The Big Picture

Collider’s Perri Nemiroff sits down with the team behind 10 Lives at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival. Simone Ashley, Mo Gilligan and director Christopher Jenkins discuss their independently made animated feature. 10 Lives is about a pampered cat who takes warm, loving life for granted. When he loses his ninth life, it kicks off a transformative journey.

There’s nothing better than an impossibly sweet pet movie made by pet-lovers, and that’s exactly what the independently-produced animated feature, 10 Lives, is.

Mo Gilligan headlines the voice cast as Beckett, a cat who’s living the dream, but takes it for granted. He’s rescued by Rose (voiced by Simone Ashley), a student working to save the world’s bee population who’s always ready and eager to shower Beckett in love. Trouble is, thanks to his self-absorbed mentality, Beckett carelessly loses his ninth life and fears he’s lost Rose forever. However, then he’s presented with an unexpected opportunity, an opportunity that requires he go on a truly transformative journey.

With 10 Lives celebrating its world premiere at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival, Gilligan, Ashley and director Christopher Jenkins all visited the Collider interview studio brought to you by Film.io to offer some behind-the-scenes insight into the making of the movie. Check out the video at the top of this article or the interview transcript below to hear all about how Jenkins developed the story, lessons Ashley and Gilligan learned voicing animated characters for the very first time, how proud Ashley is of the duet she got to do with Zayn Malik, and loads more!

10 Lives A pampered cat takes for granted the lucky hand he has been dealt after he is rescued and loved by Rose, a kind-hearted and passionate student. When he loses his ninth life, fate steps in to set him on a transformative journey. Release Date January 20, 2024 Director Christopher Jenkins Runtime 78 minutes Writers Ken Cinnamon , Karen Wengrod , Christopher Jenkins

What Is ’10 Lives’ About?
Image via Sundance 

PERRI NEMIROFF: Chris, I’m gonna throw this first question to you because a lot of our viewers will first learn about 10 Lives via Sundance. Can you give them a brief synopsis of your movie?

CHRISTOPHER JENKINS: I give a brief synopsis by pointing to Beckett here.

MO GILLIGAN: [Meows]

JENKINS: When we meet him at the beginning of the movie, he’s a cat that thinks he’s got humans down and all figured out, and through the process of being very selfish, he loses nine lives. Then he meets Rose and understands, “Oh, there’s something better here. I don’t want to be a jerk like I was before.” But then her boyfriend comes back into the picture, and all bets are off because he doesn’t want to live in a ménage à trois — for the kids, that’s three people living in one house. [Laughs] So, he goes about trying to get rid of Larry, the ex-boyfriend, and in doing so, he loses his ninth life. He goes up to the gateway to the other lives that cats have and eventually, because of his sincere love for Rose, is offered nine more lives. That’s the best thing that could possibly have happened, but he comes back all as different animals. So the story from there is about how a cat is learning by being in someone else’s shoes, and learning to not be selfish and to appreciate life for what it gives you.

Cat, human, anything, I feel like everything on this planet would benefit from learning like that.

JENKINS: That’s my hope, yes.

Image via Photagonist at the Collider Media Studio

Two-part question about developing this idea. What was the very first part of the story that you came up with, the thing that started it all, but then I also want to know, did you have a break story moment, a thing that you came up with along the way that convinced you that you had a whole vision for this story?

JENKINS: Well, actually, yeah. There were many along the way. When you get to work with such incredible people, and we had a wonderful cast in general, and so what I like to do is to create room for the actors to inhabit the character and not necessarily follow the script. It’s in that process of discovery and improvisation that you really start to find out, “Well, what would they do? How does Rose really feel about this? How does Beckett really feel about this? How much of a jerk at the beginning is he? And how far can we bring him back to a place where the audience can cheer and cry?” So that was a complete revelation all the way through. It was a beautiful project to work on.

The beginning of it, for me, was really when I was told that I could set this in England. We went to Dorset, which is the English Riviera. All great animated movies like to take you somewhere else — Lion King takes you to Africa, obviously, Little Mermaid takes you to somewhere …

Under the sea! [Laughs]

JENKINS: [Laughs] Under the sea, thank you very much. It was a wonderful opportunity for me, because I live in Los Angeles, to dive into everything I love about England, and make it as much of a character as the characters are. So, nothing was disingenuous about the movie. Everything was sincere, and that’s what I think ultimately works.

I think you feel it watching it. I also love the idea that you’re able to give your actors the opportunity to play, because I feel like the general assumption with animation is that the animated work is so difficult to pull off that everything has to be very rigid and strict to what the animators create.

SIMONE ASHLEY: That wasn’t the experience on this. We got to play so much. Chris was so generous with this direction and with sharing his amazing imagination. It’s so infectious. So yeah, that was definitely the vibe for this one. Lots of playtime.

Mo Gilligan Explains How He Found the Voice of a Cat for ’10 Lives’
Image via Photagonist at the Collider Media Studio

Mo and Simone, this marks the first time you’re voicing an animated character in a feature film. Perhaps the playing around could answer this question, but what would you say is the biggest misconception you had about what it would take to voice an animated character when you first joined the project?

GILLIGAN: I think for me, it was definitely, I remember my first session, in my head, I think sometimes you can watch animated films and you feel like, “Oh, I need to give it a voice. It has to have an iconic voice. How do I sound like a cat?” I remember, before I had any session, reading the script and I was like, “I’m gonna make the cat sound like this.” Because you have a visual of how it looks, but you don’t realize, you’re like, “This cat has to be me before it can be someone else.” I think it’s so important what Chris was saying about improvisation because I come from a stand-up comedy background, so I’m so used to improvising and then Chris said, “No, be you. Be yourself.” And then that just lets your imagination flow of how you can make it sound, how you can make it move and walk and talk and stuff, as well.

Because that makes me curious, when you saw the first rendering of Beckett, what did you think he sounded like before you landed on it being truly you?

GILLIGAN: I think at first, in my head, I was like, “Meow, I’m a cat.” [Laughs] That’s just how I was used to playing a cat because most cats are always crafty, if it’s like Top Cat or Tom. Like Tom is always out to get Jerry, Top Cat is the coolest cat, whereas I was in a different position where I was trying to be loved at the beginning of the film and then I become loved, and then you kind of get pushed out, so I had to put Beckett’s ego aside and be like, “Okay, I’ve got to get back into the good books a little bit.” It was a fun challenge, really fun challenge.

Simone, I’ll go back to that original question for you now. What’s the biggest misconception you had about what it was going to take to act in an animated feature?

ASHLEY: It’s pretty much the same. I love voice acting, giving even my own dog a little voice, impersonating, like, Kermit the Frog or Stitch from Lilo and Stitch.

This is my favorite thing that pet owners do! I know all of my friends’ voices for their animals.

ASHLEY: Totally. We can’t help but personify them. I don’t know what it is. I’m sure there’s some weird scientific, psychological reason why we do it. But yeah, the exact same, trying to create almost a cartoon, out-of-body kind of voice, and then with Chris, it’s so genuine, this whole movie, every essence about it, and you feel vulnerable. You’re so stripped down, and it’s like, “Cool. It’s just my voice.” And then what you really focus on is the emotion and the connection between the friendship with Beckett and Rose and the world around them. So, yeah, I think that was definitely something that made this so special and changed my mind about what it is to voice act.

Simone Ashley on the Magic of “Mila Moosh”
Image via Sundance

I don’t want to leave the idea of us voicing our pets. I’m assuming everyone is a pet owner here. What is the greatest length you’ve ever gone to for your pet, something you do for your pet that is above and beyond, maybe over the top?

GILLIGAN: I remember once my dog was ill and she kept having bad diarrhea, and at the time I lived in an apartment and I remember staying up all night just watching the dog being like, “Do you need to go? Do you need to go?” And then taking her downstairs, because she was still a puppy at this stage, taking her downstairs, and it was probably, like, three in the morning, and being like, “Oh my god, I’m so tired right now, but I understand you’re very ill and you can’t talk to me. You can’t say, ‘I’ve got a bad stomach.’” So that was the lengths I went to.

Good pet parent right there.

ASHLEY: My dog’s called Mila, and she went through a phase when she was a puppy where she just wouldn’t eat. She was just so bored of her food. [Laughs] I made this thing called Mila Moosh, and I would sing a song to her whilst doing it just to get her psyched for dinner time. I’d be like, “Oh my god, a bit of this! A bit of that!” And then I’d pretend to put it in the oven, time it. “[Gasps.] It’s ready now!” I’d take it out with my oven gloves and make this whole thing for her. It’s the same dish, but I’d sing the Mila Moosh song and then it worked, and she was psyched for her meal.

I so get this! How about for you, Chris?

JENKINS: When my Ruby, who’s now six-years-old, was a puppy, I picked her up from the breeders and I brought her home, and I was so in love with this dog. I mean, I still am — don’t tell her I said that. I picked this little puppy up, Golden Retriever, big face with slightly closed eyes, and I kissed her full on the lips. No tongues, but I would have done. That’s how much I loved her, and it’s been like that ever since. I mean, in terms of just things you do with your pets and where you take them and walks and crazy antics. I have two golden retrievers now and together they were the comedians that got us through the lockdowns, really. And it was around that time I was being asked to work on 10 Lives, so they were definitely inspiration.

Related ’10 Lives’ Sneak Peek Sees Comedian Mo Gilligan as Simone Ashley’s Adorable Cat The movie also casts Sophie Okonedo, Zayn Malik, Dylan Llewellyn, and Jeremy Swift.

My folks have two dachshunds and they’re kissy dogs. I’m not gonna stop them! They can kiss me all they want. Also, above and beyond, I have my Dewey on my wrist for the rest of my life.

ASHLEY: So cute! With a hat and everything.

Simon Ashley Sang With Zayn Malik for the ’10 Lives’ Soundtrack
Image via Photagonist at the Collider Media Studio

Simone, when you’re doing a performance like this where you’re so hyper focused on your voice and your voice alone, did that give you the opportunity to add any tools to your acting tool kit that you now find yourself applying to your live-action work?

ASHLEY: Wow, what a great question. The beauty of animation is that it encourages you to really use your imagination — that rhymes — and tap into having faith, having hope that this is real, this could happen. Like, really believing it, believing that you’re there in the booth talking to the cat, talking to the horse, all of these different things. I think that’s something I apply to real life and apply to my live-action work as well.

JENKINS: It really is an extreme gift because what they’re not telling you is that there’s no other actor in the room. All of the emotion, all of the sincerity that’s coming out, it’s just some bloke over Zoom in California saying, “Well, let’s try this. Let’s try that. What if …?” Again, not everybody can do this. These guys are amazing at it, and that life, that fun in every syllable comes through in the movie. And, of course, the songs. We have to talk about the songs a little bit.

ASHELY: I just kept prodding Chris at the beginning of this, “I can sing. I’d love to sing in this. I’ve written some songs with my ukulele.” None of my songs, it was all Zayn [Malik]. Zayn’s music, Zayn’s soundtrack is just beautiful in this, but Chris was so generous and said, “Would you like to sing this song and do a duet with Zayn?” And yeah, it made my year. It was one of the best experiences ever.

Image via Photagonist at the Collider Media Studio

That was such a beautiful, sweet thing to add, but now I’m gonna make it awkward because I’m fascinated by efforts when you’re voice acting. Can you each pinpoint an effort that came naturally to you, but then I also want the opposite, an everyday sound that’s just really difficult to replicate believably in the sound booth?

GILLIGAN: I think one of my second sessions was pretending to climb through a drain pipe as a rat. In your head, you’re like, “This is easy. You just pretend to climb,” but then you’re like, “Hold on. No.” [Makes efforts sounds] Because it had to break and then I had to squeeze again. When you do it the first time you’re like, “That’s probably it,” and he’s like, “Do it again, but imagine this time you’re really stuck.” And then it’s like, “Okay, cool.” “And then an eagle’s gonna take you, and you have to imagine …” I’m very physical, so I’d be like, [hunches shoulders], imagining I’m being taken by an eagle. It pushes you as a range, because again, this is very new for me, but I think when you’re able to say the lines and you can be funny and articulate yourself, it’s quite easy, but when you have to do all the intricate stuff and be a horse and you have to imagine that you’re smashing up someone’s laboratory, it’s quite difficult to do and imagine. You get to see it, but you’re like, “Okay, cool. How would I sound if I fell?” I think that breathing, that was hard. [Laughs]

That’s a good example right there. What do you have for us, Simone?

ASHLEY: I think Mo had one of the hardest jobs really bringing a cat to life. So I think for Rose, she is a young, modern-day woman, a heroine in this movie, so I guess some of it was actually not making it so difficult and just believing it, and something as natural as not overthinking it, because I think it’s natural to overthink something like that when you’re in the booth, and you’re cut off from all the other senses, and it’s just your voice. I think I’d love to do something similar to Beckett one day. Like really do an animal or something a bit more larger-than-life, like a cartoon-y kind of animal one day.

JENKINS: I’ll get my notebook out.

Is there a different department for different animals, and if so, can you turn this into an anthology series?

JENKINS: There is a lot of room to expand, yeah.

Even humans!

Image via Sundance

I have to end with our Film.io-specific question, because the company is all about putting the creative power in the artist’s hands. For each of you, whether it was on this project or something else you’ve done, can you give me an example of a time when someone else gave you the creative power, maybe a time when you thought you deserved it, but you didn’t expect to get it?

GILLIGAN: For me, it would be on this film. Again, I didn’t have any perceived notion of how I’d approach this and Chris was just like, “Be yourself. Do you.” He wanted me to be me almost as much me as possible in this film, from having little anecdotes to the way that I speak, the way that I speak naturally and where I’m from and my background, and I was able to put that in the cat. I think that is what I enjoyed so much. It took me out of my comfort zone, but also, it was a challenge. There’s times when I’d say something and look at Chris and be like, “Yeah, he liked it. That’s cool.” That’s probably my one, yeah.

Good example right there.

ASHLEY: I guess definitely on this project. I think all artists, directors, actors, whatever you’re doing in the world of film or music, whatever it is, it’s understanding you have the right to have creative input. It’s you. It’s your work. So I guess that’s what I would say to any young aspiring artists listening or watching this, it’s your right, it’s your craft, so you have creative input.

Christopher Jenkins Remembers Animation Legend Joe Grant
Image via Photagonist at the Collider Media Studio

It should always be that simple. How about for you, Chris?

JENKINS: There was an old fella, he was in his 90s when I knew him back at Disney, Joe Grant. He wrote Dumbo, among many other things, and this guy, he was a gentle man. He was a gentleman. I got close to him in the last couple of years of his life, actually, but he showed me all of the references that he’d collected over the years and said, “You can do this,” and it took me from where I was as an animator into another part of making movies. I’ll always remember that. He was a great guy. Wonderful guy.

Special thanks to our 2024 partners at Sundance including presenting partner Film.io and supporting partners Pressed Juicery and DragonFly Coffee Roasters.