Emmanuel Itier: How did you relate to your characters?

Justin Long: I was shockingly a bit of a nerd in high school. Studious. I was a little socially awkward; it was nice to go back to that time, before I was all jaded and over everything. Very similar experience in high school — just not as smart, though, sadly. Lem is a lot brighter than I.

Dwayne Johnson: I would say the parallels were maybe the fact that he was very entertaining and a pretty decent guy. I really enjoyed the part in the movie where he reveals himself to Lem — not that way. He reveals himself and said, “Look, I’m not the guy you think I am. I’m not this great guy. As a matter of fact, you’re more of a man than I am. I’m inspired by you.”

Jessica Biel: I related to Neera because, when I was 16, I was pushing it on every angle with my parents, with the world. I thought I had it going on. I thought I knew everything and I’d relate to her feeling of risk-taking. I had a little bit more of a bad attitude, I think, as a 16-year-old. She wants to change the world and to think for herself, and being really independent and a risk-taker. She’s way more of a positive, charitable person than I was as a 16-year-old.

EI: When you see the final product of some kind of animation, did you see yourself?

JB: You mean physically speaking a little bit? I saw some physical things that I do myself. I think it was so weird to hear my own voice.

JL: Yeah, my brother didn’t know I was in the movie, and he heard a commercial the other day and he looked up and saw it coming out of a green alien. I’m sure he wasn’t stoned at all. I thought they captured pretty accurately, from the waist down, the character. [Laughs]

DJ: I couldn’t believe it. I was like, “Is that all you?”

JL: They did take a mold of my body because they do a whole sort of 3D thing. It’s fascinating at the process. But yeah, it’s pretty close. I gesticulate a lot. It was a nice freedom to have in the room. I could just wildly use my hands and body and not be afraid.

DJ: That was a cool thing when I finally watched it. For me, it was the first time that I had done an animation movie, and trying to bring the characters to life with your voice and pitch and intonation and things like that, which I thought was really cool. I thought all did a great job of bringing those characters to life, because in a movie like this, a lot of times, their facial expressions are over-the-top.

EI: How did it compare to being a computer effect in The Mummy 3?

DJ: The difference was, at least in this, I had to bring the character to life with my voice. With that, it was Steven Summers saying, “Okay, you’re claws and you’re trying to get Brendan Fraser…” Okay, got it. Still, at the end of the day, the process was pretty fascinating, and I thought the challenge was pretty cool.

EI: Tell us a little bit more about your experience doing an animation movie compared to real life. Did you have more fun? Can you flesh out your characters more?

JB: I think, in one sense, you really can because, like you said, it can just be crazy. You can talk with your hands, you can go really broad, you can take it really small and really, it’s your director who is guiding you along because you’re not reacting to anything, except sometimes I got to see some of the animation they had already done — some that was in the process.

EI: So the animation is done after your voice-over?

JB: Some.

DJ: About the same time.

JB: It was kind of an ongoing process.

JL: I think we did an initial pass. This has been going on for years. And initially, we just recorded it all and they’d give us templates. We were able to see art. As they had our recording, they started animating to the ones they liked, I think. But then we’d have to go back over it and fill in little holes, and they would rewrite.

DJ: At the end of the day, I would say that, again, the process was a lot of fun. At one point, there were about six guys in the room all giving their directorial opinions, and you had to interpret everything that they’re saying, which made it challenging but yet interesting too, at the same time, and fun.

EI: Usually, in animation, you can pretty much hear whose character and what voice. In this one, it’s kind of hard to figure it out. I had to look for those. Whose voice was that? Did you change up your pitch in post, or do they have you change it while you were reading it just a little bit, or you said intonations…?

JB: Jorge, the whole time, was, “Higher, higher,” because I was going, (breathy voice) “Yeah, well…” [Laughs] We’re not going to make that movie.

JL: I went up sort of like this. [High pitch voice] Again, we did it over the course of a couple of years, I think, during which time, I went through puberty, apparently, because I was recording something else.

EI: Would you do it again?

DJ: Yeah. Whether it’s a live action movie or whether it’s animation, it comes down to the story. If you’re compelled and moved by the story, you think you’re going to have fun, and if you think it’s going to entertain the audiences, which we all collectively felt that this would, then sure, I’d do it again.

JL: I wouldn’t. [Laughs] This is it.

EI: You guys talked about the passion in the room among the producers. This was the production company’s first animated movie. Did you notice any nervousness because this was their first feature?

JB: They were all bundled and a mix of different things. I’m sure there was a little bit of nervousness, but more than nervousness was just excitement. They were so close because it has been eight years that everyone has been working on getting this completely taken care of. They were so giddy with joy that we were almost there.

DJ: I would say a little bit of nervousness, but they were really enthusiastic and excited and very passionate. That came out in spades when you sit out down with them. Paying attention to a lot of times, you would think, “Oh, let’s negotiate afterward about it,” but no, it’s very important, and this is why it’s important — then they explain it to you, which we all appreciated.

EI: Is this something were you were sought out for, or did you hear about the movie and really want to be a part of it? Was it something they thought you guys were perfect for the role, or did you find out about it and try to do it?

DJ: I heard that these guys were interested, honestly, and then I was like, “I’m in.” I’m a big fan of his [Justin Long], and I’ve known her [Jessica Biel] for years, so I was in. It’s that simple.

JL: Are you kidding?

DJ: No.

JL: Aww…that’s so nice. Likewise, I heard about who was involved.

JB: Me too, which is funny because we never saw each other. Did you guys never see each other?

JL: No.

DJ: Just at night, but no.

EI: You have a daughter — how excited was she to hear your voices?

DJ: It was interesting for her because she just turned eight, so it was hearing my voice but in an animated way, and then seeing me onscreen white and blond [laughs] was just interesting to her, but still, nonetheless, entertaining.

EI: Dwayne, this really adds to your great track record for family entertainment. Can you give us a quick update on a possible Witch Mountain sequel, Tooth Fairy and Johnny Quest?

DJ: Witch Mountain sequel, I’m not quite too sure about that. Tooth Fairy is very funny, man. I can’t wait. It will be out in January. Johnny Quest, I’m not quite too sure what’s happening with that.

EI: What do you like most about doing these animated movies?

DJ: For me, the goal was to work in as many genres as possible and hopefully find good success in them. Generally, if you make a good family movie, then everybody in the family can relate to somebody or, in this case, something on the screen.

EI: This movie has one of the themes of fear of the unknown. Do you guys have any fear of the unknown or something unknown is going on?

JB: Yeah, that’s a constant problem: when are you going to work? I try not to think about it too much, but that’s always a little bit there. When and can you pay your bills, and is it going to be creatively interesting? That’s always there a little bit for me, as much as I try to say it’s not.

EI: Jessica, speaking of work and paying your bills, can you talk anything about The A-Team?

JB: Sure. It’s been a complete blast. I’m getting to work a lot with weapons again, which I haven’t done in a long time. It sounds kind of weird but the best to learn about that kind of thing, I think. The cast is wonderful. We’ve got a really interesting tone going on. I think I was a little bit concerned at first. Are we going to be really super cheesy? Were we going to be really dark? What were we doing really? So I think it’s going to be a lot of different things combined into this one movie, but a lot throwbacks, a lot of paying homage to the original show… I know this is something really beautiful, and the scenes are going together really well. That’s pretty much all I think I can say.

DJ: That’s a title, by the way, that I was really excited about. When are they going turn this into a movie? I’m such a big fan of the TV series, and when I heard that they were going to turn it into a movie, I was really excited. Meredith, Jessica’s publicist, would tell me, “Yeah, she’s on board,” and I was like, “Ah, it’s awesome.” So I’m excited about it. She’s going to be great.