been kindly offered that I’ve passed on for various reasons, but when you really like something and believe in it, it’s hard. It’s really tough to say no. And there have been times that I’ve really liked something that I’ve had to say no just because I have a family, but also having lived as an actor in New York where you’re just desperate for gigs, it’s hard to let that go. We’re freelancers. Artists are freelancers. So it is really challenging to say no.
There’s a lot of good physical comedy here. Was there a favorite scene for you to film in Clifford?
Favorite scene? Man, I gotta be honest. I would say most of them were my favorite thinking back just because it was pre-COVID [laughs]. You’re just like, I took so much for granted. I would see people’s faces. You wouldn’t hear, “Cut!” and then everybody puts on a mask. I mean, when I was doing Mysterious Benedict Society for five months, I didn’t see anybody’s face. We’d never see anybody’s face and I really took that for granted. But I would say the favorite is, I had a really fun time working with Jessica Keenan Wynn and Alex Moffat in the laboratory. Alex is obviously from SNL. We just had a really fun time. Anytime you can work with other comic actors and just kind of come up with silly stuff, that’s just kind of playtime. That was really fun.
