It’s “one of the greatest things I’ve ever written,” director Andrew Stanton says of the email.

Read the Toy Story 5 offer letter for Conan O’Brien to play potty-training tech: ‘You will not have to act for this roll’ (exclusive)

It's "one of the greatest things I've ever written," director Andrew Stanton says of the email.

By Nick Romano

Nick Romano

Nick Romano is a senior editor at ** with 15 years of journalism experience covering entertainment. His work previously appeared in Vanity Fair, Vulture, IGN, and more.

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April 28, 2026 3:00 p.m. ET

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Conan O'Brien voices Smarty Pants in 'Toy Story 5'.

- *Toy Story 5* director Andrew Stanton shares the offer letter he wrote to Conan O'Brien to play potty-training tech Smarty Pants.

- "You will not have to act for this roll," Stanton wrote — after which O'Brien "said yes right away."

- "It's just so funny to me because *of course* that's what the character is all about," O'Brien says.

Conan O'Brien calls the Pixar sales pitch for *Toy Story 5* "the shortest meeting" of his career to date. "They thought they had to convince me," he tells **, "and I just was so thrilled to be part of it."

He can see why some people might have some reservations, at least on (toilet) paper.

Director Andrew Stanton (*Finding Nemo*, *WALL-E*) became invested in the comic's podcast *Conan O'Brien Needs a Friend* through his wife. Soon, he explains to EW, he couldn't get the idea out of his head to cast the former late-night host as Smarty Pants, an old-school potty-training toy. The gadget even looks like a roll of toilet paper hanging from a holder, and it comes with just two buttons. (Hint: The buttons are numbered.)

Jessie (Joan Cusack), Smarty Pants (Conan O'Brien), Atlas (Craig Robinson), and Snappy (Shelby Rabara) in 'Toy Story 5'.

"It's just so funny to me because *of course* that's what the character is all about," O'Brien says. "I just thought it's all perfect in a way. I said yes after hearing that my character was there to train toddlers how to use the toilet. That was not an unpleasant surprise in the voiceover booth."

Stanton calls the offer letter he sent O'Brien "one of the greatest things I've ever written." He then reads it aloud.

Smarty Pants is a toddler's learning device for potty training who makes Jessie the yodeling cowgirl's life a living hell.

He has only two buttons: No. 1 and No. 2. He had one job in life and he completed it in record time. Since then, he's been left outside in an abandoned play school shed, batteries run down, lying in sleep mode like the town drunk.

Smarty is sarcastic, brash, funny, slightly embarrassing to be around, but beneath all that crap, he has a heart of gold.

You will not have to act for this roll.

That spelling for "roll" was very much intended, Stanton confirms. "He said yes right away."

"When he said, 'Look, you're a toilet-training device for children, and all we want is for you to be yourself,' it does give one pause, you know?" O'Brien quips. "It does make one think, 'What if this how people see me?' Maybe it is, but I decided I was gonna take it as flattery."

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*Toy Story 5* audiences will meet Smarty Pants in the home of a young girl named Blaze (Mykal-Michelle Harris). Jessie (Joan Cusack) and Bullseye find themselves exploring her ranch, which is the same house Jessie used to live in with her first child, Emily, the one who abandoned her all those years ago. Smarty is a forgotten toy that was left powered off in the backyard playhouse.

O'Brien cracks, "I had no formal toilet training. I'm completely self-taught. I'm a prodigy, really. I didn't have any kind of toilet-training device, but I had a G.I. Joe that was sacred to me. My parents gave me a Smokey the Bear teddy bear with the little Ranger hat and everything. I love that guy. We all have toys that mean the world to us when we're young."

Smarty Pants, Atlas, Snappy, Bullseye, and Jessie in 'Toy Story 5'.

Stanton began seeing Blaze's ranch setting, complete with a real horse named Daffodil and a pig named Jimmy Dean, through the lens of a Western. He conjures Sergio Leone's *Once Upon a Time in the West* to paint a picture of an old saloon on the outskirts of town. "I pictured Smarty as that town drunk that's just laying on the bar counter and you just drink around them," the filmmaker explains.

When Jessie powers Smarty back up on low battery, rather than act sleepy, he acts inebriated.

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"It's very hard to play drunk, and I probably had to take a lot of runs at it to get it in the ballpark, because there's nothing more painful than watching someone get it wrong. And it's very easy to get it wrong," O'Brien describes...before segueing into a comedic bit. "So I just drew on my own experience, which is, I had been drunk shortly before I showed up for the recording. I mean, *really* drunk. And I did that because I'm Method. So that's my secret."

*Toy Story 5* premieres in theaters on June 19.

- Animated Movies

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Source: “EW Animated”