With director Pierre Perifel's The Bad Guys now playing in theaters, I recently spoke with Craig Robinson, Marc Maron, and Anthony Ramos about making the animated action comedy. During the fun interview, they talked about what they’re most excited for families to see in the film, what people would be surprised to learn about the making of The Bad Guys, and how Ramos ended up singing in the movie. In addition, Ramos teases the Transformers: Rise of the Beasts movie and has fun explaining to his co-stars that he’s not a robot.
Based on the popular Scholastic book series by Aaron Blabey, the film follows a criminal crew of animal outlaws as they attempt their most challenging con yet — becoming model citizens. The Bad Guys also features the voice of Sam Rockwell, Zazie Beetz, Lilly Singh, Awkwafina, Richard Ayoade, and Alex Borstein. The film is written by Etan Cohen and Hilary Winston and produced by Damon Ross and Rebecca Huntley. The executive producers are Aaron Blabey, Cohen and Patrick Hughes.
Check out what they had to say in the player above, and below is exactly what we talked about followed by the official synopsis.
Craig Robinson, Marc Maron, and Anthony Ramos
- What would surprise people to learn about the making of The Bad Guys?
- Ramos on how his character didn’t sing in the script and they added that during the recording process.
- Did their characters go through any radical changes during the recording process?
- What are they most excited for families to see in the film?
- Ramos teases the Transformers: Rise of the Beasts movie.
Here's the synopsis for The Bad Guys:
Nobody has ever failed so hard at trying to be good as The Bad Guys.
In the new action comedy from DreamWorks Animation, based on the New York Times best-selling book series, a crackerjack criminal crew of animal outlaws are about to attempt their most challenging con yet—becoming model citizens.
Never have there been five friends as infamous as The Bad Guys—dashing pickpocket Mr. Wolf (Academy Award® winner Sam Rockwell, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri), seen-it-all safecracker Mr. Snake (Marc Maron, GLOW), chill master-of-disguise Mr. Shark (Craig Robinson, Hot Tub Time Machine franchise), short-fused “muscle” Mr. Piranha (Anthony Ramos, In the Heights) and sharp-tongued expert hacker Ms. Tarantula (Awkwafina, Crazy Rich Asians), aka “Webs.”
But when, after years of countless heists and being the world’s most-wanted villains, the gang is finally caught, Mr. Wolf brokers a deal (that he has no intention of keeping) to save them all from prison: The Bad Guys will go good.
Under the tutelage of their mentor Professor Marmalade (Richard Ayoade, Paddington 2), an arrogant (but adorable!) guinea pig, The Bad Guys set out to fool the world that they’ve been transformed. Along the way, though, Mr. Wolf begins to suspect that doing good for real may give him what he’s always secretly longed for: acceptance. So when a new villain threatens the city, can Mr. Wolf persuade the rest of the gang to become … The Good Guys?