Fil-Am actress Liza Lapira talks about voicing Disgust in 'Inside Out 2'

Fil-Am actress Liza Lapira is the voice of Disgust in the new animated movie, "Inside Out 2," the sequel to the Academy Award-winning Best Animated Feature of 2015 "Inside Out."

The 42-year-old actress, who was born in Queens, New York to Filipino parents from Baguio, couldn't contain her excitement when we talked to her about her role in the film.

"I love working for Pixar and Disney. It's very exciting to be part of this team, more exciting than I even thought. And about myself, I discovered that I really, really enjoy this part of my job!"

Lapira, who you may have seen as Melody Bayani in "The Equalizer" or as Teresa in Dante Basco's directorial debut "The Fabulous Filipino Brothers," was also excited to show us her Disgust doll. "Oh my gosh, can you even deal with this?" she happily exclaimed.

Read more about our conversation as we talked to Lapira by Zoom and she talked about her inspiration for the role, using her habit of looking at her split ends to portray her character, what emotion she would have loved to portray if she was not Disgust, her dream project, and what she would advise aspiring actresses who want to follow her footsteps.

Photo courtesy of Disney/Pixar

Photo courtesy of Disney/Pixar

Hi Liza, congratulations on being part of "Inside Out 2." Can you talk about your audition process here and did you apply for the character, Disgust, or did the director and producer assign that to you?

When I auditioned it was for the character of Disgust. So, I knew that it was for Disgust from the beginning.

What was your inspiration for Disgust? How did you prepare for the role? Did you have anybody in mind when you were doing this role?

Well, the movie takes place during Riley's teenage years, the beginning of puberty. And when I think about that time for me, or just generally for young people, I think the first emotion that they go to is disgust. Like, "That's not good enough for me. I don't want to go to that high school. I don't want to wear that. Those people aren't good enough." So, the project itself informs my character. I saw the first "Inside Out," and I thought of all the core, the first five emotions: anger, fear, joy, sadness, and disgust. I thought of all five, a person going through their teenage years, disgust would be the one that knows the most.

What was your reaction when you found out you were replacing Mindy Kaling for this role?

Well, I was happy to audition for it. It came to me as, do you wanna audition for Disgust? And I was excited to even be a part of Pixar, Disney. I grew up on these movies. It's iconic. The first one is one of the best movies on mental health. For adults or for children. It's just so smartly done. So, when I found out that they were even considering me, I jumped to audition for it.

When we talked to director Kelsey Mann, he said that you used your twirling of the hair, checking out your split ends to show your attitude.

Yes, yes, I found a physicality for it. Disgust exists to protect Riley, right? All the emotions, Anger exists; "That person is being mean to you, I'm going to protect you." Fear is like, "Oh, that's scary, I'm going to protect you." Disgust says, "That's gross, don't eat that." or "Oh, don't hang out with those people." It's so protective. But the way that Disgust does it is she's above everything. She's the most like a teenager. So, it's very like, "I'm gonna warn you, but I'm also very busy doing other things." So, that's how I found the voice. I think you can hear it in the trailer. There's a difference between someone saying to you, "Orange is not my color" versus "Orange is not my color." (changes to uninterested tone while looking at her hair for split ends). That's her voice.

Photo courtesy of Disney/Pixar

Photo courtesy of Disney/PixarDid you meet some of the cast members either at the wrap party or the premiere?

I met them doing press yesterday, and not all of them. The way voiceover works and the experience that I had is I'm in the booth with Kelsey Mann, the director, and Mark (Nielsen), the producer, and I'm just playing with them. The first time that I heard the other cast members' voices was at the screening, and then I got to meet them yesterday.

If you were given a choice to choose one of the emotions aside from Disgust, what would it be and why?

Joy, because that's the one that I have to work for the most and I don't think I'm alone in that. I think the other ones come to you. Some injustice happens, someone's angry. Something sad happens, there's sadness. Whereas with Joy, you have to make a concerted effort to be in wonder, in awe, and in gratitude. You have to make a conscious choice to say, I want to be joyful today, even if we have to rush through our days, choosing Joy.

Kelsey Mann mentioned that you're really funny and you should take up more comedy roles. What do you think of that?

It's really nice that he said that. He's a wonderful director to work for and with. He's also a good human being. The team that I got to work with, they're all such great people. He gave me the chance to play. So, if I'm funny in this movie, it's because he gave me the chance.

He said, "Okay, now do it the way that you wanna do it. Go play, say it the way you wanna say it." Of course, I always stick to the script, that's first and foremost, the writers are brilliant, but Kelsey, within that, gives you a chance to play. It mimics good parenting. Every take that we did we had the language. He would say, "Do it like this, do it like this. Okay now do a split-ends take." So, I'd be doing all the different versions and then for the split-ends take I would physically look at it. And more often than not those were his favorites.

You're going to be a doll now.

I love it. (shows the Disgust doll) Oh my gosh, can you even deal with this? First, there's so many layers.

Okay, I was doing press at Disneyland and while I was shopping on my own, I saw that the family before me, the daughter, was buying this doll. And they don't know who I am, I said, "Oh, is that your favorite character?" And they said, "Yes." And I said, "Why?" And she said, "Because she's pretty and I like what she is wearing." She has a little scarf.

I do have to say when I started in my profession there weren't a lot of people who looked like me and it's still not a lot, but to be able to have the opportunities that I've had has been such a gift and a blessing. And now I am in wonder that I get to have this cool job and I get to be in this space, this family, have a doll, and I am who I am. I look the way that I do, my parents are who my parents are. There's an extra honor if you will or an extra goodness that I get to have this in my life.

How important is representation for you?

I think it's just like life. I think it's important for everybody because it's the world that we live in. Everyone says the word representation like it's this thing, whereas representation is just a mirror of the world that we live in now. So, the pretend world just needs to catch up to the real world. And to be part of that change, that movement towards that is an honor, it's a privilege. It's an added bonus to my job that I can see little kids who look like me, or little kids who don't look like me but feel different or not seen. And they see me doing this and they feel happy or inspired or seen. That's just an added bonus to my job. It's a gift that I didn't know that I would get to have it.

You're also an action star in "The Equalizer." How was the experience of being voice actress compared to being an action star?

I think they're both fun in different ways. A lot of my job is basically creativity playing. It's playing for a living, using my imagination. So, they're kind of the same in terms of the joy level, but they're just obviously very different. I get to be really physical on "The Equalizer." I get to do a lot of really cool things in a different way.

You also work with the Basco brothers in "The Fabulous Filipino Brothers." Talk about working with Dante Basco and the brothers.

Oh my gosh, they're wonderful. It's called "The Fabulous Filipino Brothers," and I think it's on Amazon, I'm not sure, but for people who want to rent it. It was so much fun. First of all, there's this tribe of brothers and their sister, Arianna. The parents are great. They're now my, you know, my Tita and my Tito. And it felt like a community coming together. It's a really funny, off-the-wall, crazy film.

To work with Dante, he's just so talented. All the brothers are very talented. It was a treat to see four different kinds of leading men who were Filipino. There's not one way to be a Filipino leading man. There's not one way to be a Filipino leading lady. We're not a monolith. We're just like everybody else. There are many flavors within our flavor. So, in that movie, there are four vignettes, and each vignette stars a different brother and they're varied. One's crazy, one's funny, one's dark. So, it was a treat for me to show the world that there are variations within the Filipino American culture.

Photo courtesy of Disney/Pixar

Photo courtesy of Disney/Pixar

Can you talk about your Filipino roots? Where do your parents come from, and have you been to the Philippines lately?

Not lately. My parents have been here in America for a while. I was born here. But they are both from Baguio. They represent Baguio. And she's actually here doing press with me. So, I double-checked. I was like, "Mom, where are we from again? Baguio?" I said, "But is dad from Manila?" "No, we're both from Baguio." So, it's been verified by Mrs. Lapira.

So, you haven't been to the Philippines?

I have, but not lately. I'm due to go back. The Bascos got to go back to promote "The Fabulous Filipino Brothers." I wanted to go back too but I was working.

If you were given a chance to do your dream project, what would it be and why?

I did a Christmas movie for CBS. It's like those Christmas movies that they have on other channels where it centers on a lady who leaves where she is to go find her creativity or to change her life and then as it is in these movies, she ends up meeting somebody and falls in love. And I've been thinking I want to do another one of those and maybe the place that she goes to is the Philippines and how cool that would be. So, you're the first person to get this idea. I haven't even told my agents yet.

But yeah, maybe she's an Angeleno or a New Yorker, and she wants to get out of her rut, and she goes to the Philippines and visits maybe her cousins, and maybe she meets someone there and falls in love. I think that would be a great opportunity to visit both locations. It would be a fresh new way to tell that story.

What would you say to aspiring Filipina actresses who would like to follow in your footsteps?

I would break that question up into two, Janet. So, the first is an aspiring artist, because that's just hard on its own. And what I'm gonna say is for all artists, Filipino, black, brown, Asian. Love what you do and focus on the love. If you're in it for the love, you will succeed. If you're in it for fame or money or anything else other than just the joy of doing it, you still might succeed, but it's going to be very hard. Because if you love something, then the no's that you get, they don't sting as much because you love it. But if you're in it for the yeses, you might have a hard time.

Now for my Filipino American brothers, sisters, nieces, nephews, I would say my example might work for you, it might not work for you, it might work for me only because I came up at a different time when no one looked like me. What worked for me is I focused on the love of it and the craft. I put that other pressure aside and I did my job to the best of my ability. Only later did it catch up to me and be like oh I got to be I get to other people, got to see it and be inspired by it just because they're no longer invisible just because they know that it is possible.

So, if that helps them to just not have that pressure and just focus on the craft, then good. That said, if it's helpful the other way, for them to think about heritage and contributing and purpose, then do that. But the true line is the underlying pride, whether you think about it consciously all the time or whether you don't, just knowing who you are and being proud of that.

—MGP, GMA Integrated News

This article Fil-Am actress Liza Lapira talks about voicing Disgust in 'Inside Out 2' was originally published in GMA News Online.