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REESE WITHERSPOON and SETH ROGEN
on 'MONSTERS VS. ALIENS'
Contributed by Michael J. Lee, Executive Editor
for Radio Free Entertainment
March 20, 2009
A contemporary homage to the monster and alien B-movies of cinematic yesteryear, Monsters vs. Aliens is a family-friendly animated adventure that tells the story of Susan Murphy (voice of Reese Witherspoon), a sweet and spunky bride-to-be who is transformed into a 49-foot-11-inches tall, super-powered giantess after being struck by a mysterious glowing meteorite the morning of her wedding. She is immediately wrangled by General W.R. Monger (voice of Kiefer Sutherland) and the US military and placed in a top-secret government confinement facility, where she is renamed "Ginormica." There, she is introduced to her fellow "monsters": the hungry, gelatinous mass with no brain, B.O.B. (voice of Seth Rogen); the brilliant mad scientist Dr. Cockroach, Ph.D. (voice of Hugh Laurie); the macho, trash-talking Missing Link (voice of Will Arnett); and a 350-foot bug, Insectosaurus.
But when earth is suddenly invaded by the evil alien Gallaxhar (voice of Rainn Wilson), General Monger advises the President (voice of Stephen Colbert) that the monsters could be the key to earth's salvation. A deal is quickly struck: in return for saving the world, the motley crew of Ginormica, B.O.B., Dr. Cockroach, Link, and Insectosaurus will be given their freedom. At first shy and timid and unsure of her sudden transformation, Susan eventually comes to see her unique differences as personal strengths, rallies to the challenge of being a superhero, and even stands up against her unsupportive fiance Derek (voice of Paul Rudd).
In this interview, Reese Witherspoon and Seth Rogen talk about working on the movie. Some highlights include Reese loving her superheroine and Susan's catsuit outfit, and Seth embracing clean comedy and B.O.B.'s big, brainless, endearing demeanor.
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The Interview
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MEDIA: Reese, what appealed to you about this character and film?
REESE: Well, when Mr. Katzenberg took me on the tour around the studio and showed me the artwork for this movie...First of all, I was really into this idea that the 1950s B-movie monsters became heroes. I watched a lot of those movies as a kid with my dad every like Saturday night they would be on, and I just thought it was a really good modern concept. And then, to put a movie at the center of the film was pretty amazing, because I've been offered some animated movies...probably not as many as my counterpart here. [laughs]
SETH: I do them all though, that's the difference. [laughs]
REESE: But they don't make a lot of movies with a woman at the center of it, and her story, so it was a great opportunity to create a female superhero, you know? I talk to my kids about like, "What's your favorite superhero?" and my son can name like 27 different male superheroes, and my daughter is like, "I don't know. The girl with the...? I can't remember any of them." So this is hopefully an opportunity that people will really start liking these characters and make more of them.
Seth, what's the biggest benefit of playing a character without a brain?
SETH: I do it often. I like it, I'm good at it, I should keep it up. I found my niche! [laughs]
Have you heard your characters dubbed with voices in other languages?
SETH: No. [to Reese] have you yet?
REESE: Yes.
SETH: Was it awesome?
REESE: The really cool thing...Well, Kiefer Sutherland and I went to Berlin and Madrid and London, and Paris and Rome, and so we got to hear all those different...And the amazing thing about DreamWorks, they hire actors who are very popular in their own countries, so you actually kind of get the great actors performing, and getting to interpret the character themselves, so it's actually a lot of different kinds of performances. It's very cool. Yeah.
Reese, do you think this story is about Susan finding her true self just as much as anything else?
REESE: Yeah. I mean, I think the movie's about a lot of different things. I remember being a kid and how important my friendships were, and I think this movie has a really strong friendship message in it, and how important those relationships are. And also that you know, if you feel a little different on the outside, there's a group of people you fit into. And you guys might just collectively save the world! Invent the internet!
SETH: [laughs] Exactly! "Create Apple"!
Seth, was it nice to tap into your inner child and do comedy that didn't involve cussing?
SETH: Yeah. Normally my roles are pretty intellectually deep. So it was nice to kind of shed those shackles and just be able to be immature, a little bit. [laughs]. But yeah. My first concern was how will I be funny without profanity? Definitely a real fear that I had. But the answer is, if you have very clever people to animate you, it makes up for all the profanity in the world, and actually makes for quite a delightful movie. [laughs] So they did it. Those guys did it.
Reese, does this kind of film afford you any perks as the mother of young children?
REESE: My kids managed to maintain their coolness for a while, but literally it has hit fever pitch at my house. They are rabid, and they wake up in the morning, like, when can we see this movie? When is the movie going to happen? My daughter who's 9 is trying to be cool. She's like, "It's okay. How many people can I bring to the screening? I invited the entire third grade. Is that okay, is that cool?" [laughs] But I'm really enjoying this moment, because my kids normally think I'm a gigantic dork, but they're so in love with me right now, it's great.
Have they seen it yet?
REESE: They have seen the movie, yeah. But they're ready to see the movie again, and again. And they want to bring friends this time.
How was it working solo in a recording booth?
REESE: They have like a height chart, so we knew how big we were, in relationship to each other. And when you'd be fighting a really big alien, they'd be like, "No no no no no, he's much bigger than that." Oh okay. And look even higher and throw your voice higher. But there's nothing really around you...
SETH: I would get naked and paint my body blue every time.
REESE: And put on an eyepatch.
SETH: Yeah, I'd have an eyepatch on. It was the only way I could do it. I wish there was another way.
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What are the pros and cons of making an animated movie?
SETH: I don't think there's really any cons. It's just a little different than your traditional filmmaking process, I guess you would say. But it's good. It's very performance based in a lot of ways. There's no technical aspects really to consider. There's no marks or cameras or lights or movement. You just stand there and talk.
REESE: That's hard for some people! [laughs]
SETH: Really? [laughs] I like it.
REESE: Sometimes if like you have other people to act off of, they can you know take part of the press conference from you. [laughs] But if you're alone, that's a challenge sometimes, I think. It was hard for me. It was almost like being back in acting class where you're doing monologues. There's nothing in front of you, there's nothing informing the whole story to you, and there's no other actors to work with. It's hard. Some parts are hard. But ultimately it's an opportunity to just be really silly and goof around.
SETH: You feel very goofy in there.
REESE: It's encouraged.
SETH: It's like you in a room going like [makes random sounds]. "Is that what you want? Is that what you're looking for?"
REESE: And they're filming you the whole time!
SETH: Yeah, they're filming you the whole time.
REESE: Like where is this take going?
SETH: Yeah, exactly. And I'm naked and blue.
What did you like about the character development process?
SETH: One of the things I liked about it was you can slowly develop the character throughout the process a whole lot more. When you're shooting a live action movie, you kind of have to know what you're doing by the time you show up on set, otherwise the stuff you're shooting first won't fit the movie and you've essentially failed. But in a movie like this, you can, like halfway through the process, realize like, "Oh, if I was doing it like this the whole time, it would have been a whole lot funnier!" And they're like, "Well literally in three hours, we can re-record everything you've done up till now." So that's what I like about it, is that it's a very fluid process. If you stumble upon a funnier way of doing something halfway through, you haven't ruined everything, you can literally just go back and re-do what you've done. And to me, it was nice, because you didn't have to...it wasn't as much of a commitment I guess every time, you could kind of try things out and they would test it out and see what worked, you know?
Reese, we understand you did a scene with Paul Rudd together?
REESE: Yeah. I get to do one scene with Paul Rudd. It was really funny. Where he gets to come in and break up with me. He was really great. It was fun, too, because I've known Paul for a really long time, and we had done a movie together. Yeah, that was actually weird, too, because I never had anyone in my tiny room. Like what are you doing in my tiny room? But it was really fun, we had a good time.
Reese, had you ever been offered this kind of superhero role before?
REESE: Well, I was hoping people would know my secret identity is a superhero. No, I had never been offered this kind of thing before. I don't think they make a whole lot of female superheroes. It's the first one I had even heard of, you know, other than Wonder Woman on television in the '80s.
SETH: Doesn't help that the two they made movies out of were Catwoman and Elektra.
Was it fun to do a movie where you didn't have to worry about hair and make-up so much?
REESE: Yeah. It's certainly great to be able to stay in LA, too. You can finally make a movie in LA nowadays in the current economy! But yeah, I thought it was great. I barely brushed my hair and show up. And then I discovered they were filming me the whole time, with a microscopic camera. And my vanity like went through the roof! The next time I showed up in a cute outfit, I was like, "Hey, what's going on? If you could just erase those old files..." [laughs]
What superpower do you think would be cool to have?
REESE: The power to be tall would be a fantastic thing. Or invisible. Be invisible. I'd probably have to go with invisible. We were in France and somebody asked what was their favorite...it was one of our characters doing the voiceover, and he was like, "I would like to bounce."
SETH: It's overrated. [laughs]
What toys did you grow up with that might have fired your imagination as a kid?
REESE: Well, my brother was really into Star Wars, and I was really into the...and he had the whole carrying case. You remember?
SETH: Oh yeah, that's awesome!
REESE: And he had all the characters inside it. So we'd play with that for hours. And also my son every morning wakes up with the Monsters Aliens characters, and I have to pretend to the giant robot. And then Insectosaurus gets to slam me in the head. Yeah, it's fun.
What were your reactions when you first saw your characters?
SETH: [laughs] People claim that the character does, people like, it kind of smiles like you. I don't know if that's true or not, but...eh, I'll take it with a great of salt I guess. Yeah, sure. But how did I feel when I...? I thought it was a cool character. They explained to me kind of the dynamics of it and it just seemed funny. It seemed like it was a clear joke. "He has no brain, he's hungry all the time." I get that! So it was, yeah, I got it... [laughs]
REESE: When I saw my character, I was stoked! From the time she like busted out of the church and she's wearing that miniskirt, she looks so cute! And my girlfriend and I saw it with our kids, and she turned to me at the end when Susan wakes up and she's in this catsuit, like Ziggy Stardust, all cool, she says, "You look so hot!" "I know!" I didn't have to wear that outfit. I was so excited. It was awesome.
Thanks for your time.
REESE: Thank you.
SETH: Thank you guys.
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