Hugh Jackman
Interview: Hugh Jackman on Flushed Away and Happy Feet
“I do know Kate and we do actually get on very well together,” said Jackman. “The thing is, to be honest, Kate is one of the best actors going around, so she can make anything work. What happened was once she started to record more and I was recording, I would listen to her a lot. Sometimes they would even play her to me so I can hear her.”
They didn’t just leave Jackman alone in a studio with a microphone though. “I also had a fantastic woman called Susan who would read opposite me. She was at every session I believe in New York or here. She was great. She would read every part. She was incredible. She’d go from Toad to Rita to Sid and Whitey, all of them. Le Frog, she did all of them. So I always had someone to work with.”
Most animators take videotapes of actors performing their voices so they can incorporate gestures. Jackman caught onto their tricks. “I did see some similarities. It’s a little frightening to see yourself looking like a rodent but it’s an adorable on, right? A pampered pet, shall we say. But no, there are some things definitely and they were filming it all the time. It was great going back in to see how these scenes were evolving, to see how they were using that. Anyway, it was interesting.”
In Happy Feet Jackman performs more of a staged voice. “I do a character. I play a character called Memphis. He thinks he’s Elvis Pressley. I’m a penguin who thinks he’s Elvis.”
Jackman’s Elvis may not hold up to some of the great impressionists. “I don’t want to raise your hopes too high because when I first went in there, the character’s name was Elvis and the second session I went in, all of a sudden this character was called Memphis. I said, ‘George, is this a reflection on my ability?’ He goes, ‘Oh, I was only ever after like the essence of Elvis really.’ I’m like, ‘Thanks, mate.’”
With two films completed in only a few sessions each, Jackman is hooked on voice work. “I loved it. I wouldn’t say it’s easy. It was actually difficult the acting part but it’s lovely to go to work. You walk into the studio, they turn on a button and you record everything. There’s no hair, no makeup, no nothing and for four hours you can do the entire script. You ad lib, you play around, you do things and you get a lot done. It’s sort of easy in that way but I really enjoyed it and I love these movies. Look, I’ve got a six-year-old and a one-year-old so probably almost at least twice a week I’ve got an animated movie of some description playing in my house. It’s good to be actually involved in one of them. I think I’ve seen Shrek 100 times.”
Flushed Away comes to theatres tomorrow, November 3rd.
Happy Feet follows up on November 17th.
Stay tuned for updates.
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