The Patch Interview: Brad Lewis

Brad Lewis sips his coffee inside the Vanilla Moon Bakery on a recent weekday. The 53-year-old award-winning director/producer of animated films Ratatouille and Cars 2 sat down with San Carlos Patch to discuss his time back with the city council, his years spent in animation, his affinity for sports and where he’s headed next.

San Carlos Patch: I was going to save this question for later, but, is there a better job for a father of young kids to have than being the director of animated films?

Brad Lewis: (laughs) No. There’s not.

SCP: How many kids do you have? How old are they?

BL: I have a 22-year-old son, Jackson, who just graduated from Occidental College this June. He’s looking into med school next.

SCP: Congratulations.

BL: Yeah, thank you. And I have a daughter. She’s 8 ½. Ella. She goes to The Carey School in San Mateo.

SCP: So she’s probably a little more taken with the animated stuff than your older son.

BL: Totally. She’s very bright. And she’ll actually analyze the quality more. If she hears somebody talking about the movie - friends at school – she’ll mention something from behind-the-scenes she knows. She uses that to her advantage.

SCP: And you do voices, too?

BL: Yeah, at Pixar and DreamWorks, part of the process is called scratch recording; we storyboard the videos and put voices to them. Makes it easier to cut to something, and then to something else. So I do a lot of the voices.

SCP: Who can you do?

BL: Gene Hackman, Woody Allen, Larry The Cable Guy…

SCP: Are you comfortable doing the rest of this interview as Woody Allen?

BL: Sure (laughs).

SCP: Would you like to see your kids get involved in animation, filmmaking?

BL: If they wanted to get involved, I would love it. Once upon a time, Jackson thought he might. Then he went in a different direction. I’m more proud of the fact that he wants to be independent, and doesn’t want to get involved just because he’d have an easier in.

Ella is already dancing and singing, so if you asked me right now, I’d say she’s probably the one more likely to be involved in the entertainment business.

SCP: So, why San Carlos? What brought you here?

BL: I went away to New York for 10 years and when I decided to come back it was either Berkeley - because I love the diversity of New York and Berkeley has a lot of that – or San Carlos because this is where my best friend [Matt Buckman] lived. 

SCP: Did you always know you’d return to the Bay Area?

BL:  I wanted to raise my son in an area I was familiar with - there are so many unknowns when you’re a parent, so I thought if I could cut down on some of those unknowns, I would.

SCP: Let’s switch gears a bit. Tell me how it’s been being back on the city council?

BL: I love it. It’s better than when I was elected. Or maybe, like so many things, my perception of it is different. There has been so much positive feedback. Maybe this is the truth for any first time politician, but it takes a while to find your ballast. If you care about it – the job, what you do - there are heartbreaking decisions sometimes.

SCP: What heartbreaking decisions?

BL: As mayor, conceptually, the most heart rendering decisions are the ones that are something that will be a benefit to the community but be a detriment to an individual.

SCP: In filmmaking, it would seem there is a major collaborative component. And I would think serving on the council is the same. Do you find similarities in the two jobs? 

BL: It’s a difficult adjustment. The nature of producing and directing animation is so collaborative. It’s the truest form of teamwork. I have a theater background and the same is true there. You work so closely with the crew and cast. I also have a sports background and its true there, too. Teamwork is part of the fabric of who I am. It’s the ultimate form of community service. On city council, it’s a little different because there’s the constant balance of: am I an individual? am I part of a team? And how to balance those two things. I should say, at times there’s a team-oriented way of getting things done. I try to keep it collaborative, even if someone has a strange opposing point of view. It can derive down to an individual, but that’s when it’s not working well. It’s the least satisfying, acting like an individual. The only way to work around it is to put your politics aside and have a true open discussion. Entertain ideas your constituents may think is crazy. I have to be open to discussion.

SCP: What’s the biggest challenge the council faces as you leave?

BL: The biggest challenge was, for me, being somewhat idealistic; you get involved with local politics to create change and growth. When you have a large budget deficit, you realize you won’t be able to do a lot of change and growth. I like to think big – and this is indicative of producing – you come up with a big idea and work on it for a few years and see it through. As soon as I came on on council, I had that idealism, and it was kind of like, ‘good luck buddy.’

SCP: Having covered the council for more than a year now, I’ve actually seen them make some bold moves. I think they’ve been a little idealistic.

BL: I actually think the last 4-6 years we’ve gotten some really talented candidates involved in city council. It’s a testament to what the guys did over the last two years – I think it did take some idealistic, bold, brave people to pull that off. Right now, oddly enough, there’s probably more opportunity to see some tangible change. Sometimes you miss your moment. Maybe right now, as I’m getting ready to leave, would’ve been a better time for me to come onboard. 

SCP: We will definitely have at least one new councilman, maybe two, after next week’s election. What advice would you have for them?

BL: Number one: understand that your words have a direct effect on the morale of about 200 people. So, it’s not a place to be flippant.  You have to be careful with public criticism. There’s a certain decorum amongst council members and a respect of understanding the organization.

The other advice is: when council works well together, the city can feel a sense of growth and optimism. When council is sort of irrespective of one another, the community doesn’t like it. They’re not comfortable with their leadership. You have to put the issues and the city first, before your individualism.

SCP: Have you ever thought about writing an animated feature about the city council?

BL: (laughs) I’ve written different ideas. Live action ideas where we wander into some sort of conspiracy. Your life definitely comes out in your art.

SCP: Can you talk a little about your early life? What was Brad Lewis like as a kid? When did you realize you had a knack for the arts?

BL: On the arts front, when I was like 3 years old, I remember my brother Rob dragging me around a pizza parlor in Sacramento. Shakies Pizza. I loved goofing around. He’d literally take me from table to table and say, “Entertain em

SCP: Whom were your artistic heroes growing up?

 BL: Sinatra, Sammy Davis, John F. Kennedy. Martin Luther King. And my dad. And I guess you’d have to throw a sports figure in there, too. Willie Mays.

SCP: What’s the common thread between them?

BL: The common thread. To me, what all those people have in common, I guess, is, they were individuals who would either say or perform something, who would take a collective community and, through their prism, would inspire. I guess all of them contain aspects of truth. Truth in politics, truth in sermon, truth in sports.

SCP: If you had a magic wand, would you have been a sports star? An athlete?

BL: If you give me the magic wand, I’m going to say I would have been a Nobel Prize winner and would’ve cured cancer.

SCP: What’s one piece of art you wish you had created? What art are you most jealous of?

BL: Oh, so much to be jealous of. The incredible thing about art is, what it means to you at that time: when you first saw it as a child, re-experienced it in your adolescence and, every decade you re-experience it, it means something new to you. Death of a Salesman was like that for me. When you watch it as a young man it means one thing to you. When you watch it as a father it means something else to you. You re-experience them throughout your life and they mean different things to you. 

I guess I’d have to add some musical theater in there, too. The song in ‘A Chorus Line’ – “Who am I anyway, am I my resume?”

SCP: You mentioned Death of a Salesman, and the song from A Chorus Line. They deal with issues of struggling with professional accomplishment. The question of “Who am I?” Is that something you’ve struggled with?

BL: I hope it’s what everyone struggles with. I’ve done mountaineering and you learn what your limits are, intellectually, emotionally and socially. They’re all fascinating. The greatest chance we have is the opportunity to find out what our limitations are. Maybe I would’ve been as good a singer as Sammy Davis but never tried.

SCP: So maybe those pieces of art: the Willy Lohman character, acted as warnings. Maybe the worst thing is not even trying, and so it pushed you to always try regardless of the result. 

BL: I think mountain climbing is the best metaphor for it. Each time you climb you reach a new mountain height. For me at 23,000 feet in South America, I was still OK. And I started thinking, “Maybe I could pull off Everest.”

SCP: Do you want to talk about the Oscar experience?

BL: It’s disappointing. This is my own issue ultimately with self-congratulatory art. Doing animated film is the ultimate team sport. And not one idea gets done without the support of other people nurturing it. No one person waters all those seeds. The problem I have with most award shows is, suddenly it’s all about credit. In a great artistic experience, that’s the farthest thing from the moment. It has to be. That’s what you want to be instilled in your team. But then, the award shows happen, and they are the ultimate form of ‘I’. It doesn’t feel right. With that being said, I was so happy that Brad Bird got his moment for what is one of the greatest scripts in film. Is he so deserving? Absolutely.

SCP: So what’s next for you?

BL: Digital Domain. I’ll be working out of San Francisco, developing my story, and working on my story out here for two to three years. Digital Domain is building a feature animation division in Port. S. Lucie, so I’ll head there for the production period after a few years.

SCP: Will your family move out there too? 

BL: They’ll probably come out for a school year.

SCP: You care to divulge what the new story is?

BL: I can’t talk about it. (Laughs)

SCP: When is your last official night?

BL: Official last night is Dec, 12, and then the next night dinner at The French Laundry 

SCP: Oh yeah? You have a little history with Thomas Keller.

BL: I do. I interned at his kitchen during Ratatouille and got to know him pretty well.

SCP: We’re winding down here. I have a question scribbled down on my pad that says, “Where do you keep your Emmy’s?” Do you want to answer that?

BL: One at my mom’s house and one at my house. I had the Oscar in my house for a while, but now it’s in a case in the lobby of Pixar.

SCP: Let’s get back to politics before we finish up. We have an upcoming election. Do you have opinions on the three guys running for council?

BL: I think Ron [Collins] and Randy [Royce] have the best foundation for what the job is all about. I think they’re the best versed on what it means to be a city council person. They’re going to generate the most genuine discussion and not create a fear-based discussion.

SCP: I’ve heard some people talk about Mark Olbert’s ability to be a bit polarizing. Does that scare you at all?

BL: Yes.

SCP: Can we discuss Omar Ahmad briefly? Your latest run on council came after his passing.

BL: Omar was just fantastic. One thing I wrote on the board in my office the other day was, “Participate, be authentic.” The thing about Omar was, he was so authentic and such a deep participant. One of the greatest misgivings about the Brown Act is that you can’t become better friends with your councilmen. There are certain times I wish he and I could’ve been closer.

SCP: Where were you when you heard the news of his death?

BL: I was at my house, at work. It was just unbelievable, somebody who was that big of a personality. We were always a cigar away from hanging out together. What a great role model for everybody. You couldn’t help but love Omar’s enthusiasm; the way he would appreciate issues. His enthusiasm for life, when you get older, you appreciate it.

SCP: Any final thoughts?

BL:  It’s a great town and it’s been a great experience. Hopefully I’ll be involved again down the road. As difficult and tedious as the job can be at times, it can be a stage that can be used to inspire youth and optimism. Politics is in such a bad place, globally. I worry a little bit that it’s going to lose the respect that it actually deserves and can achieve.