“Escaping” With the Cast of

Madagascar

by Lynn B

We’re hangin’ with a lion, a hippo, a zebra and a lemur and we’re all getting along great! No, we’re not at the zoo or a wild animal park but in San Francisco for a press conference with actors Ben Stiller, Jada Pinkett-Smith, Chris Rock and Andy Richter who are the voices of the above-mentioned critters in the new animated film Madagascar. (David Schwimmer, who plays a hypochondriac giraffe, wasn’t able to make it).

We learned that this was the first time the crew had actually gotten to hang out together since all the voices were recorded separately, with each actor in a recording booth alone. Just like their counterparts in the film, these guys get along great and like to make funny jibes at each other and us. Check out what this wacky menagerie had to say about their experiences and comic characters…

AGW: So Andy, you are a lemur, right? How did you get into that role?

Andy: I really need to make up a good story cause it is pretty much ‘I looked at the picture and did a squeaky voice’. I don't know, when you hear other actors talk about their work on the characters, I just assume they are lying because I can't relate to it.

AGW: Ooookay. Ben, how was doing the voice of the lion for you?

Ben: It was a weird process because it does go on for a long time and in the beginning it felt like trial and error. You just try things and you sort of feel sad cause you are alone in this studio with the microphone and nothing exists yet except some pictures that you see.

AGW: Awwww, but it gets easier, right?

Ben: Six months to a year into the process you start to see scenes coming back then it really helps because you start to see what the character is and that is one of the things that I liked about the movie. The characters are really unique and they are not just based on the voices, they really are their own character. Like, Chris's character, I watch Marty [the Zebra] and I don't think of Chris I think of Marty. So, it was fun to start to see it come together and then go back and redo stuff once you’ve seen more of what the actual character was.

AGW: So, was not actually having an actor there to play off of a challenge?

Ben: Yeah. I mean you are just standing there alone and not having anybody to react to, you just have to use your imagination a lot then you start to get a feeling for it. I realized how much I do with my hands cause the animators video tape you when you are doing your session so they can see that stuff. But that to me was probably the toughest part was being alone all the time.

Jada: Yeah, I kind of agree with Ben. It is just kind of throwing a bunch of lines out trying different stuff, it is a pretty challenging process just cause like Ben was saying there is no one there and you don't have any sets or props or anything so you are trying some different interpretations and then they put it together really fantastically.

Chris: How did I get into my zebra part? I didn't even know it was a zebra until yesterday [laughter] I was doing a Musk Rat, but it looks great.

AGW: Jada, how did you feel when they called you up and asked you to be a hippo?

Jada: [laughs] You know what I keep getting asked that question and it never occurred to me when Jeffrey [Katzenberg] showed me the picture of Gloria. You know yeah she is a hippo, I am playing a character. I thought she was adorable so it just never occurred to me that it was something that I should be thrown back about. [Nobody could call slim Jada chubby anyway].

Andy: That is one beautiful hippo. She is about as cool and beautiful as they get.

Jada: Hey, I like that so there you go.

AGW: Jada, what reaction did you get from your kids when you told them that you were doing this film?

Jada: Well, I didn't say anything. They saw a clip of Madagascar on a video and he [my son] said 'Mommy you are playing a hippo' and I was like ‘darn it I was trying to wait and make it a surprise’. So they are very excited. I told them I was coming here today and they thought that we were having the premiere and they were all upset, 'You are supposed to be taking us!' I said it is just press. It is not going to be the movie until next week. So they are very, very excited.

AGW: Chris, what is the attraction of doing animation for you?

Chris: It was nice to have something. You know my kids can't see my movies now until they are 30. It is nice that there is something that they can see right now! That is an attraction.

AGW: Chris, how do you feel about being in two movies coming out on the same day?

Chris: Hopefully, everyone will see Madagascar in the morning or in the afternoon and at night, they'll go and see The Longest Yard.

AGW: So you’re sure it will be a huge weekend for you. The Chris Rock Memorial Weekend.

Chris: Until the new Will Smith movie comes out.

[Jada laughs]

AGW: So you tried different lines. What made it into the movie?

Chris: All my clean jokes are in the movie. All the dirty ones are in a factory somewhere else.

AGW: Can you compare Madagascar vs. The Longest Yard?

Chris: They're very similar except in The Longest Yard, I actually had to wear pants. I don't ask any questions. It's like ‘okay, huh, what? I'm a zebra? Okay. I'm a zebra. What's a zebra say? Okay, I'm going to say it’.. I do whatever they tell me to do and then I go do The Longest Yard. ‘Huh? I'm a guy in jail? All right. Whatcha' need’?

AGW: Andy, didn’t you do a voice for another animated film The Cat Returns? How was that different?

Andy: Oh, well, The Cat Returns was a Japanese animated movie that was redubbed in English. I guess there was an English version that was redone. But I played a cat and his mouth was already moving so I had to match the Japanese mouth. That was like dialogue replacement. That was like doing ADR work really. And this, you could just say whatever you wanted because they were animating after the fact. So this is technically easier [than “Cat”] because that one, you're timing it. You don't get to choose. You have to match what the cat is doing.

AGW: Sounds hard. Jada, do you have any advice to young actors?

Jada: I always tell young people to just make sure that they're serious about their craft so that when the opportunities come along, you're prepared. I was lucky enough to know that at a very young age, I wanted to be an actress, so I attended Baltimore School for the Arts and I attended North Carolina School for the Arts, came out to Hollywood and I was ready. So I always tell young people be prepared. Work at your craft.

AGW: Ben, you get to sing in the movie. How was that for you?

Ben: My lack of talent in the voice department? That was probably one of the most uncomfortable- - it was horrible. And they kept on putting it off. I think for months and months they kept on saying, ‘Oh, New York New York, we'll do that [song] next time, do that next time.’ And then it came the day to do it and it was like well, it could be bad. It just was bad. And I guess everybody's singing it together kind of in the movie, right? But when we were recording it, it was totally alone on different days.

Jada: It was weird.

Chris: Yeah, but I had Dr. Dre with me.

AGW: Which characteristic of your characters do you identify with most?

Andy: Patheticness [is that a word?].

Ben: Alex is sort of a creature of habit. He likes the status quo. He’s in his element in his domain. He likes familiarity. I can go with that.

Jada: For Gloria, I really enjoyed how maternal she was. She's kind of a momma that has a tough love approach but she's still there. She has a lot of love for her friends. I liked that she was so maternal.

Chris: My character bores very easy and as a guy who wanted to get out of Brooklyn immediately as a child, [I can relate]. So the same thing that takes him out of the zoo, took me out of Brooklyn.

AGW: Was Alex doing a little tribute to Zoolander with some of his looks?

Ben: You know what? I think he might be and not many people picked up on that and that might mean a lawsuit. If it's Blue Steel, it's okay. If it's Magnum, you're in trouble. Yeah, it's an homage. But I didn't even know [I was doing it]. When I saw the movie, I was like, ‘Uh- Oh’.

AGW: Andy, there is a scene where the lemur is crying. How was recording that?

Andy: Well, I'm ashamed because they were videotaping me as I was crying. Because I had to cry underneath other things happening I had to cry for like five minutes at a time.

AGW: What gestures did you notice in your characters that are so “you”?

Jada: A lot of the eye movement. The different positions of my head, I realize. I'm like, 'Oh, I do that in movies too.' So there were definitely a lot of movement things.

Chris: Hand movements, eye movements. That type of thing.

AGW: Jada, can we look forward to hearing more you’re your band? [Wicked Wisdom].

Jada: We have an album coming out in July and we're going on tour this summer.

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