That variation on his long-standing animated stint playing Moe, Apu, Chief Wiggum, and numerous other Springfield residents yields a deeply committed, frequently hilarious portrayal of the infamous wizard, who, with his cat sidekick Azrael, chases the Smurfs through a strange portal to New York City. He discussed his unchecked bad-guy zeal (among other things) in a recent chat with Movieline.
I salute your conviction in this role. At what point did you resolve, "You know what? I am going for this?"
It's funny you ask that. I realized on set, kind of at the director's urging, that I wanted to give Gargamel some different colors other than losing his mind when he sees a Smurf. So I wanted to make him sarcastic at times, and kind of off the cuff, and a little laid back. I even didn't want to commit to an evil laugh, feeling that that was just clichéd. And then I discovered really quickly, as you just said, that there is no way to play Gargamel without truly committing. Truth be told, the more passionate and more out there I got, the better it seemed to work. I couldn't deny it. I'd look at playback and say, "Yep, that was better."
I was just talking to someone about how polarizing the Smurfs have been over the last 20 or 30 years of American culture.
Yeah...
While playing Gargamel, did you ever feel like you represented the faction that detests this element of culture -- that may even go so far as to say, "Oh, God, not a fucking Smurfs movie!"
I'll tell you, I was somewhere in between. I was a teenager when the Smurfs came to power in the United States, and although I was too old for them, I watched them -- because I'm very immature, and I'm interested in animation. And I always found them hypnotically interesting kind of despite myself. But I did not like the Gargamel character.
Really?
I didn't. It's what I wanted to avoid in the performance: I thought it was one-note. I was a huge fan of Paul Winchell, who did the voice for Gargamel and who I always found hilarious and loved as a child. But with Gargamel, he wasn't allowed to be funny or interesting. So I really wanted to change that. I was kind of psyched to get the opportunity to do some different things with him. And I thought there was a lot of opportunity in just the concept of Gargamel, mostly in the fact that this man is essentially married to a cat. I found that amusing. When you play that up as a married relationship, it would be funny.
And obviously you've done a lot of animation voice work throughout your career. How did your methods there inform or fuel the physical performance of Gargamel as basically a cartoon? Does it cross over?
It does. I felt sort of uniquely qualified to do something like that. As a cartoon actor, you start with a voice because it's really all you have -- even if it's your own, or whatever character voice you come up with. I've gotten to do that a lot in film, too: play oddly voiced, usually half-naked characters for some reason. But! Clothed or not, you start with the voice. Or I do anyway. And then the body tends to follow that. In this, you have a prosthetic helping you out, what you look like. But you are a living cartoon. I found that within that prosthetic, for example, you almost had to work face like a mask. It's why, in the end, I went for "the bigger, the better," because things wouldn't read if you were subtle with them. So I spent a lot of time as a living cartoon, which I found cool since I've spent so much time being an actual cartoon. It was fun being a living cartoon. I enjoyed it.
"No digital cats were harmed in the making of this film," the credits say.
Yeah, but we killed a few real cats!
I was about to ask how many you burned through.
We were only graced with the presence of two or three real cats. And I really did get a big kick of throwing them all over the place. I mean, I really enjoyed it -- probably more than I should have. But they were fine! You throw a cat, you know he'll just land. But yeah, there was no cat trouble. The cats were treated better than I was, I can tell you that right now. To get the cat to actually lick my face I had to put wet cat food on my face. It was not the greatest moment of my acting career. They do not prepare you for that in acting school. It's not like a class: "Voice, Movement and Cat Food Face Painting."
Your scenes with Sofia Vergara are hilarious -- so out of left field. Can you walk us back through that chemistry -- plus the cat?
This is going to sound like I'm joking around, but I'm not: It's difficult to concentrate because she's so beautiful. You kind of want to just stop and admire her face -- and the rest of her, too. But you have to stop and say, "No! I am in a scene with a woman who is saying things back to me. I cannot just stare." But she is awesome. She is what you imagine: Fiery, lovely, and she commits hard to what she's doing. She doesn't do it halfway.
When you saw the film for the first time, did you have moments where you thought, "Man, I really nailed that," mixed with, "Oh, I wish I had do that one again"?
Oh, you always think that. But more than most films, I have to say, I feel like what I tried to do really got up there. They were on board with a couple of my odder, stranger ideas, and they let me do that.
Like what?
Well, just that this relationship with the cat is this married, bickering couple. When I first brought that up, they said, "It's a good idea, we can do it, but each CGI shot costs money. There's kind of a finite amount in the budget." Now, obviously, the priority goes to creating Smurfs, so they weren't sure how much cat interaction there could be. But I thought a lot of humor could come from there, so I was very pleased that some of the odder, weirder little moments I came up with the cat were allowed to stay in. They made him more three-dimensional.
Would you want to play Gargamel again?
Definitely. First of all, I'm contracted to, so I have to say that. But even if I wasn't, I would be hoping I could do it again. Apart from the hour and a half, hour and 45 minutes of make-up every morning, I really enjoyed doing this.
Where would the Smurfs go next -- or rather, where would Gargamel chase them?
I have an idea where they'd go, but I think if I say so, a corporation would sue me.
Has it been determined?
There's a script already for a sequel if the first one does well. But even that isn't approved yet; it's just what they have right now. It may very well be that what they have right now is not what they end up doing. But I know what the idea is, and I know Gargamel is a part of it, so...
Smurfs 2: European Vacation.
Something like that. I think that a lot of people around the world think that the Smurfs should go to Europe.
They have to go to Brussels!
Yeah, they've at least got to go to Belgium. So... I'm sure they'll get there eventually.
[Top photo: Getty Images]