Tony Hale knows a thing or two about playing anxious oddballs. Whether it’s Arrested Development’s Buster Bluth clutching his mother’s hand or Veep’s eternally flustered Gary Walsh, he’s made a career out of finding the sweet spot between funny and fragile. But his latest project, Sketch, isn’t just another gig — it’s a movie that took nearly a decade to get on screen.
“We started this movie eight years ago,” Hale said, shaking his head a little at the memory. “It wasn’t until about six years into it that we finally found financing and had the vision for where it should be. Then we made the movie, went to Toronto, and we just so believed in this movie.”
Hale credits Angel Studios with pushing Sketch over the finish line. “Honestly, the backing that Angel wanted to give us and get us into theaters — because we felt like this was a movie people needed to see in theaters — that’s not always the case,” he said. “It’s this beautiful emotional grounding of a story mixed with this eye candy of a monster movie. I’m very, very grateful that they see where movies are meant to be.”
Part of what kept Hale committed through years of setbacks was the film’s deeply personal core. Written and directed by Seth Worley, Sketch tells the story of a father who discovers his daughter’s drawings have the power to manifest real monsters — an emotional metaphor wrapped in a creature feature.
“I’m a huge Seth Worley fan,” Hale said. “And the last thing we want to do as parents is see our kids go through challenges and feel feelings that aren’t necessarily fun. Seth’s story is about learning you have to walk through it to get through it. That idea, mixed with these images coming to life — where you can see the Sharpie, the chalk, the crayon in every monster — that kept us going.”
For Hale, Sketch lands at a moment when audiences might need its message more than ever. “We’re living in a world now where we’re getting so much information so fast that sometimes you just shut down,” he said. “For me, it’s about finding ways to process that in a healthy way. For Amber in the movie, she drew about it. Because what you don’t want to do is keep all these things inside until they fester. Giving people permission to process feelings in their own way — that’s huge.”
It’s a theme Hale noticed popping up elsewhere in his work. “I did Inside Out 2 last summer right before TIFF,” he said, “which talked about inviting emotions to the table. The world is coming up with creative ways to frame the idea of processing your emotions right now.”
And because this is Tony Hale, the conversation inevitably turns playful — to the question of which of his past characters would survive the plot of Sketch.
“I think Forky would do pretty well,” Hale said without hesitation. “He likes to ask questions, he loves communication — he’s like, ‘Let’s talk about it.’”
Buster Bluth, however, would be another story. “Buster might go into crippling anxiety,” Hale said with a laugh. “He just doesn’t have anybody on his side. Even his mother wasn’t on his side. He’d be his monster. He literally said, ‘I am a monster.’”
After eight years of waiting, Hale finally gets to introduce his newest monster story to the world — and he’s hoping audiences will walk away with more than just a few good scares. “It’s about facing what’s in front of you,” he said. “Even if it’s terrifying. Especially if it’s terrifying.”
