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Vancouver actor Jacob Tremblay finds humanity and humour as a lovable sea monster in Pixar's Luca

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There is a short moment during his interview with Postmedia when actor Jacob Tremblay seems to revert to early childhood.

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It’s not a particularly long journey, of course. The 14-year-old is in the midst of promotional duties for the new Pixar/Disney animated film Luca, chatting in a professional, polite and cool manner about voicing the titular character in, what is no doubt, one of an endless series of Zoom interviews from his Vancouver home. But when asked how he feels about past Pixar films, he shows a flash of childlike enthusiasm.

“Pixar is a big part of my childhood,” he says. “Obviously I’m still growing, still going through part of my childhood. But I think in my earlier childhood years, Pixar played a big part. I mean, Lightning McQueen, I really looked up to him. I had so much Lightning McQueen merch. I even had this Lightning McQueen Power Wheels car that I would get in and drive up and down the street.”

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This trip down memory lane ends quickly, and Tremblay is soon back to business. While it sounds like a cliche, Tremblay has grown up in front of the camera. He’s an old pro at media interviews.

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“That kind of way that I looked up to characters like that, I really hope that kids, little kids, when this movie comes out, will look up to Luca and Alberto,” he says.

Alberto, voiced by 17-year-old American actor Jack Dylan Grazer, is Luca’s newfound and seemingly more experienced pal in the film. He acts as a not-always reliable guide for his young friend as they negotiate the wonders and dangers of a strange new world. It’s strange because Luca and Alberto are actually young sea monsters who live below the water’s surface near a quaint small town on the Italian Riviera in the 1950s. They discover that they can turn into normal-looking boys when out of the ocean. Both are intrigued by this strange new place but are also in constant peril since the townsfolk are terrified of sea monsters and see them as a threat.

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“I really like to play characters who are realistic, who are real people,” Tremblay says. “I know, obviously, Luca is a sea monster but I feel like in a way he is very, very human. He has human emotions. That’s kind of the message of this movie. He might be a sea monster but he is still just as human as us.”

Tremblay managed to sneak in a few pre-pandemic days working at Pixar’s San Francisco studios, where he was able to see some of the concept art prepared for the film. But after COVID-19 struck, he recorded his part in a small studio in Vancouver while staying in touch with director Enrico Casarosa via Zoom. Unfortunately, that meant he didn’t get to perform while surrounded by his fellow voice actors.

“Before COVID hit, we were talking about doing something like that, but unfortunately we never got a chance to do that,” he says. “But it’s kind of funny when I watch the movie because I had never met Jack before but our chemistry in the movie felt so real. I was really surprised.”

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Like a lot of animated fare these days, Luca juggles some serious messaging with pure entertainment. Part of the charm is the old-country Italian feel of the characters, backdrop, food and music in the world Pixar creates. There is also something endearing about Luca and Alberto’s central quest to acquire a Vespa, which they see as the key to ultimate freedom. They decide to join up with a determined village girl named Giulia — voiced by Emma Berman — and compete in the village’s annual endurance race. They hope a victory will win them enough coin to buy a Vespa. All the while, the pair must outwit a bully and keep Luca’s overprotective parents (voiced by Maya Rudolph and Jim Gaffigan) at bay. As with many of his characters, Tremblay has a knack for bringing out a sense of wonder and enthusiasm as he soaks up new life experiences. It’s been a hallmark of his characters, whether they are heartbreaking or humorous.

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While he has been working steadily for the past six years, Tremblay may still be best remembered for his role in 2015’s harrowing Room, where he played a five-year-old boy born into captivity and kept imprisoned by the man who kidnapped the boy’s mother (Brie Larson) years earlier. Or maybe he is remembered for his many scene-stealing moments at the 2016 Oscars, including when cameras captured him leaping out of his seat in excitement when Star Wars droids C-3PO, R2-D2 and BB-8 crashed the ceremony. But that was five years ago, which is a lifetime for a teen. These days, Tremblay says he is mostly interested in playing characters he hasn’t played before. He is set to star in two very different films. At the time of this interview, he was about to head to Bulgaria to shoot a reboot of the 1984 cult-classic splatter film The Toxic Avenger opposite Peter Dinklage. He has also signed on to voice Flounder in a live-action remake of Disney’s Little Mermaid.

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Tremblay says he hopes Luca conveys a powerful “don’t-judge-a-book-by-its-cover” message to its audience while offering more general lessons about friendship and taking chances. In the film, Alberto tells Luca that he should silence any nagging voices in his head that express reluctance to commit to new adventures by saying “Silencio Bruno!”

“I can really relate to (Luca’s) eagerness to want to venture out, but at the same time he can be very nervous to do so,” Tremblay says. “So, yeah, I can relate to that. I think acting is a good example when I have to ‘Silencio Bruno’ because you have to give it your all. You have to give it 100 per cent because you don’t want it to fall flat. That’s what happens if you don’t give your performance 100 per cent.”

 Luca stars streaming on Disney+ on June 18.

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