When you do an animated movie - at least the ones that I've been a part of - you never see any of the other actors. It's all done separately with headphones in a voice booth.
You know, making an animated movie is such a lonesome thing. You mostly don't see your fellow actors or anything. You go into your booth, you record all your dialogue. It's very much an issue of trust. You leave it all up to the director.
In voiceover, you have to restrain yourself when you're acting in the sound booth in front of the microphone. If you lean left or you lean right, you're going to lose the voice. Yet you yourself become animated when you're doing the part. So you'll see a lot of flailing arms, but a very still face.
I don't normally get very star struck. However, I was just at a table read for a movie. It was an animated movie where they have all the actors come in and sit around a big table and read the whole script out loud so you can see what's working, what's not working. And this is an animated movie that Paul McCartney is doing and he's producing it. So I got to meet Paul McCartney.
I've been your yellow M&M for, oh, at least two decades or so, and I've done a lot of other animated stuff in between.
I have to say that we're not actors, at least on 'Mythbusters' or any of the other television projects that we've done.
Well, I'd never done an animated movie before, which is why I was so excited about doing it. It was one of the little boxes as an actor that I wanted to tick off. I wanted to do an animated film. So, after my mum got over the fact that I was never going to play Shrek's sister, this was the nearest I was going to get!
I've done animated TV stuff, but I'd never done animated film work, which is much more involved and much more labor intensive. The animators are much more meticulous and detailed. It's just been really fun and really satisfyingly creative.
With 'The Replacements,' it was insane. I'd never done a movie that opened up and made, like, seven million dollars. I'd never been part of, like, a four-day press junket for a movie that was international and domestic.
I had been on four other series that never lasted more than a year and a half. I'd done fine, so you start to wonder, 'Will I ever be one of those lucky actors who get to be part of something lasting?'
See as a Muslim myself, I have never faced any intolerance or any discrimination in any part of the country, instead I have been showered with love, but the people who say that they have faced intolerance must be given a chance to speak up, instead of muzzling their voice.
Promotions are insane! It's the toughest part about making a movie, for us actors at least.
On an animated television series, you pretty much read the script as written. Whereas on an animated feature, you'll sometimes record the same scene multiple times over the course of a year as the filmmakers continue to tweak that part of the movie.
Voice acting is very interesting, I've done several animated projects, and you have to make the voice reflect the character and try and do as much with a word as you can with a look in a live-action film.
Each character I play I approach differently and separately. I think Marigold is a simpler character for a sweet little movie, and I'm excited to be part of it. In terms of Heroes it's been such an amazing journey on that show. I love working on it and at this point I know I'm coming to Asia and some of the other cast are going to Europe for the world tour to release the DVD.
I never had that desire to start or join a rock band. Nor did I ever have a desire to see my idols in concert. I would have loved to see The Cure. I didn't understand the whole concept of: you love music, you buy the album, and then you go see them in concert. It felt like something that was so untouchable that I didn't even attempt to try and bring it to any place other than my headphones.
I've done the voice for the Hulk for the animated cartoon.