The Wild Robot is an inspiring film about a robot trying to find its purpose in the wild. Stunning animation, an emotional story, and gripping performances make this one of my favorite films of the year.
(from left) Roz (Lupita N’yongo), and Brightbill (Kit Connor) in DreamWorks Animation’s Wild Robot, directed by Chris Sanders.
INTERVIEW Lupita Nyong’o talks ROZ The Wild Robot
Lupita Nyong’o voices Roz in DreamWorks Animation’s The Wild Robot, directed by Chris Sanders.
How did you master the challenge of expressing such a wide array of emotions only through your voice and not just have a mechanical feel to it?
Lupita: I had an incredible partner here in Chris [Sanders], and early on, I asked him why he thought of me for the role of Roz, and he mentioned that he liked the warmth of my voice, so we knew that we were going to end up with a Roz that sounded more like me to kind of depict that evolution she’s gone through, and then we kind of like reverse engineered.
I was inspired by the automated voices of Alexa, Alexa, and Siri, and, you know, the voices on TikTok and Instagram, and in looking at those—what was similar in all of them was this kind of like optimistic brightness. So after a lot of trial and error, we have many versions of Roz, and that’s the beauty of doing it over 2-and-a-half years, is that as the script develops, so in the end, we ended up with that sort of like programmed optimism to start her off, and we had these markers in the script of when and how Roz’s voice is evolving to show how she’s adapting to her new environment. It was all about just like dialing it up. It was wonderful to have such a just such a supportive and insightful partner in Chris.
(from left) Fink (Pedro Pascal), Roz (Lupita N’yongo), and Brightbill (Kit Connor) in DreamWorks Animation’s Wild Robot, directed by Chris Sanders.
How was the recording experience, and did you learn any lessons in the voice booth?
Lupita: Did I ever! I had a lot of fun. You know, every time we to a recording session, it would start off with me giving notes on the new pages. And Chris [Sanders] is very receptive to that. And it was really awesome to be able to share a thought, or, like, be struggling with something on the page, share it with Chris, and then he would take this beat, and the booth would go silent. I wouldn’t be able to hear what was going on in the other room. And then he would come back on the mic, and he would have solved the problem, or, you know, and it was a really wonderful symbiotic relationship I think we had working on this, so I always felt valued and additive.
So seeing the final product I swelled with gratitude for having been a part of it and to like, see my fingerprints on it, you know, and then to see what everybody else brought to it. So that was amazing. I think finding the right creative chemistry is so important. So for me, that was something I already knew, and then it was fortified in this experience. And then I also learned to go easy on myself because I had a vocal accident, and when I was working on the earlier part of Roz that voice was quite vocally athletic for me, and I injured myself, and I was rendered silent for 3 months. So I learned a very important lesson there to really pay attention to my limitations.
Roz (Lupita Nyong’o) in DreamWorks Animation’s The Wild Robot, directed by Chris Sanders.
About The Wild Robot
From DreamWorks Animation comes a new adaptation of a literary sensation, Peter Brown’s beloved, award-winning, #1 New York Times bestseller, “The Wild Robot.”
The epic adventure follows the journey of a robot—ROZZUM unit 7134, “Roz” for short—that is shipwrecked on an uninhabited island and must learn to adapt to the harsh surroundings, gradually building relationships with the animals on the island and becoming the adoptive parent of an orphaned gosling.
(from left) Roz (Lupita N’yongo), and Brightbill (Kit Connor) in DreamWorks Animation’s Wild Robot, directed by Chris Sanders.
Runtime: 102 mins
Rating: PG
Written and directed by: Chris Sanders
Producer: Jeff Hermann
Based on: “The Wild Robot” novel by Peter Brown
Cast: Lupita Nyong’o, Pedro Pascal, Catherine O’Hara, Bill Nighy, Kit Connor, Stephanie Hsu, Mark Hamill, Matt Berry, Ving Rhames
The Wild Robot is in theatres September 27, 2024.
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