With a $54 million opening weekend, the Rihanna-led DreamWorks animated feature “Home” is likely heading to its second week at number one. Then there’s Internet shattering release of her second single, “B*&%$ Better Have My Money” from her upcoming eighth album. No doubt Rih Rih’s spring is definitely blooming. Here, the global star spoke about recording her first animated movie, relating to her character Tip, and remembering her best party as a kid:
On recording her scenes:
“Every time I came into the booth I was nervous all over again. The first few takes with [director] Tim Johnson, I would be like “Oh my God, I sound disgusting” but you just keep going and you start to get the gist of it. Tim, he’s such a great director, so he’s really good at teaching and really spelling out the environment or the scenario so that you can go there.”
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On the importance of her character Gratuity “Tip” Tucci resembling Rihanna:
“It was both important to me and Dreamworks for this project to be as realistic as possible. We wanted little girls to feel empowered. Little girls of any size, shape, color, race it didn’t matter. We wanted girls to just feel strong and brave, empowered, beautiful and that they can do anything. They can take charge of their life or situation, no matter what. I think we were really, really careful especially with the animation to make sure that she wore the right things. That her body was not unrealistic, you know and I think for kids, that’s really special for young girls.”
On relating to her character Tip, who’s an outsider in a new city:
“I have felt like an outsider ever since my first day of school. I think that’s really it. When you are at home, you have this sense of comfort. You belong. It’s familiar. It’s you. Not until you leave your home and have to be in another environment, supervised by completely different people and around different children, that you’re then immediately exposed to new things, new people. As strange as they are to you, you are to them. It can be hurtful, it comes off hurtful for children but really their trying to understand each other or they don’t understand each other because they come from a completely different background or culture. It really is just about being who you are, no matter what.”
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On being inspired by her character Tip:
“I want to be more like Tip. I was really inspired by her strength and determination. Even in real life, there are those moments where you start to doubt yourself, or you start to really feel like it’s not the right thing. Or it’s going in the wrong direction and it’s taking too long. It shouldn’t be this hard. You don’t know. You start to lose hope. This movie did kind of bring that back [those feelings] for me.”
On filming scenes up a few weeks before its premiere:
“We were just talking about this, Tim and I. I would be in the studio, it could be 2 o’clock in the morning, 4 o’clock in the morning and he would be FaceTiming or Skyping to make sure we got a line here. The very last line we recorded was weeks ago. It was just a random moment that we had to get in the studio to do this one line, but it was moments like that.”
On one memorable childhood party:
“Only one party sticks out in my mind as a kid. It was like the best party ever. I was five years old and my mom dressed me up in a church dress and stockings to go to the party in a park. When I say park, I am not even talking about trees. I mean a play park with a slide and jungle gym. I had a bad experience. She told me not to go on the slide in my stockings and I refused. I went upward with ice cream in my hand. The rest is history. I remember that.”