Lupita Nyong’o Talks The Power Of Kindness And Creating Roz In The Wild Robot

The new Dreamworks animated film, The Wild Robot, has stolen the hearts of audiences in its opening weekend. The film adaptation of the famous children’s book by Peter Brown follows a robot named Rozzum 7134, or Roz, who becomes stranded on a wild island and must adapt to her surroundings while learning to communicate with the wildlife. In doing so, she creates her own family and makes the island her home. The outpouring of love, inspiration, and admiration for this film is evident with its quick rise to the number one spot in the box office. Lupita Nyong’o, who plays the title character, spoke at a press conference about creating the lovable robot alongside screenwriter and director Chris Sanders and film composer Kris Bowers.

When finding Roz’s voice, Nyong’o explained how she performed empathetic, human-like emotions through Roz, even though the character is supposed to be an emotionless robot. She studied the famous voices of Siri, Alexa, and even TikTok voice modifiers. She explained, “What was similar in all of them was this optimistic brightness. So, after a lot of trial and error, we had many versions of Roz,” she continued, “That’s the beauty of doing it over two years, it’s that, as the script develops, so does the voice.” She and Sanders decided that Roz’s voice would initially emulate a technical optimism, similar to Siri, but as Roz emotionally develops throughout the film, her voice evolves as well.

Nyong’o praised Sanders for helping her develop the voice of Roz and trusting her with the role. She explained, “Early on, I asked him why he thought of me for the role of Roz, and he mentioned that he liked the warmth of my voice. So we knew that we were going to end up with a Roz that sounded more like me to depict that evolution she’s gone through. And then, we reverse engineered.”

This was the first animated film project for composer Kris Bowers. He revealed that he took the job as he became a first-time parent. He was able to simultaneously explore his own parenting experiences with the messaging of the film. Creating the score made him take note of the sacrifices parents make to give their child the best life. He spoke about his admiration for his wife’s courage in becoming a mother and for his own parents, who sacrificed so much to give him a great life. “One sequence in particular I think about is the migration sequence. There’s this cue that we worked on for a long time and my first pass at it was really bright and happy,” he said. “Chris reminded me about the fact that this is a really bittersweet moment where Roz is saying goodbye to Brightbill and they don’t know if they’re ever going to see each other again.”

He continued, “I hadn’t even thought of the depth of that experience and what that would be like with my daughter. I just remember going back after that conversation with Chris and writing that piece of music and it just coming out of me very naturally because of how much the emotion was on top of my mind.”

The film beautifully depicts the importance of saying “I love you” to people in your life. Sanders explained what he hopes audiences take away from Roz’s story. “Front and center is the idea that we’re, at some point, going to have to change our programming to accomplish something. I think that we’re all creatures of habit. We hate change. I think that sometimes we’re afraid if we change our programming, we’re going to lose ourselves somehow, and you’re not going to. You’re going to become a more dimensional being and it’s going to be okay.”

“I really like the message that kindness is a force. I think oftentimes kindness can be considered a vulnerability. In this film, Roz’s journey shows how it is a force and it is a force to be reckoned with,” said Nyong’o. Bowers added that he hopes audiences remember to “Thank the people that have sacrificed for you to be here and be who you are.”

Nyong’o praised Sanders for letting her share her own ideas when creating Roz and was so proud that she helped create the final version of Roz. “Seeing the final product, I just swelled with gratitude for having been part of it and to see my fingerprints on it,” she said. “That was amazing. I think finding the right creative chemistry is so important.”

The Wild Robot is now playing in theaters worldwide.