Chris Evans said it was “intimidating” to voice Buzz Lightyear after Tim Allen’s voice became so associated with the character. The Captain America actor voices the character in Pixar’s upcoming Lightyear, which tells the story of the fictional pilot who inspired the Buzz Lightyear toy in Toy Story. The film is the first Pixar movie to get a theatrical release since Onward.
“The first time you have to do that iconic line, ‘To Infinity and Beyond…,’ you kind of just do a shameless Tim Allen impression. It’s intimidating,” Evans told Variety during the film’s red carpet premiere. Thankfully for Evans, director Angus MacLane and everyone at Pixar were “so collaborative” and helped guide him to find his own voice for Buzz. “Eventually you feel comfortable enough to make your own tracks in the snow and find your own interpretation, while still using Tim Allen as the blueprint,” Evans continued.
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Evans was MacLane’s first choice to play the real Buzz who inspired the toy. “I didn’t have a number two. It was very clear from the get-go,” MacLane told Collider last year. “It was like, ‘If you were gonna make a legitimate sci-fi film about Buzz Lightyear, who would you get? Well, Chris Evans.’ You need someone that has that star power. If it had to be live-action, who would do it? He can do both.”
Evans understood the science fiction material immediately, MacLane said. Evans “felt the sense of responsibility to figure out the translation to the character, for this larger context of this sci-fi movie and really deliver on it. He’s just been a wonderful creative partner in the whole process,” the filmmaker explained.
Allen has voiced Buzz Lightyear (the toy, not the person) since Toy Story hit theaters in 1995. He voiced the character in all the subsequent Toy Story movies, as well as shorts and other projects. Disney and Pixar’s decision to cast a new actor to voice Buzz (the person) for Lightyear hasn’t soured Allen on working with the company though. He’s making a Disney+ series based on The Santa Clause franchise. (Other actors have voiced Buzz in the past. Patrick Warburton did a fantastic job in the series Buzz Lightyear of Star Command.)
Lightyear, which hits theaters on June 17, will also feature a same-sex kiss. Uzo Aduba’s character Hawthorne is in a relationship with another woman. At one point, the kiss was cut, but Variety reported that it was since reinserted.
“I was not aware of the in-or-out of it at all. I knew that it had happened. [The kiss] is still in the film … which, appropriately so,” Aduba told Variety. “It’s wonderful that a character such as she exists. This film is doing such a tremendous job of including all of the stories effortlessly and allowing for everyone to dream.”
