Mike Myers reprises the voice of the lovable ogre Shrek and Antonio Banderas is back as that suave cat Puss In Boots in the animated family comedy, Shrek the Third. This time around Shrek and his crazy animal sidekicks have to find a suitable heir to the throne or else Shrek will have to take over as the King of Far Far Away.
Shrek – The Franchise: Myers had no idea that Shrek would spawn 2 and the Third. “I thought the idea was great," recalled Myers. "Jeffrey Katzenberg said, ’Would like you to be in an animated movie?’ I like Jeffrey and so I said, you know, ‘Tell me when, and what to wear.’ And then he said, ‘It's called Shrek.’ I said, ‘That's the worst title in the history of anything.’ And I was right. So, I didn't know. I never know anything is gonna be anything. You know, I do my best and see what happens.”
The Challenges of Voice Work: “When people ask me if this is more difficult than normal movies or theatre, or some of the other performance in which you can express yourself – actually, it's not,” said Banderas. “It's very easy. It is the method that you have to follow and you understand the studio and stuff like that – it's actually very easy. It wasn't at the beginning because I didn't know, actually, what world I was stepping in. I mean, I came to this country 17 years ago without speaking a word of English. The least thing that I thought is that somebody was going to call me and ask to use my voice. So, it was very surprising at the beginning.
The only problem is that I have observed in the first one was the fact that it was actually in previews on Broadway, when I had to do the hairball. And I had to talk [doing the cat voice] and then, at night, sing. I went to the theatre and all the girls, ‘What happened to you? You're kind of hung over.’"
Adding His Two Cents to the Story: Myers called the process a strange one. “It's extremely well-written, well-directed. I think this is the best of the three. I think that Jeffrey Katzenberg, Aaron Warner, Chris Miller, Andrew Adamson, all the writers, and all of the animators – there's many – they've done such a great job, that it is not so much input, as it is trying to figure out what's going on because you're not shown an entire script at any time. And you're only given, like – if this is the entire script, you record this much indicating a small amount. And then a couple months later, this much. You don't get a sense of the totality. So my questions were, ‘Where exactly am I in the film? Like, am I – you know, anxious about being the king here, or do I like this Artie character in this scene?’ Because you're never given an entire script. So, occasionally I would rephrase.
They're very respectful to me. It's an amazingly… I feel like I'm on a great Stanley Cup team and I'm a rookie, and they've let me take a few shifts. They're very respectful to me about my input.”
Asked why he believes Shrek the Third is the best of the lot, Myers replied, “Every serial character learns the same lesson in a different rite of passage. So, you have to have a reason why you come back and visit them, you know? It has such a sense of three-ness of it, that smartly honored the audience for having invested in one and two, and then have delivered on three. They're such great entertainers; I really feel like the whole team, that I go to school every time. Like, I come and I go, ‘Oh, that's just such a good idea. Oh, that's a good idea.’
You know, the first time we meet him he's a self-loathing ogre who doesn't accept himself, and doesn't feel he's worthy of love. The second one, he doesn't feel he's worthy of marriage. And then in this one, he doesn't feel he's worthy of being father of a country, or the father of a child. It's a logical progression, you know what I mean? It's a smart progression. You feel the weight of one and two in three. You feel honored to have watched one and two. I can say that because I'm a fan of the movie because all I do is the voice.”
Slipping Into Familiar Characters: Both Myers and Banderas had no problem getting back into their characters for Shrek the Third. Banderas said, “In my particular case it was easy, the only pressure was like, did I do something special that I was not totally in control in the second one that made the character so special and I may have just forgotten? But, no, immediately I got in front of the microphone and it was almost like a continuation, actually, of the other one.”
Myers added, “I love the world so much. It’s such a fun world and I get to see my old friends. And it’s an odd experience though, because you are in this booth. It’s kind of like being a combination, like, a goal judge in hockey and like in the witness protection program. Like, you are in this thing and you don’t really get a lot of feedback. You see the people in the booth and occasionally they go, ‘Let’s try another one.’ So, I have developed imaginary friends. I have this imaginary eagle that sits with me and I talk to her. And if it’s a particularly good take she goes ‘Ka!’ (Laughing) And if it’s a great take it does three ‘Kas.’ And I go, ‘What’s that? I was pretty good in that one.’”
Banderas said it’s very easy to lose himself in his character. “Sometimes I am just playing the character and I go out of the microphone. Somebody has to say, ‘The microphone is here,’ because I move a lot when I am performing the cat. And as you probably know, we have a camera in front of us so it made us look for that material, to see if they could incorporate some of the body language that we have into the character. It is a very freaky experience when you're looking at the character for the first time. Especially in close-up, you see this eye thing that he does and there are little touches here and there that you recognize as yourself, but it's fun. The process is fun. As much as you know it and you know the method, you're practically allowed to do anything that you want. No idea is going to be said no to in the beginning. They may just put it in the garbage later but you are allowed to actually improvise or just say the lines in many different ways, so they have a lot of material with which to work.”
Page 2: Voicing Donkey and the Puss In Boots Spin-Off
