"We're shooting it like a play"–Isla Fisher talks about filming RANGO

In a recent interview with SCI FI Wire, Isla Fisher (promoting her new film Confessions of a Shopaholic) describes her experience shooting the animated film Rango for Gore Verbinski. Johnny Depp plays the title character, and the powerhouse vocal cast includes Fisher, Abigail Breslin, Bill Nighy, Alfred Molina, Harry Dean Stanton, Ned Beatty, Ray Winstone, and Alanna Ubach. Fisher plays a lizard: “I’m a hard lizard. It’s just a lot of fun. I get to tote a gun, and it’s just been a completely different experience from anything I have done before.”

Q: Is it you in a recording studio by yourself, or do you get to interact with anyone else?
Isla Fisher: That’s what’s so interesting about Gore Verbinski’s process. We’re shooting it like a play. So we’re all on stage, and we act it out, and he shoots it with cameras. Then he’s going to animate the characters to match our faces.

Q:That’s unusual, especially for a[n animated] feature. Everyone involved generally meets one another at the premiere.
Isla Fisher: Absolutely. When I did Horton Hears a Who!, I was just alone with the director in a booth. I’m really enjoying this process. It really adds such depth to the performance to actually see the other actor you’re interacting with and to experience it, rather than just be alone in a booth.

The Zone thanks Emma for the Isla Fisher interview; you can read more Rango news on the Zone’s News & Views forum. Johnny Depp has now wrapped his work on Rango. Watch for the film in theaters in March 2011. –Part-Time Poet