Emmy-award winner Tony Hale says his 'relationship with God' is 'everything,' success and fame are 'insatiable'

Emmy-winning actor and comedian Tony Hale has proclaimed that the older he has gotten in his career, the more he has realized that fame and fortune are things that cannot be satiated but that his faith in God is “everything” to him as he has advanced through life.

Speaking to Relevant, Hale told the story of how, when he walked into his high school reunion 10 years after graduation, people knew who he was and he was the guy who “made it” in life.

“I put a lot of energy into kind of that fantasy of what it was going to feel like walking into that room,” he said. “After that 10-year reunion, I think I felt worse than when I came in, because I had given something like that so much energy. That’s just fleeting. It’s stupid. It’s just — you really see how shallow this is.”

Hale, who will play Forky in Toy Story 5, opening June 19, said that he keeps landing on characters in film that don’t believe they belong somewhere. Forky sees himself as garbage in the film.

“I love it just because I’m a broken mess,” he’s said. “I’m a disaster. I’m a huge work in progress.”

He added that going through show business, he “meet[s] a lot of people who have gotten their dream and realized that it didn’t satisfy them the way they thought it was going to satisfy them.”

“This also can be a business where you’re always looking to the next thing. It’s never enough. Success is insatiable, fame is insatiable,” Hale added.

Hale reflected on how many people feel that they want to be known by many and gain fame, “when in actuality, if you’re known by people that you know love you, that’s all the known you need.”

"The older I get, my relationship with God and my faith — it’s always been everything to me — but there’s more of an ownership of it now,” he added. “God really is the only reason I’m doing anything I’m doing.”