Consummately cool John Cusack is not necessarily the first actor you would think of to voice an ambitious little hunchback named Igor. Whatever were the filmakers thinking? Molly Shannon, on the other hand, seems to be the perfect choice to voice Igor's creation, an energetic monster named Eve, who wants nothing more than to be an actress. The two sat down recently to talk about their parts in this film, as well as in future projects. It seems clear that they both take their comedy very seriously.  

Q: We often hear actors say that a large part of the job is reacting to the others they’re working with, but here you’re working by yourselves, or did you get to work together at all?

John: No I was working a lot in different places in Europe, and a couple of times in LA.

Q: So what kind of acting challenge does that become?

John: You do it; you have another actor there and you do the whole scene so you get a sense of flow, and then they mix and match the lines. After a while you get to hear the other actors voices because they have them recorded. And so they start to match Molly’s voice with Molly’s character.  You start to have a sense of it, so you’re not totally in a vacuum.

Q: Do you use the same criteria in choosing a script an animated script as you would for a live action film?

John: Yes. Basically you read the script when it’s offered to you. But they do like a version of the animation so you could see the style of it. In this case, it was pretty clear it was going to be something very original. I mean it didn’t look like all the Pixar movies, it had some style they were going for.

Q: And Molly your character of course is an actress, very self-obsessed and she wants to become a star. Did you base that on any actress that you’ve worked with before?

Molly: Yes, I think when I first started out in acting, I went to NYU Drama School and it reminded me a lot of when you first start classes where you work on your voice, and then your body. it seemed like when I first moved to New York it reminded me of  when you’re at first so excited about acting, and taking acting classes, drinking coffee, taking notes in class, and all of that kind of real actor stuff.

Q: John I heard that Christian Slater was originally slated to play Igor--did you know that?

John: Yeah that was their first choice.

Q: But, I think they identified the Igor character more with you--the soft spoken hero?

John: Oh I don’t know, when they told me about it, they didn’t tell me I was number two.

Q: How did you view it when you were creating the character’s voices? Did you get a sense of if it being family friendly?

John: Antonio  seemed to want  to have it so the kids could laugh at it, and then the adults could also have a couple laughs.  So, I thought it was just about letting the audience, kid and adults both enjoy it.

Q: Igor is kind of a working class hero in a sense; did you see it that way?  Does it make you think about all the other Igor’s out there?

John: Yeah, like an underdog story of people, transcending above whatever station they feel like they’re being resigned to. It’s part of the American dream, right?

Q: What about the political message of the movie? Did you see one?

John: I saw the fact that the town was in darkness and the town was all built on it. The whole economy was not on growing crops, or producing useful things, but all the creativity was going into making these evil weapons that can destroy the world. So it was kind of a sweet but firm anti-war message.  Sweet but firm. It wasn’t that complex, but it was basically an anti-war, anti-weapons thing.

Q: The kids might not get it, but the adults seem to understand it?

John:I think so. That seemed to be what the writer and director were going for.

Q: How much input did either one of you have with the dialogue? Was it strictly what was on the page, or did you get to improvise? 

Molly: They let us add certain things if we thought of a joke or something, they would let us use it, or you khad an idea for a joke you could improvise and give your ideas of what you wanted. That’s always fun.

Q: What about your new series, Kath & Kim? There is a lot of anticipation for your new sitcom, and it was a huge hit in Australia. A lot of people are expecting a lot--the billboards are hysterical.  Are you nervous about this?

Molly: Oh yeah, definitely; I do get nervous, because it was such a hit in Australia and they are real diehard fans, but we would never try to imitate that. There are certain things that can’t translate so easily so we had to do our own version. Michele Nadar our Executive Producer adapted it and the ladies, Jane Turner and Gina Riley are Executive Producing our show. I’m really excited about it.  I in no way could try to imitate what they did so brilliantly and beautifully.  You have to make it your own but, of course I’m nervous, I care about it, and I want it to be funny. We’re not trying to copy it--we take the essence of the mother/daughter relationship and adapt it for American television.  

Q: John you have a film coming out later this year, Shanghai. It's historical, but what makes it relevant to today, and what was going on in Shanghai in the ‘30’s and 40’s?

John: Well I think  there was a great sense of foreboding about the world and there was a sense that the world was about to change dramatically and it was a time of great seismic shifts. In that sense it’s like what’s going on now.  People know that there is a great sense of danger concerning the world becoming unstable.  And, back then the world was faced with World War II. The Japanese and the Germans were going through Europe. The Japanese were on the verge of attacking the Americans. It seemed as if the whole world was about to go up in flames.

Q: Switching gears here, what was the moment in your life when you thought to yourself "I’ve made it in Hollywood?" Maybe you called your mom and said "Hi Mom, I just got this gig, and I’ve made it!" 

Molly:  Oh yes, I think definitely there were two moments like that. Once I got this movie, I was waiting tables and I was a hostess and got a part in this movie called The Phantom of the Opera with Robert England and it was being shot in Budapest and I made $1,000 a day and I got flown there.  I got to stay in a hotel and I really felt like 'Wow! This is incredible!"  And then also getting Saturday Night Live.  I used to do stage shows and I would invite people from restaurants that I knew and I had a box of names and phone numbers and whenever I did a show I would cold call like hundreds of people, and when I got Saturday Night Live I took the box of names and numbers and just threw it in the trash, I was like, I don’t have to cold call anymore and I couldn’t believe that I could be on national TV and all these people would tune in and you didn’t have to call them.

Q: John, how about for you?

John: I got to be on Bob Dylan’s radio show. I loved that show! Bob Dylan pretends like he hangs out with people and asks questions and he said, “I went to the Farmers Market with John Cusack and he had this to say about smoking.”  And then I gave some quote about smoking, and I thought, Bob Dylan said my name and I was on his radio show! 

Q: What did you say about smoking?

John: Well, what you do is you go and you talk to them and you tell them a whole bunch of stuff, like they’ll ask you about different things. He has this thing called 'Theme Time Radio Hour,' so he’ll do one on smoking, or he’ll do one on Cadillacs or eyes or the heart, drinking, or water.  I mean then there’s all these crazy great songs and he interviews people.

Q: Molly tell us about your next project, Safety Glass.

Molly: Oh Safety Glass sure, I play a music teacher and I’m not sure when it comes out. it was an indie movie that I did in Canada with Steve Coogan and Hillary Duff and a bunch of other great actors. It’s about this journalist that comes to a high school to report about this teacher dying, this teacher that all the kids were really obsessed with. It should be good, but I haven't seen it yet. Steve Coogan was great.

Q: So it’ll be a surprise to you when it comes out.

Molly: Yeah, exactly. You don’t know.  Indie movies are great because they don’t have any money so they shoot them really fast. If you're a mom, it’s a great schedule because you can get a lot done in like three days or four days you could do a really big part in a short amount of time.  I like them for that reason.

Q: What did your kids think of Igor?

Molly: They haven’t seen it. They don’t like things too scary, so I have to wait until they’re a little bit older. They’re still pretty little.

Q: How old are they?

Molly: 3 ½ and 4 ½ .

Q: Did your kids have anything to do with your choosing to do this movie?

Molly: No, nothing at all. They’re so little they barely understand exactly what I do.

Q: What did get your attention about this film?

Molly: Just, well I really like the way it was written and I liked the part of Igor. I thought it was such a fun part that I really related to. And Tony Leondis, the director, I’ve known him for many years and I was so excited that he got to direct it.