Robert Capron, Atticus Shaffer and Charlie Tahan Talk About Disney’s Frankenweenie

Interestingly Frankenweenie is made up of child actors and adult actors even though almost everyone in the movie is a child. I guess some adults are really good at sounding like children. That being said the stars of Frankenweenie are the children that I had the opportunity to sit down and talk to. So we chatted it up about the movie Frankenweenie and how they liked working with Tim Burton. These boys are so intelligent and well spoken, I couldn’t get in front of a press group and speak the way they did. I’m amazed!

Charlie Tahan plays Victor, Robert Capron plays bob, Atticus Shaffer plays Edgar ‘E’ Gore.

What are you thoughts on Tim Burton?

Charlie: Tim has always been like one of my favorite directors since like before I started acting when I was like three or four……….he’s surprisingly normal. I didn’t expect him to be normal but more like somebody…. like a scary guy. He knows what he wants each scene like to be.Frankenweenie is really personal to him, and it’s sort of about his childhood.

Atticus: My favorite part of him in particular was the fact that he is so creative. He doesn’t want to follow the crowd or be a part of the big machine. He, he wants to do his own thing. He wants to be creative, groundbreaking, and this film in particular is the first 3D black and white animation. And being a part of, of his mindset, his world, was just phenomenal for me. And as actors, we’re able to take that information and just say, all right, I know exactly what he wants. So I can follow through with that.

Robert: The thing I liked about Tim was that he definitely had a specific idea of how he wanted every line to be.And that’s one of the things I like about a director, When they know exactly what they want. I think that’s really cool for someone to just know what they’re doing.

What was your favorite thing about your character?

Charlie: For me, Victor is loosely based on Tim’s childhood. And it’s just like I said before, he’s been one of my favorite directors, so I was honored to be able to sort of play him.

Atticus: He’s kind of like a semi villain, he loves everything big and over the top. And also being able to do the impression of Peter Lorre for the voice is just awesome for me. Because, I, I love doing impressions. I love doing accents, and during the audition process, during the very first one, they just said, he’s kind of like the Igor character and, and I knew how to play that off, but like the second or third audition into it, they, uh, said if possible, do a Peter Lorre impression. And I was like this is so new for me, it’s going to test my acting abilities, I want to do this. So my mom and I like the home schoolers that we are, uh, rented, a Maltese Falcon and we already had Casablanca, so we just sat down and really studied and that alone was just such a thrill for me.

Robert: For me the thing I like the most about Bob is that despite the fact that he’s like a really big guy, like his character, like he’s huge. Despite the fact that he’s really big and he could very easily be like a bully, he’s not, he’s actually a very nice person. I liked that about his character.

Did you Find anything challenging about the process?

Charlie: Actually, this is my first voice over thing ever. So I thought it was going to be a lot harder especially after I found out that I wasn’t going to be with the other cast to read with. Then I it was a little bit easier because half my scenes are me and Sparky, so I have a dog at home, I kind of just imagined that my dog was there. It’s pretty easy mostly because it’s like most live action stuff. You don’t have to worry about where to stand or, uh, hair and makeup, so you can just focus all your energy into your voice, so it’s a little bit easier.

Atticus: Man, I love doing voice over. That’s the whole reason I got into the business in the first place, because I love to play with my voice. I love telling stories, being able to put myself into these new, completely new characters. And also with the fact that there is such a long list that you do have to worry about for theatrical, because you have wardrobe, makeup, memorizing lines, choreography, everything. But whereas you just have a small list for voiceover, which is, making sure that your voice is well. And you know what the character is like, you know the character voice. And also that you are able to take direction and kind of put your soul into the character, because you’re giving it the voice, and, and especially in a Tim Burton animation. It’s stop motion animation, it’s not drawn up, these are things that you can move and touch with your hands. And it’s almost as the character has been built. And then you give it a voice, and now it’s able to talk. And then you have the animators who are able to move it, now it has motion. Then with Tim Burton, and, and the set designers, they create this world that it in. And so now it has its own earth, its own portion of earth, its own- its own fantasy world. And so in a way it is kind of creating like your own little monsters in a sense.

Robert: Um, the thing that I like about voice over is that it’s significantly easier than actually filming. It’s way easier, because like Atticus and Charlie said, there’s so many different variables that go into filming. You need the lighting, you need to look good with the hair and makeup. With this, the character is already made, so all you need to do is supply the voice. But like Charlie said, too, a challenging part of it was that you’re not actually recording with other actors. You’re just doing it by yourself. And that can be kind of weird, because you’re talking to yourself, in a way. And that may sound weird but usually somebody else will read the other lines first, and that makes it easier.

Thank you to Disney for providing transportation and accommodations to participate in the Premiere of Frankenweenie.