Tales From The Leo Red Carpet: Adam Sandler, Allison Strong, Bill Burr & More

Adam Sandler’s latest collaboration with Netflix is Leo, an animated musical comedy about a 74-year-old class pet who has a mortality scare and decides he needs to break out of his terrarium. The film was co-written by Sandler, Paul Sado, and Robert Smigel and directed by Smigel, Robert Marianetti, and David Wachtenheim. Sandler and the film’s three directors all worked on Saturday Night Live, though not all together, eventually collaborating on Hotel Transylvania 2.

The cast of Leo is led by Adam Sandler in the titular role, but also includes Bill Burr, Allison Strong, Cecily Strong, and Jason Alexander. Nearly everyone sings in the film, although Bill Burr’s character—a class turtle named Squirtle–unfortunately doesn’t get a chance to join in the musical merriment. Leo also features a stellar younger cast that includes Coulter Ibanez, Gloria Manning, and Sandler’s daughters Sadie and Sunny.

Screen Rant joined the Leo red carpet and spoke with Adam Sandler, Allison Strong, Robert Marianetti, David Wachtenheimm, and Robert Smigel about their work on the animated film.

Writer & Director Robert Smigel Talks Leo

Screen Rant: This is a musical. What is your favorite song to have written for this film?

Robert Smigel: That’s a tough one, man. Now it sounds like I’m bragging: “They’re all so good!” I don’t know; I hope people like them.

The “Don’t Cry” song makes me laugh the most. That’s the funniest to me. Musically, I really like the pop song the girl sings at the end, Tiffany Topol, “When It’s Us.” That’s the only song that where I had the tune before the lyrics. Everything else, I wrote as I was writing the script. But I guess what a lot of people like the most is the song where all the kids sing and reminisce about when they were younger: “When I Was Ten”. Have you heard that one?

I’ve read about it. I’m going to hear it in, like, 20 minutes.

Robert Smigel: The song’s called “When I Was Ten”, and it’s a funny premise where the kids are 11, and they’re reminiscing about how simple life was when they were ten. It starts funny, but then, in the context of the movie, it actually gets touching. That one’s affecting a lot of people, so I enjoy that.

You’ve worked with Adam on a ton of things by now. He’s a co-writer on this. What is his biggest strength as a writer?

Robert Smigel: Oh my God, he has so many strengths as a writer. He’s silly and surreal, but I guess the thing that stood out at Saturday Night Live and has, I think, helped sustain his career all these years is how observational he is, how human he is, how he understands [people]. [With] everybody else at Saturday Night Live, it was always, like, crazy premises, and Adam would write these character pieces that were so subtle, like “Canteen Boy”, where I would have to argue with people, like “No, you don’t understand. It’s really complex, because Canteen Boy is being bullied by his friends but he’s acting like he’s not hurt by it, and he’s pushing ahead.”

Nobody could get past the fact that he’s [in exaggerated Adam Sandler impression] talking like this, so he would get dismissed by co-workers, and sometimes by critics. Waterboy is a beautifully crafted movie, but that’s the thing: he has this amazing strength, this amazing ability to pick up little human quirks and highlight them, and I think that’s a big key to his success. That’s why he resonates, and why his movies still hold up. It’s amazing how little kids can watch movies of his from the ‘90s, and they’re, like, their favorite movies.

Director Robert Marianetti Talks Leo

Screen Rant: What is the key to making an animated turtle and lizard look good when they’re singing on-screen?

Robert Marianetti: Being one of the directors and coming from an animation background, we knew it was going to be tricky. One of the things we did is, we tried to keep it pretty realistic with the kids’ animation, and the adults. It’s not too exaggerated. [With] other studios—they do a great job—like Disney, it’s a lot of exaggeration in the animation. We kept the animation pretty subtle and realistic. We started, from the very designs, going for a certain type of feel.

Then, when it comes to animals, [we were] picking the strategic moments go a little bit broader. We did that in the songs, too. One of the original ideas that my partner, David Wachtenheim, and I had was that we wanted to expand on the songs, do different visual styles, and all that, just to call interest. And [we thought to have], like, different movie styles in the songs, or TV [styles]. The drone song is reminiscent of Schoolhouse Rock or a Sesame Street-type of [song]; The Electric Company. Whereas with “Not That Great”, we purposely went above and beyond sort of feels like a Busby Berkeley musical. And the “Don’t Cry” song is a direct tribute to Mary Poppins. Robert Smigel, when he wrote that song, wanted to do something evocative of that, but Adam and him put their comedic sensibility and spin to it.

Was everyone on board for singing right away? Was anyone pushing you back on it a little bit?

Robert Marianetti: It’s interesting. Originally, we were talking to a couple other people to play some major roles, and they weren’t comfortable with the singing. And then, in a fortuitous piece of luck, we got Cecily Strong.

She is amazing.

Robert Marianetti: She is amazing. Her show on Apple TV+ is amazing; Schmigadoon. She came in just as a favor; Adam and Robert call their SNL friends and all that, and people just show up. We did a table read and she was in LA, so she got the script a few days in advance, [and was] like, “Oh, yeah, I’ll come in and do the table read.” She came in and read, and it was just freaking amazing. The minute she opened her mouth: “That’s our Ms. Malkin.” She plays the mean substitute teacher. And she has an amazing singing voice, so that fell into place. Adam loves doing movies where he can sing, so it just lends itself. [There were] a couple of songs that got cut, unfortunately. Squirtle had a song in there at one point, and that didn’t happen.

Did [Bill Burr] sing at all?

Robert Marianetti: We didn’t even get to that part, so Bill doesn’t know doesn’t sing, unfortunately. Jason Alexander; that’s one of the phone calls. Smigel makes a call: “I’m on board!” And he’s the type–I don’t think you can stop him from singing. So there is some great singing. [It’s] a lot of fun, and the songs put a twist on some traditional type things.

Director David Wachtenheim Talks Leo

Screen Rant: You’ve collaborated with Adam and your other directors on SNL in the past. Was there anything about that experience that shaped how you approached this film?

David Wachtenheim: We never worked with Adam on SNL; it was with Robert Smigel, who was the other director and writer. Adam voiced the very first thing we ever animated with Robert Smigel, which was a Cluckin’ Chicken parody, but that whole collaboration with Smigel is really what led to this; [he got] us onto Hotel Transylvania to work with Adam there. I think that whole mindset–the SNL, adult comedy sensibility–is what Adam appreciated that we were familiar with, and that we kind of had the same comedic sensibility and training, so to speak, in comedy. So, I think that really led him to trust us and to enjoy working with us and having us as collaborators.

What’s the trick for making a movie like this, that is obviously geared toward kids but with something with the whole family?

David Wachtenheim: That was very important to me, because I have kids, and I dreaded taking them to movies when I knew it wasn’t going to be enjoyable for me. When my youngest daughter wanted to see a movie that I knew I didn’t want to see, I kept saying, “Oh, we’ll go see it. We’ll go see it,” until it came into theaters and left. It was horrible, but I just kind of put it off until it wasn’t there, because I just knew I wouldn’t enjoy it.

So, I think it was very important for us to do a movie that parents can sit down with their kids and enjoy on their own level and enjoy just in general. There are jokes for kids and jokes for parents. There [are things] parents will look at and relate to. And even [with] the kid stuff, parents will look at and go, “I know a kid like that,” or, “My kid’s like that.” It was very important for us to do something that a whole family can relate to. Even grandparents. I spoke to somebody the other day who said that she was watching it and her grandmother walked in, and she sat down, watched it with her, and enjoyed it.

Finally, maybe you did, but if you had to give yourself a cameo in this movie, what would your character be?

David Wachtenheim: I am one of the old lizards at the very end, so, I guess that would be my character.

Allison Strong Talks Leo

Screen Rant: You play a teacher with a heart of gold. Have you ever taught anyone before?

Allison Strong: Yeah. I’m a teaching artist, actually. I do master classes. I started on Broadway, so I do Broadway master classes her and there. When I was younger, I also was a substitute teacher. So, I have had that experience in the classroom; I know what it’s like to lose control of your kids. [The time that] Mrs. Salinas loses control when they realize that she’s leaving. I think we’ve all been on that other side when we were kids, had the substitute, and were like, “We can mess with them.”

So whose side are you on in that scenario, at this point?

Allison Strong: The teacher’s! I feel so much more compassion now that I’ve been on that side of that. But it’s funny: my mom was in the school system for 39 years. She recently retired; [she was a] school psychologist from the Union City school system in New Jersey. She said that I finally followed in her footsteps and entered the school system. But it was fine.

I saw that you have shared the stage with some amazing musicians. Teddy Geiger, I think you’ve done shows with and, like you said, [you did] Broadway. How is it to work with musical legends and then do what I think is your first animated movie and work with an insane cast on that?

Allison Strong: It’s funny; I just came here last night from opening for LeAnn Rimes in New Jersey. And I’m also a Latin artist—I’m Colombian—so I opened for Jesse & Joy; they’re a Latin Grammy-winning band. It feels like a perfect blend because this film is so musical. It’s not just dialogue, which is why I think everyone’s going to remember it; the songs are so memorable.

But this is my second film with Adam. I played his daughter in The Week Of, directed by Robert Smigel. Joining this team is like being back with my family again because right before the pandemic, we released that film. Then, the pandemic happened and then we started recording this. I found out about it in September 2020, so it’s been over three years; just wild. It’s a crazy cast, but more than anything, it’s a crazy amazing group of nice and kind people to work with, and I’m very grateful to them.

Finally, you voice a teacher. If you had to voice an animated animal, which would you choose?

Allison Strong: A dolphin. High-pitched voice, always happy, jumps around, doesn’t fall on things like I just did. Sort of like Jennifer Coolidge when she was in White Lotus; “What do you want to be when you grew up?” “A dolphin.” I would like that.

Bill Burr Talks Leo

Screen Rant: I was just watching your stand-up and one of the first things you did was talk about mortality. How is it to do a movie that’s kind of about mortality, but geared toward not your typical stand-up audience?

Bill Burr: Well, I mean, I can relate to it. I’m 55; I’ve lost some friends and stuff. So, I’ve definitely gone through a lot of stuff that Leo has gone through. You figure it out. You just realize there’s nothing you can do, but you just try to enjoy yourself.

I heard Squirtle had a song or two in the script that eventually got cut. Did you know you were maybe going to be singing in this movie? Would that maybe have changed anything?

Bill Burr: No, I 100% would have sang.

You would have?

Bill Burr: It’s a comedy. It’s not like I have to be good.

Fair enough. And what was your favorite part about working with Adam on this? I know he always assembles such an incredible group of people.

Bill Burr: It was just awesome to be in one of his movies. I’m like everybody else; I’ve been watching his movies for close to 30 years. I watched him on SNL. I remember on him on MTV’s Half-Hour Comedy Hour. I’ve been a big fan of this guy for almost 35 years to finally get in the booth with him something and get to do something… and then he’s as cool as you were hoping he was going to be. It’s just awesome.

Adam Sandler Talks Leo

Screen Rant: What’s it like to be working with Robert Smigel [on] project after project?

Adam Sandler: We all love him. [He’s a] Saturday Night Live legend. Everybody knows how great he is at the show. I’m happy he’s my friend and I get to do stuff with him, and he’s a hard working, original bastard.

Where’d your Leo voice come from?

Adam Sandler: Bernie Brillstein. Me, Robert, Farley, and a few others used to do Bernie’s voice around the office, and we thought it made some sense.

This is a musical. It has original songs. If you had to do a cover in your Leo voice, what would your choice be?

Adam Sandler: Of any tune?

Yeah.

Adam Sandler: “I Hate Myself For Loving You.” I do that well as Bernie. Would you like to hear?

Yeah, if you don’t mind.

Adam Sandler: [Sings] I hate myself… that’s all I got.

That’s all we need. That’s incredible.

Adam Sandler: Thank you, man.

Finally, you have such a reputation for bringing in your friends on your projects and stuff like that. How is it to extend that to your immediate family and get to work with people you’re with every day?

Adam Sandler: They’ve always been in my movies since they were little kids—and my wife—we always try to have fun together. And my kids are kind of excited about it now; about doing that for their lives. So, we work hard, talk a lot about it on car rides, and I watch them rehearsing. They’re taking acting lessons, and rehearsing, and doing scene work, and all that stuff, and it’s funny to see. They’re living the life I used to have when I was a young NYU buffoon.

About Leo

Leo is a 2023 animated comedy created for Netflix by Happy Madison Productions and Netflix Animation. Adam Sandler plays a lizard with an existential crisis who yearns to see the world outside his classroom terrarium. However, when the students discover he can talk, Leo is given the chance to make a difference in the lives of others while changing his own for the better.