Popping The Beanie Bubble : Zach Galifianakis explores the 'quite bizarre' Beanie Babies creator

Whenever Zach Galifianakis told people that he was starring in The Beanie Bubble, they always had the same question: "Which Beanie Baby are you?"

"That's where their mind would eventually go," he tells EW in an interview conducted prior to the start of the SAG-AFTRA strike. "[They would ask,] 'Are you the fat panda? You must be the fat panda, right?' 'No, I'm the guy who started the Beanie Babies.' 'Aww, bulls---!'"

No bull here — well, unless you count Snort. Galifianakis stars as billionaire Beanie Baby creator Ty Warner in the Kristin Gore- and Damian Kulash-directed comedy, which opens in select theaters today before heading to Apple TV+ on July 28. Alongside his performance as Ty, Galifianakis also serves as an executive producer on the film.

Inspired by real events and Zac Bissonnette's 2015 book The Great Beanie Baby Bubble: Mass Delusion and the Dark Side of Cute, The Beanie Bubble chronicles Ty's ascent from small-town salesman into a full-fledged toy tycoon with the help of three women: love interest Sheila (Sarah Snook), business partner Robbie (Elizabeth Banks), and tech whiz Maya (Geraldine Viswanathan). Determined to succeed, Ty strikes gold by co-opting their ideas and transforming Beanie Babies from adorable furry friends into a veritable '90s craze.

Or, as Galifianakis, who didn't collect Beanie Babies at the time, calls it, "A look at a business that was quite bizarre, that was run by a quite bizarre dude, and that became huge."

COURTESY OF APPLE Zach Galifianakis as Ty Warner in 'The Beanie Bubble'

Although his first name is prominently displayed on every heart-shaped tag, the real-life Ty Warner is a famously private individual, which posed a unique challenge for Galifianakis when it came to crafting his interpretation of the toymaker. "Mostly I drew from the book and then I would have to be inspired by the time of it, meaning the '90s," he explains. "There's very little information on [Warner]. He was not one to be interviewed. So, I didn't really have that to rely on."

Instead, Galifianakis let his character's colorful wardrobe — consisting of bubblegum pink suits, velvet blue blazers, and an entire collection of preppy cardigans — as well as Warner's noted affinity for plastic surgery inform his performance. "The plastic surgery to me is a real personality detector," he says. "We've been sold this bag of goods in this capitalist environment that we live in that, to someone like Ty, of course, of course you get a facelift. That's how you stay number one. To him, he had to do that along with the other business practices, meaning he had to keep up physically to be on top. I think that was his mentality."

Ty's inherent perfectionism can be seen throughout the film, from the way he deftly picks a stray piece of fur off a stuffed animal to encouraging Sheila to get plastic surgery. Galifianakis believes that this "obsessive" desire to keep everything beautiful and pristine was a key factor in what made Warner such a talented businessman in real life.

COURTESY OF APPLE Zach Galifianakis and Sarah Snook in 'The Beanie Bubble'

"His number one driving force — why he was successful — is he was so obsessive," he notes. "His stuffed animals, which I think he hated calling them that, were more of an obsession than they were a love," the actor adds. "I don't think he was ever tender with them. He was when he plucked their eyebrows and was anal, but I don't think he was loving towards his own creation. I think it was just to get rich."

And Ty is prepared to achieve fame and fortune by any means necessary, even if it means destroying his relationships with Robbie, Maya, and Sheila along the way. "I don't think he was ever interested in helping them," Galifianakis says of the women. "He was interested in them helping him get what he wanted, but I think because he was a man back then, he felt entitled to all of it."

As a result, Galifianakis says there's a "real frustration in this story with how the women were seen as rungs on a ladder" and not as individuals contributing to and furthering Ty's vision. He calls The Beanie Bubble "a story that's not usually told" in part because of its "backstabbing" main protagonist.

"He's not just a hero. He's not just a toymaker. He's nuanced. He has a lot of problems and people suffer from them — suffer greatly. I think that's kind of a new thing, and it's nice and balanced in a story like this," he says. "I think if this movie were made back in the '90s, I think you would probably just have that story: he's a rich dude that knew what he was doing and, like most guys, you shouldn't question it. I think now we're starting to question that stuff."

COURTESY OF APPLE Zach Galifianakis and Elizabeth Banks in 'The Beanie Bubble'

Still, it was important to Galifianakis that Ty remained a "layered" character rather than a one-note villain. He references a scene in which Ty proposes to Sheila by delightfully dancing to Ready for the World's "Oh Sheila" with her two daughters as an example of the character's natural charisma and affability. (The dance was choreographed by Galifianakis' wife, Quinn Lundberg.)

"You have to show him at least be a person that you can kind of get behind through his charm," he explains. "Even though he's weird, it's encouraging to see this guy has made up a dance step to win over this woman's heart and had the daughters involved — that shows his magnetism."

But, no matter how sweet the moment is, Ty's actions are always for his own benefit — even as his world begins to unravel toward the end of the film. "I think a lot of him was just performative. I think when you saw him walk into a room, that was performative. I don't think there was rarely even a real moment sometimes," Galifianakis says. "And then you show this stripped-down version of him, when he might lose everything... that, to me, is a layered character that we tried to show."

The Beanie Bubble is in select theaters now and will be available to stream on Apple TV+ starting July 28.

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