'Elemental' Stars Mamoudou Athie and Leah Lewis on Making Pixar's First Rom-Com (Exclusive)
etonline.com's title character and EVE,'s Woody and Bo Peep, or (get your tissues ready)'s Carl and Ellie. But not until has a Pixar movie focused so directly on a love story between the central couple, drawing inspiration from beloved rom-coms of the past to shape the chemistry between its main characters: Ember Lumen (Leah Lewis), a young, headstrong fire element, and Wade Ripple (Mamoudou Athie), a fun and sensitive water element.Lewis and Athie joined ET's Matt Cohen at Pixar Animation Studios in San Francisco recently to discuss more about their characters and the upcoming film, which has been seven years in the making for director Peter Sohn, who previously directed for Pixar.
takes place in Element City, in a universe where different elements — fire, water, earth and air — traditionally keep to themselves, sometimes facing xenophobic attitudes as they strive to live alongside one another.
Wade and Ember's relationship starts off as contentious, but as they become closer, their feelings for one another start to challenge the gap between their very different lives.«I mean, this film just leads with love in general,» Lewis shared. «Because yes, you see Ember and Wade and they love themselves.
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