Inside Out 2's Amy Poehler on why she's 'obsessed' with Australia

Amy Poehler returned to Australia for the first time since 2015 this week to share a sneak peek at Inside Out 2 at the Sydney Opera House for Vivid Sydney 2024, where she also had an in-depth conversation with Zan Rowe about her career.

Speaking to Yahoo Lifestyle, the Parks and Recreation star shared that it felt great to return to Australia for Inside Out 2, nine years after her last visit for the first Inside Out film.

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Amy describes Australia as her "good luck charm", adding, "We came here for the first one and it's great to be back, it feels awesome."

Speaking about her last trip, the star says, "We kind of stayed in this area [The Rocks] to do a bunch of press, and I saw the Opera House from afar."

She jokingly adds, "And this time, this trip, I got to go inside – they let me in, and they did not kick me out! And it was cool, we got to do an event in there, and I believe it's behind me right now [points behind her to the Opera House], it's obsessed with me, it's been stalking me the entire time."

"So, it feels like we've made progress, we saw it the first time and now we got to go inside," Amy adds with a smile.

While Australia can't take much credit for Inside Out's success, the film achieved major critical acclaim for its screenplay, vocal performances, and, of course, the animation. Unsurprisingly, it also has a 98 per cent fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes. There's no doubt the sequel will do just as well if the 30-minute sneak peek audiences saw at the Sydney Opera House on Monday night is anything to go by!

'Very nostalgic'

Inside Out 2 introduces several new emotions as Riley experiences puberty and prepares for high school.

Nostalgia is one of those new emotions that pop up in Inside Out 2 (much to the delight of older viewers). When asked if Amy has any roles from her career that she feels particularly nostalgic about, she tells us, "Oh my gosh, so many things I think about. I mean, even just being back here [in Sydney], I'm very nostalgic for what it was like 10 years ago, what the world was like."

She adds, "Yeah, there's a great character – June Squibb plays Nostalgia, and she shows up with a cup of tea and she's always like, 'Remember when we were...' And anyone over a certain age really laughs, because Nostalgia starts to kind of take over the show.

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"I'm nostalgic for so many things, I'm nostalgic for yesterday, you know, I think there's something really sweet in kind of looking back and completing a circle, you know?"

We couldn't help but share that one of our favourite characters Amy has played is Mrs George in Mean Girls. The star says, "Mrs George, Mean Girls! I'm nostalgic for that little sweat suit! Yeah, I love it."

Inside Out 2 is out in cinemas on June 13, 2024.

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