Parsons’ latest big bang
Jim Parsons discusses the acrobatics of his animated role in with
Jim Parsons has won four Emmy Awards for his comedic turn as the brilliant but socially awkward theoretical physicist Sheldon Cooper on the long-running hit sitcom The Big Bang Theory.
Now he’s playing another smart misfit in DreamWorks Animation’s Home.
Parsons stars in the animated family film as Oh, an adorable purple alien from a race of hiveminded creatures called the Boov who worship their leader, Captain Smek (Steve Martin), and prize conformity above all else.
After the Boov arrive on Earth with an eye toward colonising the planet, Oh strikes up an unlikely friendship with a feisty human girl named Tip (Rihanna), and the pair become fugitives.
Home marks Parsons’ first lead role in an animated feature. Oh is quite endearing. I really, really like him. I saw a picture of him before I was ever cast and they were considering me. I just looked at him and said, ‘‘Am I appropriate to voice this?’’. . . One has such a definitive view in their head of what they bring and what they do [as an actor], which is limiting. It’s good other people offer these opportunities. Oh resembles you in some ways – in his eyes, his smile. Once you start voicing it and they start coming back with your animations, you do realise they are allowing the creature – in this case – to take on certain qualities that you bring. Sometimes it’s facial expressions, the way his mouth moves when he talks. They
Starry cast: told me from the beginning, ‘‘We will have a camera on you for every single session for that exact reason.’’ How did you find the voice acting experience? The very first session I had [DreamWorks Animation chief executive] Jeffrey Katzenberg gave me the most wonderful