Kaitlin Olson of Curb your Enthusiasm and It’s Always, Sunny in Philadelphia, voices the new character Destiny, a whale shark, in Finding Dory.  

We had a chance to sit down with her and chatted about her first role in a Pixar movie, playing Destiny, and being a working mom.

Talking about being a mom we asked Kaitlin if her children had attended the premiere the night before – they did and they loved it.  Her youngest child got a little scared at one point, but her older son absolutely loved it.  

When asked why it was important to her to take this role and what attracted her to it she couldn’t speak enough to her love of Pixar movies.

They really truly are my favorite, um, kids’ movies, Wall-E, Toy Story all of them, they’re just amazing movies, they’re sweet, they have good messages.  When I found out about the project before I even found out what kind of character it was going it be, instantly I was like yeah-yeah-yeah yeah-yeah-yeah anything yes. 

Kaitlin followed up that historically she’s been on shows that are for adults, which increased her excitement level to do a kids movie.  At the time she was pregnant with her 2nd child and she wanted to do something they could watch.

What is your favorite characteristic of Destiny?

I like that she can’t swim well and that she’s imperfect, you know, there’s just something so great about that.  And about all of these characters that, you know, there’s something imperfect about all of them, in that they still are making it happen and helping each other out.  That’s what I like about her most I think.

 What is your favorite scene of Finding Dory?

Kaitlin loves the scenes with Dory in as a child, as I am sure most of you watching the movie will have to agree.  Kaitlin continues talking of her love for Pixar movies, how you can get really emotional about their movies, as you will when you watch Dory as a child, she’s so cute, her voice is great and the interaction between her and her parents, it really moves you.

What lesson about friendship does Destiny’s and Dory’s relationship relate to kids and adults as well?

Working together for one thing and that family is really what you make of it.  If you don’t have one, you can create one with good people around you, which is really amazing.  Also, the just keep swimming thing is a really wonderful for everybody to keep in mind.  You know, nobody has a perfect life, nobody is perfect, and that’s okay.

Not being perfect is really striking home for Kaitlin as one of her sons who is a perfectionist. 

And he gets so so so upset, I mean even the Legos will fall apart and it’s the end of the world, and he feels personally like he is a terrible person. It’s like a theme of his whole life and I’ve been trying to tell him for a long time, like nobody is perfect I promise and he does not believe me, he really thinks he’s supposed to be.  So that’s, that’s a message in this movie that really resonates for me personally – it’s you don’t have to be perfect.  There’s no such thing. 

Speaking about her sons, do they realize that Destiny’s voice is actually you?

Yeah they do, my oldest one definitely does, I can’t tell if my youngest one pretends he does because the oldest one does, I don’t really know what’s going on.   But I think they do, they get it. 

Asked how much she practiced to speak whale?

Kaitlin said she didn’t do any and she believes we can all do it if we try.  Our group of all agreed that she did a great job as a whale and we asked if her sons enjoyed when she speaks whale to them.  However, Kaitlin said that she prefers not to speak whale if at all possible.  She did so much of it for the movie, she chuckled saying that she felt dumb doing it and she was happy her children hadn’t yet asked her to do the voice…..yet.

Being a group of mommy bloggers we asked Caitlin how she balances being a parent with a successful career. 

My kids are one hundred percent my priority so I don’t take things that will take me away from them too much. I recently agreed to do this pilot called The Mick, it just got picked up on Fox, so I’ll be shooting that next year and luckily we’re mid season, so it’s just going to be twelve episodes this coming first season. I said I wanted to produce it so I could make sure that it was not only the vision that I wanted but that I could also have a little bit of control over the schedule.
I always want to be there for bedtime, there are times when I miss it.  But it’s rare that I go a day without seeing them.  If I do, I’m there for the morning routine.  I just do the best I can, like everybody is.  You know, lot of working moms out there.  And I have the luxury of being able to have them come to me after school and play in my trailer and I can’t always hang out with them, because I’m working, but at least they’re close and they feel like I’m not too far away.

What an inspiration to working moms!  My daughter has changed my life completely, for the better of course, but it is challenging trying to balance working with having an active toddler running around who wants you to spend all of your time with them.  I get inspired hearing how other mom’s get it done and are successful at the balancing of the two.

As I’ve already said, and I’ll continue to say, GO WATCH Finding Dory this Friday!! You will not be disappointed, the entire family will love it, and I am confident Destiny will be a huge hit with all who see the movie.  Huge congrats to Kaitlin Olson on her first role in a Pixar movie, on speaking whale, and on showing all mom’s that being a successful working mom is totally possible!!

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FINDING DORY swims into theatres everywhere on June 17th!