Today, we continue our series of insider looks at Disney-Pixar’s INSIDE OUT with some insights from Phyllis Smith who plays Sadness in the film! We’ll be exploring the film with a new article each day leading up to its theatrical release.

As part of the series, we’re sharing an inside look with several key people involved in the film including director Pete Docter and producer Jonas Rivera as well as the film’s other key voice actors: Amy Poehler, Bill Hader, Lewis Black, and Mindy Kaling.

INSIDE OUT opens minds in theatres June 19, 2015.

Phyllis Smith – “Sadness”

Phyllis Smith‘s performance in Bad Teacher was what led filmmakers to want to cast her in a role that was originally being developed as more of a grating “cry-baby” type character. Her natural un-sure persona helped craft the final direction for the character of Sadness. She praised Docter for mining those insecure emotions within her to get the hilariously depressing character.

Not so surprisingly, most of the voice actors don’t actually work together in the studio to record their lines. Bill Hader noted that almost every character on the film actually spoke their lines back and forth with director Pete Docter. Phyllis commented that she and Amy Poehler actually did have the opportunity to record a few lines together since the interactions between the characters were so crucial to moments of the film.

The islands of personality are a key element inside the film, they are the unique foundations from which a full personality is built. Smith said that her inner being would be comprised of Baseball Island and Kitchen Island.

THE END!

But wait, there’s more!

Check out our other insider looks at INSIDE OUT below.

• Pete Docter and Jonas Rivera
• Amy Poehler
• Lewis Black