Sounds Like Teen Spirit: Sarah Vowell Tells Us All About Voicing Violet in "Incredibles 2"

"I know what it’s like to be treated like a kid when you’re not a kid."

Author and radio journalist Sarah Vowell isn’t simply explaining how she gets into the headspace of teenage superhero Violet Parr in Incredibles 2. And she’s not just expressing empathy for her teen avatar’s struggles (like balancing an unrequited high school crush with an irritating younger brother and the burden of being part of super-powered family in a world where that’s kind-of illegal).

Sarah, for real, knows what it’s like to be treated as if she was kid, even as an adult.

For that, you can thank her distinctive voice. And telemarketers.

"My whole life, [telemarketers] would ask me if my mother was home, and they asked me that question when I was six, and they asked me that question when I was 17, and after I moved out of my parents’ house, it kept happening," she tells Student Edge.

"I’m the kind of person with the kind of voice..." she begins to explain, seeking a way to perfectly capture her experience, settling on: "Waitresses call me 'hun'."

This is why Sarah wasn't entirely surprised when The Incredibles’ director Brad Bird initially approached her to voice a teenager, despite her lack of prior acting gigs: "I had not really convinced anyone I sounded like an adult my entire adult life."

In the fourteen years between Incredibles instalments, Vowell has produced a series of books (and brilliantly sardonic yet passionate and earnest audiobooks) that wryly examine American history—and that of her own family.

And yet, she didn’t really need to go back in time at all to once again inhabit Violet for Incredibles 2, having returned to voice her multiple times over the years for video games, toys, and, in one unique credit, Disney on Ice.

"Children keep being born and are shown the film," she explains.

"I don’t think a week has gone by since the first film came out that I haven’t had to talk about the film and what it meant to the viewers, be they children or adults or whoever. That’s part of my identity.

"I’ll always be associated with Violet and I really have enjoyed that and embraced that."

Still, she particularly appreciated being invited back for the sequel as Violet embarks on another adventure that contained real stakes, danger and "very scary bad guys."

"I think that’s why younger people like these movies," she says.

"Children mistrust being condescended to."

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"One thing I loved about this character; she is a teenager, she is a kid, but she has these powers and she has this job and she’s good at her job, and she enjoys it," Sarah adds.

"It just so happens that her job is very dangerous."

But would she return for a potential Incredibles 3?

"The only part of me that would hesitate is that I just love the ending of this movie so much, and it just so perfectly sums up this family that is both related and co-workers," she says.

"I can’t imagine what happens next."

Incredibles 2 is now in Australian cinemas.

Photo: Disney