Chloë Grace Moretz on playing Nimona and what she took away from the film

ND Stevenson’s graphic novel Nimona is a funny, hearty, bright tale of acceptance and found family, and directors Nick Bruno and Troy Quane adapted it into another remarkable animated film for Netflix.

Streaming now on Netflix, the film stars Chloë Grace Moretz as Nimona alongside Riz Ahmed as her brave knight, Ballister, who often finds himself getting saved by Nimona as often as he supports her.

For Moretz, voicing Nimona was an opportunity to find the strength, passion, and spontaneity of the very unique character.

“I just let it fly. I think one of the biggest keys,” Moretz said, to finding her spark, “was obviously Nick and Troy, the directors. They weren’t afraid to keep pushing and keep pushing and keep pushing, and there was never any choice that was too far. They were like, just go for it…”

“That’s something that you don’t usually get that opportunity, you know? And I think by finding that, it’s like a rubber band, you’ve got to stretch it to figure out how far it can go and and see where it snaps back.”

“And when it would snap back, all of a sudden you get to the truth and the vulnerability and the honesty, which is rare, but you’ve got to find that.”

“This is a story about acceptance–about self-love, and self-acceptance–as well as accepting others for who they are and allowing them to be who they want to be and supporting that. It’s a story for anyone that’s ever felt other than, ever felt ostracized or felt like society is pushing its norms on them and that they don’t fit in that pretty little box.”

“And I love that it can do all of that while also being exciting and fun and silly and action packed. You don’t usually get all of those things in in a film… [and] that was my favourite thing when I just saw it recently and I took my friends with me. “

“I [asked] each one of them, what did you think? What did you connect to? And each one of them had such a different specific answer as to why they connected to her, and that is super rare. I feel like everyone across the board feels very seen and that’s something that you don’t get often, that many different perspectives.”

So could we get a Nimona sequel? Everyone I spoke to was on board, and as Moretz said, “I would love to do a second one; in a heartbeat.”

Watch the full interview above for the full interview with Chloë Grace Moretz. Plus watch my interviews on YouTube with creator ND Stevenson, Riz Ahmed, Eugene Lee Yang, and directors Nick Bruno and Troy Quane.

Images courtesy of Netflix.