What is the story of RACING STRIPES?

"I play Stripes, who is a zebra that gets left behind by the circus company when he's a baby. A guy finds me in a box in the middle of the road and takes me home. They raise me on their farm and I think I'm a regular horse. I want to be a racehorse but nobody thinks I can do it. I'm really motivated and I try and try and try. I end up racing in the end. It's great."

How does Stripes train?

"Well, there's a farm across the way that has all these high-tech devices for training, like treadmills for the horses. Our farm is old and we don't have any high-tech stuff. I race the mailman and do whatever I can to make myself faster."

Who are the other characters - his friends?

"He has Tucker (Dustin Hoffman), a pony, who coaches him. Whoopi Goldberg's character is Franny, a goat. There are roosters, pelicans, other horses and just about every farm animal you can imagine. They're all helping him try to succeed."

How would you characterise the story? What is it? 'A fish out of water' story?

"It has a great message. No matter how different you are or how different you look, if you are really passionate about doing something and you really work at it, everything will work out and you'll succeed. Yeah, he is sort of a fish out of water. He's supposed to be in Africa but he is in this farm in Kentucky. He thinks he's normal but he's really different."

Does Stripes have a love interest?

"He does. She is a horse across the way, who is played by Mandy Moore. Her name is Sandy. She's the 'hot' horse and nobody thinks Stripes can get her but she really likes him. They hook up!"

How much fun did you have voicing this film?

"It was awesome. I got to work with some of the best actors, even though I never really met them! I always loved the idea of a live action movie with talking animals, like Dr Dolittle and Babe, so when they came to me with the idea, I was very excited about it."

What was the voiceover process?

"About two years ago, I was in London filming 'Cody Banks 2' and they had me go into a studio there. They laid down my first track of the voice so they could have it for when they were filming. Then they went to South Africa and filmed the movie for six months and when they came back they had a rough cut and I started going in to read my lines. Because you can't schedule all the voice actors to come in together, I had to come in a bunch of times. After Dustin Hoffman or Whoopi Goldberg would come in, they'd change some lines a little bit, which would change my reaction. It was fun."

So they do the animation to your voice and then they change it?!

"Yeah! It takes a while to get the animation for the zebra's mouth perfect. Up until two or three months ago we were still amending the lines. After Steve Harvey, who plays Buzz, would come in and add a funny line, my character has to react differently. If my character reacts differently, then the next character reacts differently. There was a lot of that, back and forth. But that's what makes the movie real and a lot funnier than if they didn't do that or than if it was just scripted like that."

You're no stranger to voices - you've done 'Fairly Odd Parents' and a lot of other voice work. You're so used to being in front of the camera now, whether it's Malcolm or the Cody Banks films, but here you're in a booth and you're completely by yourself. How do you psych yourself to get into that mode?

"You're still acting, you're still into the scene. The only real difference is when you don't see your face. If you just hear the line, it sounds pretty, pretty dead. You have to up everything to a point where you think you're overacting so that when you hear it back, it sounds normal. I have a lot of expressions and stuff but you can't see that. I get really into it and its sounds like "blah blah blah" so I have to go back and pump it up. It's really hard not having the other actors there. You're in the room, reading the lines, and you have other actors and actresses there but they're not the people who are actually playing the part. They're giving you a reaction but it may be different in the film. "

Being in a booth and not having the actors must have been a big challenge for you.

"It was. You have other actors to read lines back to you but having a scene with Dustin Hoffman and Whoopi Goldberg would be a lot different from having a scene with anyone else, because they're respected, amazing actors. I actually did get to work with Dustin once because Stripes and his character, Tucker, have ten scenes together, so they wanted us to come in and read it together. "

What was that like?

"I was very intimidated at first. At first, you feel like, "It's Dustin Hoffman" but I did feel very, very comfortable. He's very nice. It definitely changed the way I read the lines. Having him read before me or respond to my line would even change the start of a scene. I thought that was great. It was awesome working with everybody but to get everyone together was impossible. Of course that's not going to happen. "

What's it like when you've finally finished the film a couple of years down the line, when you're doing other things and you see the final product? What do you feel like when you see that?

"When I saw it for the first time with all the animation done, it's crazy! I was in scenes with Mandy Moore, Dustin Hoffman and Whoopi Goldberg! It's so cool to see everything come together and as I wasn't there when they're filming, you don't know what to expect. I was very, very impressed."

There was a message in the film. There must have been something that touched you when you read the script. What was that?

"I love doing a movie that all ages can see and enjoy. It was just really fun. I knew it would be great."

So how are things going with Malcolm In the Middle this season?

"Pretty good. We're on episode 121 now and it's still going strong. The ratings are still good. "

Are you going to keep going as long as you can?

"Yeah, definitely. You have to; you never know what's going to happen."

And also Hayden Panettiere, who plays Channing, has been in a couple of episodes and you obviously worked with her on this film. Can you tell me about her work ethic? She's just awesome in this.

"She really is. She's an amazing actress in everything she's in. She's great to work with, really fun on set. She was first in an episode three years ago and she came back this season actually for one of the early episodes. She's fun."

So any more feature films coming up for you?

"Yeah, I have a bunch of stuff lined up for the summer. But so far, being on the show, I only have three months to do everything so the timing has to be perfect. But we'll see what happens."

Best of luck to you.

"Thank you."

Happy Viewing!

Mal


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