"The Stakes Are Much Higher" – 'Sonic the Hedgehog 3's Krysten Ritter and Colleen O'Shaughnessey Tease a "Big, Epic Event"

It’s been wildly exciting to see the Sonic the Hedgehog cinematic universe grow organically from its humble debut in 2020. Beginning on shaky footing with a now infamous design, director Jeff Fowler has always made it a point to listen — and respond — to the fanbase. With a perfect redesign and a pre-pandemic release, Sonic the Hedgehog has since accelerated into one of the most successful video game-inspired film franchises of all time. Sonic the Hedgehog 2 introduced the world to the orange-yellow duel-tailed flying fox Tails, voiced by the unbelievably talented Colleen O’Shaughnessey (Danny Phantom). Now, Fowler has added Krysten Ritter (Jessica Jones) to the stacked and massively impressive Sonic the Hedgehog 3 roster.

In the latest chapter of Fowler’s Sonic The Hedgehog adventure, Sonic (Ben Schwartz), Tails (O’Shaughnessey), and Knuckles (Idris Elba) must stop their powerful and mysterious new enemy, Shadow the Hedgehog (Keanu Reeves) at the request of the powerful military organization called the Guardian Units of Nations or G.U.N. In order to save the world from certain doom, Sonic and the gang must team up with an unlikely foe, Dr. Robotnik (Jim Carrey) and his long-lost Grandfather (also Carrey). In the movie, Ritter plays Director Rockwell, a high-ranking officer in the G.U.N. organization.

Following the UK premiere, Collider’s Steve Weintraub had the distinct pleasure of interviewing Ritter and O’Shaughnessy about their roles in Sonic the Hedgehog 3. In this interview, they discuss the logistics of filming with computer-generated characters, the fun ways Fowler would allow them to improvise dialogue, and how excited everyone is to watch the movie on the big screen at Christmastime with the whole family.

Colleen O’Shaughnessy Is “Blown Away” by ‘Sonic 3’

“It just keeps getting better and better.”

COLLIDER: Congratulations. This is definitely the best one yet. [Krysten], it's probably your addition to the cast.

KRYSTEN RITTER: Go on…

COLLEEN O’SHAUGHNESSEY: Obviously.

But it also could be Keanu joining. It's a combo.

RITTER: It could be K.Rs.

Yeah, exactly. It premiered last night. When did you first see the movie, and what was your reaction to it? Because you read the script and you think it's one thing, and then it's only until you see it do you know what it actually is.

O’SHAUGHNESSEY: I saw it last week. I don't know what day it is we're on — I feel like I'm in some crazy time warp. I'm pretty sure it was last week. Oh, my gosh, I was blown away. I was so excited. I texted Jeff, I'm like, “It’s so good!” It just keeps getting better and better. Unbelievable.

I agree with that.

RITTER: I am seeing the movie on Monday at the premiere in Los Angeles. I can't wait. I'm very excited.

I think you're going to have a good time with it.

RITTER: Yes! I can’t wait.

O’SHAUGHNESSEY: You are. You’re gonna love it. It's so good.

RITTER: I'm always a little nervous to see myself. It's just like, bleehh. It's so intense to watch yourself on film. So, I always go back and forth on whether or not I'm going to see something, but I decided I'm gonna watch this in the movie theater and have the big experience with everybody.

Yeah, I can understand. I don't think I could watch myself in a movie.

RITTER: Even when you hear your voice back on a recording, you're just like, “Oh my god!” So, it's better to just do the work and then go do something else. Disappear.

‘Sonic the Hedgehog 3’ Brings the Emotion and Higher Stakes

"It makes it this big, epic event."

One of the things about the film that I wasn't expecting is it's actually surprisingly emotional. There's a lot to it. Can you both talk about that aspect of the film?

O’SHAUGHNESSEY: For Tails, coming into his own a little bit more, he's gaining all this confidence. There is a lot of emotion because before he was alone and lonely. Now the stakes are higher because he has these friends and this family now. At all costs, we must protect the family and keep the team together. There's that little friction. Yeah, there's a lot of emotion, but then there's also the laughter in between. There's all the funny in between, so it's just a feel-good.

RITTER: What makes these movies, and this movie in particular, so big and so special is because it's giant action, giant set pieces, so much heart, so much comedy. It makes it this big, epic event. It's exciting that we get to come out at Christmas, it’s a big holiday film, you can see with your whole family.

Individual question for each of you. You've worked on a number of things live-action. What surprised you about making Sonic 3 versus some of the other things you've worked on? And I'm curious for you, when you are recording the voice, oftentimes a lot changes from beginning to what finally ends up on screen. How did it change on this one as compared to the second one?

RITTER: Well, there's, of course, a lot of green screen. You know, Sonic isn't real.

What?!

O’SHAUGHNESSEY: Not true!

RITTER: We do a take with the puppet that is the size and shape and feel and there are amazing actors that come and read Sonic's voice. So, you work with the puppet, and then they take that away. Then you work with maybe an X on a C-stand or a tennis ball, and they take that away. Then you just work with, like, a dot of tape. So, just making it as real for yourself as possible in imaginary circumstances and filling in all the blanks.

O’SHAUGHNESSEY: It's so different for me because often I'll just get a piece of the script. This time I did get the whole script, which was fantastic to be able to read from beginning to end. But like you said, you don't know what's going to end up in the movie, with editing and all that. I had so many pick-up sessions that sometimes it was the same line that they just kept tweaking. They just kept changing it here and there. Then, some of it didn't even end up in there. So, the surprise for me is what ends up in there and what doesn't.

We talked a little bit earlier about improv and how open Jeff is to people improvising. I mean, if you have Jim Carrey in your movie or Ben Schwartz and you're not open to improv, then you might have a problem. But he's open to that. So there were a couple of things that I had thrown out there that got left in, which was fun. I just threw in a British “cheerio" as Tails, and he left it in, which is so cute.

Sonic the Hedgehog 3 is now playing in theaters.

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