🎧 Live from L.A.! 'Inside Out 2' Director on the Art of Anxiety

Kelsey Mann took inspiration from 'All About Eve' for the blockbuster that put tween Riley's Joy in a power struggle with rival emotions

GOOD TROUBLE “All of our emotions are there to try to help us,” says Inside Out 2 director Kelsey Mann. “Anxiety, it’s really there to try to protect us and keep us safe.” (Photo illustration by The Ankler; Todd Williamson)

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It’s a terrible day in L.A., and the frenzy of awards season has taken a backseat to the life-or-death concerns around the ongoing fires. Nonetheless, we hope this conversation about our emotions, particularly anxiety, may provide a measure of comfort.

Kelsey Mann had what he thought was his dream job, working as a story supervisor at Pixar on such films as Onward and The Good Dinosaur. Then Pixar’s chief creative officer, Pete Docter, asked him to dream a little bigger and step up to direct the sequel to one of the studio’s biggest hits, Inside Out.

“I was so excited to get this opportunity I never thought I’d get,” Mann recalls during our conversation for the latest live edition of the Prestige Junkie podcast, held at The London West Hollywood hotel on Jan. 3. But then came the moment when he walked into an empty office to start writing and understood the challenge ahead of him. “Oh, no. What have I gotten myself into?”

REEL EMOTION Anxiety (voiced by Maya Hawke) wields a feverish power over Riley in Inside Out 2. (Disney/Pixar)

That relatable feeling eventually led Mann to conjure Anxiety, the breakout new emotion of Inside Out 2 — and, let’s face it, probably the defining character of our age. Catching up with young Riley as she enters puberty and attends a hockey camp, Inside Out 2 watches as the heroine emotion Joy (Amy Poehler) locks horns with the newly arrived Anxiety (Maya Hawke). If that struggle feels particularly familiar, there’s a reason.

“I had an incredible amount of joy and an incredible amount of anxiety” on the project, says Mann, who created the story alongside screenwriter Meg LeFauve. “I actually thought to myself, I could let my anxiety take over in this moment. And if I make a movie with anxiety at the console, it’s not going to work out well. But if I have joy at my console, then I have a chance at making something that hopefully is really great. I feel like if I’m having fun and the crew is having fun, I really believe it ends up on the screen.”

INSIDE MANN Katey Rich spoke with Mann at The London West Hollywood hotel on Jan. 3. (Todd Williamson)

Mann initially imagined Anxiety as a more traditional movie villain, an obstacle for Joy and her cohort of fellow emotions to overcome. But she emerged as a more well-rounded character, thanks in part to inspiration Mann found in one of the most iconic movies about professional rivalry.

“I pitched it as ‘It’s All About Eve with emotions,’” says Mann, explaining that in this case, Joy is the veteran actress Margo Channing and Anxiety is the up-and-comer Eve Harrington. “The only difference between Eve Harrington and Anxiety is Eve knows what she’s doing.”

In our conversation before a lively audience, Mann told me so much more about his inspirations, the many versions of the film that never saw the light of day, and the emotion that isn’t in the film but is driving his personal character console these days. Hear it all on this bonus edition of the Prestige Junkie podcast or you can watch the video of our conversation here at Ankler Enjoy.

CROWD PLEASER The audience at the London West Hollywood lingered after our conversation to tell Mann how much the film meant to them — and he spoke to every single person who waited. (Todd Williamson)