Kit Harington & Djimon Hounsou on Voice Acting vs On-Camera Acting

I want to welcome you both. Welcome back. Your first time? What do you think of it? It's a little crazy in here.

Oh, this is her second time. But yeah, I came here a couple of years ago.

He hangs out here all the time. He does.

Anyway, what do you think? It's a little strange, isn't it? Having a club like studio in a hotel room?

Yeah, beautiful.

Saw the film last night. You're both new to the franchise. Um, and but you're both also used to being on camera. Maybe bulking up, maybe having to watch, sort of being able to just be the voice and not have to worry about your physique. Were you eating donuts on the side? You should see him, I mean, see Kit's flexing his biceps. Were you flexing while you were doing the voice?

I mean, on that method, I I actually dressed up in the outfit and bulked up for the role. Uh, for an animated movie. That's how seriously I take this stuff.

You took it really seriously. You're going to show us the way to Drago. And how Dragon Riders sneak into Drago's camp, just kill me now.

That could be arranged. Stormfly. Trap it. All right. Okay. I'll take you to Drago.

Is it your first both your first time voicing a character? Is it not? Doing an animated feature?

Yes. Feature. Um, sort of the first day, just sort of walking in and having that different energy than what you're used to. Walking in and acting opposite an actor. It's actually it's it's weird doing that for doing the open your mouth for the first time. You get the scripts and you talk about the role and then you you get into the big sound booth and you've got a big glass wall that's silenced off, full of producers. And they're all looking at you. Do you feel like an animal in the zoo?

Yeah, and then you've got to you do a bit of small chronology and then you've got the director there and then suddenly it's time to open your mouth and start giving the performance that you're meant to give and and and once you've opened those floodgates, you you go and you're off and you're fine. But each time you do those sessions, that first moment of is is very is is scary. And it's quite funny because after that first bit, they go, that's great. Thank you. Thanks, Kit. And then they shut off they go, thank you very much. Thanks, Kit. And then they shut off the wall and you can just see them all discussing.

Oh, it's like the the partition like in a in a limousine where the the glass goes up and you're like, what are they saying about me?

Yeah. And they're going, what have I done wrong? Yeah. So yeah, it's a bit it can be quite intimidating.

I would think yeah, it could be almost more difficult than working opposite an actor where you've got that person to feed off of and play off of.

Yeah. Although Dean, the director is wonderful to play with. He's wonderful and but I think there's an intimidation factor because you know, you're used to be in front of the camera on screen, doing trying to keep this world somewhat organic and real and in an environment that's not real, that's not safe. And here you're completely by yourself with a mic.

You certainly are hard to get rid of. We must attack the Dragon Rider's nest at once. Now, we have a fight.

Both of your um your characters in the film, I want to say one changes, one maybe attempts to change and don't know if they can. Do you think people can change in life?

People can change. And but they have to want to change. No one can change you. You can't tell somebody to change. No.

Yeah. No. Yeah, you ladies tend to want to do that. We love doing that, don't we?

Indeed.

Change the man. Um, speaking of which, do you think men are still like Vikings?

I like to think men are still like Vikings.

You do?

Yeah. I'll go with that. Yeah. At times.

What part in particular? Besides the facial hair?

I couldn't tell you. Um, no.

You're going to leave it at that?

Yeah, leave it at that. Viking behavior. We'll leave that to your your imagination.

There's always a moral to every animated movie. If there was a moral to sort of your life story, what would it be?

Keep focus. Where the mind creates a focus where that's where reality exists. You know. And that basically means uh, I mean you go through struggles in in life and uh those struggles are basically uh another way of uh redirecting the course.

And for you?

Mine's horribly English. Go for it. Mine's like, be nice to everyone.

That sounds Canadian. I'm Canadian and that sounds very Canadian. We apologize for everything. We're similar. We apologize for everything.

But in all seriousness, I think there's a there's a there's this kind of terrible myth in the creative world that you have to be demanding and nasty to people to be a genius.

Are people like that here? I've never heard of such a thing.

Only only the people who are never going to get to where they want to be, I'd say. You should always be lovely and courteous to everyone you meet and treat people the way you want to be treated. And it's a cliché but that's how I live my life.

Yes. Thank you for coming in. This is a pleasure. Congratulations movie. Thanks. Welcome back. Welcome. Yes. You'll be on the pillow next week.

Oh, great. I'll be here next week.