You spent most of the John Carter set on stilts, upping your height to nine feet to play John Carter’s extra terrestrial sidekick, Tars Tarkas. Have you ever done anything like that before?<\/strong><\/p>\nUm, not specifically stilts – but sometimes some sort of physical restriction or something that y\u2019know, helps you find the character. I had to with this of course because of the nature of motion capture and how we were approaching the animation.<\/p>\n
What did you think when you saw the character on screen?<\/strong><\/p>\nYou know, I kept saying, “can I see myself?” [laughs]. Maybe a little in the eyes, or when I smile? But when I watch it back, I mostly have associations with how it was filmed. It\u2019s difficult to watch your performances back.<\/p>\n
Even when it\u2019s not your own image on the screen?<\/strong><\/p>\nYeah \u2013 it\u2019s not your own image on the screen, but you remember shooting the scenes, even though it\u2019s on another body \u2013 you see the movement, you see your own impulses. The filmmakers really honoured the performances. So that\u2019s what kind of occupies your mind.<\/p>\n
It must be even weirder to see your own image but to see something that is clearly you.<\/strong><\/p>\nIt\u2019s pretty weird, yeah. I don\u2019t know how much is projection, how much I want to see me and how much really exists. I\u2019ve heard someone say: \u201coh, they used your voice for it then?\u201d But you can definitely see the actor behind it, you can see all that.<\/p>\n
How hard was it to get into that character?<\/strong><\/p>\nYou play the scenes like anything else really \u2013 it\u2019s got different restrictions on it, but it\u2019s my job to play the scenes and tell the story. As actors, we have that exchange and we\u2019re trying to get something from it.<\/p>\n
Had you read the books before?<\/strong><\/p>\nNo. Initially, it was the attraction of all the talent – Andrew [Stanton, director] and so on. Then when I saw the material, it was interesting.<\/p>\n
What did you see in Andrew? Did you spa off each other?<\/strong><\/p>\nI first worked with him when I did a voice on Finding Nemo. He worked on things over a long period of time, so I know how he does things. He constantly re-works characters and scenes and is very good with actors. The thing with voice work is that you can do lots of different types of projects and it doesn\u2019t hurt you. Andrew\u2019s flexibility, his ability to work with lots of different actors \u2013 really made me think, he\u2019s very good with actors. He knows how to push your buttons. Also, watching how he developed the story through trial and error and experimentation sold me on him \u2013 \u201cthis guy really knows how to tell a story.\u201d And then you see something like Wall-e, which is quite amazing. Even though I didn\u2019t know what it was, I knew that with a film on this scale, it would be interesting to get involved. I knew it was a passion project, too.<\/p>\n
You don\u2019t do many large-scale projects, but when you do, like Spiderman, they tend to be groundbreaking. This certainly feels slightly different to your usual summer blockbuster. Is that something that attracts you to these kinds of projects, aside from the story?<\/strong><\/p>\nI always know it\u2019s a big movie, but I\u2019m always attracted to the people involved. \n \nHave you ever felt like a martian in Hollywood?<\/strong><\/p>\nAll the time [laughs]! When I\u2019m not in LA and I\u2019m working and I\u2019m doing interesting things then I\u2019m happy. But I don\u2019t live there and, you know, it\u2019s an industry town. It doesn\u2019t always share the same values that I do. I usually find that some place else, not in Hollywood. Generally, it\u2019s not where I find my best opportunities.<\/p>\n
John Carter is out now.<\/em> \nWords: Jack Mills<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Talking to Willem Dafoe just after the release of his latest project, Pixar’s John Carter, Wonderland got the feeling he was as keen to find out about us as were were him – asking, “where are you from? I always ask journalists” – and discussing his distaste for egotism and working with artists he doesn’t […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":6207,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"gallery","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3632],"tags":[1342,1149,50,1850,1150,1892,1893,1891,1078],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
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