Post by sgev1977 on Nov 5, 2018 19:23:55 GMT
You have an incredible voice. You've done a lot of voice acting, from narration and animation to motion capture. So what drew you to this role in The Grinch?
I think the book has certainly been part of my childhood, but it's not as popular as it is in the States. I knew the book, but I didn't know the Boris Karloff or Jim Carrey incarnations, but I was aware of the Carrey one, but I think I was too old to watch it. I mean, I was in my 20s, it was about twenty years ago. Anyway, the point being, I was very flattered. It's Illumination doing an animated feature, and what's not to love about The Grinch? He's wonderful, iconic, and green. It was a joy to be a grinchy Grinch. It was terrific. They wanted me to use my natural accent for the voice, which was very nice, and they said they loved the way I speak, but I thought, he's gotta be American, especially in the context that the rest of the cast is mostly American. It took four of five sessions to get the voice right. The script was so good, and Illumination's back catalogue was so good. The animation I got when I came in was very limited, but it was already very exciting. It was just excellent.
I saw it earlier this week, and it's so charming, I loved it. You've done a lot of motion capture work, The Hobbit, Mowgli, even Dormammu in Doctor Strange. I know this isn't the same as that, but is there a collaborative process of putting you in the animation? You said it wasn't done when you were recording.
You can't really see where it's going. One thing I like about mo-cap and facial cap is, in the way you're creatively morphing, but in animation, you can't do anything about it yourself. It's a really fun thing to rely just on animation and the director, first and foremost, who gives you context to bring you to a place where you're understanding what you're doing, and then it's up to the animators to actually make it look like a real face.
I think the book has certainly been part of my childhood, but it's not as popular as it is in the States. I knew the book, but I didn't know the Boris Karloff or Jim Carrey incarnations, but I was aware of the Carrey one, but I think I was too old to watch it. I mean, I was in my 20s, it was about twenty years ago. Anyway, the point being, I was very flattered. It's Illumination doing an animated feature, and what's not to love about The Grinch? He's wonderful, iconic, and green. It was a joy to be a grinchy Grinch. It was terrific. They wanted me to use my natural accent for the voice, which was very nice, and they said they loved the way I speak, but I thought, he's gotta be American, especially in the context that the rest of the cast is mostly American. It took four of five sessions to get the voice right. The script was so good, and Illumination's back catalogue was so good. The animation I got when I came in was very limited, but it was already very exciting. It was just excellent.
I saw it earlier this week, and it's so charming, I loved it. You've done a lot of motion capture work, The Hobbit, Mowgli, even Dormammu in Doctor Strange. I know this isn't the same as that, but is there a collaborative process of putting you in the animation? You said it wasn't done when you were recording.
You can't really see where it's going. One thing I like about mo-cap and facial cap is, in the way you're creatively morphing, but in animation, you can't do anything about it yourself. It's a really fun thing to rely just on animation and the director, first and foremost, who gives you context to bring you to a place where you're understanding what you're doing, and then it's up to the animators to actually make it look like a real face.
screenrant.com/grinch-benedict-cumberbatch-interview/