As with most animated movies, the actors did not record their voices together. They were never in the same room while the recording sessions were going on, and Cusack said he didn't have a problem going it alone. "It's okay. I can imagine Molly doing it, and then you start to hear her as the film progresses. They get tracks down and you get to play off of her anyway. It would have been nice to be in the same room, but we were different places."
Cusack and Shannon said that they each did about 15 voice recording sessions total. "We committed to record and do about 10 or 15 sessions, but these guys slave over it for two or three years. The amount of work they do, the animation is so incredible, the director and animators, it's a lot of work. And I'm sure that they did it for a 20th of [the budget of the] Pixar movies. Who knows how much it is, but it looks great," said Cusack.
To Cusack, doing voice work on an animated film is very similar to some of the work he does on live action films. "You can still [act out scenes], you are by the mic, and you can do whatever you want. And you loop things all the time for acting, too. You have the scene done and then you have to replace about 30 or 40 percent of the dialogue usually anyway."
Shannon's Eva is about 10 feet tall and as large as a house, but she behaves as though she's a delicate flower. She's also a bit of a diva. "I just kind of thought about when I first started acting," explained Shannon when asked if there was a specific actress she modeled the character after. "I went to NYU Drama School and I remember being like, 'I'm going to New York City to take acting classes and have coffee and take notes.' It was that innocence that I just thought about, I could really relate to that character. She's in a fantasy about all of show business, it was a really fun character to play."
"Tony Leondis, the director, is so positive. This is like a big deal for him," added Shannon. "He was easy to work with. He's like, 'That's so fantastic!' He's so encouraging. 'What did you think of the look?' I loved the look of the character. I always notice voices in animation. I notice when they're wrong. I don't think all actors are right for animation or voice-overs, so I was just hoping that it would be okay, that I could fill up what the character looked like with my voice."
Director Leondis not only allowed but encouraged his actors to improvise. "He liked that. The last session I did he was like, 'You know we should make this bit funnier. Do you have in mind anything?' So we riffed on a couple of things," said Cusack. "I think he put it in, the last session we did he put some new things in there. He was always open to stuff, but the script was really great."
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Igor hits theaters on September 19, 2008 and is rated PG for some thematic elements, scary images, action and mild language.
