DreamWorks Animation marks Lupita Nyong’o’s first voice role in an animated feature.
Based on the novel by Peter Brown, “The Wild Robot” follows a hyper-intelligent android named Roz (Nyong’o) who finds a new purpose on an uninhabited island living amongst the wildlife and raising an orphaned baby duckling named Brightbill (voiced by Kit Connor).
At a preview for the DreamWorks Animation feature, Nyong’o explained that she had been working on the project for three years and was “really moved” seeing how far it has come.
When first approached about the role, Nyong’o wondered, “How am I going to play a robot?” But as she dived deeper into the character, she began to appreciate Roz’s arch and realized how to infuse human emotion into her bionic counterpart.
In a conversation with the film’s director Chris Sanders, Nyong’o said, “One of the things that makes robots and artificial intelligence different from human beings is the very fact that they don’t have emotion. Everything is programmed. … And here we are telling a story about a robot that starts off in a very, very sophisticated, structured program. Then because of the demands of the wilderness, she has to adapt to a more organic sense of being. And still, by the end, we are moved by her and she seems to have developed something akin to emotion.”
When preparing for “The Wild Robot,” Nyong’o asked the typical questions that come when approaching a role: “What do I have for free? What do I just intrinsically understand and don’t need to work out?” What she immediately latched on to was Roz’s compassion for the living beings around her.
“The fact that her mission is compassionate, I was like, ‘Yeah, I feel like I know that.’ It resonates with me,” Nyong’o said. “I am personally more emotionally open than I’d like to be at times, sometimes it feels like a burden to have so much access to my emotions. … But I still stand in the belief that it is ultimately my power because it’s what makes acting possible for me and it makes me feel strongest when I can be honest about how I feel.”
Sanders directs “The Wild Robot” and co-writes with Brown. Jeff Hermann produces.
“The Wild Robot” hits theaters Sept. 27. Watch the new trailer below.
Source Agencies
