We're
Hangin' With....Princess Kida (Cree Summer), Helga (Claudia
Christian) and Audrey (Jacqueline Obradors)
Disney's
new animated action/adventure film Atlantis: The Lost Empire takes
place in 1914 but you wouldn't know it by the take-charge female characters
in the film. Experienced voice-over artist Cree Summer, a regular on
the t.v. series "A Different World", plays Atlantean Princess
Kida, a responsible leader with a killer bod. Claudia Christian, "Babylon
5"'s Commander Susan Ivanova for 4 seasons, voices Helga, a sub
commander and hottie bad girl with a "body like Jessica Rabbit
and Laura Croft's outfits". Jacqueline Obradors, soon to be seen
in Tortilla Soup and with Vin Diesel in Diablo, is Audrey
Ramirez, a spicy Latina mechanic who can fix anything from tanks to
Atlantean fighter subs. We spoke with these three feisty, accomplished
women in L.A. recently.
AGW: Cree, you started doing voice-overs very young. How
did you get started?
Cree: My first voice-over job was at age 11. I played
Penny in the "Inspector Gadget" cartoon series. My dad (John
Franks) was very big in voice-over in Canada. I was playing around the
studio and they said 'Let's give Cree a shot'. I was like 'whatever'
then my dad told me I could get a pair of Sergio Valente jeans if I
did it and…a star is born!
AGW: Cree, you have a band. Tell us about that side of
your life.
I have a record with Sony called "Street Faerie"
Produced by Lenny Kravitz. I toured on that record for a year and a
half and now I'm gonna make another record.
AGW: Everyone, talk about the process of recording a voice
for an animated character. How is this different from acting or singing?
Cree: Well, on stage I'm shakin' my fanny and in the studio
I'm sittin' on it (laughter). In rock and roll I write my songs and
here I'm acting out a character. But there are similarities. When people
hear the record they say that my voice sounds a little different for
each song and that's probably some of the animation voices bleeding
through. For Atlantis, Michael (J. Fox) and I got to record our
scenes in the same room. It's important to have a real connection to
get your flirt on. I didn't even meet the rest of the cast until recently.
I've done voices in video games. ("Mortal Kombat", Final Fantasy
10") In games you have to stop and "break the wall" and
give the player instructions..'Go to room 5'. It sort of stops the momentum
of the scene. For me it's easier than acting in live action. I get very
self conscious on camera. There's something very empowering about not
being seen. I'ts like pay no attention to the chick behind the curtain…the
great and powerful Oz! (laughter).
Claudia:
For me it was working on where the voice sat…lower or higher. There
were two separate voices. In the beginning, the sultry voice and then
the commandeering voice. Gotta stay husky (for Helga). I took up smoking,
singing in the car to Melissa Etheridge…things that made me feel
real manly (laughter). Sometimes you have to abuse your voice to give
it that gravelly tone. Kids, don't do this at home. (While recording)
I moved around a lot and threw punches. My three older brothers taught
me how to box. In the studio (the director) would say 'Claudia, (for
that ooof noise) you don't have to really punch yourself in the stomach.
We'll put that in for you (laughs).
Jacqueline: It's hard. You don't have the other actor's
delivery of their line to bounce off of. You're alone (in the recording
studio) and you are trusting your directors to describe to you what's
going on. Then you give three variations of takes and hope one works.
They have the capability to take the first part of your first reading
and put it together with the last half of another one. 
I'd
go in for about 3 hours at a time, every 3 or 4 months. They would add
more lines and change a few. The directors weren't sure if they wanted
a New York or Spanish accent and they went with the Spanish. (Jacqueline
is originally from Argentina). My last session was a lot of effort noises…oooof,
aaaah. You feel so silly but I enjoyed it so much.
AGW: The women in this film are all "take charge"
types, even though it takes place in 1914. Tell us a little about your
characters.
Cree: I like that Kida is a warrior princess going to
be queen and not once does her gender come into play with her power.
Gender is irrelevant. And that bod! I hope I have that body, man. The
thing I loved most was her caramel colored skin. That was the mirror
effect for me. Yeah, we're both caramel. I liked the white hair and
blue eyes because, in reality we're all a rainbow and I liked that the
most advanced civilization is proof of that. I had to learn Atlantean
(a language was created for the film). Then, how to incorporate an Atlantean
accent when she speaks English. It was challenging. I do so many cartoons
where I voice huge, zany, wocka, wocka, beep beep stuff so doing the
Kida character and actually acting, was lovely.
Claudia: I've played a mercenary before. (Helga is a mercenary
in the film). I've done a lot of kick butt, gun totin' women ("The
Hidden", "Hexed"). I've never kicked quite as high as
Helga does though. I appreciate the figure of Helga. When I saw the
drawing of her I went 'Yeah, I wish'. She's Jessica Rabbit in Laura
Croft's outfit. I love doing action as long as it's combined with a
good story and the occasional bad girl line. Helga's got it all.
AGW: Did playing Commander Susan Ivanova on t.v.'s "Babylon
5" help the Atlanis producers choose you for Helga?
Claudia: They were B-5 fans, yep. They definitely knew
I could pull off the Commander part of Helga's character. On "The
Gary Shandling Show" I did the sultry Kathleen Turner thing so
they knew I could do that too.
Jacqueline: All the women's roles are so strong in this
movie. Really cool. I would sometimes forget that when I'd improvise
lines. I threw in something like 'you rock!' and I'd get 'tone that
down, It's 1914!'. I knew Audrey Ramirez was a Latina mechanic. I only
saw a drawing and a few lines of description at first. They changed
her a bit as the process went on. She got cuter! (laughs). I loved it.
I'd like to do it again.
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