‘Elio’ star Yonas Kibreab is not afraid to be himself

What would happen if the world’s weirdest kid was accidentally abducted by aliens and mistaken as the leader of Earth?

This is exactly what happens in Disney and Pixar’s latest film, Elio. Directed by Adrian Molina, Domee Shi, and Madeline Sharafian, the film follows 11-year-old Elio Solis, who becomes the intergalactic ambassador for Earth after he’s beamed up to the Communiverse by aliens for making contact (to be fair, he was asking to be abducted). Now, he has to befriend some eccentric alien lifeforms and navigate a crisis of intergalactic proportions.

Played by 14-year-old Yonas Kibreab, Elio is a space fanatic with an active imagination and huge alien obsession. He’s also grieving, living with his aunt Olga (Zoe Saldaña) after his parents recently died, and lonely, feeling like he doesn’t fit in anywhere. Kibreab, who is of Filipino and Eritrean heritage, says while he was acting, he could also relate to his character’s loneliness. “Especially during COVID, it can be hard to make friends. I couldn't really see my friends. We were on late night calls, playing games, sad we can't see each other,” he tells me as we sit down to talk about his latest role.

Mary Alice Drumm, a producer on the film who also joins the interview, says this theme of not belonging comes straight from the directors. As artists, they spent a lot of time feeling out of place, and it wasn’t until they went to animation camp (Molina) or animation school (Shi and Sharafian) that they found their people—which Drumm says is a common story at Pixar.

In addition to relating to Elio’s feelings of being alone, Kibreab also shares his character’s love for space. “I got more into it when I got the script for (Elio),” he says. “I did a lot more research on space to kind of help me with the character a little bit. And from there, I'm a lot more into sci-fi movies and space now since I've taken on this role.”

Kibreab adds that he can relate to Elio on other levels as well, describing his character as a high-energy, quirky kid who doesn’t care about what other people think. He says he’s like that a lot of times, and has a pretty outgoing personality. One way Kibreab doesn’t relate to Elio is that he thankfully hasn’t had to go through the kind of grief his animated counterpart experiences onscreen.

From Pixar fan, to Pixar star

For Kibreab, just getting to audition for Elio was exciting. He says at the time, the project was just called Adrian Molina Untitled Project. A quick search online told him that Molina was the director behind Coco, “one of (his) favorite Pixar movies of all time.” Since this was still in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic, Kibreab recorded his audition in his parents’ closet, using a bunch of clothes to dampen the sound.

Once he sent in his audition, Kibreab didn’t hear back from the filmmakers for a while, and assumed he didn’t get it. But about a month later, he received an email saying he got a callback. “I got to meet Adrian and Mary Alice on Zoom,” he says. “This was during COVID, so everything was on Zoom.”

After another long wait, while he and his dad were on their way to another audition, his dad got the call. Kibreab’s dad pulled into a little strip mall to take the call from Drumm as Kibreab listened in on the conversation. She offered him the role for Elio, though this was initially a scratch role, Kibreab clarifies (a scratch role is a temporary voice recording used to guide animators during the early stages of production). “And I was like, ‘Yes! Let’s go!’” he says. “When we hung up, me and my dad were screaming, punching the air out of excitement. And I looked up and I saw the name of this restaurant in that strip mall, and it was called Olga's Kitchen, and that's the name of my now aunt in Elio.”

Kibreab was 11 when he got the scratch role and by the time he was 12, he was officially Elio.

Representing this community, being able to be in a Pixar movie, and being able to be an example for kids that want to do anything artistic—like they want to be an artist, a painter, drawer, animator, a songwriter, singer—it’s so great, and I'm so humbled to be a part of that.

And while at 14, Kibreab has grown up in a world where seeing people of color in media is fairly common, I tell him this is a pretty recent development. There wasn’t much Asian representation when I was growing up, and even though we’ve had films like Turning Red and Coco—and now Elio—it still feels groundbreaking to have a young person of color as the star of a Pixar film. When I ask him what it’s like to represent Black and brown kids on such a big scale, he tells me, “I'm so humbled to have that title. I never thought of that. But representing this community, being able to be in a Pixar movie, and being able to be an example for kids that want to do anything artistic—like they want to be an artist, a painter, drawer, animator, a songwriter, singer—it’s so great, and I'm so humbled to be a part of that.”

New castmates and friends

The recording process for Elio had its ups and downs as things started during the pandemic. Kibreab initially did recordings for the scratch role over Zoom. The studio sent him a care package, which included a mic and a stand for him to record. He tells me with a laugh that the setup is still in his parents’ closet all these years later.

Eventually, it looked like they would be able to do in-person recordings. Unfortunately, that didn’t last long. “We started going to Disney, but then we would go to Disney and it would be shut down,” Drumm says, adding that they wouldn’t start recording at Pixar for a long time.

When he finally did get to record at Pixar, Kibreab was able to do so with some of his castmates, including Remy Edgerly and Jameela Jamil, who play Glordon and Ambassador Questa, respectively, two new alien friends Elio meets while in space. “Remy, he became a friend of mine after working on this. We talked to each other a lot off camera,” Kibreab says. “And also, Jameela, she's super nice. That was a long time ago. It was like three years, two years ago and I remember she came as Questa. She had an octopus costume.”

‘Don’t be afraid to be you’

Having always watched Pixar movies growing up—to which Drumm and I point out that he’s still growing up—Kibreab says it's such a surreal moment to be in one now.

When I ask him for his top three favorite Pixar, after the aforementioned Coco, he quickly counts them off: Number three is Turning Red, number two is The Incredibles, and number one is Up.

At the mention of Up, Drumm, and I immediately comment on the film’s notoriously emotional opening scene, and the conversation turns to how Pixar films are a lot of fun, but they also have a lot of heart and help teach kids (of all ages) important life lessons. “I think all Pixar films have a very certain message. And I don't think I've uncovered every single one, because they're kind of hidden in a way where you have to think,” Kibreab says. “But I think, from Elio, for example, (the lesson is) just be yourself and find your friends and the people that you want to hang out with, and don't be afraid to be you. It's what I learned from working on this.”