The Boss Baby: Family Business embraces a new generation of the Templeton family, which includes their studious eldest daughter, Tabitha (Ariana Greenblatt). While the animated film largely focuses on Tim (James Marsden) and his relationship with his brother Ted (Alec Baldwin), the film's true narrative throughline rests with Tabitha and the relationship she develops with her sister Tina (Amy Sedaris) and how this changes her view on what family is.
Even beyond her part in the popular franchise, Greenblatt has already put together an impressive resume -- with her future projects like Borderlands and 65 poised to elevate her career to another level. During an exclusive interview with CBR, Ariana Greenblatt revealed what drew her to The Boss Baby: Family Business, shared what it's like to test creative muscles as a young actor, and teased her excitement for audiences to see Borderlands.
CBR: What was your reaction to being cast in such a fan franchise?
Ariana Greenblatt: Really excited. I was such a big fan of the previous Boss Baby, and I also do not have a lot of experience with voice acting. So I got a super comfortable, fun experience to learn everything about voice acting as a little perk. And it's just such a cool part, and I'm just grateful to be part of it. It's really great.
CBR: As a voice actor, you've appeared in this film and in as young Velma in Scoob!. Is voice acting something that you would love to continue doing?
Yeah, for sure. I would love to do more voice-acting roles. It's such a fun and creatively freeing form of acting. I really love learning everything about it. It's also just super cool to create these new voices to form your character. I think it's a great aspect of doing these roles because, of course, you're acting only with your voice, and you're expressing emotions. But you're also expressing like, running noises and eating noises and all of it just with your voice. So yeah, it's a really cool experience. I would love to do more.
CBR: What was it like having this creative outlet during what has been admittedly a very unique set of circumstances over the last year and a half?
We were in the middle of recording when everything shut down. I actually had to use this little voice recording studio in my back house that my mom kindly made, so I could actually have a space to be as loud as I want and not distract anyone in the house because we're all stuck here together. It was soundproof, and she put the foam walls up. So I had actually my own space, which worked out great since I couldn't go into the studio. I was so happy that I actually had something to do during the quarantine. If I genuinely had nothing to do, I would have gone crazier than I already did. I'm glad I had something to keep me busy and keep me occupied and to have people to look forward to seeing on Zoom. It worked out great.
CBR: What does it feel like knowing that your role in one of these films is going to be some other young audience's formative film growing up?
That kind of hit me when my baby cousin, who just turned two, watched the movie for the first time. Cause I was like, even if I wasn't in it, they'll probably grow up watching Boss Baby. And now, their cousin is in it. Kids of all ages are going to be growing up, listening to my voice. Like that's such a surreal, weird thing to think about. It's also so special and it's so cute that I get to be a part of maybe a kid's favorite movie.
CBR: Your character, Tabitha, is a very committed worker despite her relative youth. I'm not saying you're doing trigonometry for fun like she is, but you're a young actor who already has an impressive resume, and it's only going to get bigger going forward. Was it a little reflective, taking on this role?
It was very exciting and very awesome because I would read a line before I even said it and I would laugh at the idea of a seven-year-old laughing at a math joke. I could never relate those two together. That is very interesting. And also, Tabitha acts so mature and old for a seven-year-old. It's hilarious. I was not as brilliant as Tabitha when I was seven. I got to add my own little sense of humor to the movie, which is dry and sarcastic. I can relate to her with the humor, but with the fact that he's a genius at seven years old, I don't know about that.
CBR: Maybe one of the most anticipated of your upcoming roles is Tiny Tina in the adaptation of the Borderlands video game series. Are you excited for the world to finally see your take on the character?
I'm filled with a lot of emotions because, in the moment, you're not really thinking of how many people will see the movie. And then when you wrap, you're like, "Oh my God, I just did like all that work for that long." I'm so excited for people to see it. I'm also so excited to see how people like my Tiny Tina. I'm very excited about that. It's going to be awesome. There's also 65, this wild sci-fi film I did with Adam Driver, which is extremely different from Tiny Tina. I'm revising everything I say in my head. I don't want to spoil anything. But yeah, it's definitely a weird transition between the 65 to Tiny Tina, but it's awesome. I'm really excited and I'm really nervous.
CBR: What appealed to you about the roles when you took them on, or are you just a big sci-fi fan?
I am a sucker for doing things that I'm not comfortable with. I love going out of my comfort zone. I love doing things I haven't done before, which is 65 and Tiny Tina. They're very different, but also I've never done stuff to the extent and to the extreme. I'm trying not to spoil anything... I like taking things out of my comfort zone and I'm really just eager to see how people like my interpretation of Tiny Tina because she's such a sacred character in the Borderlands universe, and I'm just really excited to hear the opinions on that.
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