Hader embraces the fear at Pixar

Bill Hader is adding his vocal talents to Inside Out, which is in cinemas now, and The Good Dinosaur, which will be released in December. Photo / Supplied

Comedian keeps busy by voicing new animated film Inside Out.

Bill Hader chooses such intriguing and divergent roles, time after time, whether he's going dramatic in The Skeleton Twins or going animated as an agro-cumulus chemist in Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs, that one wonders whether he's cherrypicking from an especially well-stocked orchard of Hollywood offers.

"Cherrypicking?" Hader responds with a blurt of a laugh. "I wish. I'm begging for roles." Hader, it should be noted, is serially humble. Since leaving his Emmy-winning run on

Saturday Night Live

, he has stayed in demand, as he continually gravitates toward fellow artists he holds in high esteem.

Bill Hader says the character Fear was a comfortable fit for him. Photo / Supplied

That lofty company includes the storytelling masters at Pixar Studios. So how did the gifted comic actor really manage to impress the animators at Emeryville so eminently that he has the rare pleasure of voicing both Pixar films this year: Inside Out and the upcoming The Good Dinosaur (due out in December).

"It was that thing where, I stalked them," Hader says with a wry wrinkle, about connecting with such people as Inside Out director Pete Docter (Up, Monsters, Inc.) and producer Jonas Rivera.

"They didn't come to me. I asked: 'Can I go over and meet those guys?' "I kind of just went on a tour of Pixar and met Pete and Jonas. I said, 'I think you guys are amazing'."
Hader ended up soaking up life at Pixar for a week. "I got to hang out ... and help out in the story room.," he says. "And then they just said: 'Why don't you play one of these [characters]? We want you to play Fear.'"

He leapt at the chance; Hader, who characterises himself as a "pretty anxious guy", says the performance was an easy fit.

Pixar, though, also needed someone to play the character Joy. (The emotions Anger, Disgust and Sadness are also central to Inside Out.) And the filmmakers had their eyes on another SNL-sprung star.

"They liked Amy [Poehler] and they didn't have inroads," Hader says.

"They said: 'Would you mind calling Amy? We don't want to call her and have her think we're some weirdo.' So I called Amy and said: 'You'll be getting a call from Jonas from Pixar. He's a genius.' I told her: 'You're right for the part - you are Joy.'