SALT LAKE CITY, UT (See It or Skip It) – Family films can be hard to pull off, especially when they’re trying to balance mystery, comedy, and emotional depth all at once. But “The Sheep Detectives” manages to do exactly that. With a surprisingly heartfelt story underneath all the laughs and twists, the film brings together an all-star cast including Molly Gordon, Nicholas Braun, and Chris O’Dowd, for a murder mystery that keeps audiences guessing while still delivering plenty of heart.
I can’t wait to talk to you about this movie. It is so adorable, smart, and a perfect family film in my opinion. I loved it. Your character, Rebecca, is kind of the biggest mystery among everybody. You mentioned thinking about how every look or movement could be interpreted one way or another. Did that ever mess with your instincts as an actor, or did it actually free you up more?
Molly Gordon:
“It was a challenge, not just to get to play someone who’s being honest in every moment, but also to kind of hide what I’m really feeling. But I was really excited by it because I love murder mysteries, and it was really fun.But definitely, no, it was not my initial instinct. So it created different boundaries that I had to work within. I just never wanted anyone to really know what I was feeling. But it’s hard because I am feeling so much. My father has died, and I’m in a place that he loved, and I’m being accused of all these things. But I can’t show all of that stuff. So a lot was underneath, and that was interesting to play.”
While Molly Gordon’s character keeps audiences guessing, Nicholas Braun brings a very different energy to the story with Tim, a local officer trying to hold everything together while clearly being in over his head.
Your character, Tim, is basically in over his head from the start. What was it about him that made you latch on and try to make him someone we would root for instead of just the butt of the joke?
Nicholas Braun:
“Totally. There were some correlations between Greg and Tim. I felt like the arc Tim takes on in this film, he really finds himself. He becomes confident. He believes in himself. So I thought that would be really fun to chart and figure out where it happens, and where people maybe start respecting him.He sort of starts posturing as the cop of the town who’s going to do a great job, but he has no leads and knows nothing. He’s actually afraid of solving this case. But I thought the arc was really worth figuring out.
The movie is just kind of this magical thing. I’d never read a script like it. I didn’t know what to expect, but I found it so endearing and funny, then heartbreaking, with all these beautiful themes Craig Mazin was working with. I got really excited about even being a part of it and trying to make the Officer Tim element work in this film because I wanted to help make it something special.”
One of the movie’s most unique characters may be Mopple, voiced by Chris O’Dowd, a sheep who remembers everything in a world where forgetting seems much easier.
I love your character, and this movie is great. It’s such a wonderful family film, and a murder mystery that genuinely kept me guessing. Mopple is a character who can’t forget, which almost feels like a curse in the world of these sheep. Did you view him as more emotionally mature because of being burdened with that knowledge?
Chris O’Dowd:
“That’s a good question. I wonder if it makes him mature, or rather just full of information. I don’t know if he has consumed it in a way that’s useful for everyone.He has a sense memory, which means he can remember things through taste, and he likes to eat a lot. It means he can remember the tragedies. He can remember sheep who are no longer with us. But it also means he can remember the incredible times they’ve had as well.
In the course of the story, Mopple is the one character who has to instill this memory into everybody else so they can solve the mystery.
And like you, I loved that it’s difficult to know who did it. I genuinely didn’t know until the end of the story, and that really makes it work.”
Beyond the mystery itself, the cast also talked about why the emotional core of the movie resonated with them so deeply.
Between being a writer, director, and actor yourself, did this role change anything about how you want to tell stories moving forward?
Molly Gordon:
“I mean, I think when you read a script by Craig Mazin, you’re like, ‘I should never write ever again,’ because he’s such a genius.I literally couldn’t believe that something about sheep was making me understand what death was like, and heartbreak. I was so moved by it.
But I was also really humbled by working on something like this. And I don’t want to make movies that are just for a small audience. Getting to be a part of something that I hope reaches children, adults, grandparents, everybody in between, was really exciting to me.
I think a lot of people take themselves very seriously and don’t want to be in children’s films. But a lot of the movies I loved growing up were filled with actors I loved who just wanted to be part of a community and make something heart-forward.”
There’s kind of a fine line between murder mystery and comedy because you don’t want to undercut the mystery itself. Were there moments where you felt like you needed to pull back?
Nicholas Braun:
“Yeah, I think the writing was very helpful because Craig is extremely good at delivering story and plot. Where’s the murder? Where’s the mystery? Then fitting in the character relationships and what everyone’s going through.And us tracking that emotional part is just as important, if not more important. Keeping alive those themes of how you fit in, what it’s like to lose someone you love most in the world, and how you use the people around you to get through something difficult.
There was so much he fit in there that we didn’t have to push the drama or push the comedy. It was all kind of there for us already. The tone of the film was really clear, so we just tried to live up to the writing.”
I’m sure you’re a fan of the murder mystery genre yourself. When you watch one, are you trying to figure out who did it, or do you prefer to just be surprised?
Chris O’Dowd:
“I think inevitably you’re always thinking, ‘Oh, who is it? It must be them.’When you watch a lot of them, you feel like there can be a formula to them. But it’s harder to formulate a shape, so you feel like you’re in fairly safe hands if you want to be surprised.”
This is a story about loss disguised as a comedy. Do you think audiences will be more open to those themes because of the way the movie approaches them?
Molly Gordon:
“I hope so. I think because it’s through more of a fantasy lens, hopefully it’ll be more digestible.But I think that’s kind of the message of the movie. You can hold both things. It’s a movie you’d want to go back and talk about with your family afterward and think about what it was exploring.
But it’s also really funny and stupid, which is great.”
“The Sheep Detectives” may look like a goofy family mystery on the surface, but underneath the laughs and twists is a story about grief, connection, memory, and finding your place among the people around you. It is in theaters now, and for See It or Skip It, this is a must-watch!
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