22 Stars: Paulette Emerson

October 20 2020

Modeling Supervisor on The Tiger's Apprentice

Our 22 Stars feature highlights the people behind our films. These interviews allow you to get to know them through the 22 questions representing the 22 stars in our Paramount logo.

You are not going to believe what happens next.

Paulette Emerson
Talking to her younger self

1. What is your job at Paramount Animation?

Modeling Supervisor

2. Who is the artist that inspires you most?

Christopher Wright

3. What is inspiring about your current project?

The beautiful work my team is producing

4. What was your first job?

Skincare specialist

Concept art for Paramount Animation's The Tiger's Apprentice

5. When did you know you wanted to work in animation?

I was 14 years old and I was watching The Little Mermaid for the 100th time and so I thought, why not? Sent two drawings and a letter telling Disney of my dream. They sent my drawings back with a letter and information on how I can make it possible. I still have that packet.

Directed by Ron Clements, John Musker. With Jodi Benson, Samuel E. Wright, Rene Auberjonois, Christopher Daniel Barnes. A mermaid princess makes a Faustian bargain in an attempt to become human and win a prince's love.

6. What is one thing you like about working for Paramount Animation?

The people. From the cooks in the cafe to my Production Designer. I am truly fortunate to run into their circle.

7. Who in your career has helped you to improve and succeed? How did they help you?

Brian Jefcoat a modeling supervisor I contacted when I first started in Animation. I just wanted him to look over my work and give me any feedback for an opening at Dreamworks. A month went by and I never heard back and the position got filled. While having coffee with a friend I got a call, it was Brian, who told me we should meet. From that first meeting he mentored me and met with me every week to push me towards my dreams. I am forever grateful for all the time and friendship he has given me. I still reach out to him for inspiration and guidance.

Brian Jefcoat, Visual Effects: Lilo & Stitch

8. Which do you prefer to use? [pen, pencil, Wacom, or paint brush]

Wacom pen and mouse, depending on software

Is that Paulette's fave Vanilla Caramel Chocolate Swirl Forrest?

9. What is your favorite Paramount movie?

Forrest Gump

Directed by Robert Zemeckis. With Tom Hanks, Robin Wright, Gary Sinise, Sally Field. The presidencies of Kennedy and Johnson, the events of Vietnam, Watergate and other historical events unfold through the perspective of an Alabama man with an IQ of 75, whose only desire is to be reunited with his childhood sweetheart.

10. What is your favorite animated movie?

The Lion King, Rango, Chicken Run

Directed by Roger Allers, Rob Minkoff. With Matthew Broderick, Jeremy Irons, James Earl Jones, Whoopi Goldberg. Lion prince Simba and his father are targeted by his bitter uncle, who wants to ascend the throne himself.
Directed by Gore Verbinski. With Johnny Depp, Isla Fisher, Timothy Olyphant, Abigail Breslin. Rango is an ordinary chameleon who accidentally winds up in the town of Dirt, a lawless outpost in the Wild West in desperate need of a new sheriff.
Directed by Peter Lord, Nick Park. With Mel Gibson, Julia Sawalha, Phil Daniels, Lynn Ferguson. When a cockerel apparently flies into a chicken farm, the chickens see him as an opportunity to escape their evil owners.

11. Who is your favorite animated character?

Jessica Rabbit

  • Jessica Rabbit from 1988's Who Framed Roger Rabbit

  • Rafiki holds Simba for all of the animal kindgom to see atop Pride Rock.

  • Hold tight to Mr. Timms Rango, hold on tight!

  • Released in 2000, Chicken Run remains the highest grossing stop animated film of all time.

12. What is your favorite thing to doodle in the corner of your notebook?

Letters

13. Are you a coffee or tea person?

Tea

14. How do you express your creativity in your free time?

I train Bonsai trees and paint

Remeberance of Things Past was later revised to In Search of Lost Time is a semi-autobiographical, stream-of-consciousness masterpiece.

15. What do you do when you are feeling a creativity block?

Listen to movie scores

16. What's your favorite book?

In Search of Lost Time

In Search of Lost Time, also translated as Remembrance of Things Past, is a novel in seven volumes by Marcel Proust (1871–1922). It is his most prominent work, known both for its length and its theme of involuntary memory; the most famous example of this is the "episode of the madeleine," which occurs early in the first volume. It gained fame in English in translations by C. K. Scott Moncrieff and Terence Kilmartin as Remembrance of Things Past, but the title In Search of Lost Time, a literal rendering of the French, became ascendant after D. J. Enright adopted it for his revised translation published in 1992.

17. What is your favorite vacation spot?

Cape Town, South Africa

18. What is your favorite zoo animal?

The orangutan or any greater apes. I can spend hours just watching them.

19. Are you a dog person or a cat person?

Totally a cat person

20. What is your favorite Ice Cream flavor?

Vanilla with caramel and chocolate swirl

21. Are you a night person or a morning person?

Morning

22. If you could tell your younger self one thing, what would it be?

You are not going to believe what happens next.