Amy Poehler shares how 'Inside Out' movies "fundamentally changed" her life

Washington [US], December 9 : Actress and comedian Amy Poehler shared that starring in the 'Inside Out' movies has been a life-changing experience, reported People.
While attending the 12th Annual Bring Change to Mind Revels and Revelations gala, the actress, who voices the character Joy in both the 2015 original animated film and the 2024 sequel, talked about her character and how it has sparked meaningful discussions "as well as personal reflections about how we navigate our emotions."
"My experience in Inside Out and Inside Out 2 has truly, fundamentally changed my life," said Poehler, adding, "Playing a character like Joy, having big conversations about what our emotions do to us and how they live in us and how we're supposed to experience them."
"That and watching how different the past decade has been in terms of not only the resources we need, the conversations we need to have, but who we need to have them with. Tonight is filled with young people, and I think we have a lot to learn from them," she added, referring to the org's mission to end the stigma surrounding mental illness.
"I definitely was a mix of anxiety and joy for sure, wrapped up in a Boston accent," she recalled, "And I had lots of shoulder pads and funky earrings."
"I guess I felt a lot of what Riley felt, in that your head is full, very noisy," she continued. "You go from just being -- hopefully, if you have a childhood that provides you with safety -- you go from being not very self-conscious to suddenly really caring about what other people think really fast."
As she is parenting two teenagers. She and ex-husband Will Arnett share sons Archie, 16, and Abel, 14, and now she is parenting two teenagers, she is seeing the challenging, coming-of-age experience through their eyes.
"I think that's kind of why I related to playing Joy so much. In the film, Joy has to let go, and when you're raising a kid, they're their own person. You just can't protect them from pain and you're really not even supposed to," she shared. "You're supposed to let them kind of have all their feelings so that they can figure out who they are."
She also discussed how going into the voiceover booth to record Joy's lines occasionally affected her emotionally, "It's so deep," she explained at the time. "Because it's like talking to your inner child, talking to you as a parent, talking to you as yourself, talking to the future version of you."
"You have to really go there," she said, but added: "It's really satisfying to do it," she added, reported People.