Debra Messing on the Timing of Open Season: Messing says she wasn’t necessarily looking to do an animated project when Open Season came along. “You know, it came to me without looking. The timing of it was so perfect because I was pregnant at the time. I was also working on Will and Grace at the time, but as you know animation takes three plus years to do. I’m such a big fan of animation. It’s something I’ve always wanted to try and so when it came up it was just like, ‘Oh thank you.’”
Messing explained how she became involved in Open Season: “I came into it about a year and a half into their process. They had just finished doing the renderings. They had pictures up all over the place of just the animation itself of the valley and then some of the different characters. They had some of the script, but for the most part when I went in there I didn’t have a script to read. They just pitched the film to me verbally and said these are the relationships and etc. I feel like it was already in place although I feel like they would probably say, ‘We didn’t have anything and we got Debra. We encouraged her to bring as much life to the character…,’ which they did. But I don’t feel like it was me. I feel like it was collaborative.”
Checking Out the Finished Product: What was it like for Messing to see the completed film for the first time? “I felt like I knew the relationship more, you know? It’s like you read it on the page, but you don’t really know. Usually you discover it as you’re acting it, but in this case I wasn’t acting with anybody. I was acting with the different directors.
I felt like it was very gratifying to sit and watch those scenes. You do get the tenderness between. You do get the playfulness, that there were colors to the relationship that you intellectually hope will be gleamed, but don’t know until you watch it yourself.”
The Disadvantages of Voice Work: Being alone in a recording studio means there’s no actor to play off of. “I never had [Martin Lawrence’s] voice to play opposite, which was really shocking. The whole process of working in animation at first was so intimidating and scary because you have no one to act opposite. So much of it is having courage to try different things and to make yourself look like an idiot, and putting your trust and faith in other people’s hands to put it together to make it funny or tender or what have you. You really just hand over it all and they really become the architect of the whole creative vision. At first, that was kind of scary and daunting. Very quickly, it became thrilling and liberating. I just really fell in love with the whole thing of rolling out of bed in my sweatpants and not having to put on makeup. Not having to brush my hair.
You know, walking into a studio and having all of these people who are so excited about this project and passionate and playful... I mean, people who are in animation are animated people. It’s infectious. Their energy is infectious. No matter what, when you walk into that room it’s inspiring. The whole process of playing became just that. I was never worried about anyone judging me and saying, ‘Oh that was awful.’ Everything was just, ‘Okay, let’s try something else.’ It was almost like going back to graduate school and being in a theatre games class where it’s like, ‘Oh let’s try this.’”
Even though Messing had a good time working with the animators and directors, the experience of acting solo was still unnerving. “I think it was giving up control,” said Messing. “At first it was scary. You just feel like, ‘Okay, what are you going to do with my performance of these 10 versions of the same line that I just said? I’ve done 10-15 versions of every single line and you don’t know which ones they are going to put together and what the performance is ultimately going to be. By the end, it’s all about working with the best people.”
