With director Chris Williams’ (Moana, Big Hero 6) The Sea Beast now streaming on Netflix, I recently spoke to Karl Urban about voicing one of the main characters (Jacob Holland) in the fantastic, animated film. During the interview, Urban talked about what he’s most excited for audiences to see in the film, the most challenging parts of voicing an animated character, how he was unprepared with the way The Sea Beast pushes the boundaries of animation, and what someone should watch if they’ve never seen his work. In addition, he revealed when The Boys Season 4 starts filming and what he thinks is the series most outrageous moment.

The Sea Beast is set in a time when fearsome monsters freely roamed the seas, and monster hunters were considered heroes. The film follows one such group of monster hunters, under the leadership of Captain Crow (voiced by Jared Harris), as they hunt their most dangerous monster yet, known as The Bluster. But when an orphan girl (voiced by Zaris-Angel Hator) obsessed with monster hunters gets discovered on the ship, she starts to see how the tales she’s read in books might not be the whole truth, and that maybe these sea monsters aren’t actually monsters at all. The Sea Beast also features the voices of Mariann Jean-Baptiste, Dan Stevens and Kathy Burke.

Check out what Karl Urban had to say in the player above, or you can read our conversation below. And while I know you have a lot of choices in what to watch, I strongly recommend The Sea Beast.

COLLIDER: I'm just going to say I'm very happy for you and the success coming your way.

KARL URBAN: Oh, thank you, mate. I appreciate that. That's so lovely of you to say.

If someone has actually never seen anything that you've done before, what is the first thing you want them watching and why?

URBAN: Oh, wow. That's a difficult one to nail down actually, because it's almost like asking you what your favorite project is, and I don't actually have one. But if I'm going to start, I'd probably point people in the direction of Lord of the Rings first. I think that's a pretty good place to start, yeah.

When you signed on to The Boys, which when I first saw it I'm like, "Oh, this is a really good show," did you have any idea that it was going to become what it's become?

URBAN: No. I mean, you never really know how something's going to be received, and you hope that it finds an audience because you work so long and hard on it, and when it does connect the way that The Boys has, you just feel a sense of relief, that in a sense that you're happy for everybody involved in the project. Because I'm just a small sort of cog in the machine, but there's from the writers to the crew, to the other actors, there's so many people involved in it. So it's nice for everybody that just to know that audiences are having as much fun watching it as we are making it.

Last question on The Boys. You guys have done some pretty outrageous things in all three seasons, do you have one that stands out as, "Are you effing kidding me? We're about to do this?"?

URBAN: Listen, every time you open up a script and read something in The Boys, every single episode you come across that moment of, "Are you serious? Are they going to actually do this?" For me personally, I think slamming a speedboat into a whale was pretty outrageous. I mean, one of the most benevolent, beautiful creatures on the planet, and we're just going to ram a speedboat into it, but that's the wacky world of The Boys.

Jumping into Sea Beast. I thought this movie is fantastic, I thought Chris did such a great job with it. What are you actually most excited for audiences to see with the film?

URBAN: Listen, I'm most excited for audiences just to see this film period. I think it's a rather special and unique film. I really think that The Sea Beast really pushes the boundaries of animation. I've never seen anything as texturally rich in the world of animation as The Sea Beast. Beyond that, I think that the characters and the story are really endearing. What I responded to was the story of this monster hunter, this sort of tough, brawny monster hunter called Jacob Holland, who sort of comes into contact with this young stowaway, and through the course of their adventures comes to rethink everything that he believes about the world. And to me, that's a pretty interesting and thought-provoking concept, that you can never be too stuck in your ways. If you get presented with new information, that you should be open to the paradigm shift. I think that's pretty cool.

It also speaks to a lot of stuff going on in our world today with that aspect of the film. But what do you think would surprise people to learn about being the main character in an animated movie and what goes on behind the scenes?

URBAN: Well, it's an interesting and really challenging process to be a part of, unlike when you're working on something like The Boys, where you have all of the other actors in the scenes that you're with there on set and you have everything in front of you. When you're working on an animated movie, you have nothing, you do not know what the other actors sound like, you do not know what the delivery of their lines are, and ostensibly, you're working in a vacuum. I was very fortunate to be working with Chris Williams, our director on this, and he would read all the other characters' lines and he would describe the scene, and sometimes I would get like a previs of what the scene was, which helped. But for the most part, it's a huge leap in your imagination to create that world and put yourself in the moment, and then you're always amazingly sort of surprised when you see the film and see the true scope and scale of what it is that they've created.

What is it like when you have to make those sounds of running, or those weird sounds? Do you know what I mean? Not like the dialogue.

URBAN: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I've got to confess, I hate doing that. All the little grunts and groans and, "Uh, ah, ooh." It feels really ridiculous when you're in the booth and it's like, "Okay, now we're going to do efforts," and you're just like, "Oh, please." You've been in the sound booth for four hours, and then the last thing you do is like half an hour of efforts. But I'd rather that it be organic and come from me than somebody else do it.

One of the things watching the finished film was I couldn't believe the quality of the animation, and for people that don't realize, doing water effects in animation is not easy.

URBAN: Yeah.

And this movie is all water. So I just want to know what was it like actually seeing the finished film for you? Because it's so beautiful to look at.

URBAN: I think my response was probably exactly the same as yours. I was completely unprepared and blown away by the finished film. I think The Sea Beast really pushes the boundaries of animated movies, and it's texturally so rich. There's the detail of the individual grains of sand, or as you said, sort of the reflection and the way the light plays off the water. It's a beautiful film and it's got a lot of heart, and it's just good epic, family fun. I think there's something in it for everybody.

Also, it has a crazy amount of action that's really well choreographed and shot. I just can't say enough about how great of a job Chris did.

URBAN: Yeah, he's brilliant. Really, Chris was one of the most important elements that drew me to the film. I mean, he was so passionate about this movie. He lived it and breathed it, and oozed it out of every single pore, and really this project was for me a leap of faith with Chris Williams and knowing that he was going to be able to deliver something truly extraordinary, and he really has. He's knocked it out of the park. I can't wait for audiences to see it.

Before I run out of time with you, I actually want to do a follow-up on The Boys, if you don't mind. I notice the facial hair is in full effect. Does this mean that you're going back to start filming a certain new season soon?

URBAN: Yeah, we're starting I think August the 22nd, we're going to be starting season four. So I'm getting back, getting my Butcher back on, and I can't wait. It's a fun gang to play with, we work hard and play hard, and I can't wait to see where they take the characters from where we leave them at the end of this season.

Yeah, I've seen season three and I cannot wait for the next season. Does Eric Kripke tell you in advance? Like how early does Eric or anyone involved in the production actually tell you about what's coming in the next season?

URBAN: Well, what are we now? We're about two months away from filming and I have no idea. So that'll tell you something, but yeah, not too far away. I'm actually going to be seeing Kripke next week and I expect conversations will start to happen about what he's got in store. I like to give them the respect of being able to do their writing process and not be harassed by actors going, "What are we doing?" But I can't wait. They always come up with insane stuff, so yeah, it's going to be fun.

As I said before, I'm so happy for your success and I wish you nothing but the best. Thank you for your time.

URBAN: Thanks, man. All right, take care.

The Sea Beast is now streaming on Netflix.