From director Thea Sharrock and screenwriter Mike White (who also voices Frankie the seal), and based on the best-selling book by Katherine Applegate, the family adventure film The One and Only Ivan tells the story of a very special gorilla. The 400-pound silverback named Ivan (voiced by Sam Rockwell) shares a habitat in a shopping mall with an elephant (voiced by Angelina Jolie), a dog (voiced by Danny DeVito) and a variety of other animals, with which he must perform for an audience under the direction of mall owner Mack (Bryan Cranston) and where he soon realizes that his dreams are bigger than being the main attraction of a circus show.

During a virtual press day for the film, actress Phillipa Soo got on the phone with Collider for this 1-on-1 chat about finding her inner parrot in order to voice Thelma, one of the animal performers in the circus, trying out the voice on her husband, and getting to play with the text in the recording booth. She also talked about voicing the moon goddess Chang’e for director Glen Keane’s upcoming animated feature Over the Moon, that gasp at the end of Hamilton, the secret to pitch control, and her interest in telling stories that have an aspect of cultural and social awareness.

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Image via Disney+

Collider: How did you approach finding your inner parrot? Did you watch and listen to real parrots?

PHILLIPA SOO: Well, it starts out very simple, which is that you just watch as many videos of parrots as you can find. You start from there and just play around, vocally, with what that might sound like, or what kind of breath work is involved in that from a technical aspect. And then, once I got into the studio and I was working with Thea Sharrock, the director, she had some really great insights, which was that Thelma is one of the animals that can speak with the other animals, but also speaks and humans can understand what she says when she speaks. She’s repeating what other people are saying, but she’s selective in what she chooses to repeat, based on her own agenda. I thought that was such a useful piece of direction because while, yes, she is repeating what most people are saying, she really is interested in adding to the conversation, or making a point that is happening in the plot really poignant and really stand out. Many times, the things that she chooses to say are affecting the other characters because they’re hearing it repeated back to them, and that gives you, as the person who is being repeated at, some perspective as to what’s going on and how you’re being in the situation. But really, it was about playing and fun and seeing what works and walking a lot. That’s how I got what you see.

Did you test out the voice on people before you recorded it? Were you squawking at people who thought you were crazy?

SOO: Oh, I literally was just in my house talking to my husband and being like, “Does this sound parrot-y enough?” And he was like, “Yeah, you sound like a parrot.” That’s how it started. And I did have a conversation with Thea in the beginning to be like, “So, are we thinking a real actual parrot, or are we thinking, like many of the other characters, having human qualities to their voices/inner voices?” And she was like, “No, let’s just go for it, like an actual parrot.” I was grateful for it and it was so fun for me. It was the last thing that I could imagine myself being asked to do, but given this opportunity, it’s been so fun. All I wanna do, as an actor, is just be as crazy, as silly, as messy, and as random as possible, to shake it up a little, and this definitely did that.

Because this is a hybrid project that’s live-action with CGI animals, did that mean that you were able to get a script ahead of time and that you were able to follow that script, unlike how animation really continues to evolve throughout the process?

SOO: Yeah. For my part, specifically, there was a lot of animation that had already happened, and I was coming in and filling in the voice in that moment. Certainly, there was a lot of playing around with different ways of saying things and different words to emphasize, based on what’s happening in the story. There was a lot of playing around with the text that was there. Sometimes we would throw out an alt line, just for the heck of it, to see if it would be used later on. From my experience in working on animation, even if you’re doing a lot of voice stuff after the animation has been created, like in this case, you’re still experimenting a lot and trying to throw out as many different options as possible, so that when they’re cutting it together there’s a cohesive arc for the story. My job is just to be available and ready to give them as many different options as possible.

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Image via Netflix

You also have a fully animated film with Over the Moon, which I’m really excited about because it looks amazing. With something like that, how do you prepare to voice a moon goddess?

SOO: Well, I think it all goes down to the technicality aspect to start, making sure that I’m warmed up. It’s different than a live show, obviously, because I’m using my voice in so many different ways in a four-hour session, and sometimes repeating things over and over and over again. That can be really tiring on the voice, so there’s a lot of technical calculation happening, where I think, “Okay, so I have to record three songs today, and then do some dialogue. But in the dialogue, I have to do some screaming or some really loud talking. And this moon goddess has these supernatural capabilities, so there’s some conjuring that’s happening and some deep, really vocally taxing stuff.” So, I have to plan out how I can sing the songs first and get those out of the way, and then go to the dialogue, and then maybe go back to the screams and stuff at the end, so I’m not super tired by the end of it. And then, in terms of just the character itself, there were a lot of discoveries happening in those sessions that we had. Glen Keane, our wonderful director, is just a lover of stories. And even further than that, he’s a lover of character and character development within a story, so he was so useful and helpful in terms of getting my head in the right space, giving me a note that would maybe change the tone or the color of the line a little bit, and then together, sometimes we would find something completely new and completely discovered in that moment. The best thing about this job is that you create something better than either of you could have done alone in a room, together. So, there was a lot of, “Let’s just throw one out there and see what happens, or improv a little bit and see what sticks.” We found a lot of things that way, especially once we started getting used to working with each other and we were a couple of years into working on this project. It became really playful and really fun, and Glen was just so adamant to get this story across. I never felt like we strayed off the path. He was just our fearless leader, always there to prompt us and give us the insights for what was happening.

When you started doing Hamilton, could you ever have imagined how talked about and dissected Eliza’s gasp at the end of the show would become? Did you expect everybody to be talking about it in the way that they have?

SOO: Not really. It’s really interesting, actually. It’s interesting to me that everyone wants to know, "What is it?" I don’t want people to feel like I’m not gonna give them an answer, and yes, there is an answer to that, that could be. I don’t know how to answer that question with, “This is exactly what I was thinking in that moment.” For me, it was about discovering something new every night, and trying to keep it as an exploration in that moment. What I always say is that I’m more interested to know what you thought, whoever is asking me that question. There is an intention there, to have Eliza be the one at the edge of the stage looking out at the audience. There is something so beautiful, that she is taking in and inhaling and seeing, and then the lights go out. There was always an inhale, and then lights out. It’s just fascinating to me that it has struck people so much, now that it’s been captured. What’s so beautiful about that moment and what was always so beautiful about it, for me, was that, depending on the day and depending on what I had done, who I had talked to, who was out in the audience, or where I was in my life, what I saw out there changed. And so, I hope that it does the same for people who are watching it. Depending on what’s happening in the world and their lives, personally, I hope that they can gain something from that moment, as well as a moment of discovery and change and embracing newness, embracing something that might be terrifying, embracing something that might be beautiful and unknown. So, that’s my hope for it. Regardless of what the meaning is, I just hope that people get something out of it.

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Image via Disney+

What is your secret to pitch control?

SOO: I don’t know. I will say, having watched the film and watching “Helpless,” I was just thinking to myself, “How did I do that eight times a week?” There’s definitely a physical aspect, which is just stamina and making sure that you’re energized, warmed up, hydrated, and on your breath and focused. And also, at the same time, it’s about being able to be free and just let something fly. Those things are magic, in the way that you can work on them and really try to perfect them, for hours and hours and hours, but the only time that you’re really gonna hit it is when you just let it all go and don’t care about it. It was always about striking that balance of, “Okay, when do I need to amp it up and be on my toes? And when do I need to sit back and relax a little bit because I’m still nervous or anxious or worried that it won’t come out the way I want it to?” That’s the thrill of live theater, I suppose

Whether it’s Hamilton, or The One and Only Ivan, or even Over the Moon, the recent projects that you’ve done seem to have a very clear message to them. Is that something that’s been intentional? Have you noticed that as you’ve read scripts? Is that something that you’ve intentionally set out to find?

SOO: In my own way. I truly believe that, if you put something out into the universe, that it will come to you, in some way, shape, or form. These projects came to me basically around the same time that they were all happening. Over the Moon came at the tail end of Hamilton, and The One and Only Ivan came in during the middle of Over the Moon. These are all overlapping projects, but I was in a very different place when they were all happening. I will say that I definitely am interested in stories that feel like there is an aspect of cultural and social awareness, even if that social awareness means getting a little bit more in touch with your heart and your empathy. It doesn’t have to necessarily be striking or a huge idea. Sometimes change starts small, sometimes change starts within yourself, and sometimes change starts just within your heart and pulling on your heartstrings a little bit. So, yes, there is a throughline there. I’m definitely interested in stories that pull at my heartstrings.

The One and Only Ivan is streaming on Disney+.