Inside Pixar

Being a professional writer means you have to write,

even when you don't want to.

Because you have the burden of the project that you're working on

has to be completed by a certain date.

So if you're lacking inspiration, you better go find it somewhere.

But sometimes, inspiration hits at just the right time.

My name's Kemp Powers, and I am the co-writer and co-director of Soul.

Soul is a story of a man who has always felt

like his life's purpose was to be a musician.

The main character in the film, Joe Gardner,

is a middle-school band teacher who dreams of being a professional jazz musician.

And on the day that he gets his big break,

basically gets his dream, after decades and decades of work, he dies.

But feeling cheated by the universe, Joe refuses to die.

He's willing to do anything to fight his way back to Earth,

to get a second chance to live the life that he feels like he's earned.

Soul is really, really personal, and a bit of a dream project for me.

The lead in this film is a Black man, who's about my age,

who's from New York, like me, who's also a jazz musician.

And I love jazz music.

I used to actually play in a jazz band when I was a kid.

My own son is named after Charles Mingus.

So, there were lots of elements of this world that I understood pretty thoroughly.

The film had already been in development for several years before I came on board.

So, there was a certain element of jumping onto a fast-moving train.

- All that, and then... - Yeah. Yeah.

Writing creatively is a second career for me.

I was a journalist for almost 17 years.

I got into creative writing as a playwright,

and I've written screenplays, I've written for television,

but writing for animation

combines elements of all the other kinds of writing that I've done.

And it's more intense of an experience than writing for any other medium.

Generally speaking, screenwriting is a really solitary pursuit.

But at Pixar, it's definitely more of a team sport.

The film is actually being written as it's in production.

There's no idea that you write on the page that you can determine

whether it works or doesn't work without seeing it up on screen.

That means that a huge number of people are involved every step of the way.

When he projected, these were impactful moments.

I've never collaborated with so many different people

across the whole spectrum of a project.

Not just the co-writer, not just the director,

but the story artists, the editors, the animators, character design, sets.

So, you have to really believe in the spirit of collaboration,

because there's hundreds of people, all working their hardest, in unison,

and we have to communicate with one another.

Writing on an animated film

means having to come up with worlds and characters that feel real.

When I started, the main character had already been developed to an extent.

But he didn't feel real yet.

We kept asking ourselves what was missing about Joe,

and how do we make him feel authentically more African American.

At the same time that you're telling a story for everyone,

you wanna make sure that the people from these specific worlds see it as authentic.

And I just wanted to recognize Joe as Black.

So, there's a scene when Joe gets this big opportunity to perform,

he gets a special suit. It's his gig suit. But as a Black man,

it didn't feel right to me that he would be getting ready for his big day

and not also get his hair cut.

Because, based on the design that we had for Joe at the time,

all I kept thinking was like, "This guy needs a haircut.

"'Cause it kind of looks a mess.

"He should be concerned about getting that hair fixed."

Even just lined up as, say... Like, my hair's not lined up right now.

So, to be perfectly honest, I shouldn't even be on camera at the moment.

So I was just looking at Joe's hair and it dawned on me, like,

"Oh, the answer's right in front of our face."

- Joe had to, A, get his hair fixed. - (BUZZING)

And B, enter a truly Black space, and there's really no more authentic

Black space in the community than a barber shop.

So, I just reached out to the director, Pete Docter, on my own.

I sent him an email,

explaining how important it would be for him to get a haircut.

And how important it would be to see a Black barber shop in this particular film.