Join host Elias on Pop Culture Unplugged for an exclusive interview with Teri Hatcher, the voice of Muthr in the thrilling new Apple/Skydance adventure series 'WondLa.' Teri shares behind-the-scenes insights, the inspiration behind her character, and what makes this show a must-watch. Don't miss this captivating conversation, only on Pop Culture Unplugged!
About 'WondLa':
'WondLa' follows Eva, voiced by Jeanine Mason ('Roswell, New Mexico'), a spirited teenager raised in a high-tech underground bunker by Muthr, her robot caretaker voiced by Emmy Award nominee Teri Hatcher ('Desperate Housewives'). On her 16th birthday, an attack forces Eva to the Earth's surface, now called Orbona and inhabited by aliens and extraordinary fauna. Alone and searching for other humans, Eva is joined by Otto, a lovable giant water bear with telepathic powers voiced by Emmy Award winner Brad Garrett ('Everybody Loves Raymond'), and Rovender, a cantankerous alien with a troubled past voiced by Gary Anthony Williams ('Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows'). Together, they embark on a dangerous quest to find humans, Eva's home, and her true destiny.
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[00:00:00] Hi! Teri, how are you? Thank you for joining me today on Press Day. Oh, I'm so glad to be here. Thank you for having like the little picture and everything. I love that. Perfect. Excited.
[00:00:20] I wanted to start off by telling you my nine-year-old daughter loves your character of Mother. She loves her. Oh, that's so... Well, she's the audience, so that's really good to hear. So really quick, what drew you to the role?
[00:00:31] Well, I had recorded the audio books many, many years ago and that's how Tony and I first met. So when this project came to be years later, Tony really graciously asked me if I would be interested in voicing the mother and of course I said yes.
[00:00:47] So that's how I came to be involved. Amazing. What can you tell us a little bit about like Mother and Eva's relationship in the series? Well, I think for Eva herself, I think that she is a teenager who is at that stage in
[00:01:04] life where they've got one foot out the door and one foot in the door. They want to push and test their own sense of independence and their own sense of purpose and searching, but they are still tied to the safety of home or what their version
[00:01:26] of home is. And I think Mother is equally at some sort of complex place of where her directive as a robot was to keep her safe and keep her nourished and keep her educated in the context
[00:01:49] that the mother was programmed for, but then that all kind of goes out the window when catastrophe happens at the beginning. And so they end up being on this adventure together, which I think is a push and pull
[00:02:01] that parents often have between, I want you to go try to succeed without me, but I don't want you to get hurt, so I want you to stay with me. And it's that. Awesome. How did you decide or approach voicing the robot character?
[00:02:17] What did you look for when you were trying to figure out how you wanted to voice her? I think we played around a lot with how robotic should it be. And I think ultimately we leaned to the side of less robotic in the actual voice and more
[00:02:37] robotic in the behavior, which means when the urgent moments happen in the show, you'll see the other characters, especially Eva, have very large human dramatic reactions. And Mother somehow is still contained and still reserved, even though I think she is
[00:02:57] feeling things underneath, that the reaction isn't so big. But one technical little thing we did with the rhythm of the voice is that we made it so that Mother never used abbreviations of words.
[00:03:11] Like she doesn't say doesn't, she doesn't say couldn't, she says does not, could not, would not. And I feel like that rhythm really cemented the voice pattern of the character. That was super helpful for me. But that took us a minute to find that.
[00:03:31] What message, how would you describe the journey now between Mother and Eva, like you mentioned, for the audience when they tune in? Well I think the whole show is really a similar, it has roots in stories like Wizard of Oz
[00:03:45] or Alice in Wonderland, except instead of the heroine leaving home and then returning, this character is out trying to survive in a world that's incredibly unpredictable. And to find if family is indeed only flesh and blood or if it can also be the people
[00:04:06] that you choose to be your family. I'm an only child, so I have had a life of where my friends, my community, my decades of traditions that I have with that close group of friends, those people are my family because it's just me.
[00:04:23] So I definitely understand the idea of found family. Terri, this was amazing. Thank you for joining me on Press Day and I can't wait for the viewers to tune in to watch this and see what the reaction is.
[00:04:33] Oh, thank you so much and tell your daughter I said hello. I will. Have a great day. Bye.