John C. Reilly Talks 'Wreck-It Ralph' & Willy Wonka (Video)

The voice behind WRECK IT RALPH enjoyed his work behind the scenes, but watching Disney's animated adventure really got John C. Reilly excited. While watching the Sugar Rush scenes, the prolific actor relived his childhood dream of being part of a world similar to Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. He got his wish.

 

John C. Reilly voices Wreck-It Ralph, an 8-bit video game character in Fix-It Felix, who has grown unhappy about being the villain in the game. Ralph goes AWOL when he leaves the game in search for a medal fitting of a hero.  His adventures take him into Hero's Duty, a first shooter game, and then Sugar Rush where everything is made out of candy.

WRECK-IT RALPH Character Movie Posters

When asked which video game world he enjoyed the most, he immediately picked Sugar Rush because it reminded him of the 1971 film Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory starring Gene Wilder. As a child, Reilly recalls his fondness for the scene in which one of the kids eats the candied scenery as they go through the factory. That memory of it never faded, according to the WRECK IT RALPH star.

"It's a very important scene for me from my childhood  I was like Oh, my God! Imagine being able to eat the dishes.  How cool would that be?'"

In our video interview with the actor best known for Boogie Nights (Mark Wahlberg) and Step-Brothers (Will Ferrell), the actor admits he could relate to Ralph not accepting himself.

"It's a daily struggle to embrace who you really are."

Luckily for John C. Reilly, he hasn't been pigeonholed into playing one type of character on screen.  Catch his voice on the hilariously-entertaining WRECK IT RALPH now on DVD and Blu-ray.