Bruce Willis and Wanda Sykes: Raccoon and Skunk

Comic Wanda Sykes (Monster-in-Law, My Super Ex-Girlfriend) and classic action-man Bruce Willis (a million Die Hards, The Sixth Sense, Sin City, etc.) never met while voicing Stella the skunk and R.J. the raccoon for the upcoming animated film Over the Hedge. When we met the dynamic duo recently in Beverly Hills, Bruce confided that voice animation work was one of the biggest acting challenges of his career. His voice for Spike in the "Rugrats" animated movie was easier for him. Wanda just got a kick out of being a skunk with a serious 'tude. Would the two do voices again? Wanda is a cow in the upcoming The Barnyard and Bruce says he's up for Over the Hedge 12.

So what's the process of recording an animated voice over long months? How do you get back into character when the recording crew comes to get more furry animal voice six months later when you are in the middle of filming a tough action film or feature comedy? Okay, you are sitting across from Wanda (in "Ladies Night" super heroine red tee and pants) and Bruce (in Over the Hedge baseball cap , tee under short-sleeved shirt and jeans). Let them tell you...Warning: You can't take everything they say seriously.

TeenHollywood: You two are used to playing off other actors, getting a laugh or a reaction immediately. So how hard is it to act when you are in a recording booth and don't have anyone to react to?

Bruce: It's the hardest theatrical experience I've ever attempted. Really. You take away all of the actor's tools. There are no props, no other actor to work with. There is not even somebody, most of the time, reading the lines. You're just doing your lines and they continually change. It was like flying... I don't know. I can't think of a difficult enough metaphor for it.

Wanda: It was difficult for me because I was trying to find the voice for this character. It wasn't Wanda Sykes. Usually I just show up. People hire me to come in and just be me and just deliver a joke. I've never had a character that actually had an arc so it was like 'I might have to act'. I felt very vulnerable. It was very stressful.

Bruce: There were big chunks of time [between recording sessions] sometimes. I think I worked about sixteen or eighteen times and I would be in a different city like New York or Toronto and they would come and find me and it would be four months since I'd worked with them and the story had changed and the script had been honed more and things that maybe Wanda had done in her session now impacted the scenes that I had with her because they never thought it was the right thing to do to put us in the same room and work together.

TeenHollywood: So, with all this time in between, was it hard to get back into character as a small raccoon?

Bruce: It would take me sometimes almost an hour to re-find the character and, sometimes, if my voice was scratchy from the work that I was doing during the day on another film, I wasn't able to even find that voice again [does demo voice] of R.J. I was shooting 16 Blocks which is this very serious dour, alcoholic, beat-up character and I'd go into the studio and have to leave that outside and try to be R.J. and be funny, wheeeee! And it makes you feel vulnerable, because it's like standing in your underwear in front of the principal. Let's keep in mind that we're not really thinking the raccoon thought or the skunk thoughts. I'm not sure any of these animals think anyway except maybe [points] 'is that an acorn over there?' I think we all just tried to apply human emotions to it. Isn't that what's the interesting part of this to see human emotions grafted onto an animated fuzzy little animal?

TeenHollywood: When did you first see the animation of your character?

Bruce: It was pretty far down the road. It was at least a year in until I saw any little two-minute segment of animation. It was by far, and I speak for us both, the hardest thing that we've ever done because it's hard to be funny. It's hard to make people laugh anyway. It's hard to do that when you are working with other actors and they are in the same room, in the same space, in the same scene and you've got props and things. And a script that doesn't change and doesn't continually change. We didn't have any of those things. We were in a dark room, by ourselves with an audience of five people: the director, the writer, the producer and the guy actually in the control booth. I saw a rough screening of it that still had animated cards on it that say 'Here's a sketch of Steve Carrell's character [Hammy] and my character doing something.' Because it wasn't done yet. For it to come together and be as funny as it turned out to be, for both kids and adults is a miracle I think. Unbelievable that it worked.

Wanda: He's Bruce Willis so they showed him more. I got like stick figures on a piece of paper and 'This is you.' (Laughs.)

TeenHollywood: Wanda, given your comedic background, was there any sort of improv?

Wanda: Yes. Actually all of us did. We all got to improv and I'm aware of that because the script kept changing. You'd go in and record and then a couple of months later they call you back in and you're doing the scene again, but it's all changed because maybe Bruce added something or Garry [Shandling who plays turtle Vern] added something and changed it all around. But, early on, yeah we did get to play around a lot.

TeenHollywood: So, let's say you goof off and change the lines while in the booth and they use it. Then the other actors just have to adjust and change their own lines?

Bruce: Yeah. What we do in the booth affects what the other actors do and vice versa. So, we come back and the script kept getting funnier and better and more focused. At the same time, the animators are working as fast as they can. Sometimes the animation got ahead of the script and sometimes the script got ahead of the animation, but it's like an incredibly hard math problem. At the time, you never know if it is going to work.

TeenHollywood: So, this was a different experience than "Rugrats" then?

Bruce: Yeah, that was a character that was already established and on the show for a long time. And the novelty of that was that Spike speaks in the film. This new character was created from scratch and it's not based on any character that already existed. So, difficult.

TeenHollywood: Don't they film you then use gestures and mannerisms that they see you do while recording the voices? They take those and put them on the little characters?

Bruce: Yes but you forgot about it because it was a tiny little lipstick camera. I always forgot it was there. In trying to get to some of the wackiness of R.J. I would do stuff and go arrrr or have a look on my face or whatever. And then when I saw the rough cut I said 'they took that animation based on what I did when I was doing the voice'.

Wanda: They filmed me in bed. I don't understand that. I think they thought that that's when I really stunk it up. I don't know. It was weird. He had a whole different experience.

Bruce: I saw some of that. I actually got a DVD out of it. I don't know if you got one.

Okay, now these guys are totally fooling with me...

Bruce: I actually went out and lived with some woodland creatures for about three weeks. Didn't get anything from them so that didn't work. Had to throw all that preparation away. I was bit by a possum. It, apparently, is called an opossum, did you know that? And they actually do play possum if they are frightened. Did you ever hear that 'playin' possum'?

TeenHollywood: Yes, Bruce. I've heard that [I'm trying not to laugh]. When the directors were in here earlier they said that every now and then you had to bring your voice up a bit. Was that hard?

Bruce: That was helpful. I think the appropriate metaphor was that we were all lost in the woods in the dark and they were the guys with the flashlights going 'over here. This is where the character is. Be this guy, talk like this. You've got to pitch it up a little more' because I was lost. I always felt like we were just lost in the woods and these guys Karey and Tim [directors] were the guys that had the map. I didn't think that I was getting to it. I didn't think that I was getting to the comedy. I didn't think that I was getting to the character. I was so relieved when I saw a rough cut of the film. Not even that I saw it but that I heard people laughing. I heard kids laughing at certain times and heard teens and adults laughing at certain times. I was so happy to hear that that I hardly paid attention. I look forward to seeing it. The film that I saw, the last third of if had just sketches of me and Wanda, really rough.

TeenHollywood: Wanda did you like your character especially when the skunk became a cat?

Wanda: Yeah, that was sweet. That was a nice moment but I was more happy about the fact that she blows her cover and the way she really is.

Bruce: And can a turtle actually come out of its shell? I thought there should have been more exploded animals. Come on, that was a staple of cartoon characters.. Wiley Coyote.

Wanda: A stick of dynamite blew him up.

Bruce: A ton of dynamite could blow and your jaw falls off or your leg falls off. There's one explosion in this where the umbrella burns up and we plunge to earth.

Wanda: One of my favorite moments.

Bruce: Or getting run over by a steam roller and you're flat and then just picking yourself up. I thought they should do more of that.

TeenHollywood: Whole different kind of animation, Bruce. There are a lot of movies coming out with furry creatures. Why should teens go see this one?

Bruce: I haven't seen any of those other films, so I don't really know. I don't have any way to compare it. I just know from the testing that this studio has done. This film has tested higher than any other animated film that's ever been done.

Wanda: It tested higher than The Godfather! (Laughs.)

Bruce: It tested higher than The Passion of the Christ. (Laughs.) I'm just kidding. But, I don't know how to answer that. I think it's just miraculous that it is as funny, for a broad range of audience members, as it can possibly be. There are jokes in there that were specifically written and meant to make kids laugh. There are jokes meant to make teenagers laugh and there are jokes that are specifically there to make the adults laugh.

TeenHollywood: It also has something to say about co-existing with animals in the suburbs and also about humans being so into over consumption of everything.

Wanda: Yeah. Also, I think, like Bruce says it's funny. That's the first thing up front. I think if a family goes and sees this movie, they will walk out and talk about it later on. Kids will have some questions and, y'know, that's what I think makes a good movie, when it sticks with you and it sparks some kind of conversation. I think this has all those things in it.

TeenHollywood: And a very funny skunk and raccoon!

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Lynn Barker is a Hollywood-based entertainment journalist and produced screenwriter.