Rapper finds right voice for ‘Smallfoot’
LOS ANGELES — Common — rapper, actor, Emmy- and Oscar-winning songwriter — voices the Stonekeeper, a mountaintop village's yeti leader, in Friday's animated musical “Smallfoot.” “Being part of this movie, we were free to do what we do as actors and let our voices go and play in the world of yetis,” Common, 46, said of the evolution of “Smallfoot” from a comedic cultural collision between yetis and humans to a full-out musical where Common raps, James Corden does Broadway razzmatazz and Zendaya duets with Channing Tatum.
“You come out there and just try different things,” Common said. “You don't worry what people are going to think. Karey (Kirkpatrick, director and co-writer) has written musicals so he knew what could work.”
The Stonekeeper is a strict leader who rules according to ancient tablets — the “stones” that comprise his ample cloak.
He preaches that the yetis who live high above the clouds must never go down below where humans are. Humans don't exist because the stones say so.
Which isn't true, as Tatum's Migo discovers when he meets the English podcaster Percy (a lively James Corden), who is a `smallfoot' compared to the 10-foot-tall yetis.
“Everything the Stonekeeper does was a collaboration of me bouncing things off with Karey until he says, `That's it right there.'
“Stonekeeper couldn't sound like me, he's not from the South Side of Chicago. So I had to find that voice,” Common said.
Stonekeeper presents a timely issue: Aways tell the truth? Or do you make up stories to shield people from harsh truths?
“I don't think Karey's intention was to be socially relevant and speak to the times,” Common said.
“But this film is discussing some of the things we've been encountering these past years of challenging that narrative of what we should always be doing.
“The notion that people who don't look like us should not be part of our story and our land. Creating that fear of the other people, like when Stonekeeper says, `The smallfoot will help destroy our peace and our order.'
“That mentality is what we've been seeing with our government and administration. If you get into certain religions too, people say, `This is the way to do it.'
“We have to find truth for ourselves and questions things we have been told.”