Love her! I’ve adored Ginnifer Goodwin in all of her film roles and especially once I began follwing her as Snow White in Once Upon a Time so we were thrilled to here her thoughts on playing Judy Hopps, the adorable bunny protagonist in Zootopia that never gives up on her dreams. Since Ginnifer is currently 7 months pregnant, we chatted over Skype on the big screen TV – just like any savvy and busy digital Moms would do — since she couldn’t leave LA to be with us in Florida. Check out our Ginnifer Goodwin Zootopia Interview scoop below.
She shared so many thoughtful comments and overall she just left me in awe of her kindness, her desire for her own children to believe in magic, and her hope that all kids – and the audience that sees Zootopia — leaves understanding the key message her character shares that, “Anyone Can Be Anything”. A message as a Mother, I’m always trying to impart on my children as I hope they will always work hard to pursue their own dreams.
Why did you take the Zootopia role?
“To be honest there was one word that convinced me that I needed to take this role and that was Disney!”
” I was sitting in Mickey Mouse pajamas in my kitchen. I was pregnant. I was in Vancouver shooting Once Upon a Time and I got a phone call that I was being offered this job and I had never heard of Zootopia and I took it immediately and my representatives, who were all on the phone said, don’t you want to know anything about the character or the script and I said well, of course. I mean, I want to, but we just accept the job first and then call me back!”
On What She Hopes Kids will Take Away from her character Judy Hopps
“There’s so many incredible themes in this movie. The one that I gravitate towards the most because it’s the one my character articulated was that:
“Anyone can be anything!”
” I absolutely believe that! I believe that there are infinite amounts of opportunities for everyone.”
“I’ve never understood this idea that there’s so many pieces of the pie. Why can’t we just look at it as there’s an infinite number of pies? There’s, enough to go around and there’s enough for everyone to carve their niche in life, so that’s the thing that I would hope on the surface that my kids take away from seeing Zootopia.”
On NOT letting her 2 year old son see Zootopia …
I absolutely LOVED her thoughts on why she was NOT going to share Zootopia with her little boy just yet. Ginnifer Goodwin is the real deal and this girl is all about the Disney magic! I love it and can totally relate. Here’s what she shared that just made me admire her so much more as a Mom and a lover of all things magical!
“I don’t want to shatter any of his illusions! I’m just terrified that he would see Zootopia and he’s a smart kid, and he would say, that sounds an awful lot like Mommy, so I’m going to keep that from him as long as, as possible. I want to push him to be imaginative.”
Ginnifer continued to explain her reasoning:
“He hasn’t seen it and we only recently decided that we’re not going to let him see it for a long time, but not for reasons that we was expected of ourselves. We kept him from all entertainment, all technology based entertainment until this point. He’s about to turn two. He just had the flu and we let him watch Winnie the Pooh for the first time. Up until this point, he’s been a reader. He’s extremely physically active. He’s a player and we really encouraged him to let that be his forms of entertainment.
I thought that we were going to let him see Zootopia and then we saw Zootopia and it’s almost out of our love for it that we’re going to keep animated things of which we are a part as parents, away from them because we realized, Oliver thinks that Winnie the Pooh is real and we would never want to shatter the illusion that he’s not and not only does he think that the animated Winnie the Pooh is real, because he’s almost two, thinks that the Winnie the Pooh that he met at Disneyland last month is the same exact Winnie the Pooh that was onscreen when he had the flu.”
On Overcoming Stereotypes in her own life and career
“I am proud of the fact that I am not some stereotypical, classic package of a Hollywood actress. I was told early on that I would never be a leading lady, and I thought that was ridiculous…. because there are all kinds of ladies and all stories need to be told, so why wouldn’t my kind of lady, lead a film at some point?”
“I think that being an actress in general, takes an exceptionally thick skin in that we’re rejected on a daily basis for a number of reasons and I think I’ve always been pretty good at letting it all roll of my back.”
What qualities do you see in yourself that shine in “bunny” Judy Hopps?
“We’re both fiercely optimistic. We’re both idealistic. I think we’re both a bit self-righteous which can then get into the flawed territory which I also love. I don’t like playing characters who don’t have some flaws and I think that that our flaws are similar.”
” I also wish I were as fearless as she is because I’m a tryer like she is, but when I try things, I’m often secretly a bit scared and I feel like she didn’t get the scared gene somehow.”
Take a Peek at the Zootopia Trailer
Get Social with ZOOTOPIA: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr, and Official Website!
ZOOTOPIA opens in theatres everywhere on March 4th!
Thanks to Walt Disney Animation Studios for inviting me to attend the Zootopia press junket and covering my travel expenses. As always, all thoughts and opinions are our own.
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