Andy Samberg sent Selena Gomez a bunch of sick beats for her new album, and this is the music collab we deserve
In just a few short months, Dracula (Adam Sandler), Mavis (Selena Gomez), Johnny (Andy Samberg), and all your spooky faves will be back, but they’re going on a very different kind of adventure. Drumroll please…They’re heading on a luxury monster cruise in Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation.
The cruise comes as a surprise from Mavis for Dracula. He soon catches ~feels~ for the mysterious ship captain, Ericka (Kathryn Hahn), who poses a serious threat to monsterkind. YIKES. But it isn’t ALL doom and gloom because, hi, this is Drac’s Pack we’re talking about.
Gomez and Samberg sat down with reporters, including HelloGiggles, at a recent roundtable and footage presentation and previewed the spooks and scares and fun ahead in Hotel Transylvania 3. Plus, Gomez teased her upcoming album, which Samberg apparently submitted some super sick beats for? (Yes, really!) We need to hear those, like, yesterday. And in the meantime, here’s a bit about what to expect from Hotel Transylvania 3. Plus, Gomez and Samberg’s vacation stories, and more.
HelloGiggles (HG): What do you like most about how far your characters have come in this story? For me, I like that when this story started it was just young teenagers in love. And now you’re married and have a family and are going on this trip together.
Andy Samberg: I like that too. For me, it lined up almost identically with how that has gone down in my real life.
Selena Gomez: Aww, that’s so nice. That’s awesome.
AS: Thanks. But also I think it’s kind of a little bit on an anomaly in animated movies. Usually, there’s not huge leaps of life change and that kind of thing, and I enjoy that as a viewer.
SG: It was fun. I’m nowhere near any of that, but it was…
AS: You’re closer than you might think.
SG: No, I think it’s fun. I feel comfortable with everyone. It feels like we’re getting back with old friends and doing it. I haven’t seen them in six years, but I enjoy every time I’m with Andy.
AS: Both times we’ve enjoyed it.
HG: Does the process change? Is there a big difference between the recording sessions that you did for the first movie versus the ones you did for this one?
AS: Yes, it just moves a little more quickly I think is the main difference, similar to any show or movie sequel when you have shorthand with the creatives and the characters. You know what they are. You know that the voice is supposed to sound like. You fall into it a lot faster. There’s less experimenting because you know what you want to get more.
SG: You know what’s funny, though my voice changed. I was probably 17 or 18 when I did the first one.
AS: You finished puberty?
SG: Yeah, the just voice got lower and lower. But I watched the first one, and I can’t go that high anymore. So it actually helps, to my benefit, that they are growing up.
AS: My voice was always like this. Junior high especially, it was not squeaky.
HG: When you see the finished product, do you see any of yourselves or your personal mannerisms or facial expressions in these characters at all?
AS: A little bit. I think for the first one they would film us more while we were recording for that reason. It’s more, once you see how crazy they go with the expressions, you try to match that with your voice as opposed to the other way around.
SG: Yeah. I’m very similar, actually, to Mavis. Just the little sarcasticness.
HG: So what does one do when they go on vacation to the Bermuda Triangle?
AS: This is the move that finally answers that question! It’s going to kill off a lot of cable specials about what the Bermuda Triangle really is. People are going to know, factually.
HG: Do you guys have any family vacation horror stories that spill over into this movie, or are kind of similar to what you’ve done here?
SG: My family vacations were just like taking a drive to San Antonio. We didn’t really have much exposure outside of Texas. It was a lot of basketball games. My dad really wanted me to be a boy, so he would take me to the San Antonio Spurs. Yeah, that was great. There’s nothing funny about it, but that was my vacation growing up.
AS: Did he make his peace with it eventually?
SG: I don’t think so, no. He wants me to play golf with him still. I can’t. He dressed me in polos and khakis. I got like chains.
AS: I chose to wear chains.
SG: It paid off.
AS: Just barfing, a lot of barfing. Family trips, that’s mostly what I remember. Tons and tons of barf.
HG: Alcohol?
AS: No. No. No. Just like small child nausea. We had a Volvo station wagon, and we had the flip up seats in the way back that face backwards. I don’t think those should be allowed.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ku52zNnft8k?feature=oembed
HG: The monster Tinder [in the presentation] was really funny. Will Mavis be helping him at all in his journey to meet someone special?
SG: In real life, when my dad and my mom split up, I was very much [like] I didn’t want anyone with them. I was younger. This wasn’t recently, because I want them to be happy. But I feel like, I think that’s [Mavis]. She’s not really aware that he’s alone. He’s just her dad. So I think it took her a minute to adjust. Maybe she’s against it a little bit at first.
HG: For a lot of kids who see these movies, this is sort of like their gateway to meeting these monsters, like Dracula and Frankenstein. We didn’t have these when we were kids. Do you remember your first exposure to these creatures, these sort of iconic characters?
AS: Probably either the original or the second iterations of them. It was definitely black and white, public access television. I remember being a kid and seeing Frankenstein with, was it the Three Stooges? Abbott and Costello, exactly. Stuff like that. And then Young Frankenstein, for me was, obviously, major.
But I never got wildly into the horror version of it because by the time I was watching them as a kid, they seemed kind of old. It wasn’t scary anymore. I feel like these monsters are actually flipped correctly into this franchise because, to generations now that have Saw and stuff, they are actually kind of fun and silly. And you’ve seen them on Count Chocula and Frankenberries and stuff. It’s definitely watered down, and horror has changed.
SG: It’s true. I was first exposed for Halloween. I think that was when I knew. But my family started me young so like Chuckie and Jason and Freddie, I knew all of those first. So these characters were very comforting when I was younger.
HG: I’m curious about your relationship with watching the previous two movies, but also your work in general. Do you watch your own stuff? And is this easier here because it’s animated?
AS: It takes less time. There’s no hair and makeup, which I do an equal amount of because the world is fair. I definitely watch them. I watch almost everything I do just to learn and see how it turns out. And review with the people I work with and the choices they made and stuff like that.
SG: Same. I’ve been very focused on music the past two years, but I would do the same thing.
HG: Thank you for mentioning music, because your fans are dying to know if the rumor is true that you have a new song coming out during the Billboard Music Awards?
SG: I have no idea, actually to be honest. I’ve been working on this record for two and a half years and, to be honest, it’s been complete, in my mind. I’m still doing things with it and going in and trying new things, but I’m just waiting. I don’t know when the right moment is. And I really mean that. Not in a way that I’m trying to be mysterious or cool, it’s just, I don’t know.
It’s been a lot of kind of the same thing. So I’m just trying to make sure I feel inspired and that I really want to create these stories and tell a story. It’s hard in pop to actually have a voice and make sure your content means something. Because I don’t want to just be something that people are just bopping along to all the time.
AS: Did you get those beats I sent you?
SG: Yeah, actually, I did.
AS: You weren’t feeling any of them?
SG: Sorry, but I went with someone else.
HG: What is the best thing about playing an animated character?
AS: You get to go huge with your performance, and not be judged. There’s no take too crazy.
SG: For me, I have to be honest, I love staying connected to the littles. It’s something that I really, really miss. It kind of sounds weird to say, but I loved being part of a show that was centered for families and kids. It seemed fun and easy, and there’s nothing better than making a kid smile genuinely, especially in what we do.
