Andy Serkis is Spike in Flushed Away
Interview: Andy Serkis on Flushed Away
“My first session I was really lucky because I got to work with Bill Nighy,” said Serkis. “So when we both had our first day, we were able to sort of pitch each other our voices, sort of counterpunch each other. Whitey, obviously he’s big and slow and sort of lumbering. Spike is like a non-stop attack and a highly energized neurosis so we were able to pitch our voices. You come up with it really as the actor and then the director will say, ‘Yeah, okay, let’s try making it a bit more nasal. Let’s try pulling it to the back of the throat a bit more.’ But I had this idea of Spike being quite nasal, really, and quite toothy. He kind of grinds his teeth.”
As with most animated films, Serkis usually recorded alone. Since spike endures a lot of pain, he spent a lot of time making pain noises. “He always sets out to cause other people pain, but it always backfires on him you know? Yeah, I did a lot of grunts and falls and screams and shouts and everything.”
The filmmakers also gave Serkis freedom to improvise. “You do the script version and then you try different things. That’s the great thing about doing voice over work is that it costs nothing. You can experiment away and sort of play with the stuff.”
With his previous work in the intense PG-13 epics, Flushed Away may be the first movie kids of all ages can see, including his own. “I did take them all to see King Kong, my kids, because they were down in New Zealand with me. They came to see me do the motion capture for Kong every Friday. They used to come down after school. That was their treat. And then we took about 30 or 40 kids from their school to see King Kong. We had a special premiere for them, which was great. I have to admit most of them just kind of hid when the natives came. My son has been traumatized by Lumpy the Cook being swallowed by a 6 foot [monster]. That will put him in therapy for the rest of his life. They saw me doing it. They came down and watched. They get it. They really do get what motion capture’s about because they see me in front of them and then they see on screen Kong moving exactly the same.”
Flushed Away comes to theatres this Friday, November 3rd.
For the trailers, posters, movie stills, full synopsis and more movie info, go to the Flushed Away Movie Page.
Stay tuned for updates.
|
Add to Heffee!
