Carrey and Carell Tell: Making ‘Horton Hears a Who’ Was Swell
By Fred Topel, Hollywood.com Staff
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Thursday, March 13, 2008
Dr. Seuss told rhyming stories for kids,
So Hollywood started making their bids.
The Grinch made millions with Jim Carrey's green suit
But audiences gave The Cat in the Hat the boot.
The latest Seuss film is Horton Hears a Who,
Animating his drawings, using his words, too.
Whoville exists in a world on a speck.
When an elephant finds it, he turns things to heck.
Starring Carrey again and Steve Carell as lead voices,
They both gave an interview to discuss their choices.
With many anecdotes for comedy nerds,
These are our rhymes, but the actors' own words.
1) Though he's turned down animated films in the past, the Horton team hooked Carrey by talking real fast.
"Well, what they do is, they come to your house and they say, 'This is going to be the simplest process in the world,'" recalled Carrey. "They lie to you, completely lie to you. Anybody who they're doing that to in the future might want to take note. It is hard work. I mean, it's not as simple as they make it sound. It is a half a day here and there. Whenever you get a free moment, you're going in to do it. The fact is, they come to you and they really don't have a script. They have an overall idea of where they want to go, but they go, 'Here's eight pages. What do you think we should do with it?' And you sit in a room and you jam. You come up with ideas and you come up with lines. It's an amazing process because you think, 'How is this ever going to get to the end and make sense?"
2) For kids the wild images will astound, but their parents will find the story profound.
"This is a book that I think resonates with kids," said Carell. "They don't understand the metaphors and the sort of richness to it, but at the same time, it resonates. There's something very specific about the theme that I think even a little kid can understand. That is that everyone deserves an equal footing in life, and I think that's just a very basic tenet of being a creature of the world."