In honor of World Emoji Day we were lucky to sit down with T.J. Miller and talk about his personal life (including his pets, of course) and his upcoming movie. If you’ve ever watched Silicon Valley or Deadpool, then you know T.J. Miller. He’s a hilarious, wise-cracking comedian that also happens to lend his voiceover talents to the upcoming film The Emoji Movie.
Our conversation started with a rundown on T.J.’s current pet parent situation. While dogs are pretty difficult to take care of with such a busy schedule, he has been able to find the time to take care of his two cats, Geyser and Puffin. His wife Kate (an artist and performer known as RosePetalPistol) is the real cat lover of the two, but T.J. seems to have quite a good time with his feline friends.
“One of our cats…he’ll go fetch. He’s like a dog,” said T.J. “He’ll go fetch a ball and bring it back. He likes to fight and he’ll claw and play around with me…until he draws blood, that’s when I stop.”
When he’s not playing with his cats, he stays busy with his various movie and television projects. In his latest film, The Emoji Movie, he’s the voice of main character Gene, who is supposed to be the “meh” emoji. But, as we see in the movie, Gene isn’t content with just expressing one emotion.
“What I like [about the movie] is it’s sort of saying that being over everything and having that über cynical hipster attitude isn’t cool. Having that be your one thing, that you’re kind of over everything, is not that cool,” he told us.
T.J. is super excited about the movie not only for the story line, but also for the amazing animation and special effects that came together to make it happen.
“They really did an interesting job with the lighting, the cinematic movement of the camera, and the way they transition between the world of the apps,” he said.
Although he plays the “meh” emoji in the movie, we asked if he could choose any emoji, which one would he be?
“Lately, I’ve been saying heart eyes because I’ve been so googly eyed over Kate [his wife]. I don’t know how that woman had such low standards to marry a guy like me,” he joked. Excuse us while we swoon for a moment.
With all his free time clearly dedicated to being a hopeless romantic, what else does he possibly have time for? Unfortunately his free time doesn’t include following any Instagram famous pets. But if Geyser and Puffin ever make it big, he knows who to call.
Here are some of our favorite insta-famous pets rocking emoji faces which we think might make him reconsider:
Here is Brussel Sprout sporting the frowning face emoji.
Mervin the Chihuahua is clearly the doppelgänger of the stuck-out tongue emoji.
Could Remix the Dog look any more like the cool guy emoji?
I wonder what’s got Shrampton looking like the surprised eyed-moji?!
T.J. told us all about the wonderful, heartfelt journey that unfolds in The Emoji Movie, but we don’t want to give away any spoilers. For now, check out the trailer and catch it in theaters starting July 28th.
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