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I was going to send this to one person but thought others might enjoy it too. I'm delighted that Jennifer Saunders is also in this. I've taken out the usual background info on Cleese but the full article's url is at bottom. - Perdita
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A PYTHON IN THE WORLD OF 'SHREK' - Hugh Hart, May 16, 2004, San Francisco Chronicle
Before John Cleese gets around to discussing King Harold, the character he voices in "Shrek 2," the 6-foot-4 comedy star pours himself a cup of tea, plops his feet (loafers, no socks) on an ottoman, and expounds for several minutes on his latest fascination: life after death.
"We've been having discussions at the Esalen Institute about -- this will sound very strange -- the possibility of the survival of consciousness, " Cleese begins, with little preface. "Western scientists by and large don't see how consciousness could survive the destruction of the brain that created it."
OK then. Cleese goes on, tangentially touching on Newtonian physics, quantum mechanics, 19th century semanticist Alfred O. Korzybski's map/territory theory, psychiatrist Ian Stevenson's work on reincarnation and a summary of "veridical near-death experiences" before wryly putting on the brakes when the name "King Harold" is crowbarred into the conversation.
"This rings a bell," he pauses. "Something to do with the 'Shrek' publicity?"
Not that Cleese lacks enthusiasm for "Shrek 2." In the sequel to the 2001 animated comedy hit, which reunites Mike Myers, Cameron Diaz and Eddie Murphy, Cleese lends his instantly recognizable voice to the ruler of the Far Far Away Kingdom, stuffy father of Princess Fiona. Dismayed to learn that his new son- in-law is an ogre, the king sets in motion a flurry of magic spells that leaves him literally transformed, in the end, by his own secret past.
It's just that Cleese, who earned a law degree from Cambridge University and taught at a British prep school before sidling into show business in the early '60s, possesses the sort of restless intellect rarely found in Hollywood. His academic grounding stood him in good stead back when he was writing and performing in "Monty Python's Flying Circus."
. . .
In much of that work, Cleese mined his exasperated, mean-spirited characters for a wealth of brilliantly bilious comedic payoffs. But at this stage in his life, the actor says he gravitates toward hassle-free assignments whenever possible. Which made "Shrek 2" a perfect match.
"I'm a little pragmatic about this business," Cleese says. "I don't get excited much, but I really liked the first 'Shrek' and was distinctly envious of John Lithgow. So when the phone rang (with the job offer) it made me feel very chuffed."
The best thing about voice work on animated features, Cleese says, is that it's "very unstressful. You don't have to memorize lines, you don't really have to shave unless you want to, and you can try lots and lots of things and it doesn't matter how many mistakes you make, provided you just get one right take. I started in radio, and I've always liked the purity of just having a microphone and a script, instead of people coming in and saying, 'I'm afraid that light up there isn't quite right.' "
The "Shrek 2" team decided to cast Cleese during a brainstorming session. "We were looking at different personality traits we could give the king, and we all came to the conclusion that he was like Basil Fawlty," recalls "Shrek 2" co-director Conrad Vernon. "(The king) has to have control over everything, and the more he tries to control it, the more it spins out of control. We figured John Cleese would be perfect."
"Except for one session I did with Julie (Andrews), there are no other actors, so you're completely dependent on the director to tell you what the hell's going on," says Cleese, who performed his six recording sessions over the course of 15 months. "You've got a storyboard, but that's pretty rudimentary. After that, it's all down to a question of can the director describe to you what he's after?"
"Somebody said to me yesterday the king is more of a straight man, and that's right," Cleese says. "He really is providing a lot of the emotional framework for what's going on around him."
Ironically, "Shrek 2" gives most of the big laughs to English actress Jennifer Saunders ("Absolutely Fabulous"), who voices the conniving fairy godmother, and Antonio Banderas (as feline swashbuckler Puss in Boots). Meanwhile, Cleese delivers what is undoubtedly his most three- dimensional performance playing a two-dimensional cartoon character.
The "Shrek" movies have a far more gentle satiric sensibility than the Python oeuvre, but Cleese points out that both share an ability to move audiences on multiple levels.
"I would think there's a stylistic similarity," Cleese muses, "though I wouldn't like to put it into words. What people used to say about Python, quite correctly, was how silly it was. But people also got that underneath the silliness, there was always some sort of thought, and that's what I think you feel about 'Shrek.' It's all completely silly, good-natured and great fun on the surface, but actually there's some interesting comments being made."
Cleese
-----------
A PYTHON IN THE WORLD OF 'SHREK' - Hugh Hart, May 16, 2004, San Francisco Chronicle
Before John Cleese gets around to discussing King Harold, the character he voices in "Shrek 2," the 6-foot-4 comedy star pours himself a cup of tea, plops his feet (loafers, no socks) on an ottoman, and expounds for several minutes on his latest fascination: life after death.
"We've been having discussions at the Esalen Institute about -- this will sound very strange -- the possibility of the survival of consciousness, " Cleese begins, with little preface. "Western scientists by and large don't see how consciousness could survive the destruction of the brain that created it."
OK then. Cleese goes on, tangentially touching on Newtonian physics, quantum mechanics, 19th century semanticist Alfred O. Korzybski's map/territory theory, psychiatrist Ian Stevenson's work on reincarnation and a summary of "veridical near-death experiences" before wryly putting on the brakes when the name "King Harold" is crowbarred into the conversation.
"This rings a bell," he pauses. "Something to do with the 'Shrek' publicity?"
Not that Cleese lacks enthusiasm for "Shrek 2." In the sequel to the 2001 animated comedy hit, which reunites Mike Myers, Cameron Diaz and Eddie Murphy, Cleese lends his instantly recognizable voice to the ruler of the Far Far Away Kingdom, stuffy father of Princess Fiona. Dismayed to learn that his new son- in-law is an ogre, the king sets in motion a flurry of magic spells that leaves him literally transformed, in the end, by his own secret past.
It's just that Cleese, who earned a law degree from Cambridge University and taught at a British prep school before sidling into show business in the early '60s, possesses the sort of restless intellect rarely found in Hollywood. His academic grounding stood him in good stead back when he was writing and performing in "Monty Python's Flying Circus."
. . .
In much of that work, Cleese mined his exasperated, mean-spirited characters for a wealth of brilliantly bilious comedic payoffs. But at this stage in his life, the actor says he gravitates toward hassle-free assignments whenever possible. Which made "Shrek 2" a perfect match.
"I'm a little pragmatic about this business," Cleese says. "I don't get excited much, but I really liked the first 'Shrek' and was distinctly envious of John Lithgow. So when the phone rang (with the job offer) it made me feel very chuffed."
The best thing about voice work on animated features, Cleese says, is that it's "very unstressful. You don't have to memorize lines, you don't really have to shave unless you want to, and you can try lots and lots of things and it doesn't matter how many mistakes you make, provided you just get one right take. I started in radio, and I've always liked the purity of just having a microphone and a script, instead of people coming in and saying, 'I'm afraid that light up there isn't quite right.' "
The "Shrek 2" team decided to cast Cleese during a brainstorming session. "We were looking at different personality traits we could give the king, and we all came to the conclusion that he was like Basil Fawlty," recalls "Shrek 2" co-director Conrad Vernon. "(The king) has to have control over everything, and the more he tries to control it, the more it spins out of control. We figured John Cleese would be perfect."
"Except for one session I did with Julie (Andrews), there are no other actors, so you're completely dependent on the director to tell you what the hell's going on," says Cleese, who performed his six recording sessions over the course of 15 months. "You've got a storyboard, but that's pretty rudimentary. After that, it's all down to a question of can the director describe to you what he's after?"
"Somebody said to me yesterday the king is more of a straight man, and that's right," Cleese says. "He really is providing a lot of the emotional framework for what's going on around him."
Ironically, "Shrek 2" gives most of the big laughs to English actress Jennifer Saunders ("Absolutely Fabulous"), who voices the conniving fairy godmother, and Antonio Banderas (as feline swashbuckler Puss in Boots). Meanwhile, Cleese delivers what is undoubtedly his most three- dimensional performance playing a two-dimensional cartoon character.
The "Shrek" movies have a far more gentle satiric sensibility than the Python oeuvre, but Cleese points out that both share an ability to move audiences on multiple levels.
"I would think there's a stylistic similarity," Cleese muses, "though I wouldn't like to put it into words. What people used to say about Python, quite correctly, was how silly it was. But people also got that underneath the silliness, there was always some sort of thought, and that's what I think you feel about 'Shrek.' It's all completely silly, good-natured and great fun on the surface, but actually there's some interesting comments being made."
Cleese
