THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER 80 NOVEMBER 13, 2019 N
EW
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N:^ DEBORAHCOLEMAN/PIX
AR. TO
Y:^ DISNEY/
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AGE:^ WILSON^ WEBB/NETFLIX.20(^19) AWARDS (^) PLAYBOOK
SEASON
I
n the world of film compos-
ing, few have had a career arc
quite like Randy Newman. The
wry singer-songwriter has
been nominated for 20 Academy
Awards, having won twice for com-
positions from 2001’s Monsters, Inc.
(“If I Didn’t Have You”) and 2010’s
Toy Story 3 (“We Belong Together”).
This year, he returned for Disney
and Pixar’s Toy Story 4 — which
features a Newman score plus
the original song “I Can’t Let You
Throw Yourself Away” — as well
as scored Netflix’s emotionally
intricate Marriage Story. New ma n,
75, chatted with THR on working
with Noah Baumbach, writing a
song about an introverted spork
and how he unexpectedly created
Disney’s musical identity despite
his affinity for darkness.
Marriage Story is your second col-
laboration with Baumbach. What is
your process like with him?
You have to be able to get along
with the director you work with.
And I like him. He’s a good guy.
And the music has gotten better
through each picture. I just tell
him to give me adjectives, like
“loud” and “soft” and “pretty” and
“not so pretty.” I’d send him stuff
on piano that I thought I would
expand later for the orchestra.
Sometimes he liked the piano ver-
sion, and we would just use that.
The movie opens with two highly
evocative themes: “What I Love
About Charlie” and “What I Love
About Nicole.”
There’s a hint of the past in them
— a storybook, once-upon-a-time
type of thing. But I don’t really
do scores the way some compos-
ers do, where there are definite
themes, and they bring them back
and develop them. I like it better
to just play what’s going on in the
scene. I think maybe that’s what
I’m good at.
What kind of orchestra did you
work with?
A smaller one than usual. With
To y S t o r y, I used a hundred
musicians. This one maybe 40,
which is a big difference. Fewer
strings, fewer everything. I hadn’t
used that size orchestra before.
It’s more difficult in some ways
because you can’t hide behind 40
violins. You hear everything. If
there’s too much oboe, you hear it.
This new song you wrote and
performed for Toy Story 4, “I Can’t
Let You Throw Yourself Away.”
Obviously we’re literally talking
about a spork that wants to stay
in the garbage. Are there parts of
your personal life you may have
pulled from to write this song?
I didn’t really so much. Woody
is trying to keep Forky from
throwing himself away. Just as
in “You’ve Got a Friend in Me,”
where I wanted to emphasize the
friendship. It’s not a romantic
creation. It’s not like I suffered
and agonized to come up with
this song. I mean, I always suffer
and agonize when I’m composing,
but there was nothing from my
life particularly.
So you don’t think about a time
when, say, a friend was deep into
drugs or something like that?
Well, you can’t tell people
not to marry people, but there’s
times I’ve attempted that. But sui-
cide is a horrible waste. I’ve talked
to people who seemed to be seri-
ously considering it. In this song,
there was some concern about not
evoking suicide because it’s for
children. But there’s nothing in
the lyric that disqualifies it from
being looked at that way.
The Toy Story franchise is
synonymous with you and you with
it. Early in your career, could
you ever have pictured being so
closely associated with a Disney
franchise of this magnitude?
No way. Even now, the songs
I write for myself for albums
and stuff are not Disney-like in
any sense of the word. I went to
Disneyland recently, and [my
music] was all over the place.
It really is an anomaly for me.
I loved it, actually. But it’s a
real surprise.
Some of your songs are so dark.
They’re funny in a dark way
— let’s put it that way. But not
Disney-approved.
So at your concerts, do you
find a lot of kids in the crowd
who came to hear the hits,
and then suddenly you’re playing
some dark song about depression
and death?
Yeah. I try to do the [Toy Story
song] “You’ve Got a Friend in
Me” and “I Like to See You Smile”
from Parenthood early. So the
kids can go to sleep if they want.
When I do an outdoor show with
more kids, maybe there are some
songs I won’t do because they’re
too rough.
Which ones?
“Same Girl.” That’s kind of a
rough song. “In Germany Before
the War,” which is about a child
killing. I once asked a friend, “Do
you think I could get laughs after
doing that song?” He said, “No. I
think child killing is pretty much
a laugh killer.”
Interview edited for length
and clarity.
Fr om Talk ing Toys
to a Couple in Crisis
‘I always agonize when I’m composing,’ says Randy Newman,
who crafted the score (and a new song) for Toy Story 4 and
reunited with Noah Baumbach for Marriage Story
By Seth Abramovitch
SONG & SCORE
1 Along with his two
Oscars, Randy
Newman has won three
Emmys and seven
Grammy Awards.
2 Toy Story 4 is
Newman’s ninth Disney/
Pixar movie.
3 Scarlett Johansson and
Adam Driver star in
2 Netflix’s Marriage Story.
1
3