Lupita Nyong’o is all set to return to our screens as Roz the robot in the upcoming animated science fiction film, The Wild Robot. Ahead of the release of the movie, Pinkvilla sat down for an exclusive chat with the actress and learned about the “primary challenge” she faced while voicing the character.
During the conversation, Nyong’o revealed that portraying a character who is devoid of emotions was the key challenge of the voice role. “What I am usually paid to do is to be emotional and expressive about that sort of emotion both externally and internally,” the actress began.
“But with a robot, she doesn’t have emotions, so how do you show the evolution without falling into being emotive?” she added while discussing the first question she asked herself when lending her voice to Roz.
The actress then went on to reveal how the team decided to make Roz learn through mimicry. “So a lot of the time, what we were doing is planting the seeds as to how she learns these things from the other animals around her,” Nyong’o explained.
“We worked really diligently to avoid falling into emotional traps, so what you experience actually is you projecting the emotion on Roz,” she stated.
Lupita Nyong’o also highlighted how Roz is “quite literal still” in her approach and even when someone says Brightbill (Kit Connor), the orphaned goose who becomes an adoptive childlike figure to Roz, “has the heart to go and fly, she mentions actually his heart is very small.”
The Black Panther star further shared that what she loved the most about the movie is the fact that even if Roz doesn’t have a facial expression, there is “an opportunity for people to project their emotions on her rather than her doing that herself.”
During her exclusive interview with Pinkvilla, Lupita Nyong’o also discussed how she loved portraying the evolution of Roz’s character. “In the beginning, Roz is this robot that is in her factor settings and as such her voice in the beginning is very chipper and positive but programmed,” the actress explained.
“Then as she adapts to this island her voice changes to kind of reflect those changes that she is going through and I really enjoyed finding that evolution as subtly as possible with Chris,” she mentioned.
Based on Peter Brown’s 2016 novel of the same name, The Wild Robot is directed and written for the screen by Chris Sanders. In addition to Nyong’o, the movie also stars Pedro Pascal, Kit Connor, Bill Nighy, Mark Hamill, Catherine O’Hara, Stephanie Hsu, Ving Rhames and Matt Berry.
The movie will be releasing on theatres across India on October 18.
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