Nick Kroll on The Addams Family 2 and Playing Edgar Allan Poe on Dickinson

From directors Greg Tiernan and Conrad Vernon (Sausage Party), the animated sequel The Addams Family 2 follows the spooky family of Morticia (voiced by Charlize Theron), Gomez (voiced by Oscar Isaac), Wednesday (voiced by Chloë Grace Moretz), Pugsley (voiced by Javon “Wanna” Walton), Uncle Fester (voiced by Nick Kroll), and the rest of the creepy crew, on a family vacation to spend quality time and bring everyone closer together as the children are growing up. On their journey, an experiment conducted by Wednesday leads to an unusual physical transformation for Fester that has rather interesting consequences.

During this 1-on-1 interview with Collider, that you can both watch and read, Kroll talked about channeling his inner Uncle Fester, why he used to feel like the Fester in his own family, what he most enjoys about his character’s journey this time around, and why he loves The Addams Family. He also talked about his experience playing Edgar Allan Poe in Dickinson.

Collider: I appreciate you talking to me about this. I love The Addams Family, and I have so much fun with these movies. How do you channel your inner Uncle Fester? Is there anything that you do to immediately get back to his voice and his mindset?

NICK KROLL: Until I had my own child, I was the Uncle Fester to my own family. I have a ton of nieces and nephews, and I was the weird single uncle for a long time. So, I really just try to channel that. And I have a lot of eczema and I feel like Fester probably has a ton of eczema. I think about myself getting out of the shower, piping red, my skin on fire, and I feel like that really brings me into the vibe and mindset of an Uncle Fester.

What do you most enjoy about the journey that he gets to take in this film and how he gets to save the day a little bit?

KROLL: The Addams Family 2 is really a road trip movie, but inside of that, Wednesday has been doing a science experiment where she has decided to try to make Uncle Fester smarter by merging his DNA with an octopus because that will make him smarter. So, he’s under this constant physical transformation, which is a fun thing to play. Just beyond trying to say funny words or funny scenarios, this weird physical thing is happening to him. He’s also giving Pugsley a ton of dating advice, and I don’t believe he’s ever been on a second date, so I don’t know if anybody should take dating advice from Uncle Fester. I can relate to a lot of that. I just love when my character, and specifically someone like Uncle Fester, has active things happening to him and that he is acting upon. That’s all you’re asking for, as a performer. So, there’s a lot of that in here for me to play with.

Does that also change your physicality, when you’re voicing him? Even if we can’t see it, does it change how you stand and how you want to voice him?

KROLL: Yeah. Fester has a lot of action in this movie. Trying to voice action is a weird thing that you have to learn how to do. He gets bumped around and knocked around. That takes a little while to figure out. Especially the further you get into the animation, once they have either animatics or the final, as they’re getting towards the end of it, it helps to be able to visually see it. I can sometimes watch it and do some of the more active elements once I’ve seen it because I have a better understanding of what they’re going for.

I know you’ve previously said that you grew up watching The Addams Family TV series and that you’ve watched the movies that came out later. What was your first impression, seeing this creepy and kooky family? What did you make of them when you first saw them?

KROLL: When I was a kid watching reruns of the TV show, and then later The Addams Family Values live-action movies, what I don’t think you realize, and one of the reasons they’re so successful, is because they are a family, like any other. Yes, they’re weird and disgusting and creepy and kooky, but ultimately, they’re just a family who spends a lot of time together and has issues with each other. There’s something very ultimately relatable about them, as weird as they are. Also, the feeling that you feel like your family is always an outsider and yet also completely normal, which is a weird juxtaposition, but a lot of people hold both of those feelings at once. The Addams Family really speaks to those feelings. All of that makes it an incredibly relatable group of people, as weird as they are.

On a very different note, I very much enjoyed your performance as Edgar Allan Poe in Dickinson, what was it like to take on that role? How was the experience of embodying someone like that?

KROLL: It was a blast. I think that show is so well done. Hailee [Steinfeld] is a tremendous actor and the creative team behind it has really created something really special and unique. When they offered me Edgar Allan Poe, my friend Ayo Edebiri, who is a writer on Big Mouth and now voices Missy as well, had written the episode, so it was a no-brainer to go on and play. What was interesting was, at the last minute, they were like, “Edgar Allan Poe is actually Southern. Would you be able to do a Southern accent?” I was like, “Okay.” So, at the last minute, it became a bit of a Southern accent and I hope that I was able to pull that off, last minute. But I think the show, tonally, has such an interesting vibe to it. This mix of classic literature with a very modern take is a fun new development in the storytelling that I was happy and really excited to be a part of.

It was such a fun performance.

KROLL: Thank you.

The Addams Family 2 is in theaters and on-demand on October 1st.