DreamWorks Animation’s 3D comedy, Monsters vs. Aliens stars Reese Witherspoon as Susan Murphy, a normal girl until a rogue asteroid crashes into her and turns her into Ginormica, a giant super-hero. She is then paired up with the “monster squad” including Seth Rogen’s character B.O.B. (benzoate-ostylezene-bicarbonate) who is an indestructible gelatinous blob.

Witherspoon and Rogen discuss the challenges and rewards of being in an animated feature, just how easy it is to be funny using only your voice and their feelings about jello.

Q: How was it playing a woman who is 430-feet-tall, since you are 5’2"?

Witherspoon: It was an interesting challenge because my character goes from being a regular-sized girl to being this giant, superhero girl. At the end of the movie they wanted me to talk with an action star voice, which is not a voice I know or have in my repertoire. They kept trying to coach me to be more like Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone, but they said my voice sounded like a robot. That took me a long time, and that was probably the hardest thing for me to do.

Q: How hard is it to be funny using just your voice?

Rogen: I think it’s actually a lot easier to be funny when you have hundreds of geniuses who are paid to animate every facial expression with painstaking thought and minutia. I would just mosey on set most of the time, spit out of the lines and prayed something good happened. These guys really put a lot of thought into every second of the movie that winds up in front of you guys. I think they add a lot of the humor that is in it. I actually didn’t even know a lot of the stuff that B.O.B. does until you see the movie. I would watch it and say, ‘Man, this is hilarious; I wish I was that funny.’ But no it is them.

Q: What did you enjoy most about playing your characters and what was the biggest challenge?

Witherspoon: I had no idea. It was such a different movie when I saw it. They put together a rough cut, and I had to go in and animate all the “effort” noises. This was the first movie that I did that had this much action in it. And I think that I was surprised by that and kind of thrilled, because I can’t imagine any other world where this opportunity will present itself to me. It was awesome to realize I was creating a female superhero, which feels like a unique opportunity for me. My daughter is really into this movie. I was with my son and my daughter, and we were walking and I asked, ‘Who is your favorite superhero?’ And my son said, ‘Well there are Batman, Spiderman, and Robin.’ And when I asked Eva, she was like, ‘I don’t know, the girl who is in Justice League, I can’t remember her name.’ So it’s cool to create that kind of character.

Rogen: I enjoyed the whole thing. It’s fun to see yourself thrown into these worlds and hear your voice coming out of these hilarious creatures. It’s a great movie; I enjoyed watching it. There was nothing really that difficult about it. Some of the “effort” stuff like trying to verbalize what it might sound like; what it was like to get stretched out by a monstrous shoe or something like that [was a little difficult], but it’s not that bad. It was a lot of fun. I enjoyed every aspect of it.

Q: If you could be Ginormica in real life, what would you do?

Witherspoon: The first thing I would do is put on that cat suit and never take it off.

Rogen: Me too.

Witherspoon: No working out, no dieting. She just looks hot all the time. My girlfriend and I saw the movie together, and she brought her kids. Half way through the movie, she turned to me and said,’ You look hot.’ and I said, ‘I know, it’s not me, and it’s awesome.’

Q: What do you think the message of the film is?

Witherspoon: I think it has an incredible message about finding yourself and your identity. And I think everyone, not just girls, struggles with who are you. Are you a person who lives in the shadows of another person just so you don’t have to be alone or afraid? Or are you someone who is willing to take a chance and be a little scared of the unknown and maybe have the possibility of accomplishing great things in your life?

Rogen: That was a good one. I am going to take a moment for that. I have been leading my life all wrong, guys.

Q: What are the creative and career rewards for doing a film like this?

Rogen: It’s fun. It’s a different process entirely. I am sure you have heard the expression 'acting is reacting.' Well, if you remove other actors from that equation then the art of reacting becomes quite different I would say. It’s just a different thing. You go in there and play around. You have a lot time to experiment, and it’s just a lot of fun. It feels much more like playing then acting. There is not a lot of technical aspect to it. There are no lights or cameras or physicalities that you have to be aware of or even other actors. You can take as much time as you want. You can spend three hours to do one line, if you really wanted to, which I would never do on a set with other people whose time I was wasting.

Witherspoon: I would be really annoyed if you did that.

Rogen: She would kill me, but she wasn’t there. So that was nice. As far as career wise, there is no conscious importance to do these movies. They’re cool movies, and it’s fun to see yourself in them.

Witherspoon: I think it’s a great opportunity to reach a wider audience for me. I just had to travel internationally, and this is the first movie that I have done that transcends language. I am always talking and talking in moves. So it’s nice to actually be able to go to other countries and have them completely understand the concept of the movie and really enjoy it. That is the first time I have been able to travel, and they get what I am making the movie about. It’s also a great opportunity to work with a lot of great comic actors. We are all so busy doing other kinds of movies. It is only ever possible to work with this many amazing, talented people in this capacity because it doesn’t take up a huge amount of our time.

Q: What was the best part of making this movie?

Rogen: I like watching it. I've got to be honest; I am kind of an end results kind of guy. To me it’s cool to be able to sit in a movie theater and see the movie in 3D, and have people for once in my life, of all ages, laughing at the content/material.

Witherspoon: Probably getting to take my kids to a movie that I am in, and having them really enjoy it. And having them think I’m kind of cool because usually they think I am a big dork.

Q: [To Roge] With two movies opening so close together, do you worry about being locked in to the slacker-raunchy roles?

Rogen: Honestly, I am very thankful that people are allowing me to do this. I am kind of shocked that I have gotten away with it, and that I can do movies like Observe and Report and Monsters vs. Aliens. One has been described as transgressive, and the other has been described as a delightful family romp. I personally am very thankful. I do like both of those kinds of movies, and I try to do the types of movies I like to go see. Being responsible for the writing of the majority of my movies, I don’t feel typecast. If I did I would probably write myself a different role. 

Q: Since this is your first animated feature, what made this character special for you?

Witherspoon: I’d been offered a lot of animated films; sometimes they were playing the girlfriend or a girl who is getting rescued by a guy. I just felt like this was the first opportunity presented to me where the woman was at the center of the movie. That’s a unique opportunity for me to create a character that had strength, a journey and a whole story line. That’s what really appealed to me.

Q: Are you as funny in person as in your films or is it hard to be funny on camera?

Rogen: I am hilarious every second of the day, my friend; a nonstop roller coaster of laughter. I guess some of the characters feel closer to me and some feel farther. It never feels like it’s working in coal mines or anything. We make goofy jokes all day. It never feels like that difficult of a job, I have to say. I think the guy in Knocked Up is probably closest to me in a lot of ways. And all the other ones are not that much like me, which is not a great thing to admit. None of them are like me anymore because, as you can see, I am amazing.

Q: What are your thoughts on jello?

Rogen: If it is nice to me, I like it. I give what I get when it comes to jello. I will say the notion of things floating in a jello mold is a decidedly American invention and as a Canadian, I am little disturbed by it. And I don’t quite understand. How does it get in there? What is the point of it? What is it? But other than that, I am pro-jello ultimately.

Q: Are there any memorable moments during the voice-overs?

Rogen: Apparently, when the other actors aren’t there to read with you, there is a delightful man who is very talented, who does impressions of the other actors. And he will read the lines with you. Apparently, he does a great impression of me. Reese had the bright idea to tell him to impersonate her, and he actually does a pretty good you. I actually met him before I met you, and then I met you and I was like, ‘hey, you are kind of like the guy I read with.’

Witherspoon: He has a red mohawk. He was like Kramer.

Rogen: He does have a very Kramerish hairdo. My one regret is that I didn’t ever get to hear him do me.  I wish I could have heard him do me. But he does you fantastically; It is dead on. He could be doing your press right now.