ShareThisAmy Sedaris has amassed one of the quirkiest resumes in the movie business, typically showing up in some sort of oddball cameo role. That goes for her latest big-screen appearance, although it's in voice only.
In an inspired bit of casting, Sedaris and Billy Bob Thornton give voice to Jack and Jill in the new "Shrek" spin-off "Puss In Boots" -- except that their rendition of Jack and Jill is more like a cross between "Bonnie and Clyde" and "Deliverance." Sedaris and Thornton play Jack and Jill as redneck outlaws, debating whether or not to have kids while sparring with Antonio Banderas' title character to see who can get to the golden goose first.
Sedaris spent her wonder years in Raleigh, where she did some high school theater, then got into Raleigh Little Theater, and finally moved to Chicago to do improve. She still gets back to North Carolina a few times a year to visit family. We caught up with her by phone.
Q: Greetings from your old hometown.
Greetings! Is the State Fair going on? Did you go? Oh, I would love to go again. I always liked going when I was growing up, eating the candy apples.
Q: Did you really fail first grade?
I really did fail first grade. It was back when first grade was harder, at least. But they said I was too immature for first grade, so I had to repeat it. ... I've been failing ever since.
Q: How did you wind up playing Jill in "Puss in Boots"?
Well, I got a call and wanted to do it right away. I always loved the cat character from "Shrek," and Billy Bob Thornton as my husband sounded great. Then I saw a picture of my character and it was, 'Oh my God, how am I going to do the voice of this refrigerator-sized woman?' I actually panicked. ... But once you start recording, working with the director, you do get more confident.
Q: So how do you do a voice for someone twice your size?
You've just gotta go deeper. ... Listening to myself in the movie, I can't pinpoint where Jill is from. It's more of a generic Southern accent. I do like it when people really nail accents, like Jodie Foster doing a perfect Virginia accent in "Silence of the Lambs." But because this was animated, I felt like I could get away with more of a stock Southern accent.
Q: Did you and Billy Bob record your parts together, or separately?
Separately. I only met him yesterday. But I always knew from watching his movies that we would get along fine. We have the same vocabulary.
Q: Is that difficult, recording separately?
I love that and actually prefer it. It can be difficult to memorize lines, play off the other person, be on-point. So you're on a shoot where it's supposed to be 4 a.m. and you do a monologue hopped up on Red Bull. It's easier to just go in, the director explains where you are and what's happening, and you completely rely on him. I never even read a script for this. Then two-and-a-half years later you see it -- "Oh, that's what I was doing?" I never even think I'll be alive in two years. I don't think that far in advance.
Q: The movie's spaghetti-western vibe is pretty cool.
Yeah, although hearing those words -- "spaghetti western" -- kind of panicked me at first. "What am I getting into here?" But I think it all works.
Q: Are you working on another book?
Not right now. I'm doing a couple of episodes of "The Good Wife," playing a lawyer, I guess. My suits are fitted, I know that much. I have no idea what it is I'm saying, I just memorize my lines.
Q: If you weren't acting, what would you do?
I don't know. I used to think I wanted to work in a women's prison or do social work, but it occurred to me that maybe I could just play that part. It's nice I can just think about what I want to do next and try to do it.
Q: Will there be another "Puss In Boots" movie?
I don't know. Oh, I'm sure there will be, but I haven't heard anything. Maybe there will be, and we'll have babies after all.
(David Menconi blogs at blogs.newsobserver.com/beat. Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)
Must credit The News and Observer of Raleigh, N.C.
