With Smurfs: The Lost Village opening April 7th, Sony Pictures Animation recently held a long lead press day where I got to talk with Demi Lovato about voicing Smurfette, in addition to seeing some footage from the upcoming animated film.

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If you’re not familiar with Smurfs: The Lost Village, unlike the last installments, this one is fully computer-animated and is a fresh take on the franchise. Director Kelly Asbury recently said that the new film is “a radically different take on the Smurfs and their imaginary world, and much closer to the tone and style that creator Peyo initially envisioned.” When asked what his inspiration was for the film, Asbury replied:

“Many things inspired the type of movie we wanted to make. Everyone involved agreed that the story should be a high-adventure journey, so classic movies like Raiders of the Lost Ark and Goonies came to mind. The richness in color was influenced by the great French Impressionists painters. The Forbidden Forest where the Smurfs venture was envisioned as equal parts Oz, Pandora and Wonderland, filled with dangerous and magical creatures like Smurf-eating Flowers or Boxing and Kissing Plants, to name a few.”

Smurfs: The Lost Village also features the voices of Mandy Patinkin as Papa Smurf, Rainn Wilson as Gargamel, Joe Manganiello as Hefty, Danny Pudi as Brainy Smurf and Jack McBrayer as Clumsy Smurf.

During my exclusive interview with Demi Lovato, she talked about how she got involved in the project, what it was like going into the recording booth to act instead of sing, how much of herself was she able to put into Smurfette, what she remembers about being on Prison Break years ago, the status of her memoir, future projects, and a lot more.

Finally, before getting to the interview, here’s the official synopsis and recent trailer for Smurfs: The Lost Village:

In this fully animated, all-new take on the Smurfs, a mysterious map sets Smurfette and her best friends Brainy, Clumsy and Hefty on an exciting and thrilling race through the Forbidden Forest filled with magical creatures to find a mysterious lost village before the evil wizard Gargamel does.  Embarking on a rollercoaster journey full of action and danger, the Smurfs are on a course that leads to the discovery of the biggest secret in Smurf history!

 

COLLIDER: Hey, how are you doing?

DEMI LOVATO: I’m great, how are you?

I’m good. Good luck with today.

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Image via Sony Pictures Animation

LOVATO: Oh, thank you!

Jumping on in since I know I have limited time, you’ve obviously spent a great deal of time in the recording booth. I’m curious what it was like going in to spend hours there when you’re not singing a thing.

LOVATO: It was a different experience for me, and I loved it. It was fun to be apart of an animated film that is still iconic and I loved it, it was really cool.

Can you could talk a little bit about the way it was for you in the booth and how much of yourself were you able to sort of put into the character?

LOVATO: I was able to put a lot of myself into the character. She’s a strong female lead, and I’d like to consider a strong woman, so being able to put that into the character was easy and comfortable.

I’ve spoken to a lot of people that have worked on a lot of animated movies and they talk about how the story and the script has changed, it changes often during development. I’m curious from when you were pitched the movie to what audiences are going to see on screen, how much changed along the way.

LOVATO: Not a lot changed at all, actually. I think a few lines changed but it was very consistent.

Can you talk about which family member was most excited when you told them you were going to be Smurfette?

LOVATO: I think my mom was definitely the most excited. She grew up watching them and was really excited when I told her I was going to be apart of it.

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Image via Sony Pictures Animation

How did you get involved with the project. Was it something that they went to your agents? How did it happen?

LOVATO: It was kind of came to me with an offer and I couldn’t say no.

If only it was always that easy.

LOVATO: Yeah, exactly.

This is the first time that other female Smurfs are going to be shown in any sort of way, so could you kind of talk about that aspect of the story?

LOVATO: I don’t want to give anything away, so I can’t really say much, to be honest. But it is cool to be apart of a film where it explains why Smurfette is the only girl Smurf.

How long ago did you actually start recording for this? And was it something that you’ve done dozens of sessions for or has there just been a few?

LOVATO: I’ve only done a few sessions. They weren’t hours long so it was definitely a lot of work - or not too much work, and I put in the work. I’ve been doing this for a couple months now.

So it hasn’t been for years?

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Image via Sony Pictures Animation

LOVATO: No.

Years and years ago, you were on Prison Break, so I’m curious what you remember from being on Prison Break, and are you one of these people looking forward to the reboot?

LOVATO: I didn’t know there was a reboot. That’s so exciting.

They’re doing some new episodes with the original cast, I shouldn’t say reboot.

LOVATO: Oh, that’s awesome, I didn’t know that. I remember being definitely really intimidated, it was my first big guest role on a TV show for primetime TV, but I was very excited and it was a cool experience.

You’ve played all around the world, you’ve been all around the world, do you have any favorite cities?

LOVATO: I don’t have specific favorite cities only because if I choose favorites then people would get mad. I would say maybe Rio de Janeiro is really fun to play, of course playing your hometown show in Dallas is really fun, playing in LA and New York is really fun. All over the world is really fun as well, like London, the Philippines, Indonesia, places like that.

I put on Twitter that I was going to be talking to you and the two big questions that kept coming back, and that’s why I’m going to ask you these, are a lot of people asked if you’re working on a memoir or when they’ll be able to read a memoir.

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Image via Sony Pictures Animation

LOVATO: I am working on a memoir, actually. I don’t know when it’ll be released and kind of, I’m still working on it, but I am working on getting little sessions with the writer who’s helping me write it.

I’m sure fans will be excited for that. The other thing a lot of people asked was, are you interested in going back, or are you going to be acting in any other movies?

LOVATO: I won’t be doing live action in the upcoming future, but I would love to hopefully do live action at some point for sure.

Another thing was, how long do you think about what you’re going to tweet before you tweet it?

LOVATO: Like, a minimum of .2 seconds.

So you’re one of those people that doesn’t give it the debate.

LOVATO: No, and it gets me in trouble sometimes.

I can join you in that getting in trouble part. You forget. But getting back into Smurfs, what would surprise people the most about the recording process and the behind the scenes of the movie?

LOVATO: I don’t know, I guess what surprised me is how easy it is and how comfortable I was recording. That was pretty cool.

Sometimes with voice acting on an animated movie you’re by yourself, and other times they combine you with other people, did you actually get to record with anyone else at any point?

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Image via Sony Pictures Animation

LOVATO: No, it was all solo recording.

Were you a little disappointed about that or was it still cool?

LOVATO: No, it was still cool, but I would love to have recorded with other actors and actresses in the film. I think that would’ve been really cool.

Of course, are you contributing to the soundtrack at all? Or is it something you wanted to contribute to?

LOVATO: I wanted to keep my acting separate from my music so it’s not something that I contributed to in this movie.

Talk a little bit about collaborating with the filmmakers. How is it when you guys are recording? Are they giving you constant one-liners, are they saying, “Hey, what about this”?

LOVATO: Kind of that, giving me direction on certain lines and trying new things was exciting, you know?

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Image via Sony Pictures Animation

You were at Sony today. What’s it like for you, are you one of these people that, when you’re at the studio, you sort of get excited because, you know, this is where all the magic happens? Do you still have that sort of inner geek, if you will?

LOVATO: Yeah, I think it’s cool to witness where all the magic happens, and like I said I’m excited to be apart of the film, it’s so cool to see it all come together and come to life.

I’m curious what other things you can tease that you have coming up in the upcoming future.

LOVATO: Other things I have coming up? I am obviously doing the Smurfs movie, but I’m working on new music.

I’m sure everyone who’ll be reading this later will be very excited.

LOVATO: Oh, cool. Thank you so much.

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