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Robin, do you prefer to voice work to live action roles? Do you feel handcuffed by one or the other?
Robin Williams: “I prefer to be handcuffed at home. The idea of voice work to me is great fun, especially when it's a chance to do two different voices. Especially one that's as machismo like Ramon, and to get a chance to sing, and then to get to do a Barry White-type character, that for me is a gift. I started with Aladdin and I've done a lot of cartoons and animations since. It's always a gift because you're free literally. I love to be physical, but in a weird way they videotape you and get a lot of who I am - even though I never thought of myself as a penguin. It's fun to know that in a weird way they captured that. You can create a character from the ground up that's nothing like you. That's what the joy is of animation. I love doing live action movies, but there's a great job in doing animation, especially one with music. It's pretty extraordinary to have that chance, to me.”
Are we at the point where we could do a film with computer-generated voices?
George Miller: “No, I don’t think so.”
Williams (in boring, monotone computer voice): “It would have a certain lack of character. It would be like an evening with Stephen Hawking. Oh, you know you want it. Won’t it be exciting? To be or not to be? That is the question. (In his own voice) Computerized voices are the ones you also get when you call directory assistance. ‘Yes, please, the Beverly Wilshire Hotel.’ (Computer voice) ‘Did you say babalakapsheba?’ (Normal voice) Artificial intelligence is there waiting for you, just like my GPS in my car. I was on the Golden Gate Bridge. It said, ‘Take a right turn.’ No can do. Take a right turn? Not possible. Those computerized voices tend to be slightly cold and indifferent.”
Elijah Wood: “Recalculating.”
Williams (in computer voice): “Recalculating. Warning, now. Attempting joke now. Two Irishmen walk out of a bar. It could happen. Warning, warning, proximity to…(making his voice slow down to a stop).”
What was the audition like for these guys?
Williams: “It was a lengthy audition.”
Miller: “Look, basically, we looked at the characters. I called Elijah’s agent. He read the script and we talked about it, and then same when we came to Robin. [I thought] ‘God, if we can ever get Robin Williams to do this.’ I’ve known directors that he’s worked with and I’ve known his work and, luckily you said ‘yes’. It was a fantastic thing to happen. Robin is known for the improvisation. What I don’t think people know about Robin is his incredible discipline. I push actors pretty hard. I keep on asking for more. I get very greedy but, when I’d be happy with something, Robin would say, ‘A couple more takes, a few more takes,’ and we’d keep going. There was always gold in it. What you get is extraordinary.
I used to be a doctor. I’m used to how brains work and I’m serious about your brain [to Robin]. There’s something going on there that is very rare. To be able to process something so quickly and it comes out fully formed, the rhythm of the words. When I write a line, I struggle sometimes for days over getting the rhythm of the words right. Somehow it comes out perfectly formed. I don’t want to make you self-conscious but something happens.”
Williams (in Dustin Hoffman’s autistic voice): “Definitely feeling good, definitely feeling good. Definitely a good day.”
Miller: “I was very fortunate with the cast. They were wonderful people. My biggest problem was I had to say to everybody, ‘I can’t look at you. I have to close my eyes and imagine a penguin.’ And then occasionally, I’d look up and see all these faces and I’d say…”
Wood: “Ewwww.”
Miller: “‘Oh my God, what a crime,’ because it’s not being recorded. But, as Robin said, we did videotape and the performers and the animators scrutinized them so a lot of the spirit was there. No matter how much technology you put this through… I think there’s more computer power in this. It’s about the 87th most powerful…there’s a list of how much computer power people use, but it’s bigger than the big bang. It’s bigger than whole nations on all these digital films. Through all that computing, the essence of the human being just is there. I really believe that we won’t get to that point where you can make artificial actors.
Also, to say about Elijah, the other thing about you, Elijah… I have to say something complimentary to him. You get everything on take one. It’s amazing. You’re so precise because I know your voice better than you do. On cutting I had to go through every take. Somehow, you got to the truth of it in a moment, which I found really amazing. I know you’ve been acting for a long time but that skill… There are very few actors I know who can manage to do that. But even then you still do take after take after take. Then, the main thing you have to do is just let what happens between the actors happen, and just sit back.”
Did you do any rotoscoping of the penguins from their physical actions?
Miller: “We had Dr. Gary Miller who is known as Dr. Penguin. He spent 17 years in Antarctica. He knows them backwards. We worked on the characters from their skeleton up and there was a huge amount of reference material that we got on two expeditions down there. And, also a lot of documentary footage. We’d study range of motion, how penguins swam, how they walked, so there was an enormous amount of study. There was some little bit of rotoscoping of actual penguins but only as a way for the animators to go to penguin school, really.”
