Editor’s note: The below interview contains spoilers for Rick and Morty Season 8. Eight seasons in, it’d be easy for Rick and Morty to lean away from taking any big storytelling risks. Yet it immediately becomes clear in watching the show’s first batch of new episodes in anticipation of speaking to its cast and creators that Rick and Morty wants to keep telling bolder, more hilarious, and very unexpected stories. Season 8 alone kicks off with a major twist, as “Summer of All Fears” reveals that Rick (Ian Cardoni) has trapped Morty (Harry Belden) and Summer (Spencer Grammer) in a Matrix of his own making as punishment for them taking his phone charger without asking — but when he accidentally falls asleep, the two end up trapped in a completely different reality and are forced to live there for 17 years before being free. That’s only the start of a season that has gone on to include episodes revealing even more Rick and Morty clones, Jerry (Chris Parnell) becoming the new Easter Bunny, the return of Space Beth (Sarah Chalke), and much more. Ahead of Rick and Morty Season 8’s premiere, Collider had the opportunity to speak with many of the voices behind the long-running animated series, including Cardoni, Belden, and Grammer. Over the course of the interview, which you can read below, the trio break down some of the season’s wackiest moments so far, including “Boss Hog Rick” and the surprisingly successful older version of Summer, as well as how Summer’s relationships with both Morty and Rick have deepened over the last eight seasons. COLLIDER: Harry, are you ever thinking about the fact that Morty might be the most traumatized teenager in animated history? HARRY BELDEN: Yes! Yes, thank you for asking that. Yeah, I really do. And it’s usually not until I do like these interviews and I talk about him more, you know, in-depth, where I’m just kind of like… SPENCER GRAMMER: “Oh my God.” BELDEN: Yeah, I’ll be like, “Oh yeah, in this episode, when this horrible thing happens to him, oh, and then this one when he goes through this insanely traumatic event, and then… oh, oh, wow, this kid has been through it.” And if you look at it through that lens, and you watch him on a normal day, and he’s just doing normal kid stuff, you’re just like, “How is he so well-adjusted?” I guess that gets into “Morty’s Mind Blowers” and Rick erasing key memories, probably for the better. But yeah, I really do. This kid’s been through so much. And I think that that speaks to, or that lends itself to, what a multifaceted character he is. He has all these different sides to him that I really think, at least for a 14-year-old, can only arise from being through so many life-and-death, traumatic, insane situations as he has been.
Spencer Grammer Reveals the Secret To Voicing Older Summer in ‘Rick and Morty’

“I’ve aged into the age that she currently is in that episode.”

Image via Adult Swim

In this first episode with the Charger Matrix, Summer and Morty end up in this alternate reality for around 17 years. Spencer, I wanted to ask you about the experience of voicing older Summer, because this is a very different aspect of her character. Obviously, she’s thriving in this future, as I think we all suspected she would. How did you adjust your voice performance in terms of emphasizing that 17 years have passed for her? GRAMMER: I actually started the show about 14 years ago. So in a kind of crazy way, I’ve aged into the age that she currently is in that episode. I was able to basically use my real voice more. I try to pitch her up a little bit, and I kind of always have been like, “Oh my God, I’m like up here doing Summer things, Oh my God,” right? So it was an incredible experience to be able to play her as an adult. What was interesting is that even though they’ve been through all this trauma with their grandfather, they’ve grown into these very independent and capable human beings, which is an interesting point of view to think, “Oh, well, does it necessarily matter if you have amazing, wonderful parents? Maybe not. Maybe you do just become who you become ultimately, no matter what circumstance you’re in.” For her to have to grow up in a way, she’s always kind of fighting Rick in some way, either trying to outsmart him, or be as smart as him, or trying to fix a situation in which he’s placed everybody. And she is very capable of that, especially if she has had 17 years to catch up. So she does eventually get there, but she learns she has to sacrifice certain people like Morty in order to save them, which is a pretty fucked up thing to have to do and quite a reflection of how we all succeed in life. At some point, you have to let something go in order to achieve a certain level of success that we value. The episode does wrap up on a really emotional, poignant scene for these siblings, with Summer and Morty really having that moment in the tank in a way that only Rick & Morty can depict. I don’t know that, early on in the show, these two characters would have been able to have that kind of dynamic. Is that something the two of you are thinking about, how brother and sister have really become tighter over the years? GRAMMER: Yeah, I think that the characters in this season are a little bit more independent, or maybe more healed in some ways, but I also think we’re able to do more in-depth character development that lends itself to being more dramatic than it does to being comedic — which we relied heavily on in the first few seasons, just to be funny all the time. There’s more interplay in the types of stories you’re telling, because you have so many episodes you’ve been able to do, and we know we have more to come — that there’s more ability for the writers to really get in the trenches with these characters, and for the audience too as well. Because you have all this canon before and so much more to come, we can have moments of drama that are about growth and change that I don’t think you would have been able to have in the first two seasons.

Related

‘Rick and Morty’ Season 8 Review: Our Favorite Grandpa and Grandson Are Back for More Witty, Absurd Interdimensional Adventures

Season 8 premieres May 25 on Adult Swim.

Voicing “Boss Hog Rick” Took a Few More Takes From ‘Rick and Morty’s Ian Cardoni

“We had a couple versions that we were playing with for a while, and it was a happy challenge to try to get it settled..”

Image via Adult Swim

And there are expanded versions of these characters. We see the continuation of the Citadel plot this season, and find out what happened to all these Ricks and Mortys. Ian, was it an adjustment to have to lean into a deep Southern accent on top of Rick for Boss Hog? Just the way that you say the word “gentlemen” is going to live in my head rent-free for the next several weeks. IAN CARDONI: Thank you! Yeah, “gentlemien.” You know, we normally give 20 takes per line for a normal session. That one line was probably 50, just getting it right, and getting the cadence right. There are, of course, always twists and turns with the Citadel episodes, and lots of little Easter eggs and surprises, so to get to that kind of new version of Rick, we had a couple versions that we were playing with for a while, and it was a happy challenge to try to get it settled in the place where you will hear it. But it’s always working from Rick first, and then putting the voice on. And then in the episode, is that a genuine accent for this Rick also? We’re not really sure. So there’s a little bit of a, I don’t know, meta, inception, voice within a voice, or Rick doing different versions of himself, whether that’s who he is or putting on. We explore all those different sides, different voices, which is very cool. But what a great opportunity, to have a new and more original version of Rick that was not matched to anything that existed prior. It was something that we were able to really collaborate with and come up with just in the process, and that was really rewarding as an actor. Season 8 was about making these roles more our own, bringing more of what we have to offer into these roles, and so I think that’s a great example, and just a lot of fun. I’m very excited for the fans to see Boss Hog. Harry, it’s so funny to just watch any scene where there are at least 20 background Mortys, and they’re all making that terrified groaning, moaning sound. Is that the kind of thing where you’re having to make 30 different variations of that panicked Morty sound? What’s the experience of having to voice all the different Mortys that have to be together in one scene? BELDEN: Yeah, that’s exactly it. It’s us getting through a bunch of lines, going, “Okay, alright, let’s wrap things up. Can we just get a bunch of you being these different Mortys?” In that episode, you may hear some different Morty accents in the background. It’s exactly that, and it’s so much fun, because I get to just tap into the chaotic, crazy anxious energy that Morty often displays, but is at full tilt in the Citadel episode. One of the relationships that has been really lovely to see come into its own is Rick and Summer. Eight seasons, there’s more room to show that Rick knows how to get through to his granddaughter — like giving her an extra stomach to be able to go and drink on spring break as much as she wants. Spencer, do you feel like these two now have this easy shorthand with each other because she’s been brought into these adventures more often? GRAMMER: I think that they both share a love of partying and self-destruction, clearly, and Rick, in some weird way, offers support, I suppose, for her to experience whatever she needs. I could have really used a second stomach, probably, when I was on spring break, so it is nice that he allows that. I think it’s really, really funny that they do get to partake in things and enjoy them together, and we’ve seen that for a few seasons now — like going to Boob World, or the apocalypse episode where we go to different cities and get laid because their planets are all dying and perishing. It’s such a joy. I wish I had a grandfather like that! That would have been cool. New episodes of Rick and Morty Season 8 premiere Sundays on Adult Swim.