Creative art
‘Anything is possible’ for Annie Murphy in voicing ‘Praise Petey’
For Annie Murphy, being heard but not seen in the wild, weirdly outrageous and dementedly funny Freeform animated series “Praise Petey” is a little bit of creative heaven. “Weird’s the word that
I use about ‘Petey,’” the “Schitt’s Creek” Emmy winner began. “It’s an incredibly hilarious, incredibly bizarre trip into the mind of Anna Drezen who in my opinion is the funniest woman on the face of the earth.”
An actress and comedian, Drezen is best known as the head writer for “Saturday Night Live.”
“I knew this was the job for me,” Murphy, 36, continued, “when I read that Petey, my character, was dating a literal plank of wood. It’s that kind of bizarre. Since anything is possible when you have animation, they really went for it.”
Murphy discovered it’s in the recording booth that “Praise Petey” really takes shape. “We do all the recording and then they animate according to what we’ve recorded. It’s such a strange, new world for me, voice acting. What’s great about voice work is that it takes up very little time compared to film and TV. But I did miss having scene partners, because you’re basically all alone in the booth, doing your own lines.
“But it was also great because even though we were at the height of COVID when we were recording, we were able to do ‘table reads’ over Zoom together. So we could get an idea of who was doing what, get an idea of the pace and the chemistry between everybody. So it didn’t feel like we were entirely alone. We knew the other people were floating around out there.”
Regarding the future Murphy knows, “I just want to keep doing cool projects with cool, kind people. I hope to not pigeonhole myself because I’d love to do as many genres as possible. And just try to make hay while the sun shines.”
That includes her recent “Black Mirror” episode, “Joan Is Awful” opposite Salma Hayek. It opened the series’ sixth season. “I am still in shock that I did a ‘Black Mirror’ episode! It was a real mind bender.”
As for her newly acquired status as an in-demand actor, “For the first time I’m starting to get actual offers — as opposed to auditions. That feels so wonderful for so many reasons. But mainly because I am terrible at auditioning. It makes me so anxious.
“I’ve not been in this position before and it feels really good, but I’m not taking it for granted. I know that the pendulum always swings the other way.”
“Praise Petey” streams on Freeform July 21