Minions & Monsters is the upcoming animated film in the Despicable Me universe, and it features the voices of Jeff Bridges, Christoph Waltz, Jesse Eisenberg, Allison Janney and Zoey Deutch, to name a few. The actors were on the yellow carpet, and Nerd Reactor had the chance to chat with them about their inspirations for becoming actors.

Jesse Eisenberg (Batman v Superman, Zombieland) voices Dort, an alien robot who falls for an Earthling. For the actor’s inspiration, it was musicals that got him into acting.

“I did see Home Alone in the theater like 12 times,” Eisenberg tells Nerd Reactor. “I must have been six or seven. The truth is, though, I would never have assumed I could be in a movie. I wanted to be in musicals. So when I was younger, we lived in New Jersey, went into New York City, and when I saw people in the ensemble of musicals, I thought I could do that. But I didn’t have really the highest of aspirations. I wasn’t one of these kids thinking, ‘I’m gonna take over Hollywood.’ I was like, ‘I hope I get an understudy ensemble role in Les Misérables,’ you know.”

Allison Janney is known for her work in The West Wing, Mom, and I, Tonya. In Minions & Monsters, she voices the tour guide who teaches guests about the importance of Minions James and Henry and their contributions to Hollywood’s history.

“Carol Burnett was my first introduction to wanting to be in show business,” she said. “Yes, Jaws. I was like, ‘I want to be in that.’ I even wanted to be Chrissie, the girl who gets eaten by the shark at the beginning. I used to do it in the pool all the time and scare people. Yeah, that was low ambition at the time.”

Voicing the role of Debbie, a suffragette who falls for Dort, is Zoey Deutch (Zombieland).

“For me, the actress that really changed my brain chemistry was Katherine Hepburn,” Deutch said. “So all of her movies, I was like, ‘Whoa, what an amazing actress. How did she do that?’ So, Bringing Up Baby, Philadelphia Story, those films really changed me.”

About Minions & Monsters

Synopsis: This is the rambunctious, ridiculous and totally true story of how the Minions conquered Hollywood, became movie stars, lost everything, unleashed monsters onto the world and then banded together to try and save the planet from the mayhem they had just created.

Voice cast: Allison Janney, Christoph Waltz, Jeff Bridges, Jesse Eisenberg, Zoey Deutch, Bobby Moynihan, Phil LaMarr, with Trey Parker and Pierre Coffin

Written by: Brian Lynch and Pierre Coffin

Directed by: Pierre Coffin

Minions & Monsters releases in theaters on July 1, 2026.