Alan Tudyk

IGN Interviews Alan Tudyk We talk to the actor about his roles in I, Robot, Dodgeball, and Serenity.

July 15, 2004 - Forget about Will Smith, isn’t Alan Tudyk the real star of I, Robot? After all, the robot was modeled after Tudyk’s own movements and vocal work and, well, his character’s name is even in the title, right?

While most of America may not know the name Alan Tudyk, it’s likely that they’ve caught him in one of his many varied roles over the past few years. Perhaps most memorably, Tudyk played a standout part as Sir William’s squire, Wat, opposite Heath Ledger, in A Knight’s Tale. He played a cocaine-addicted stripper in 28 Days with Sandra Bullock and provided the voices for several of Ice Age’s crazy characters. Tudyk was also one of the featured cast members of short-lived sci-fi series, Firefly. Although the show didn’t last long, its cult popularity has led to a feature film entitled Serenity, which Tudyk is currently working on.

Tudyk is slowly assembling a collection of characters on his resume that could make up some future generation of the Village People. He was already a squire and a stripper, but this summer he can add robot and pirate to the list. Along with the upcoming release of I, Robot, Tudyk can also be seen in this summer’s breakout comedy Dodgeball, opposite Vince Vaughn and Ben Stiller. In the film Tudyk plays Steve the Pirate, a man who inexplicably believes he is a pirate. His performance is genius.

In reality, Tudyk looks nothing like a pirate, robot or coke-addicted German stripper. He’s good-looking and, as a result of the training he underwent for I, Robot, in the best shape of his life. Maybe this means we’ll get to see a few Tudyk roles in the future where he’s actually recognizable.

I sat down with Tudyk at the Regent Beverly Wilshire last week to talk about providing the inspiration not just for I, Robot’s Sonny, but for the entire fleet of robots. We also spoke about his upcoming work and, oh yes, you better believe I had my share of pirate questions. "Arrrrgggghhhh," as Steve the Pirate would say.

IGN FILMFORCE: How uncomfortable was that spandex suit you had to wear on the I, Robot set?

ALAN TUDYK: The suit itself wasn’t uncomfortable, as far as like a ’These shoes are uncomfortable, they give me a blister kind of thing.’ It was more, ’Oh my God, you can see my package.’ It was all out there. I’ve seen that kind of unitard before on dancers, on gymnasts and superheroes. People who typically have great bodies. If you put one on, and you don’t have a really good body, it looks terrible. So, I had to stay in shape... From the beginning, they had me working with a guy who got me into the best shape of my life... They had a Teamster come to my house at seven in the morning and pick me up, which made it impossible for me to skip the gym, which I can do now. But then, when you had a Teamster there going, ’It’s time for you to go,’ you can’t hit him like a snooze button. They get pissed when you hit them. And then they take you to the gym and that guy would grab me and work me to the point of, at least twice on the way back from the gym, we had to pull over and get out of the car and just breathe. I thought I was going to throw up because he worked me that hard. It was mainly to get me in shape for the balance and be physically fit, because it was a really physical role.

Sonny (performance created by Alan Tudyk) in I, Robot

IGNFF: Did you end up doing a lot of the stunts?

TUDYK: I did some of the fights. Especially at the end, toss off a few different robots. But, as far as the hand-spring, sort of flip stuff, didn’t have to do that.

IGNFF: Did they use you as a model for all the robots?

TUDYK: Yeah. It was great and it was amazing that, when I got there in Vancouver, I got there a month early, and we hadn’t really discussed how the robot moved... We started with Sonny, and then all the robots would be taught this way. I worked with this guy named Steven Hill [I, Robot’s robot trainer]... We’d call it robot school... He and I came up with the movements... We kind of made an inventory, a menu of movement, that we went from. And then, Paul McCurio came in and taught all the robots how to move. It was based on what Sonny did, but he went about it in sort of a different way, but I wasn’t a part of that because, when that robot school went into session, I didn’t have to attend. I’d already graduated...

IGNFF: How much of your own personality went into Sonny and wound up on screen?

TUDYK: I got to play with it a lot. He’s a much more innocent version of me. He’s just starting out. He lived his entire life, up to the point of Will Smith finding him, or Detective Spooner, in this one lab, and he only knew this one person, his father, James Cromwell. And, in one day, his father’s dead... Then he is discovered by this detective that’s got a gun on him. He’s picking up a gun. It is a bad day for Sonny. His first day, and then he gets thrown out into the world and there’s a lot of new coming at him at once. I guess I just imagine myself in that situation. There’s a lot of fear... But he was also a very hopeful character. Even with everything going on, he was such a certain character. ’I know I was made for a purpose. I know my father made me for that.’ That’s such a beautiful thing to play, to be certain. I’m not so certain in life. Should I do this, should I do that? His track is, ’What am I here for? I know I have a purpose, what is it?’ So I guess he was like me, a younger version of me...

IGNFF: Proyas said there were over 800 people vying for the role of the robot. How did you prove you were the perfect robot?

TUDYK: I think, because I came from New York, and had all this theater training and movement, and I’ve done pieces that have just involved expressing yourself though movement. And done classic Shakespeare and Shaw, where you had to really understand the weight of words, because the voice was so important, that I came with that training in there. Really, just sort of luckily, I kind of started off with what we ended up with from the first audition in a lot of ways: His voice, he says every word fully. A lot of film acting is about being casual. We’re a very casual society, so I’m sure a lot of actors came in and they were casual as a robot... What’s casual for a robot isn’t necessarily what’s casual for a human. I’m very glad they didn’t go to New York to cast, because I have the feeling, had they gone, they would have found a few other people who could walk and talk in that way...

IGNFF: What preconceptions did you have regarding Will Smith coming into the project?

TUDYK: I didn’t have any preconceptions.

IGNFF: Were you a Fresh Prince fan?

TUDYK: [Laughs] Yeah, man. That was right when I was coming up, "Parents Just Don’t Understand."

IGNFF: So tell me about meeting him and working with him...

TUDYK: He’s experienced so many things in life that have influenced who he is. His lifestyle, who he is, has afforded him things, you know, he’s hung out with President Clinton, when he was president, having dinner with him, talking about world politics. Also, Nelson Mandela. DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince, take that and then put it through that filter, he’s going to become larger... He’s an amazing guy... It was a lot of fun, playing around all the time. There was none of that, ’Shhh, Will’s on set, we’ve got to be quiet.’

IGNFF: What is the preparation involved in making the transition from robot to pirate?

TUDYK: [Laughs] I went from having very good posture to having very bad posture. It was fantastic though. It was completely relaxing, facial hair growing out. It was surprisingly easy.

Vince Vaughn, Alan Tudyk, Joel Moore, Chris Williams and Justin Long in Dodgeball

IGNFF: I thought you were the best pirate since Johnny Depp.

TUDYK: [Laughs] Oh, thank you. I think I’m the only pirate since Johnny Depp. Thank you very much, man. Arrrgghhh!

IGNFF: And how do you audition for a pirate?

TUDYK: It was funny, all the other guys I was auditioning against, especially in the final call back, they were all dressed as pirates. I was not dressed as a pirate. I don’t get dressed up as the character to go audition. I wore kind of a colorful shirt and that was about it. But there were all these guys with like gold teeth and deep, dark eyeliner and a patch and scarves and s**t. I was like, ’Aw, I didn’t do this right. I don’t even know what this is.’ I improved. One of the scenes was a scene that I don’t have any lines in. They said, ’Oh, just react.’ And so I went [makes pirate "Arrrgghhh" sounds]. And then there was some line thing where Vince had to say, ’Does anybody have any other ideas?’ But he has a pause there, and I stood up and said, ’We can harvest whales for oil.’

IGNFF: What was the Dodgeball set like? I’ve heard there was a lot of improv.

TUDYK: Vince Vaughn is a master improviser. You know, he is that character, so much of that character. He was able to riff from time to time and it completely fit within the story and fit within what needed to be told in that moment. We all sort of had some freedom. We used to play a game called scene stealer. We had a song, [He begins singing] ’Sceeeene stealer. I believe I can make this close-up a tight twoooo!’ Because people would try to get close to Vince to make it into a tight two. It was, like, who stole the scenes that day, because, [with] all those clowns, everybody was so good...

IGNFF: Will you play dodgeball in the future?

TUDYK: No, I threw out my arm playing dodgeball. I am definitely a better player, but I’ll avoid it if I can. It’s still not right. Everybody. We smelled like Ben Gay, we were all slathered up, ice packs and things between shots.

IGNFF: Have you been approached for Dodgeball 2?

TUDYK: That would be like a Bad News Bears kind of thing. I like the idea of it. It’s definitely, as far as a business venture, looks like a good idea. That’s usually what makes things happen in Hollywood. Somebody said something to me last night, but it was more of a, ’We may be doing a 2, it’s doing so well.’ I said, ’Cool, I’ll put on my leather boots and grow my scruff back out.’

IGNFF: I heard you’ve been talking about a Knight’s Tale sequel?

TUDYK: Yeah. It does not exist. It’s not a real thing. It’s something that we discussed when we were doing the movie. We discussed what it would be. I’m gonna pitch it though again to Brian [Helgeland, director of A Knight’s Tale] actually tonight. I’m going to remind him about his great idea for the sequel because that was a movie that came out and didn’t really do... A lot of people didn’t see it when it came out. It had its second life on HBO [and] video... A lot of young people liked it, like young kids really liked that movie.

IGNFF: Your ’Net fan sites list an odd fact that your favorite possession is a Mustang nicknamed "Old Sock?"

TUDYK: I don’t know who put that on there! It was my favorite possession, but this was when I was 16. So this is somebody who knew me when I was 16... I would say there’s about 10 people who know that, that my car was called "Old Sock."