Jessica Alba, Sofia Vergara & George Lopez Take on Aliens in New Movie
- Details
- Category: Interviews
- Created: Friday, 15 February 2013 08:39
- Published: Friday, 15 February 2013 08:39
- Written by Lupe Haas
ESCAPE FROM PLANET EARTH packs in the Latino talent with George Lopez, Jessica Alba and Sofia Vergara lending their voices as alien beings in the animated comedy. The actors tell CineMovie why voicing the characters was an alien experience and if they believe in creatures from outer space.
With an all-star cast also featuring the voices of Brendan Fraser, Sarah Jessica Parker, Jane Lynch, and William Shatner, Jessica Alba was the rookie voicing the character of Lena, a chief in the alien’s version of NASA – BASA Mission Control. The mother of two found it difficult voicing her first animated character at first. Having no visuals in front of her or another actor to play off of, she found herself saying “random things” and unsure of what she was doing.Veteran voice actor George Lopez (Beverly HIlls Chihuahua), who plays the three-eyed, four-armed alien in ESCAPE FROM PLANET EARTH, agrees with Alba. For his first time in a recording booth, he found himself spewing “random things” into the microphone. He, too, doubted himself during his initiation.
- "I had no idea how far to push it, and then by the third session I got a lot more comfortable with the idea of just hearing my own voice against nothing.”
“But when you see it you think I don't even remember that. It's hard to connect everything together but it is the hardest way to start. If you start like that, then everything else is easy."Sofia Vergara isn't a stranger to voice work either, but as her second animated film, she found it to be different this time around. For her first job as a voiceover artist in Happy Feet 2, she flew to Australia to work alongside Robin Williams and Hank Azaria recording the voices simultaneously in a booth. Her time with the two funny actors “was a lot of fun.” For ESCAPE TO PLANET EARTH, the Modern Family star didn’t have that luxury of working with other actors, but alone in a booth, which she says only took two hours and was “really easy.”
Sophia's biggest challenge was creating the voice of reporter Gabby Babblebrock. "I just didn't want to sound too much like Gloria, she says. “Journalists, they don't talk normal like this. I didn't want people to think that it was Gloria giving the news!" She did one problem with the film. “I walked down the aisle and my ass looked huge!"
ESCAPE FROM PLANET EARTH features a large Latino cast, and according to Sophia she really hadn't noticed. "I hadn't thought about that because now it's so normal. You know, we are everywhere now!”
Jessica Alba used to be everywhere in Hollywood, but she has since scaled back her work since giving birth to her first child four years ago. Being a mom weighs in on the projects Alba chooses. She no longer works eleven and a half months away on location since becoming a mother. “If I take a role I bring my kids with me and I also don't do as much,” Alba says. “I'm much more picky with the roles I take."
She also finds herself much closer to home since starting up her own company, The Honest Company in Santa Monica. Jessica's job is still a mystery to her daughter.
"It's weird to her because mommy going to work is her sitting in a trailer, or me in Spy Kids, or in this movie. Or it's me in my office at The Honest Company and she's playing in the children's corner and running around and throwing paper airplanes at their desk. She doesn't know the difference."So do any of the stars of the film believe in life on other planets? Jessica Alba thinks so, "I think it's weird to say that there is absolutely none in any other universe but I'm also not sitting there waiting to be abducted by aliens."
George believes that we've done so much exploration in space that he hopes there is, "I just think that it would be exciting. There's a lot going on out there but clearly there is none on the sun."
Sophia also agrees with them, "I think you can never say no, and why not? It's a huge galaxy."
ESCAPE FROM PLANET EARTH is in theaters February 15th.