Freddie Highmore Interview, Astroboy

At Comic Con we had a chance to sit down and talk with Freddie Highmore about his new film Astroboy. Set in futuristic Metro City, Astro Boy is about a young robot with incredible powers created by a brilliant scientist named Tenma (Nicolas Cage). Powered by positive “blue” energy, Astro Boy (Freddie Highmore) is endowed with super strength, x-ray vision, unbelievable speed and the ability to fly.

Embarking on a journey in search of acceptance, Astro Boy encounters many other colorful characters along the way.  Through his adventures, he learns the joys and emotions of being human, and gains the strength to embrace his destiny. Ultimately learning his friends and family are in danger, Astro Boy marshals his awesome super powers and returns to Metro City in a valiant effort to save everything he cares about and to understand what it takes to be a hero.

Q: Are you using your own voice for Astro, or did you have to do an American accent?

Freddie: It’s an American accent. It fits in with all the other cast members, and it was something that I worked on, although it wasn’t as tricky as doing it, for the first time, in other films. It was more something that I went back to and picked up again, rather than learning from scratch.
 
Q: What qualities of your own voice do you think carry through to Astro?

Freddie: I hoped that I’d be able to use my full range, in an American accent. When you start to learn an accent, you find that you can be quite restricted. Your register doesn’t really change that much, and the tone of your voice is quite monosyllabic. But, I definitely worked on that. In Astro Boy, with all the action and shouting and sad moments, I think it worked out all right. I hope so, anyway. I guess the Americans will have to judge it, but I think it’s okay.
 
Q: How was it to work with your director? Did he give you a lot of options to do different things?

Freddie: Yeah. There was quite a lot of creativity that I contributed to, and Dave was fantastic. He deserves full credit, not only for attracting a great range of actors, which made it a lot easier to play Astro Boy, but he was also always there, for every single session I did. He would be there directing, not only with his take on the character, but also letting me know what the other people had done, at different points, so that it would all match up, in the end. Having seen the film, it seems to work out brilliantly. People say that Kristen and I have such great chemistry, even though we never met. David is definitely the one who’s really held it together, and he’s been fantastic.
 
Q: How much research did you do into the older Astro Boy material, before you started?

Freddie: There was so much more material for Astro Boy than we could fit into a film, but it was great to flip through the manga comics and get a feel for what he was like, to enable me to base my character on something. It was quite a challenge, really, to get in everything, but I think we got the real core of Astro Boy, in the end. I think that there’s a real similarity between Astro Boy and Pinnochio. Pinnochio is a human who is trapped inside a wooden body and he wants to be accepted as a normal kid, and Astro Boy is the same, except in a robot’s body. There are lots of other stories that are quite similar, but I think all of them are different.
 
Q: Having only your voice to work with, did you have to do any physicality or gestures to get into character?

Freddie: I think they did use a few of my gestures that I did in the booth. They always had a camera there, not only to film my mouth so that they could match up the lips, but also to get my facial expressions to use for Astro Boy. You do have to act as you would on screen, in a live action film, with an animated film. I think it would be wrong to go in and think that it’s just a voice and that you can just read the lines a couple of times. People can tell when you’re faking it. Even if you look a bit crazy to the four technicians that are in there, while you’re running up and down to get out of breath for an action scene, I think that’s what you’ve got to do. In the end, those four might think you’re crazy, but hopefully the millions of people that see it will think you’re all right.

Q: What about the emotion of Astro Boy? Is that hard to get out of animated characters?

Freddie: I think there are sadder moments. It is a fun film. There are sadder moments, but there’s always the happy ending. Astro Boy doesn’t die. It can be quite tricky. You’ve really got to relate to Astro Boy and also try to accept him as a human being. I think that you do, when you see it, but it’s a question that is raised a lot in the film. At what point do we become human? Are we human, if we think and feel like a human, or do we have to have the body as well? Can Astro Boy be accepted into the human world or not?
 
Q: Sometimes it seems like CG features can rival live action, when it comes to explosive action sequences? Do you have any of that in this film?

Freddie: Yeah, definitely. The Astro Boy film that we’ve got is really modern and really up-to-date, and some of the action sequences are fantastic. It was never our aim to create something similar to Polar Express, where you almost believe that they are real human beings. Dr. Elefun (Bill Nighy) has still got a massive nose, and other characters have still got that animation, caricature feel. But, so many films have set the bar so high, and we’ve definitely reached it, if not topped it.
 
Q: What was your first reaction to Astro Boy’s hair?

Freddie: The hair is all right. There was a need to modernize Astro Boy and, since people expect so much of animation, it would be wrong to just take the manga feel and the TV feel from the ‘60's, and just keep it similar to that. We should always try to make it as modern as we can, in the feeling of Astro Boy and what it should really be like.
 
Q: What was the biggest surprise making Astro Boy?

Freddie: The biggest surprise, when I saw the film, was the fact that it could appeal to so many people and it’s got so much. At the core is the action sequences that are brilliant, but we’ve also got a whole range of emotions and really funny moments, too. I think it’s great that it can appeal to so many different people, and adults can go, and parents can take their kids and not feel like they want to get out, the minute it starts. I think they’ll have a good time, as well.
 
Q: Are you a manga fan?

Freddie: I got into it through Astro Boy. I wasn’t so much, beforehand, but in finding inspiration for the character, I looked at it.