Edna "E" Mode is a fictional character in Pixar's The Incredibles franchise. She first appears in The Incredibles (2004) as an eccentric fashion designer known for working with several famous superheroes, particularly Mr. Incredible and Elastigirl (Bob and Helen Parr). When the couple resumes their superhero careers after a fifteen-year hiatus, Edna unretires to help both characters – now parents – with their costumes, personal lives, and family matters. In Incredibles 2, she babysits the Parrs' youngest child, Jack-Jack, and helps the family better understand and cope with his developing superpowers.
The Incredibles''' writer and director, Brad Bird, created Edna to explain how superheroes in The Incredibles universe obtain their costumes, a topic he believes is rarely explored in superhero films convincingly. Bird decided to voice the character himself after several actresses originally considered for the role failed to replicate Edna's unique accent. The director understood that, in addition to fashion expertise, the character would need to demonstrate proficiency in science, engineering and technology in order to create costumes capable of withstanding the trials of superheroic activities, and ultimately conceived her as a short, confident character of both German and Japanese descent based on these countries' reputations as small yet powerful nations. Inspired by Q from the James Bond franchise, Edna is widely believed to have been based primarily on costume designer Edith Head, however Bird has confirmed this to not be true in a 2013 tweet. There continues to be constant speculation as to which celebrities inspired Edna, particularly Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour, designer Iris Apfel and actress Linda Hunt.
Despite having only supporting roles in both films, Edna has since established herself as The Incredibles breakout character due to her popularity among fans. Film critics agree that Edna is a scene-stealer, particularly praising her humor and dialogue; Bird has also been lauded for his voice acting, earning an Annie Award for Voice Acting in a Feature Production for his performance as the character. Edna has been recognized as one of Pixar's greatest characters by several prominent media publications.
Development Creation Edna Mode was created for The Incredibles (2004) by the film's writer and director, Brad Bird. Having watched several superhero-themed films and television shows prior to developing The Incredibles, Bird had often found himself wondering who are responsible for supplying superheroes with their costumes. Bird discovered that, despite featuring characters dressed in extravagant costumes, traditional superhero films rarely offer plausible exposition explaining how superheroes come to obtain such garments, or who provides them in the first place.
The director wanted to debunk the trope of muscular superheroes sewing their own costumes, finding it unconvincing that superheroes would suddenly develop a strong enough interest in fashion design and textiles to create their own outfits. Therefore, Bird decided that a world populated by superheroes would naturally have people with backgrounds in science and engineering responsible for designing their costumes. He envisioned Edna as a scientist and technical genius in addition to being a fashion designer. The director elaborated, "The way I saw it, the costumes had to be created by somebody with a scientific and engineering background", thus conceiving Edna as "a half-German, half-Japanese, tiny powerhouse of a character".The Incredibles was the first Pixar film to earn a PG rating; Edna is considered to be one of the studio's earliest attempts at approaching "darker, edgier comedy," which is particularly demonstrated by the scene in which the character cites several graphic examples of capes directly resulting in the deaths of several superheroes, one of whom is shown being consumed and killed by a jet turbine. According to Bird, the creation of Edna took the notion of superheroes wearing designed costumes "to a further extreme". Edna was named after EMode, a software Pixar used at the time the film was made. Bird identified Edna as the "most fun character" he created for the film.
Voice Edna follows the tradition of Pixar directors voicing secondary characters in their films, which was based around Bird's authoritarian voice during production. Bird's voice for the character originated from story boarding sessions, during which various Pixar employees typically provide characters' voices temporarily. Although these voices are usually eventually replaced with professional actors, there are some unique instances when the original voices are retained, as was the case with Bird's "Edna" performance. Bird had also provided temporary voices for other characters during this time, including Bob Parr and Syndrome, who were ultimately voiced by Craig T. Nelson and Jason Lee, respectively.
Several actresses were considered for the role of Edna, including a performer who repeatedly asked Bird to demonstrate her dialogue until eventually telling him to simply voice the character himself. The role was also offered to actress and comedian Lily Tomlin, who ultimately declined, relenting that she could never voice the character as funnily as the director. According to Bird, an actress he had admired and had been petitioning for the role asked him to send her home with a tape recording of his scratch voiceover so she could rehearse. After about a week, the actress returned to Bird and explained "You know what, you do it pretty well. You should do it. I find myself trying to sound like you". Finally succumbing to "popular demand" from his staff, Bird joked that he was ultimately cast as Edna simply because he was both affordable and available at the time. A similar approach was used for several other supporting characters in The Incredibles: animator Bret Parker voices Kari, the Parr family's teenage babysitter; writer Bud Luckey voices government agent Rick Dicker; and production designer Lou Romano voices Bernie Kropp, Dash's teacher.
Bird described Edna's accent as a combination of Japanese and German, deciding to draw influence from these regions because "they're two small countries that have amazing design and amazing technology", citing cameras and cars as examples of technology they specialize in. Although Bird's performance is considerably broad, he prevents Edna from becoming too much of a caricature in order to maintain the illusion that she is one of the film's smartest characters. In the Italian and French-language dubs of the film, Bird's comic accent is replaced by that of French entertainer Amanda Lear, who offers a more seductive, "biting" interpretation. Lear said that dubbing Edna's voice was not an easy process, but accepted the job after being offered the role upon seeing the film at the Cannes Film Festival in order to fulfill her dream of having always wanted to voice a Disney character. Edna was the first character Lear was hired to dub in Italian.
Personality, design, and influences Bird believes he shares some of Edna's personality traits, specifically how he prefers to be involved in virtually every creative aspect of his projects. He also admitted that, like his creation, he can be bossy and experience "overweening confidence at moments". Admitting both he and his character emanate immense self-confidence when it comes to their own work and opinions, Bird identified Edna as one of the film's most difficult characters to design. The character went through several different changes in appearance during the development process, ranging from taller and overweight to older, younger and thinner. Inspired by the large impact countries such as Japan and Germany have on the world despite being comparatively small in size, Bird decided Edna would reflect this theme by being "a tiny character that dominates the room when she gets into it". Her home, which uses high-end technology similar to what she incorporates into the outfits she creates, was deliberately designed to be significantly larger than she is to further emphasize this theme of dominance. Edna's small stature was also inspired by singer Bette Midler, of whom Bird has always been a fan. The director recalled being surprised by Midler's height when he first met her "Because ... she absolutely dominates the screen. And it just struck me how much personality was in this small body." In terms of animation, Bird wanted all of the film's characters to move differently from each other, providing Edna with a very confident walk to represent the fact that she has "never experienced doubt in her life." The animators found the fact that Bird provided the character's voice himself to be very helpful as he would often act out the way in which the character acts and behaves himself, which helped in further defining the animators' vision of Edna. According to Bird, Edna, despite her petite stature, is the only non-superhero in The Incredibles capable of making superheroes feel uncomfortable. Bird described Edna as a character who is "not remotely intimidated by superheroes or anyone", refusing to accept the word "no" when it is used in opposition of her opinions or beliefs.
Describing Edna's physical attributes as "severe", Bird had envisioned the character with glasses and a pageboy haircut, while remaining modern and elegant. Edna's ethnicity has been identified as half-German and half-Japanese. Edna's design, personality, and voice are widely believed to have been based on costume designer Edith Head, with whom she shares her signature round glasses, black bob cut, and forthright demeanor. Bird described Edna as a combination of Head and Q, a character from the James Bond franchise. The director has generally declined to confirm any direct influences on the character, insisting that Edna is not based on one specific person, although Head continues to be considered the character's "most legitimate" alleged inspiration. However, animator Teddy Newton, who co-designed Edna with Bird, revealed he was inspired by the film Unzipped (1995), a documentary exploring the petulance of fashion designer Isaac Mizrahi and stylist Polly Allen Mellen. Critics and fans have long speculated about the real-life inspiration behind Edna's design and appearance. Bird stated he has constantly been told by various fans and viewers that the character reminds them of at least 15 different celebrities since the character debuted in The Incredibles. Contributing to Fashion, Erin Dunlop described the character as "a supercharged hybrid of every fashion industry legend we can think of". In an article discussing who Edna is based on, Entertainment Weekly's Steve Daly cited Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour, designer Coco Chanel and actress Lotte Lenya as possible influences, while drawing similarities between the character's use of large-framed glasses to architect Philip Johnson, producer Robert Evans, talent agent Swifty Lazar, studio executive Lew Wasserman, and fashion editor Carrie Donovan. Some critics have suspected that the character is also based on Mary Quant and Una Jones. Acknowledging that there are several female fashion designers who wear glasses upon whom Edna could have been based, Bird admitted he drew inspiration from Head, author Patricia Highsmith, and actress Linda Hunt.