Kendall Coyne Schofield had to read the email a few times to make sure it was real.
In February 2023, the women’s hockey star received an inquiry from a casting director asking if she’d be interested in voicing a minor role in a major upcoming movie: Disney and Pixar’s Inside Out 2, set to hit theatres June 14.
“I talked to my agent and basically said, ‘Okay, well, how do we say yes?’ I couldn’t say yes fast enough!’” Coyne Schofield admits with a laugh. “I was like, ‘I don’t have any questions — just, ‘yes!’”
Fueling her excitement was her love for the first Inside Out, released in 2015, which featured an 11-year-old, hockey-loving girl from Minnesota named Riley — a character that clearly resonated with a then-22-year-old hockey-loving college player named Kendall.
“I actually remember when I watched Inside Out, how much I wished I had this movie when I was a kid, because it was just so cool to see a girl playing hockey in such a prominent role — the main character,” she says.
Last year’s invitation to lend her voice to the sequel couldn’t have come at a better time for Coyne Schofield. The Team USA star — and captain of the national squad at the time — was about to share the news of her pregnancy with the hockey world. So, while her U.S. teammates were gearing up for the women’s world championship in Brampton, Ont. last April, Coyne Schofield was rehearsing lines and preparing for a day at the recording studio near her home in Chicago.
She and her husband, NFL pro Michael Schofield, welcomed their son, Drew, three months later. (And yes, she says, he’s already got some pint-sized Disney swag, including an Inside Out 2 onesie and a puck gifted from the film crew.)
Coyne Schofield is keeping the details of her role under wraps for now — but, as you may have guessed, it’s got something to do with hockey.
The 31-year-old PWHL Minnesota captain spoke with Sportsnet last week about her involvement in the movie, her experience so far in Minnesota, the challenges of reprising her role at the rink while embracing her new role as a mother, and her mindset heading into the 2024 women’s worlds after watching last year’s golden victory from home.
[Editor’s note: This interview has been edited for clarity and length.]
SPORTSNET: How did this voice acting opportunity come about for you?
COYNE SCHOFIELD: When the casting director reached out about Inside Out 2, I was so excited not only for the role itself, but because [Inside Out] was a movie that had such an impact on me as an adult. I love doing things that I know are going to impact people in a positive way. And knowing the little I knew when they inquired about me being a part of the movie, I knew it was going to be something extremely special.
What was the recording process like for you?
When I was there in the studio, the entire team was in L.A. on Zoom and they were coaching me through my parts and what I could do better or more of or less of. And I just really leaned on them for guidance and advice in real-time. Obviously, I read the lines and practiced them — to my husband [laughs] — before going, but of course there’s a vision for this movie and I know the role that I had. So, it was just really listening to the crew in L.A. about what they want, how they wanted it, and just going from there, which was a really cool experience.
Can you tell me a little bit about the character you voice?
I have a role where I am a part of the hockey component of the movie with Riley. The exact part will come out as it gets closer. It’s a smaller role, but I will be in the movie for when the hockey parts come out.
Only fitting, really. Okay, I’ve got to ask: Growing up, what was your favourite Disney movie?
This is gonna sound cliché, but… The Mighty Ducks. [Laughs.]
Of course.
I think back to The Mighty Ducks and … there were girls in the movie playing hockey, and those were some of my earliest memories of the ‘see it, be it’ kind of moment of like, ‘There are girls that play hockey — look at the Mighty Ducks!’ There’s girls on the team, and they were like me — the only girl on their team. And that was how I grew up, because I didn’t see girls’ hockey, I didn’t see women’s hockey. The first women’s hockey game I saw in-person was when I was 10. Obviously, besides my love for the sport of hockey, it was like, being able to see a girl on a team filled with all boys was like, ‘See? This is normal. Girls do play hockey.’ For all the people that told me, ‘Girls don’t play hockey’ back then.
And now, girls get to watch the PWHL. What has your experience in the league been like so far?
It’s been a monumental first couple months of the PWHL, and I think what’s even more exciting is it’s only going to keep getting better and better and better. You look at the product on the ice, you look at the capacity of the buildings that are being filled, you hear the stories of the players living out their dreams, waking up and being a professional hockey player. You see the broadcasts, you see just the overall professionalism of the league — that’s something that this game has deserved for a very long time.
What excites me the most is the sustainability of what we’re seeing, knowing that all the young kids who come to the games, boys and girls, they know that when they’re adults, this league is going to be around. And if they’re good enough to play professional hockey, whether they’re a boy or a girl, they can be a professional hockey player and that opportunity will be there for them.
You made quite the comeback to return to the ice in time for the season after giving birth to your son last summer. How are you feeling?
It wasn’t easy. That first game I played, on Jan. 3, I was six months postpartum and still breastfeeding. I was solo parenting and living in a new state by myself because my husband was, at the time, on the Detroit Lions — so, he was in Detroit, I was in Minnesota. I will say, the first month or so was probably the hardest month of my life, in the best way possible. Obviously, since the football season has ended, a lot of the weight of parenting is off of my shoulders. So, if I come home from the rink and I need to rest, or just on a game day, I have the time to do what I need to do so that I can be more prepared for the game versus when I was by myself. It was really hard, but it was a very special time. I took a lot of pictures and I’ll remember it forever. That first month of hockey for me was, I wanted to give myself grace and be honest with myself and I knew it would be hard … I think it took me a month or so to get myself a little bit more confident and comfortable in my new role as mom and hockey player.
The PWHL takes a break now for the women’s world championship coming up. What’s your mindset like as you gear up for the tournament?
I think one thing that there’s no doubt is, every single player is going to be in tip-top shape. Typically, you would see the college players who just came off a 30-plus game season and they’ve played a lot more games than the ‘post-grad players,’ as we used to call ourselves. And now, I feel like that playing field has been leveled in the sense that the professional players wake up and they have a strength coach, they have an athletic trainer, they have a team doctor, they have a chiropractor, they have a weight room, they have ice every single day. They have a skills coach. All of these things that equate to the environment being professional, they are provided.
And so, I think you’re going to see this world championship just be so incredible because you’re going to watch these players, from a U.S. standpoint, that everyone’s been playing hockey … like, we’ve been waking up and focusing on hockey more now than ever before because of the PWHL.
Your PWHL Minnesota team got within one point of first-place Toronto heading into this hiatus. How are you feeling about your position for the home stretch once league action resumes?
It was kind of weird leaving after [the last game before the hiatus] because it feels like we’re on a roll. Ideally, in years to come, hopefully we see the international tournament held right after the end of the pro season — similar to how you’d see it on the men’s side. I think we have such a fun group. I think a lot of us wake up every day pinching ourselves that this is our job. This is the job that we’ve earned, that we’ve deserved for such a long time. And we go to the rink, we have fun. Our coach [Ken Klee] is awesome, and he makes coming to the rink fun — he cares about us as people, he cares about us as hockey players. I think this month away will be hard, in a way, just because we have such great camaraderie, and we are playing well. And so, it’s just hard to pause for a month. But I know we’ll pick up right where we left off when we are able to get back together.
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