While in Los Angeles for Alice Through the Looking Glass premiere event, I had the opportunity to sit down with Suzanne Todd, the producer of the movie. As one of Hollywood’s most powerful female producers, I didn’t know what to expect. We found her to be insightful, fun and easy to talk to you. I walked away feeling I had just chatted with my new best friend. Here’s a bit of our conversation.
photo credit Jana Seitzer/MerlotMommy.com
I have been incredibly blessed the past few years getting to meet some very talented actors, producers, animators and more – hello? George Clooney?? – but I must say, no interview has stuck with me more than the one we had with Suzanne Todd last week. Her profound words of wisdom on how she conducts her life as a working mom is so applicable to anyone going through any type of situation.
Yes, I am impressed by her long list of movies she has produced ( to name a few) and she has worked with some of the most powerful people in entertainment. Yet, she is humble and grateful and down-to-earth, the kind of person you want to have as your confidant, your best friend.
Before I tell you what we learned from her, let me tell you how she began our meeting –
While at Disney Social Media Moms Celebration, we heard from Suzanne as she spoke to her on her experience producing Alice Through the Looking Glass. While there, she wore these incredible Alice in Wonderland shoes that she had bought as a remembrance of the first movie. It was quite an ordeal for her to get these shoes too as they had sold-out most places. She loved these shoes and it was so fun for her to show them to us.
Fast-forward a few weeks to a meeting room at the Montage Beverly Hills, Suzanne walks into the room carrying the shoes in a box. Thinking she was just going to show them to us, I was excited to see them up close. She did one better.
Suzanne’s close friend, Maria Shriver, had a fundraiser for her new Alzheimer’s foundation, Move for Minds, the week before. Suzanne had tweeted about it and she told the story of how someone had made a small donation to it on behalf of her grandmother, who had always loved Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland. It just so happened, that was one of the bloggers we were with and Suzanne gave her the amazing Alice shoes as a thank you for her donation.
There was not a dry eye in the house. We were all astonished that she would do that and it showed how generous and humble of a person Suzanne Todd is. What a way to start an interview!
photo credit Jana Seitzer/MerlotMommy.com
Interview with Suzanne Todd
There’s a lot of great themes in this movie with family and Time and Alice being such a great heroine. What are you most passionate about this movie?
From the beginning, and it’s been 10 years for me now making these two Alice movies, my friend, the writer, Linda Woolverton, had come to me 10 years ago with that idea of making a movie where the girl could be the hero and it was so exciting to me. We had never intended to make a sequel. We didn’t rush to make a sequel to just cash in on the financial success of the first one. We wanted to be really thoughtful about it. So I think that was always at the core of it, trying to be true to Alice’s story, trying to be true to Lewis Carroll’s Alice.
And we wanted to really focus on time, because obviously I am mother. I have three kids. I just feel like the older I get, the more precious I find my time is to me. So that for us was really important. So really, those two things, the idea of being able to put a movie out there that is a kind of ‘we girls can do anything’ movie, and also recognizing that time is so precious to all of us.
Was making Through the Looking Glass easier or tougher than the first one?
I think maybe harder because the response to the first film was so unexpected and overwhelming. So then there’s all this pressure that you don’t want to do something always with movies that will be commercially viable, because that’s why you get to make more movies. Also, just for me with the three kids, the older I get, the less I want to ever do a movie that doesn’t feed my soul. You know, you don’t want to do those movies that you’re just kind of doing because you need to, if you don’t have to.
Getting the cast together was much harder on the second one because they’ve all continued to have flourishing, amazing careers. Anne {Hathaway} had won an Oscar since then and Johnny’s {Depp} always booked. Um, on the, on the, well, you know, he’s always working.
On the first movie, the really interesting thing about the casting process was with Tim Burton. Normally when you’re casting a movie, you go through the script and you make lists of the characters, and then there’s about 20 actors on a list, and you go one my one and you offer it to them. You go to Brad Pitt and say Brad Pitt, do you want to do it? And he says no, and so then you go to George Clooney and say do you want to do it? And you kind of work your way through the process.
On the first Alice, Tim {Burton} literally just picked the people he wanted, and called them. And every single person said yes. Everybody wanted to do it because they just wanted to obviously work with Tim and they loved the script. So the second time, obviously, we knew who most of the actors were going to be, but scheduling was very difficult.
It probably took us almost another year to really get started, to get all the actors when they could work at the same time. And even then you can imagine {the difficulty} with the actors because it wasn’t like we have all the actors for the three months we need them. We have Johnny for these days here and we have Anne’s days here. We have Sasha for these days, when he’s finishing the other movie. And it’s all like a very complicated jigsaw puzzle.
Alice has so many wonderful scenes, but do you have one that you like the most or is more special to you?
Well there’s sort of a running joke from the two movies, because I work sometimes with my younger sister who happens to have red hair, so in the first movie, there was always kind joke to the writer, you know, this sort of Red Queen, White Queen sort of joke. Not that the White Queen is the good one and Red Queen is the bad one. Although you may have thought that in the first movie, certainly in the second movie, you get to see it. There is something about that sister story line because I have two sisters, that’s very special for me.
When you look at the young White Queen, the idea that she’s not a bad person. I think all of us have behaved that way. I behaved that way when I was a kid. She just did the wrong thing. In the moment, you feel like you’re on the spot, and she said the wrong thing. And then you see in the movie the trajectory of everything that happened because of that moment. I love that scene at the end where they have a little tiny bit of reconciliation, although we’ll see how long that lasts, if we make another movie.
On designing Time’s costume with Sasha Baron Cohen.
Sasha talked about how when he’s developing his character, that the costume is really, really important for him. And when we got into it with Colleen Atwood {costume designer on the film}, Sasha played so many interesting characters before that there was certain things he wanted to stay away from. Like he didn’t want to do anything he had done before, so then it was kind of this process of elimination. But the one thing he really, really wanted to do was wear tights.
And I thought it was so funny, and I didn’t totally understand it, but I went to the first costume fitting and I saw him in the tights. And it was like, of course, because his legs are ridiculous. He has like two spider legs where literally like his thigh is the same size as his ankle, which if you look closely in the movie, you’ll see. But I love that Sasha understood the ridiculousness, the skinniness of his legs, and that’s why he wanted those little pantaloons with the tights.
Then under that big hat, he has a man bun. At one point, we had discovered this really funny Instagram feed that’s called Man Buns of Disneyland. So it’s only pictures of dudes with man buns at Disneyland. And we were joking leading up to the movie that we kept saying we wanted to get some Sasha pictures put together like he was at Disneyland, so that Time could be in Man Buns of Disneyland, because we love that feed.
On working with Johnny Depp again
With Johnny, obviously we weren’t inventing a new character, but it was still so amazing. The first day that Johnny was working and had gone through the makeup and the wig and the contacts and everything, we were doing a scene and I just remember the first time he opened his mouth and spoke, I got tears in my eyes, because it was like seeing the Hatter again. It had been so many years in between. Johnny, as you guys saw in the movie, is so gifted in bringing vulnerability to the Hatter. He’s such a talented actor and it was just so sweet. It was like seeing an old friend that I hadn’t seen for so long.
Do you have a message for single moms who are in pursuit of their career that they love, like yours, you know?
Hmm, a message for moms…. I’m learning every day just like the rest of you. I know it sounds like an Instagram saying, but I definitely sweat the small stuff less. I feel like in my old life, I definitely sweated it more. And maybe that’s just because I don’t have time for it, or the energy for it, but, situations, people, and things that bring drama and conflict and aren’t productive, I really stay away from or avoid.
photo credit Jana Seitzer/MerlotMommy.com
And that’s very different for me, than I was 10 or 15 years ago. I’m very, very focused on what I think will be a positive outcome, and it’s something I actually talk about a lot with my kids. I always think the best advice I can ever give myself is the advice I tell my kids, because I’m much better at telling my kids what to do usually than I am at telling myself. So if I pause and think about what I would tell them, then I usually do a better job.
You can just kind of let the negative thoughts inside of you go. I’m also a big meditator. I have been for 20 years and I taught it to my kids now. And when people always ask me how I get so much done in a busy day, I think that’s a big part of it, which makes no sense to people, because they’re like what do you mean? You take 20 minutes off twice a day to meditate, but for me it really helps me focus and stay on track and gives me a lot of good things that help me get other things done. But, I would say focusing on what you really need and just being brutal about it.
Also a little bit of learning to say no. I’m definitely a little bit less of a ‘yes to everything’ and people pleaser than I was probably when my kids were younger. I think it’s a good thing.
I can’t tell you how refreshing it was to hear these simple, yet effective words of advice from such a powerful woman as Suzanne Todd. Everyone faces issues in their lives, no matter where they live or what they do for a living. Just this week alone, I have found myself reflecting on these word AND USING THEM to help get through situations and drama here at home.
I dare say, my interview with Suzanne Todd was one of the most powerful & memorable conversations I have had with anyone in Hollywood. One that will stick with me way past the season of the movie promotion.
photo credit Jana Seitzer/MerlotMommy.com
That said if you haven’t had a chance to see Alice Through the Looking Glass, go see it. It’s a wonderful story of bravery, kindness, loyalty and will make you want to hug your loved ones……enjoying every bit of time you have with them.
Alice Through the Looking Glass is in theaters now.
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Facebook: Disney Alice
Twitter: @DisneyStudios
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Other Articles from the Alice Through the Looking Glass & Zootopia Blu-ray Event you may enjoy:
My Alice Through the Looking Glass Red Carpet Premiere Experience
Get to Know Alice’s Mia Wasikowski
5 Reasons Why Alice Through the Looking Glass is Better than Alice in Wonderland
Exclusive Interview with Suzanne Todd, Producer of Alice Through the Looking Glass
Zootopia’s Clark Spencer, Rich Moore, & Byron Howard
9 Things You Didn’t Know About Zootopia
Exclusive Interview with James Bobin, Director of Alice Through the Looking Glass
Disclaimer: Disney sent me to Los Angeles on an all-expenses paid press trip, in exchange for my coverage of the red carpet premiere of Alice Through the Looking Glass. All opinions are my own.
