Best Film: The Social Network
Rio, the next great animated/music family film of the year, hits theatres on Friday, April 15th. The film stars the voices of Anne Hathaway, Jesse Eisenberg, Academy Award winner Jamie Foxx, Will i Am, and more. The film is beautiful to watch and the music is fantastic.
Fox All Access producer Jeff Axelrod went to Rio where the film had its world premiere, and spoke to the stars of the film. Check it out!
cecille
/ April 10, 2011Nice video! Thanks for posting it! Have you guys seen “Rio” yet? Saw it last Thursday and it was so much fun!
JuL
/ April 10, 2011every time I watch that clip where Jesse’s voice croons to “naturally” I do some kind of inner squeal…
btw, does anyone feel the same way I do about the lighting in this interview? Jesse’s skin looks so green and unhealthy here.
Is it because they’re videoing it under a blue umbrella or something?…. but the lighting for Anne is so much better….
Laurie
/ April 10, 2011@Jul
I saw some pictures of Jesse getting makeup before this interview. Must be the foundation.
Funny that you mention Jesse’s voice. I actually think it’s distinct and… odd, and doesn’t fit his voice much like how Justin Timberlake’s doesn’t fit his. I bet he is losing roles because of his voice. Well I think he seems capable of altering his inflections based on what I’ve seen from the Rio teasers and trailers. You hear that studio execs?! Give him meatier roles like Zuckerberg besides the gangly, neurotic teen! He has more to show!
Laurie
/ April 10, 2011EDIT: I meant doesn’t fit his looks.
JuL
/ April 10, 2011@Laurie:
Ooouch. So many makeup misshaps lately…. where’d you seen those makeup pictures? ;D give us a link?
About his voice. I think it worked very well for Rio, I really liked how he worked it – the tones and ups and downs and the expression were really hilarious and even musical, somehow.
But you’re also ABSOLUTELY RIGHT and I can’t agree more…. (am getting rather excited because you said what I’d vaguely thought about for quite some time, so this will be long and rambling, sorry T_T)
I think he should work on it. The pitch and pace of his voice sometimes is just – I love everything about him, but his voice gets me worried sometimes because he doesn’t change the tone and pitch of it in most of his roles, and it’s the same for almost every interview before big audiences.
It has this pinched, dry quality of a nervous teen, not really comfortable with talking.
But if he wants to get outside of teenager, neurotic, socially inept roles, he needs to use a different voice – something deeper, more deliberate and mature. That’s just necessity, I don’t think it’s asking too much of an actor.
Given how good he is at voice-acting and using his voice to express emotions (as he demonstrated in Rio) and the fact he can sing very well, I think this is something that can be overcome.
I have no idea what his real voice is like, but I personally think this high-pitched voice (I mean in interviews, not in Rio when he’s acting) can’t really be it all.
Sometimes when he’s obviously comfortable, he does let his voice slow down a little and there’s the sound of a deeper, muskier, more hoarse and more careful voice talking (that’s my impression but I can’t find an interview where he does that) … and I would SO like to hear that more often.
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And… um…. irrelevant personal sharing time XD
I used to have a real fear of talking in public, not even that long ago. Like, heart thumping in my throat and knees shaking visibly, even if I only had to answer a teache’s question aloud to a small room of my own classmates whom I spent every day with.
It had a great effect on my voice. Even now, the slightest bit of trepidation can change my voice a lot. I’m a girl (obviously) and I have the deepest voice among my female peers I’ve ever heard, only slightly higher than an adult man’s. (Sometimes adult man speak in a higher pitch than me.)
But back then when I speak to multiple persons I give off this high-pitch girly stutter…. or just mumble through it.
It was a pretty crazy change, because my classmates would oogle and then ask me “WTH happened just now, you actually sounded like an actual girl!/ladylike!”
….. Then I would roll around (in my head) in agony and self-hatred, because I knew it wasn’t me talking just now and I failed utterly to express my own thoughts.
When I’m really calm and comfortable, my voice descends into this alto, growly, semi-dark, almost hoarse sound. Depends on the setting and my level of nervousless it fluctuates like crazy….
Alright enough rambling -
the point is – nervousness has a HUGE impact on the pitch & pace of speaking, especially to a sensitive voice, especially to someone neurotic and emotional, or someone who acutely feels the pressure of attention, or someone who dislikes being placed in that setting. It could drive a person nuts.
I wouldn’t claim to say Jesse has those problems too, he should be used to interviews by now, if I attribute all that fast-paced high-pitchedness all to pure nervousness, that’s just illogical.
But maybe – just MAYBE – his high-pitchedness is not that natural.
cecille
/ April 11, 2011The first time I watched Jesse was in TSN. I think his voice fit the character of Mark perfectly, especially in the “If your clients want to sit on my shoulders and call themselves tall, they have a right to give it a try…” scene. His delivery of those lines were spot-on. I did notice he tends to go high-pitch when he’s expressing anger–and this is something where he needs to improve on–like when he was in the scene talking on the phone to Eduardo — “Do you wanna go back to that life?” It was high-pitched, almost girly
As Blu in “Rio,” I think he did awesome! Very expressive and exuberant. Disappointed that he didn’t even sing a verse of “Say You, Say Me,” it was just one word
In promo interviews where he’s alone, I do think he tends to talk too fast when he’s nervous and he stutters, but when he’s being interviewed with other actors (especially with Andrew, wink!), he seems more relaxed. In talk shows, he tends to talk too fast as well, but his pronunciation and enunciation is still so good that you can still understand what he’s saying (unlike Adam Brody, whom I loved in “The OC” but most of the time I couldn’t figure out what he was saying, it was bad enough English is not my first language). Anyways, Jesse tends to be more relaxed when he’s comfortable with the talk show host. My fave is the one with David Letterman when he was promoting TSN. They had very good rapport!
I think he sounded confident when he hosted SNL, there’s a deeper voice there and very full of energy but his nervousness was still obvious of course. I think in due time, he’ll get more confident and I do hope to see him in adult roles in the future. However, there’s his physical looks too so that may be a problem–he just looks TOO young for 27. If you watch American Idol this season and are familiar with the male singers, he’s actually older than all but one contestant but put him besides them, he would still end up as the one looking the youngest.
JuL, thanks for sharing that story! I deal with fear in public speaking myself even now when I’m working
I’ve come to accept it and people who know me have come to accept it as well so it’s all good.
Anyways, here is the link to the “Rio” special from Star Movies Asia:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aiRF7dQjHao&feature=youtu.be
If the moderator wants to post it
JuL
/ April 11, 2011thanks cecille! I sort of wallowed a bit in self-guilt after I posted that comment because it felt sort of harsh to be pelting someone with negative comments, for a voice/face that’s born with them or the way they speak, sometimes it’s not like they can help it…. (it’s the same for myself)
but you managed to say what I really thought in a much more objective and sweet-mannered way.
I think the social context of one’s formative years and one’s self-perception has a huge effect on how they speak, in what manner, etc… I relapse into broken speech every so often (and want to kill myself on those occasions). So if he doesn’t sound confident, maybe it’s because Jesse still isn’t confident of himself.
thanks for the link! it looks like a brilliant interview.