• ABOUT RPRN
• NEWSROOM
• Plans and Pricing
• WRITING TIPS
• DIRECTORIES

From House Calls to Cockroach Hugh Laurie Remains in Character

March 20, 2009

Download PDF

HOLLYWOOD, CA (RPRN) 03/20/09 — Hugh Laurie, brainy cockroach

Hugh Laurie interview on his role in the latest feature animation comedy from DreamWorks Animation

By Robin Rowe

  - In Monsters vs. Aliens, Hugh Laurie is the voice of the brilliant but insect-headed Dr. Cockroach, Ph.D., who leads along with a ragtag group of monsters on a mission to defeat an invading space alien.

“These animated films have sort of really become the summit of modern entertainment,” says Monsters vs. Aliens star Hugh Laurie. “I love the freedom of messing around and trying to create something in a voice. It’s exciting and a fun challenge. I love doing animated projects. You wear your own clothes.”

“I was immediately entranced by that wonderful ‘50s feel, which is not only wonderfully relevant to the style of story they were trying to tell,” says Laurie. “It was a great period of American design. I was sold as soon as I walked in through the door. I didn’t tell them that, of course.”

“After a lovely tour around the DreamWorks Animation campus, I was presented with this massive amount, almost like a museum, of artwork that they’d already composed,” says Laurie “I suppose to start to get a sense, for their benefit and for prospective actors or designers and so on, of the world they were trying to create. I hemmed and hawed and stroked my chin and I tried to play hard to get, but I was in for a ride from the word go.”

“We wanted somebody very formal and erudite,” says Monsters vs. Aliens co-director Rob Letterman. “We thought that would be a great contrast with the whole ‘cockroach bad’ thing. And so, we immediately thought of Hugh. A lot of people don’t realize, at least people in the States, that he’s a Brit. Hugh Laurie is obviously mostly known in the States for ‘House,’ but he is a famous actor for many years in England. He did ‘The Black Adder’ with Rowan Atkinson and he’s an incredible comedic actor. We were fans of his prior to ‘House.’ So it was very fortunate to have him on the movie.”

Laurie was recently awarded an OBE by the Queen.

Reese Witherspoon stars as California girl Susan Murphy, struck by a meteor full of outer space gunk on her wedding day, she grows to 49-feet-11-inches tall. Will Arnett stars as macho fish-ape The Missing Link. Seth Rogen stars as the gelatinous and indestructible B.O.B. General W.R. Monger is voiced by Keifer Sutherland from the FOX drama 24. And, the 350-foot baby grub Insectosaurus has no voice.
Dr. Cockroach has a plan

Dr. Cockroach has a plan

“There’s a wonderful detail when Susan finds herself in a deserted San Francisco, about to do battle with the enemy,” says Laurie. “It’s silent. In an old Western, they might have had the wind or tumbleweed going through or a distant church bell. But in this film, they have pigeons. You can just hear a very distant pigeon cooing. Details like that that make the whole project so pleasing and so rich.”

Monsters vs. Aliens was influenced by ‘B’ movies from the ‘50s and their print advertising, and also Mad magazine of the period.

Letterman had just finished directing Shark Tale when he scheduled a meeting with CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg to discuss his next project. “He asked me to take a look at a project that was

in development about monsters,” says Letterman. “I’d always wanted to do a comedy, kind of like the film The Dirty Dozen. The monsters are a type of rogue team that goes up against aliens invading the Earth…and so I loved the idea.”

Monsters vs. Aliens co-director Conrad Vernon is the voice of the Gingerbread Man in the Shrek films. “Conrad’s really great, a talented director and storyboard artist and a voice talent as well,” says Letterman. “He impersonates every single person in the cast. So while we were developing the story, we could build the movie while we were waiting for our chance with the actors.”

Monsters vs. Aliens opens in U.S. theaters are March 27, 2009.

Monsters vs. Aliens
Running Time: 1 hr. 34 min.
Release Date: March 27th, 2009 (wide)
MPAA Rating: PG for sci-fi action, some crude humor and mild language.
Distributor: Paramount Pictures
Studio: DreamWorks Animation

Hollywood Today

• ABOUT RPRN
• SERVICES
• NEWSROOM
• WRITING TIPS
• TESTIMONIALS
• DIRECTORIES
• TERMS AND CONDITIONS
• CAREER
• ADVERTISING