Anna Kendrick played with Trolls — but Justin Timberlake was more into Teddy Ruxpin.
BackstageOL’s Dave Morales sat down with Trolls stars Anna Kendrick and Justin Timberlake in this backstage interview to talk about working as voice actors, playing with the popular Trolls toys as kids, as well as discussing the music in the film.
“[Working on this film] was great,” said Timberlake. He further explained how no matter how bad their day started off, when they would come to set to voice their characters, their mood would change for the better. “Doing the voice work and playing the characters for the scenes you had for that day, you walked off feeling like, ‘It’s not so bad,’” Timberlake said with a grin, while Kendrick concurred.
In the upcoming film, co-stars Kendrick and Timberlake voice the characters Poppy – who is very cheerful – and Branch – who is very grumpy – respectively.
Kendrick explained how she was a fan of the funky-haired dolls as a child, stating, “I really liked my Trolls because they were cute, short and fat. I loved that they were these joyful, cute, ugly little creatures.” Although Timberlake never owned Trolls, he said that he did have a Cabbage Patch Kid and a Teddy Ruxpin.
Below is the film’s official synopsis:
From the creators of SHREK comes DreamWorks Animation’s TROLLS, a smart, funny and irreverent comedy about the search for happiness, and just how far some will go to get it. This hilarious film transports audiences to a colorful, wondrous world populated by the overly optimistic Trolls, who have a constant dance in their step and a song on their lips, and the comically pessimistic Bergens, who are only happy when they have trolls in their stomachs.
After the Bergens invade Troll Village, Poppy (Kendrick), the happiest Troll ever born, and the overly-cautious curmudgeonly Branch (Timberlake) set off on a journey to rescue her friends. Together, this mismatched duo embarks on a rescue mission full of adventure and mishaps – trying to tolerate each other long enough to get the job done.
The Trolls soundtrack, produced by Timberlake, features five original songs. He and Kendrick cover Cyndi Lauper’s “True Colors,” as well as Earth, Wind & Fire’s “September” (who also lent their voices on the Trolls cover). Ariana Grande, Gwen Stefani, Zooey Deschanel also leant their voices to the movie’s songs.
DreamWorks’ animated film Trolls hits theaters on November 4th. Watch our interview with Kendrick and Timberlake below:
