CHARLOTTE’S WEB
An Interview with Andre Benjamin
By Wilson Morales

December 11, 2006

One of the things actors love to do when given the opportunity is do voiceover work in a film. Why? The comfort of just going to the studio, and solely using your voice, to create a character is far rewarding than relying on physical appearance or any action movement. For Andre Benjamin, one half of the OutKast, this must have been like a walk in the park. After all, his voice already sells musically, so now he just has to used it in another form. After seeing him act and perform in this summer’s film, “Idlewild”, Benjamiin is ready to bounce back on the big screen after the lack of success that film had. In “Charlotte’s Web”, which also stars Dakota Fanning, Julia Roberts, Thomas haden Church, and Cedric the Entertainer, Benjamin plays a dimwitted crow named Elwyn. In speaking with blackfilm.com, Benjamin goes over his role in the film, using his voice as an actor, working with Thomas Haden Church, and why Idlewild didn’t click at the box office.

How familiar were you with 'Charlotte's Web?' did you know the story growing up?

Andre Benjamin: Oh, yeah. It was read to me as a kid and I saw the animated version and I did the stage play in school. I played Avery. So I was familiar with it. So when they called I was like, 'Yeah. It's a classic story. I want to be a part of it, rehashing it and making it new.' I wanted to be a part of it for this generation.

Was there any trepidations about it since having this relationship with it growing up that they might change it and screw it up?

Benjamin: Yes. There's always that, but there's never been a live action version of it. I could see that more if someone did a live action version of it before and then coming in and trying to do another one. Then that's kind of hard, but this was really like the first stab at that for me.

Did you and Thomas Haden Church spend any time with together in the recording studio or was it all by yourself?

Benjamin: Well, yeah, we weren't physically together, but we did the ISDN line where I could see him and he could see me and we heard each other at the same time and so we could get the right rhythms and play off of each other. So we weren't in the room together, but that helped.

Did he make any Heckle and Jekyll jokes?

Benjamin: No, we pretty much naturally turned into Heckle and Jekyll, and kind of found our own little places to be. I like to say that he played his Hardy and I played my Laurel, but it did take us kind of being together to do it so that we kind of knew where the other one.

Was there a lot of improvisation that went on?

Benjamin: Oh, yeah. We played a lot and they gave us a lot of freedom because it was the comedy. So we had to experiment and stretch lines out and figure out how we would say it. I know that the writers did a great job in giving us the map and then we kind of went off course a little bit and then came back to give us something extra there.

For what period of time did you work on this?

Benjamin: Maybe over a period of a year. It was just like little sessions days in there.

Did the script change during that time?

Benjamin: No, no.

What did you learn in your developing craft as an actor doing voice work that maybe you didn't know before? What did you take from this experience?

Benjamin: Because you're going to do this animated thing the voice is really important. You have to kind of put the emotion in the voice, put it there because they don't see you. If I do that you can't see it. So you kind of have to say that in some kind of way. It was really a lot of experimenting and they animate around that. So you have to give them enough to go on. I think that with CGI live action it's a little bit different from animation. I mean, I have an animated show on Cartoon Network called 'Class of 3000' where I do a voice almost every week or two, and because that's cartoon you have to be extra big because cartoons can do anything. So it really just depends on the character. Also, names. I learned a lot about names. We didn't have anything going. We didn't know what the crows were going to look like. We just knew that we were crows. So I had to kind of go, 'What is Elwyn? What does the Elwyn crow sound like?' He wouldn't sound like a Richard or a Tom. So, Elwyn had to kind of sound like he was a thinker in a way even though they're dumb, he did have to make this sense, a sort of sense.

What do you get out of acting that you don't get out of your music? Is it rewarding or challenging in a different way?

Benjamin: It is really challenging. Two things, the music is where I'm the controller. I can direct my own movie. I can write my own scenes. I'm my own characters. I'm the light man, I'm the craft service, I'm the hair and makeup ¬ I'm everything. With film you're on this team of maybe a hundred and fifty people and you're all moving along and taking direction and this is your interpretation of someone else's work and it's kind of cool to sort of submit in a way with the art, to get inside someone else's head and try to bring something out of that over here and pretty much controlling that. Then, as an entertainer you're always in the limelight and always doing interviews and you're doing television shows and you don't get a chance to see the normal civilian part of their lives unless you're watching some reality show. But then even now that's not all real. In film I get to play a civilian. So that's kind of great, that you can play a normal person with a normal job with normal kids that go to school everyday, you go to work everyday. You get mad, you cry, you get embarrassed ¬ it's all of that. So it's the opposites.

Were you pleased or disappointed with the way that 'Idlewild' turned out in terms of finding a big audience?

Benjamin: I wasn't really disappointed. I was disappointed that I didn't know enough. I didn't know that you're only on a certain amount of screens and so you've got no chance in being number one. But you have to find that out. At the end of the day, on the screens that we were given we sold it out. We did the hundred percent best that we could do. You learn a lot about studios and their focus groups and how they come up with like, 'Well, we think we're going to put it into this theater because we feel like it's an African American movie so only a certain number of people will go see it.' You have to respect those business decisions because if they feel ¬ I might disagree because I felt like our fan base was larger than that. But I mean when you have a film that all of the people in the movie are African Americans another audience might feel turned off. They might not want to go see it. So you have to take all of that into consideration and you can't be mad at that at the end of the day. I felt like it was great work. We got great feedback with the write-ups. It wasn't something that we just threw away. It wasn't like, 'Okay, this guy has a hot single on the radio and they made a movie with him. Okay, cool.' I mean, you had film critics talking about shots and talking about how you played the part and talking about the characters. So they really broke it down as a real piece, and I talked to Brian Barber the director. We've been friends and have known each other since I gave him his first chance to shoot one of our videos. He was kind of down. He was like, 'Man, if this doesn't do well we're not going to be able to get more work around town.' I said, 'Well, the best thing could've happened because now you're considered a filmmaker and not just a video guy.' I've seen a lot of video guys do movies that'd be successful, but they're still considered video guys. That's basically what it, what they make, a video with a bigger budget. I said, 'Man, you're in a great position. I think that people know our work ethic and know our quality and know that if we get our hands on anything it won't just be throw out material.'

Do you have a barometer with success on film and TV because you've been wildly successful in music? Do you lower your expectations for film and TV?

Benjamin: I think that it's two levels of success. Of course everyone wants to make the numbers because then you can say that there is an audience that came to see it, and that's success in a certain way. Then there is another audience that might've missed it, but it changed the way that people thought about certain things. It changed the fact that maybe now all the music guys who are jumping into film as a fad ¬ now they might be taking it way more serious than they thought at the start. So I think that there is success there where the goal is to make a great picture and to make a great avenue for you to make other great pictures. Sometimes you can have huge success in the box office, but that's not going to give you the opportunity to kind of make a pass at the future. So it's two types of success. I wish you could find a balance with the two, that'd be great, but sometimes it works that way and sometimes it doesn't. It was a great experience though.

Is there ever any temptation to leave Atlanta and move to out to L.A.?

Benjamin: Oh, yeah. I did move out to L.A. for about a year and a half to meet all the directors and producers I could, but Atlanta is home. Atlanta is trees and space. I guess it's a certain comfort. I would love to maybe live out of the country, maybe Australia.

Are you and Big Boi talking about a new record?

Benjamin: Not really. We always record, but I don't think that we're ready to record a new album because we just released 'Idlewild.' I think that we have to build up a purpose, build up something to talk about. I don't think that it's a good thing to jump out and go, 'Let's just do an album.' I think that in the meantime Big Boi might record a solo album, but I think as for the Outkast brand and the legacy, I think the next step is kind of crucial, the next album because 'Idlewild' didn't do well at all.

What are you doing next?

Benjamin: I'm shooting a picture called 'Battle in Seattle' right now with Charlize Theron and Woody Harrelson.

That's the protest picture?

Benjamin: Right, yeah.

Is that exciting?

Benjamin: Yeah. It's going to be out next year.

CHARLOTTE’S WEB OPENS ON December 15, 2006