WGTC: You obviously have a great voice for voice acting, what elements about it do you like or dislike compared with live acting?
Jeong: There’s nothing to dislike about voice acting. There’s absolutely nothing to dislike about it. It is wonderful. You don’t have to shower. That’s like the best. You can go in not shaved. It really is an abundance of luxury when you’re a voice-over actor.
The hard work is really in the writing and the animating. Especially the animating. What really impressed me about Turbo is, from what I understand, they had the cinematographer from the Dark Knight movies do some of the cinematography. The Indy 500 scenes. To get that kind of feel for it. That was amazing cinematography. The quality of the animation, the quality of the cinematography was outstanding. That’s the hard work.
As an actor, it’s in many ways it’s the most fun, easy job you can think of. We’re really not doing any of the heavy lifting. I always feel like we’re kind of icing on the cake and they’re doing all the hard work. I’ve become friends with David and I couldn’t be happier for him because I know this was such an important personal project for him.
WGTC: I know improv is usually a pretty big part of comedic acting, does that have to be restrained a bit when doing voice acting?
Jeong: If anything it’s encouraged! Especially with David. Of course we would do things as scripted, but the way I view it, we’re expected to provide our own spin on it and improvise. Just like in live acting, you do takes as scripted to make sure you’ve got that down, and then you just kind of let it rip. You really let it fly.
Not just me, a lot of actors improvised so much in Turbo that it made the final cut.I think they look for those genuine moments that you can get out of improv. But at the same time, I thought the script was really tightly written, so you have the double advantage of if you’re bouncing off a tight script, the ad-libs are better, the improvs are better. It really feeds on each other.
WGTC: Turbo F.A.S.T. with Netflix, you’re involved right? How’s that coming along?
Jeong: Yup! I did Kim-Ly reprised for Turbo Fast. That just underlines how much I loved being part of the project, that I would also be a part of a Netflix series of Turbo. I’m really proud to be a part of it. I’ve enjoyed that as well. I really loved the story, and I think that pretty much validates how of an honor it is to be a part of it. Again, I couldn’t be more proud to be a part of Turbo.
That concludes our interview but I’d like to thank Ken for taking the time to talk. Be sure to check out Turbo, available now on Blu-ray, DVD and Digital HD.
