Dreamworks’ Rise of the Guardians is the first animated film for star Chris Pine. In interviews with the Associated Press and Moviefone, Pine spoke about why he decided to voice Jack Frost in the movie and what he got out of the gig.
Voicing Jack Frost means that Pine is adding another well-known character to his stable after already playing Captain Kirk in the new Star Trek films and also starring as Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan in next year’s titular film. Pine shrugs that off and points out that he wanted to do Rise of the Guardians because of the challenge of only acting with his voice. He says, “I don’t know why it is that I’ve been cast, at least with Jack Ryan and Captain Kirk, to do things that have been done before, but I like a good challenge. And with Jack Frost it was the matter of doing voice-over, which I had never really done before in an extended form. It’s a whole different art using your voice. All you’re doing is capturing your voice and you’re not using your full — well, instrument is a funny word — but your whole body.”
Of course, animation is a long process, but Pine says it has been a great process watching the film develop. He says, “By the time you get to see it all put together, it’s many, many months, even years down the road. I saw one version of it three months ago and was astounded by how unique the art looked.”
One of the comforts is being able to wear whatever he wanted to record his lines. He explains, “(When) I used to go out for commercials, I always felt like a schmuck that I was on these awful auditions. And there would be these guys in sweat pants and mesh shorts that looked like they hadn’t shaved in many months. They looked like they were having the time of their lives and they were always the voiceover artists. Comfort’s the name of the game— sweat pants and sandals.”
