John Goodman Is No Longer Feeling Sorry For Himself

Actor John Goodman, who provides the voice for star character Sully in Pixar’s box office success "Monsters University," told CNN’s Michaela Pereira that he is feeling better now that he is getting more movie roles and discussed his chemistry with co-stars Billy Crystal and George Clooney.

Here is the complete transcipt of the interview, which aired Wednesday on CNN's "New Day."
 
MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: The latest Disney Pixar movie literally a "Monster" at the box office.  "Monsters University", the sequel to "Monster’s Inc.", raked in $82 million in its opening weekend, taking the number one spot.  I had a chance to sit down with one of the monsters, or rather the man, behind the monster, actor John Goodman, who voices my favorite guy Sully.  Let’s take a look.

JOHN GOODMAN, ACTOR:  Great to be here.

PEREIRA:  How have you been?

GOODMAN:  I’ve been swell.  I’ve been busy.  And I just got back from Germany.  I was there since February working with George Clooney.

PEREIRA:  George Clooney yes, that fellow.  You seem to be recurring characters in each other’s lives.

GOODMAN:  Yes, I guess so, yes.

PEREIRA:  Isn’t that funny to think?

GOODMAN:  Yes, he was -- he played Roseanne’s boss in the first season of Roseanne and then took his option to leave and it kind of ruined his career.

PEREIRA:  Yes, poor him.  You throw him a bone every now and then, right.

GOODMAN:  Every once in a while.  Yes.

PEREIRA:  Yes, you reunite with him in Coen Brothers, "O Brother, Where Art Thou?"

GOODMAN:  Right.

PEREIRA:  And then your new film that’s coming up.

GOODMAN:  Yes "Monuments Men", I think it will be out in December.

PEREIRA:  Tell us about that film.

GOODMAN:  It’s -- kind of the greatest treasure hunt in history.  The Nazis when they advanced on these countries they looted all the art that they had for their personal uses and Hitler built this huge thing called the Fuhrer (ph) Museum that was going to be in Austria.

And a lot of the art was going to go there.  Most of it was going to go to private -- anyway, they formed a unit of old guys of architects, artists, curators to try to track down and protect the art that the Nazis looted.

PEREIRA:  Right.

GOODMAN:  And they saved, they saved a great deal of art of western culture.

PEREIRA:  Amazing piece of history.  Are you a student of history?

GOODMAN:  I am the older I get.

PEREIRA:  Kind of works out that way.

GOODMAN:  Yes.

PEREIRA:  Because we become history.

GOODMAN:  Yes.

PEREIRA:  This shows the terrific range you have.  I mean, it’s amazing to think of your -- your body of work, John.  I mean, it’s -- it’s been incredible.  We spoke about Roseanne, the Coen Brothers films, and then we talk about my favorite furry blue guy, Sully.  You get a grin on your face when you talk about that character?

GOODMAN:  I finally got to see the movie the other day.

PEREIRA:  And --

GOODMAN:  It’s just delightful.  I mean, I forgot that it was me doing it and just, I got carried away with the film.  I mean, I can’t wait to see it again.

PEREIRA:  I remember years ago when "Monsters Inc." came out.  It’s marveling and I know you did too because I heard you say it -- the fact that Pixar was able to animate the fur on Sully so beautifully.

GOODMAN:  That just tickled me to death.  I don’t know why.

PEREIRA:  It really did.

GOODMAN:  But it was a dig deal when they did it for them.

PEREIRA:  Yes.

GOODMAN:  And they would show these little demos and how do they do that?  And yes.  It’s just astounding.  Those guys are so creative.

PEREIRA:  You fast forward 12 years and these animators are always five steps ahead of us at least.  Are you still marveling at the whiz-bang things they can do?

GOODMAN:  Every time all the details in the film and the texture and the storyline and the fact that you wind up really caring for these people, monsters, for the heart that they have.

PEREIRA:  And that monster happened to beat out a fellow by the fellow by the name of Brad Pitt for number one slot over the weekend.  That tells you -- it says a little something about America, doesn’t it?

GOODMAN:  I don’t know.

PEREIRA:  Let’s talk about teaming up with Billy Crystal again, the two of you together.

GOODMAN:  Billy is -- Billy is a force of nature.  It was, I think, his idea originally to -- usually when you record an animated voice, you go in separately to the booth.  You record all your lines and then you come back and do it again later, 12 to 15 times.  But Billy decided it might be beneficial to have us both in the studio at the same time.  And when that happened, the energy just exploded and then we started feeding off of each other and it really made it that much better.

PEREIRA:  And it really is the chemistry is tangible.  Did you feel it as well?

GOODMAN:  I did.

PEREIRA:  Yes.

GOODMAN:  But it’s nice, it’s nice to hear that.

PEREIRA:  But I wondered, did they have to rein you guys in on occasion because of that a very thing?

GOODMAN:  I’ll say they reined Billy in.  I’ll just put it that way.  No, he -- he just -- he goes off on these great tangents and they use a lot of it.

PEREIRA:  Yes.

GOODMAN:  And I just try to tag along.  You know, he’s amazing.  Really, he’s phenomenal.

PEREIRA:  It’s been quite a ride you’ve been on.  You’ve been very busy the last few years.

GOODMAN:  I’ve been very lucky in the last couple of years.

PEREIRA:  Do you feel it’s just luck, John?

GOODMAN:  Yes.  It’s a -- it’s luck.  A couple years ago, I was sitting around wondering why my phone wasn’t ringing and feeling sorry for myself.  Trying to make things happen and it just, little things fed on another and, you know, it’ll go down again.  But right now I’m going to enjoy the hell out of it.

PEREIRA:  Enjoy the heck out of it, man.  It’s really good to see you.  I always love catching up with you.  Come see us soon, OK?

GOODMAN:  Thank you.  It’s great to see you.