Riley plays ‘Never Have I Ever,’ triggering a cut emotion in ‘Inside Out 2’ deleted scene

Ain’t that a shame…

While developing Inside Out 2, filmmakers originally conceived two new emotions for Riley that would arrive with puberty: Anxiety (Maya Hawke) and Shame. Ultimately, they simplified and made Anxiety the main character, but fans can get a glimpse of Shame in an exclusive deleted scene from the film.

In the scene, Riley attends a party with a group of the older teenagers she befriends at hockey camp. There, she joins in a game of “Never Have I Ever” and is egged into a shame spiral by her friend Grace.

“I wanted to explore that feeling that you’re not good enough, that feeling that you’re really hard on yourself,” director Kelsey Mann says in the clip. “It really comes out in this scene. This was a scene that’s near the end of the film. It’s the climax.”

“In this version, you’ll see Anxiety and Shame together,” he continues. “They’re kind of a pair in this one. And we got drawn into this idea of Riley’s shame getting out of control, causing a storm. There is an element here that is still in the final film, but rather than a shame spiral, we ended up making it really about Anxiety. It just simplified the film and put the focus on one character — the character of Anxiety, versus having this split focus between Anxiety and Shame.”

In the sketches from the deleted scene, Shame is presented as a beautiful woman with long flowing hair that she hides behind. Her hair gets stringier and forms more of a curtain in front of her eyes as Riley’s sense of Shame grows. Inside Out 2 didn’t ever get to the point of casting someone in the role (though in this exclusive clip, Shame’s voice bears a striking resemblance to that of Joan Cusack).

Instead of a shame spiral, Riley experiences an anxiety spiral/panic attack in the film. However, it occurs in an entirely different context from the party scene here.

Mann previously told Entertainment Weekly that he initially intended to introduce nine new emotions to Riley’s mind in the sequel. “It was ridiculous,” he said. “There were so many. I wanted Joy to feel overwhelmed.”

“I overwhelmed her with all these new emotions showing up,” he continued. “And not only did I overwhelm Joy, I overwhelmed the audience. There were too many. Anxiety was always there. She was one of the nine that showed up. But the first note I got was, ‘That’s fantastic, but there’s so much noise around her that you’re losing your focus.’ So, I ended up stripping it down to the emotions that we have now in the final film.”

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But given Pixar’s penchant for sequels, perhaps we’ll see Shame in a film somewhere down the line.

Inside Out 2 is available on digital on Aug. 20, and this scene, as well as several other deleted scenes can be viewed as part of the bonus content.