ShareThisWhen it comes to his show-business career, Will Arnett can't make up his mind who he is.
"I'm split on this," says the actor best known for Fox's acclaimed comedy "Arrested Development." "For 15 years, I made my living as a voice-over guy. It's something I take a tremendous amount of pride in, and I still do."
In his 3-D animated comedy "Monsters vs. Aliens," Arnett is split again. He uses his distinctively low, raspy voice for Missing Link, a 20,000-year-old component of the evolutionary chain. Missing Link is half ape and half fish. Even Arnett's characters can't figure out who they are.
The cast is full of movie and television talent whose natural voices are distinctive. Reese Witherspoon heads a lineup that includes Hugh Laurie, Rainn Wilson, Kiefer Sutherland and Stephen Colbert.
Arnett's Link is imprisoned alongside B.O.B., a gelatinouslike monster (Seth Rogen), and Insectosaurus, a fuzzy 350-foot-tall bug. They are prisoners of the military but are asked by their captors to defend Earth when space aliens invade.
Produced by Pixar, "Monsters vs. Aliens" is being hailed as another revolutionary animated accomplishment. It is the first computer-animated movie produced in real 3-D rather than converted to 3-D after the film was finished. The new process results in a sharper and more pronounced look to the effects.
Many of the "Monsters vs. Aliens" actors still do voiceovers for commercials. Arnett remains faithful to a few clients for whom he did voiceover work more than a decade ago, before he was famous.
For Arnett, "Monsters vs. Aliens" is a source of pride. "It's really a remarkable-looking film," he says, and that makes it all the more worthwhile for the actor.
"I do consider myself more of a voiceover guy than anything else," he says. "It's a very freeing experience. There's very little preparation. Physically you don't have to be ready for anything.
"You go to a studio and the relationship there is between you and a microphone. Sometimes there is another actor in the room.
"More often than not, you are working by yourself. It can be odd, but I have the advantage of having done this kind of thing before."
As for his professional identity crisis, Arnett isn't losing any sleep trying to pigeonhole himself in an industry that's ready to do it for him.
"At the end of the day, I don't really think of myself in any kind of way," he deadpans.
"Yeah, I can see myself looking in the mirror and saying, 'Who am I?' I'd say, 'An idiot.' You know, man, I'm just lucky to wake up on this side of the grass today."
(E-mail Terry Morrow of The Knoxville News-Sentinel in Tennessee at morrow2(at)knews.com.)
(E-mail Terry Morrow of The Knoxville News-Sentinel in Tennessee at morrow2(at)knews.com.)
