'Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem' director and producer Seth Rogen made sure animators were not overworked: 'I never want the team to be suffering more than I am'

• "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem" director Jeff Rowe said "work-life balance" is important to him.
• He told Insider that he didn't want the movie's animation staff to be "suffering more" than him.
• Rowe said he leaned on producers Evan Goldberg and Seth Rogen for advice.

"Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem" director Jeff Rowe said he and producer Seth Rogen were adamant about ensuring the movie's animators had a healthy work-life balance.

Over the last few years, there have been numerous reports about visual effects artists being overworked to meet deadlines for movie studios.

Most recently, animators who worked on Sony's recent hit, "Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse," spoke out about what they described as unsustainable working conditions to complete the film for its release this past summer.

Rowe told Insider that he and producers Rogen and Evan Goldberg were cognizant of overworking their team on the new "TMNT" movie.

"That was the thing that was really important to us on this film, and I learned it from Seth and Evan because in getting to know Seth, I'm like, 'He has a really good work-life balance and everyone at Point Gray does,'" Rowe said, referring to Goldberg and Rogen's production company.

"And I asked him about that and he is like, 'Well, we're like when you're doing live action, sometimes you're on a set for 40 days in a row and it is exhausting and tiring. And we want to make sure that our people have time away from that and that it doesn't become their entire lives.'"

The "Mitchells vs. The Machines" director continued: "I really took that to heart and wanted to make sure that when we made this film, we did it ethically."

Rowe said he had discussions with the "Mutant Mayhem" animation team, with some saying they wanted to work "three days a week," and others wanting to stay at home in Scotland.

"We'd be like, 'Great, let's figure that out, and let's accommodate that because that's your process and that's what leads you to make your best art,'" Rowe said. "And we would often do that with most of the team and just try to make sure everyone always felt supported."

"I never want the team to be suffering more than I am," Rowe continued. "And I also hopefully am suffering more than the team because I'm the captain and I'm paid to absorb that, and they're not. It's important to preserve that. People just do better work when they're rested and have home lives."

"Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem" is in theaters now.