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Brad Paisley stepped in as a guest host of The Ellen Show, and singer-songwriter Tori Kelly dished about how “awkward” voice acting can be.
Kelly is part of the star-studded cast of Sing 2, the animated sequel to its 2016 counterpart that follows “Buster Moon and his friends (as they) must persuade reclusive rock star Clay Calloway to join them for the opening of a new show.” The cast list also includes Matthew McConaughey, Reese Witherspoon, Scarlett Johansson and many others. Kelly voices Meena in the new movie, and Paisley said she makes a “very convincing elephant.”
Kelly said she “tried my hardest,” and talked about what it was like to lend her voice to an animated character for the first time: “It’s really fun, and you have to just not be scared to be silly…because it’s very awkward.” Kelly credited Garth Jennings, who wrote and directed the movie and voices Miss Crawly, with helping her by being “just like a kid at heart.”
The singer acknowledged that being in the recording studio felt “comfortable,” but voice acting also had its challenges “because you don’t see anything either, they’re just explaining everything to you,” she said. “So, they’re like, ‘OK, this scene, you’re falling down a hole and so we need you to make noises like you’re falling.’ And I’m like, ‘I’ve never fallen down a hole before… but I imagine it would sound like this.’ And then you just kind of tried things, and it’s really awkward and weird. But they somehow make it sound great.”
Watch Kelly explain what it’s like to voice Meena the elephant here: