Chloe Grace Moretz has described the challenges of her role in the new Tom & Jerry movie, which combines live action with classic animation.
The film brings the cat-and-mouse rivalry of the cartoon to a feature length film, as mouse Jerry moves into a high-end New York hotel and Moretz’s desperate event planner hires cat Tom to get rid of him.
The Kick-Ass actress said: “I think the majority of my scenes were by myself because I was with the two boys, I was with Tom and Jerry (who are both animated).
“So the first few takes I would get the puppet and then as we progressed in the movie we realised that the least amount of time I could spend with the puppet the better because it allowed for more improv, more possibilities, and basically allowed the animators to go that extra distance.
“So we really tried to work with that and it ended up being me improving against nothing most of the time and by the end of the movie I would be shutting drawers and then saying ‘sorry’ to the drawers because I thought inanimate objects had life!”
Moretz said she was initially fearful about taking on the film, because the Tom and Jerry cartoons had been an important part of her childhood.
She added: “I was completely nervous, it was one of my first questions to Tim Storey (the director) when I met him, I was like ‘First of all, hopefully you guys aren’t doing computer generated 3D animation, I don’t want these characters to be like that, we all know them as 2D characters, don’t mess that up’.
“He was right on page with me, where he was as obsessed with the cartoon as I was and the animators as well, and I really will say I think everyone went to the greatest lengths to make this kind of pitch perfect I would say.”
She continued: “For me Tom & Jerry was sacred to my childhood, I grew up with Tom & Jerry since I was probably two years old.
“I would say that for me it was one of those show that you can connect to before you can understand English or what people are saying around you because they mime and there is fun music and it’s always high jinks so you are able to just watch it and make up in your mind what’s happening.
“So for me it was a sacred piece of art so coming onto this project I was nervous, I really wanted to make sure that it went well and I really hope everyone feels the way I do about it because I’m very very proud.”
The film premiere of Tom & Jerry The Movie will be available to rent at home from March 25th.
