Hugh Grant has never made an animated film before. It's not that he hadn't had the opportunity-- when you're a movie star with a fairly distinctive voice, those opportunities have to come around pretty often-- but that he was never handed an animated film script that seemed worth it, until Aardman Animation came calling. The British studio behind the Wallace & Gromit films and Chicken Run asked Grant to play a big-bearded, slightly insecure but very energetic Pirate Captain, and though Grant didn't exactly know why they thought of him for the role, he thought he'd finally found an animated film witty and engaging enough to take part in.
I spoke to Grant last week about how he transformed his voice to be the Pirate Captain, how as a voice actor in Aardman films you only get half of th eight gags that go into the final product, and then at the very end, we briefly talk about his upcoming role in Cloud Atlas. Pirates! Band of Misfits, which I loved-- opens this Friday.
