Hi, Scott.
Hey, how are you?
Yeah, man, how are you?
You know, even when I hear about.
No, you're not in the heatwave like we are.
I'm in New York City, which is having a similar heatwave.
At night, at night, at the very sway of the north, by the way.
Congratulations on that on the film.
Thank you.
I'll start with the the important question,
which is I was forbidden by my girlfriend and other people
not to do my Mrs. Doubtfire, with you, because you taking in this project.
So I want to I want you to check that out anyway.
Anyway, the reason I ask you about that, William, with Robin,
we're going to do one of the things that a big part of this is going to do is
getting quite a kick out of
the capital of this is this is a fun place to play.
When you came out of the twilight world.
So it can be quite a rewarding reward, a different turn to the live action stuff.
It's fun.
It is a it's exhausting because
it's generally obviously it's just you and the director.
You don't do your voice work with the other actors, which is strange
in some ways, but also enables the focus to be entirely on you.
Which actors, of course, love.
So and you only usually do about a four hour session at the most
because it's just the toll it takes on your voice and on your
just generally your use of energy because you have to put in.
It isn't just your voice that's working.
You're doing all the physical movements or the facial expressions
because they're filming it
so that they can give that to the animators as reference.
It's fun.
It's it's another sort of string to your bow, really.
And it's it's it's always intense and rewarding.
I guess it's always the one thing
tonight I would say about that, about finding a hundred different versions
of, say, the most basic bass lines because they want they want everything.
I'd say that is a challenging thing to do because normally usually, you know,
especially in a comedy film, the only one they actually actually wouldn't get
in the finals or is where you're that you're
basically kind of giving the director the tools
to to to build the film
with the animators and with the other voice tracks.
So what they want from you is very, very specific.
I remember I worked with Brad Bird on Mission Impossible Ghost Protocol.
This that was his first live action film, but he directed us like he was directing
animated characters.
Like the specificities of his notes were incredibly helpful, actually.
I find I really loved it. I love Brad. Anyway, he's a lovely man.
But as a as an animation director, you are forensic about what you need
and what you want.
So yeah, I'll do maybe six reads minimum of of a single line, usually more
until the
director like Peggy Holmes in this case, who was brilliantly helpful
and incredibly enthusiastic all the way through, she always laugh
even off even I said the same joke for the 20th time.
She always laugh, which was lovely.
Yeah, it's it's a case
of, you know, getting each little machine tools, piece of the puzzle
ready to be inserted into the Big Apple thing, you know?
Yeah. Yeah.
I mean, if tapes are made inside out right now, you know,
that's kind of reached the pinnacle, by the way, like my black Cadillac,
which, you know, I guess some people might have said, like, you're in your career.
And I thought what was this one done to my life before?
So what was it? There was this this script.
And this is not one that they want to in this film.
I just loved the kind of the sheer complexity of the
of the concept about this this land of luck,
this other dimension where luck was created in the most sort
of, you know, complicated
way and all this all the details of how things are created,
it just felt so complex to really just describe
what is a sense, ostensibly an office block.
That's what the land of luck is.
You know, it's like two office blocks
and they're doing a mundane job that just it's just admin,
but it's done in the most mystical, you know, brilliantly realized way.
The the concept designs that I got given that
showed Bob and showed the land of like it just felt like, oh, this is great.
You know,
this is really, really sort of it's going to be it's going to look beautiful,
but it's also underpinned by a really sort of serious
kind of story about a kid this aged out of foster care.
You know, I love I love things that, you know, that have a real heart
like that, like up you know, it starts off with a guy losing his wife.
You know, this is about a kid who's never had a family because she's a man.
She's too old.
It's kind of it gives a real depth and nuance.
Yeah.
The decision was
it was have the sad night when you know, when you spoke about not only in silence,
but in some of your family, if not most of the other half space
was heavily about it.
So how did you start to get into that voice?
Voice of the cat. Of the cat.
Well, it had to be
because Scotland is the only place in the world where black cats are considered
to be lucky.
You know, you cross
the border into England and they go back to being unlucky again.
And everywhere else in the world they tend to be a bad omen.
But Scotland, black cats are lucky.
So Bob, being who he is and what he's up to is necessary
that he is of that particular sort of ethnic origin.
So it was, it was, it was,
you know, compulsory really for the story that I do Scottish again.
Do you think you'd ever make that. I'm I don't know. No, no, no.
I guess, I guess I guess I guess you can count that you've been in a movie with Jane Fonda.
and Whoopi Goldberg,
I mean, I don't want to do a I mean I mean, maybe Jane Fonda.
I don't know.
That's something that I've met I've met Whoopi.
I know Whoopi from, you know, work with Star Trek Family Man Whoopi.
So we've we've of course, we've met and had a hug before.
I met Jane once Cinemacon just to say hello to
and obviously introduce myself as a as a fan.
You know, she's such a legend
as an actor and an activist and just an icon, you know.
But no, I'm always delighted to whatever job I get, you know,
to, to, to, to get the opportunity to work with people like that.
It's it's a real gift, you know?
Yeah.
I do want to ask you, obviously now, I thought I spoke to you at the BAFTAs
and you're excited about Mission Impossible.
Now you've seen the trailer and fans are really excited for that
because the trailer is very specific and it's quiet.
Everything is kind of the way it's shot.
Everything is not the big ballistic kind of action movie.
It's actually quite a depth to it.
Were you excited?
The fact is that is that reflective of the film?
Can you say anything about that or is it.
Yeah, I think there's actually interior, but it's a brilliant try.
Really, really.
Well, my trailer is you know, one of the great things about the trailer,
as well as that lone wolf composer composed music specifically
for the trailer is incredible and he's very prolific as well.
And I think when McQ
was sort of like putting the trailer together and Lorne was just sort of,
you know, scoring it like like he would the movie, it just made it feel
all the more sort of bespoke and and effective.
And yeah, this is, you know, it's called dead reckoning parts one and two.
And it is and I always sort of like puzzle
how after we finish a mission movie, how are we going to do another one?
And we've done it now again and then we're about to do it again.
And it's kind of it it's a testament, I think, to the
to the enduring popularity of those films that
people keep coming back.
And I also think Tom Cruise and Christopher (McQ)uarrie just wouldn't
ever sit back and think, okay, we know how to do this now.
They constantly challenge themselves.
They constantly make things difficult.
I mean, mission impossible as a parallel to luck is a perfectly good example of,
you know, making a movie where you convert every moment of bad luck into good luck.
So if something goes wrong, like you did with Tom's ankle in in Fallout,
you use that time to rewrite the movie or you edit some stuff together
so you can see where you're going with with the pandemic and mission impossible
every time there's been a setback
because of the difficulties of form of filming in that situation,
they've turned it into something that's done good for us, you know,
and I think I think they're going to be amazing.
And they've raised the bar
as much money as we can take.
Well, hopefully it will make paramount make paramount
to open that wallet.
Yes. Yes, sir.
Simon, always, always
good luck with the movie and look forward to mission one and two, one and two.
Thanks, Scott. Thanks. Bye.