Wild Robot, the latest animated movie featuring actress Lupita Nyong’o, will be available in theatres on September 27. Before then, the award-winning performer spoke about her role in the production and the lessons learnt from being the main voice on the project.
The film, based on a book by Peter Brown, tells the story of a robot that is shipwrecked on an uninhabited island and must learn to adapt to the harsh surroundings, but gradually builds relationships with the animals on the island and becomes the adoptive parent of an orphaned creature.
Speaking about her appearance, Lupita said she prepared for the voice acting role just like she would prepare for any other movie.
“I think a lot of the preparation is similar to being on camera, the difference though is that the only tool to have to convey my message is my voice so I have to develop a vocal vocabulary to do that, and that is its special kind of creative exploration,” she stated in an interview with GlobalGrind.
“I would say also what’s unique about doing voice, is that unlike live action, where on any given day you’re working on a scene or two, in vocal work you are working on every part of the movie every time you’re in the booth, so it’s all over the place. It’s a workout, but I enjoy that kind of challenge,” she added.
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She revealed losing her voice in the course of the project and had to stay “quiet” for three months.
“I learned that it’s fun to talk, it humbles you when you can’t use your voice because we don’t always think about what it takes to use our voice and I learned that simple things that I do in my life actually require my vocal chords…“even just humming, you can’t hum without using your vocal cords right; you can’t think of music without engaging your vocal cords, so that was tough,” The Wakanda Forever actress said.
Just like the main robot character Roz, in the movie, Lupita proved resilience to complete the project as she healed from the vocal strain.
“Roz (the robot) did not have the programming to be self-conscious — which is so beautiful…and in a sense, she overcomes her foreignness or her alienation by being true to herself.
“That’s such a great lesson that you can change your environment and you can prevail by being open to adaptation, but also remaining true to yourself,” she noted.
