Jesse McCartney is

Adorable Theodore

by Lynn B

Okay, when you were tiny, you probably curled up in your jammies with a bowl of cereal and watched the animated “Alvin and the Chipmunks” on TV. Those cute little rodent fellas all wore sweaters …and no pants.. go figure… and talked in high-pitched, very sweet little voices. Their “Christmas Song” is still a holiday staple…”hurry Christmas, hurry fast”.

Now the little guys are digitally-animated for a new Alvin and the Chipmunks on the big screen and the trio goes to live with a human dude named Dave (played by Jason Lee). Feisty Alvin is voiced by Justin Long and the brainy Simon is voiced by actor Matthew Gray Gubler. Cute, round, cuddly Theodore speaks to us courtesy of hot popstar/actor Jesse McCartney.

We were able to get some info from Jesse, who has just come out of a year’s hibernation while he was co-writing and recording his next album “Right Where You Want Me”. The cute, blonde 19-year-old is excited about his new sound but wants to do more live-action film work as well. We asked Jesse about doing the high-pitched voice work on this film, working on his new album and he told us some of his Christmas memories and all about a new “leave Jesse a message” feature on his website. Check it out…

AGW: How did you get involved with Alvin and the Chipmunks and were you a fan or even familiar with them?

Jesse: Yeah, when they called me up and said ‘would you be interested in playing Theodore? We’re doing an Alvin and the Chipmunks flick’, I freaked out. I was a little 8-year-old on the couch sprawled out with my cereal box watching every episode every Saturday morning.

AGW: Were you surprised about the way you have to do the voices? You just talk and they have to speed it up to get that special little chipmunk sound.

Jesse: Well, I guess anybody can do it but it takes a lot longer than you think. I mean, it’s a pretty slow process. When you get behind the microphone, you have to talk really slowly but with the same intensity of a normal conversation so you sound a little strange. For me, I had to pitch my voice up another five octaves and I won’t tell you how they did that. It’s a dark secret but it was more like this for Theodore [he pitches his voice much higher] and everything. He was very cute.

AGW: Did the final film come out as you thought it would when you were recording the voice?

Jesse: Well, recording some of the jokes that we thought were going to be great jokes in the film, actually kind of passed by and then some of the lines that you didn’t think were going to get much of a reaction, were completely [popular].

AGW: Did fans come up to you about the movie?

Jesse: Definitely. The kids got a kick out of it and it was fun for all of us. We sat and watched the film together last night for the first time and you could hear ‘oh, my favorite was Simon’ or ‘my favorite was Theodore’ as we were walking out of the theater. It was nice.

AGW: So did you sing as Theodore?

Jesse: No and we’re still trying to figure out who did because we didn’t sing a lick in the entire film. I think they used a lot of the original songs or singers. I don’t know who it was. It may have been remixes of the old songs but they did definitely new tracking for the whole film as far as the songs went. It was definitely 2007 or trying to be hip but we don’t know who sang.

AGW: Were Ross and Janice the producers there when you were recording?

Jesse: Yeah, they were pretty much there every step of the way in the recording process making sure that Theodore didn’t get too edgy or too hard. I found that, a lot of the times, I was a little too close to Alvin. They had to make sure he was the cute, cuddly guy and he didn’t get too sarcastic or too hard.

AGW: But, in real life, would you be Alvin or Theodore?

Jesse: Actually, I might act a little more like Alvin in real life but I connect with Theodore. He’s cute, cuddly and he’s sensitive. It was fun. I definitely enjoyed playing that role for sure.

AGW: Are you working on your next album?

Jesse: I just finished. I was in the studio for the last year, over a year and working on creating this new sound for me. It’s definitely gonna be very new and I don’t think anyone will expect this kind of record from me. It’s definitely a pop record but it’s got a throwback, ‘80’s, retro pop sound to it that is very cool. We did a lot of work on old, vintage synths. It’s very synth-driven and kind of has like a Prince, Michael, Madonna feel to it as far as the production. I’m very excited about it. It’s supposed to come out in April, the single is actually going to radio this week. We’re going to six or seven of the big programming directors with the first single and to the whole market in January.

AGW: What’s the single?

Jesse: There are two ways to go but I’m coming on pretty strong on this next record so I want people to actually say ‘is that? That’s not. That’s him?’ That’s kind of the idea so right now I don’t know.

AGW: So since you weren’t working on the TV show “Summerland” this last year, did you just devote all your time to music? Was there more focus for you?

Jesse: I’ve been hibernating in the studio for a year. I haven’t gone anywhere and it was actually kind of an emotional moment last week because it was my last day in the studio mixing and I just kind of sat there and was like, ‘alright, I guess I’m gonna go home and that’s it’. I mean I still write all the time but as far as actually making the record, we really wanted to wrap it up and get going so that there’s time to promote it and market it so it’s been interesting.

AGW: You write your music. How did you get control of that because that seems a big struggle for a lot of young artists.

Jesse: I tell you, I’ve felt the spectrum of love from the record label. I been adored to like ‘this kid could probably go away’ [he laughs]. I’m going to be honest. I’ve felt that and Bob Cavallo, who is the head of Hollywood Records, is a saint. We get along the best of anyone at that record label. He said he’s very, very excited about this record and he’s putting all of his efforts into this next album and he has. I’ve watched that happen but certainly, trying to earn the respect as a writer can be tough at first, especially when you didn’t write your first big single. That was kind of ‘well, maybe we should let other people do it’ but it’s kind of a political thing. You have to earn their trust. I won’t take full credit. You can find yourself in a hole too if you think you can do it all by yourself. Especially working with someone like Sean Garrett who produced half of this album. He’s had probably nine number ones in the last three years. Definitely, somebody like that, you have to open your mind. I co-wrote a lot of the tunes as well and I’m just very excited about it. I think it’s gonna do well.

AGW: Do you have anybody at the record label that’s like Uncle Ian in the movie?

Jesse: [laughs] I won’t mention any names but yeah, maybe a couple.

AGW: We were checking out your website jessemac.com and there’s a number to call where people can leave you personal messages; a voicemail?

Jesse: Yeah, it’s a really cool thing. It’s actually a genius marketing idea. It’s called Say Now and I’ll just pick up my cellphone any time. I actually left one yesterday. You call this number and you leave a message to all your fans and I think there’s like three or four hundred thousand Say Now members. You call and leave a message and they can call you back and say ‘what’s up’.

AGW: Do you get any weird messages?

Jesse: Yeah. But it’s a way to communicate with the fans and get them hyped up for the next album.. just communicate with them and it’s nice.

AGW: How long did recording your voice take for this movie?

Jesse: It took us a total of maybe two or three weeks to do everything. I guess the hardest part [of making the film] was probably the animation. How long did that take? Like three years? But it came out great. It’s a good family holiday film. It’s a multi-generational phenomenon I think. There’s something for everybody in it.

AGW: Any more movies coming out?

Jesse: I did another animated one for Fox Horton Hears a Who that’s coming out in May. I play the voice of Jo-Jo. Jim Carrey and Steve Carell are in it. For as far as live action films, like I said, I’ve been in the studio for the last year and I’m just now finishing that project but soon enough.

AGW: Would you prefer live-action films rather than just lending your voice to an animated character?

Jesse: Yeah. I connect more with dramatic films so I definitely prefer the live action but this has really been so much fun. It’s just been the greatest time.

AGW: You had soap fans back when you were on “All My Children”. How are they different?

Jesse: Soap fans are kind of in their own world. It’s like they’ll come up to me and be like ‘hey, J.R. Good to see you’ and they’re usually like middle-aged women. There’s definitely something a little strange to them but I’ll tell you this, they are the most die-hard fans, the most dedicated. If you even bring up “One Life to Live” and you’re on “All My Children”, they want to shoot you. I never had any formal acting training but working on a soap, you definitely learn a lot. You do like a full show in one day and you only get a few takes. If you screw up, sorry. That’s just the way it’s goin’ out. It definitely helped with my memory skills I think, just being able to read a page and have it and working with people like David Canary and Michael Knight, they definitely helped me.

AGW: Any fun Christmas memories growing up? Any favorite gifts?

Jesse: Growing up for me was kind of the classic Christmas. I grew up in New York outside of Manhattan, like half an hour in White Plains and it was like the white Christmas. It was bitter cold although right now it’s 80 degrees but we’d have the fire in the fireplace and open our presents in the morning and my mom burns water so my dad would cook the Christmas breakfast. As far as the best gifts, I think I was pretty stoked when I got my first two wheeler, my first bike. No more training wheels!

Pictures courtesy of and copyright 20th Century Fox & www.jessemac.com

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