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MAKING OF... (page 3) |
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VOCAL TALENTS "The Prince of Egypt" has a roster of stars as impressive as any ever assembled for a feature film-animated or live action. Casting director Leslee Feldman began the process by gathering voice tapes from a wide assortment of actors. She then played them for the filmmakers, often not revealing whose voice they were hearing. Brenda Chapman explains, "You want to listen for voice quality without being influenced one way or the other. You need to think about how you're responding emotionally to what you're hearing." Rabins notes, "Leslee had only worked in live action, so she had no preconceptions about what an `animated' voice should sound like. She just presented us with the best actors for the roles, and 90 percent of the time everybody went for the exact same voice. We then approached those actors and actresses and told them about the film, and every one of them wanted to be part of it. We ended up with a dream cast." Cast in the central role of Moses, Val Kilmer brought the necessary range of both age and emotion to his performance. "Val has a wonderfully rich voice," Wells says. "He could convey the innocence of youth of an 18-year-old boy, and could then capture the gravity and authority of an older and wiser man." Kilmer acknowledges that it might have been intimidating to portray someone who holds such significance for so many people. "However," he adds, "as you become involved in his life, you begin to understand that he is a man; he has highs and lows and ups and downs.but his destiny is something he cannot escape, and it leads him beyond what he ever considered possible." Making his animation debut, Kilmer offers, "The rhythms of speech and the importance of each phrase made it very reminiscent of doing theatre. It was an extraordinary luxury to be able to keep refining my performance and to do the kind of work I've rarely had the chance to do in film. As an actor, it was a joyful and unique experience to be included in the process." Rabins comments, "Val gave this film everything we asked for and more. He pushed his performance to incredible levels and was always willing to come back in, even to record a single line. He was a joy to work with." Ralph Fiennes gives voice to the pivotal role of Rameses. "Ralph is not only a great actor, he actually helped us to develop the part of Rameses," Chapman states. "There's a vulnerability that comes out in his voice, even when he's being very strong. That became the core of Rameses-he is this big, powerful Pharaoh, but deep down there's some small part that's a little unsure. He is trapped and driven by tradition and heritage, which are everything to him. He is so determined to live up to his father and be the greatest Pharaoh ever, that he's blinded to anything else." "I think he's a tragic figure," Fiennes observes. "He's unable to see that it's wrong to treat other people as slaves because he's been conditioned by how he was raised, and that kind of conditioning is very hard-sometimes impossible-to break. He is not a villain, which I think is one of the strengths of our approach to Rameses. He's misguided and arrogant, but he is not overtly evil." Fiennes, who did his own singing in "The Prince of Egypt," adds that working in front of a microphone instead of a camera was creatively and technically very different. "It is very difficult to be in a dramatic scene with another actor when they're not there," he says. "In a sense everything is focused into your voice; your voice has got to be its own physical body. It's thrilling.but very exhausting." "Ralph really worked to bring out all the ambiguities and nuances we incorporated into the role," Finkelman Cox remarks. "He's incredible to watch because he becomes the character. He just disappeared in front of us and became the Pharaoh Rameses-proud and full of strength. He's an amazing actor, and we were very excited to have his singing voice as well as his speaking performance in the movie." Another cast member who did her own singing was Michelle Pfeiffer, who is the voice of Moses' wife Tzipporah. "She brought the part to life," Hickner states. "Once we heard her voice, we were able to complete the design of the character. It became more and more clear who she should be." Tzipporah's father Jethro is voiced by Danny Glover, who, Chapman says, "brought a wonderful exuberance to the role of this boisterous, happy, free man who loves life. Jethro teaches Moses that the value of a good life is not in materialistic wealth; it is in how he shares his life with others, which has a big influence on him." Sandra Bullock provides the voice of Moses' sister Miriam. She describes her role as "the one who holds on to her faith from beginning to end. She is the one who forces her brother to see where he came from, which ultimately begins his journey. I'm very proud to be a part of this film," she continues. "I think it's groundbreaking-it's going to change people's perceptions of animation." Contrary to Miriam's unyielding faith, the voice of doubt is represented by Moses' Hebrew brother Aaron, played by Jeff Goldblum. "My character is very skeptical about the whole idea of Moses' mission, but he comes to believe," Goldblum says. "I love this story. It's very uplifting in a way that's heart-centered and conscience-driven. It inspires me." In one of the rare instances where two actors actually worked together, Goldblum and Bullock also inspired the filmmakers while recording the scene in which Miriam confronts Moses. "We had conceived this as a very heavy moment when Moses finds out who he really is," Wells reveals. "Instead, Jeff and Sandra brought such a sense of humor to it that, at first, it put me in a bit of a panic. But then, the more we worked on it, we began to realize that what they were doing with the scene was better than what we had planned. The great thing about Jeff is you have to physically stop him from doing takes. He will do 150 takes on one line if you let him because he keeps coming up with more ideas." Steve Martin and Martin Short were another acting duo who recorded together in the respective roles of Hotep and Huy, the Pharaoh's court magicians. In addition, they also did their own singing on the song "Playing With the Big Boys." Chapman notes, "They believe that the magic that they have is actually the power of the gods. They bring a slightly comic but more sinister element to the movie." Patrick Stewart brings his distinctive voice to the role of Pharaoh Seti. "Patrick had a huge responsibility," Hickner reveals. "In only a few scenes, he had to establish the `baggage' that Rameses has to carry, so in the second half of the movie, you sense the weight of the mantle that Rameses bears. Patrick did that beautifully." Pharaoh Seti's Queen, who draws Moses from the Nile River to raise as their son, is voiced by Helen Mirren. "The Queen represents the soft side of the Egyptian world," Hickner says. "Helen gave her an innate gentleness; you can feel the bond she has with Moses in just the few moments they share onscreen." Though the Queen is the only mother Moses knows, the woman who gave him life is his birth mother Yocheved. The internationally popular Yemenite Israeli singer Ofra Haza brings heartbreaking poignancy to the part of Yocheved, singing her last lullaby to her baby as she sets him adrift in a basket on the Nile. It was composer Hans Zimmer who originally called the filmmakers' attention to Haza for the role. "We had auditioned a number of people who were pretty good, but no one quite hit the mark," Wells says. "Then Ofra came in and just blew us away. It wasn't acting.it was the real thing." Audiences worldwide will have the opportunity to hear Haza perform her role in almost every language. She not only sang the English-language version and, of course, the Hebrew, but recorded her song in 17 other languages as well, including German, French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Dutch, Hungarian, Swedish, Polish, Norwegian, Flemish and Greek, among others. Haza actually speaks seven languages fluently, and learned her part phonetically in the others. Several other notable performers lent their singing talents to "The Prince of Egypt." Taking on the musical portion of the role of Jethro, Broadway star Brian Stokes Mitchell sings "Through Heaven's Eyes." Chapman states, "Brian worked to make himself sound more like Danny Glover. His natural voice is pretty close, but he listened to Danny's takes and achieved a seamless transition between the two voices. He's incredibly skilled, and he was having so much fun recording the song that everyone in the room was just grinning with joy." Another performer who had to match his voice to his speaking counterpart was Amick Byram, who sings Moses' songs "All I Ever Wanted" and "The Plagues." "Val Kilmer has such a unique voice that it was especially difficult, but Amick really worked to get it," Wells says. The singing voice of Miriam is split between two actresses: Sally Dworsky sings the adult Miriam's part of "When You Believe"; and Eden Riegel is young Miriam, who sings a prayer for her baby brother as she watches him being rescued from the Nile River. Linda Dee Shayne provides the singing voice of the Queen. "We were incredibly fortunate to have this unbelievable ensemble of talent who were so generous and supportive in making this movie," Katzenberg says.
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