Despite professing to "hate" her voice, 45-year-old Michelle Pfeiffer makes her second animated appearance (after "The Prince of Egypt") in "Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas". She'll next actually be seen on screen in the chick flick "White Oleander" (if it ever gets a UK release, that is).
Why did you decide to provide the voice for Eris, the Goddess of Chaos?
I spend much of my day trying to stay organised! I have a lot of lists and I'm trying to keep everything from spiraling into chaos. So the notion of letting it all go and giving in to it was just too tempting!
Is working on an animated film as rewarding as acting in a film?
No. It's a very different process. It's a lot more technical. It's really fun and I really like doing it, but you have to be much more conscious of what you're doing and actually hearing your voice back and making slight changes. Whereas in acting, it's more about being outside your head and not being aware of what you're doing. It's hard, especially for someone like me. I hate my voice. It's really hard and it's ironic to me that they would call me to do a voiceover for anything. But hey, here I am!
How much of the character already existed when you started doing the voice work?
There are usually some drawings or some renditions to see - these ultimately end up looking nothing like the finished product - but when you first go in, they have some sort of idea. But then the actor comes in and I think the performance changes the physicality of it. I didn't really get hip to my character until about two years down the road! She wasn't really developed when I first started doing the voiceover.
Is that why you went back to them and asked to do it again?
After I went back the fourth time, they seemed happy and then the movie was kind of done, animated, locked. I then wanted to go back in, and I redid about half if it. I think initially they were just humouring me because they were nice guys and they did put me through it. I told them I thought there were a few things I could improve on, and I think they were quite surprised that I was right.
"Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas" is released in UK cinemas on Friday 25th July 2003.
