Would you like to ask each other some questions?  [Jon grabs my tape recorder and holds it over to Zooey].

Zooey:  Okay, Jon, how did you get into animation?

Jon:  Growing up I was into art and I loved movies and, when I got into college, I figured..

Zooey:  It was a perfect marriage.

Jon: I loved it. And, then getting into acting, that’s really what animation is.  It’s really just bringing a character to life whether it be through motion, or through your acting or  your voice or whatever.  That’s what really drew me into that world.

Are you guys doing Three Men Seeking Monsters? It’s live-action?

Jon:  Oh, yes, it was just announced today which I didn’t know about. A book was optioned at Universal.  It’s in very early development. It’s a cool book and we’re just trying to figure out what to do with it.  Is it Three Men Seeking Monsters?

In Variety somebody optioned something for you?

Jon:  I don’t know if I’ll be in it.

But you guys are producing?

Jon: Yeah 

When you saw your characters did you come up with the voices right away? Did they show you pictures.

Zooey:  You probably saw the wave test?  That was very impressive to me.  The wave was so beautiful.  That kind of got me in.

Jon:  Just seeing the character, the voice was already there.

Zooey:  And they wanted it to be very natural.  It wasn’t voicey. 

Jon:  [in high voice] Come’on Cody.

What was the most surprising thing you found about doing voices?

Jon:  That it’s hard. 

Zooey:  How fun it was.  It was so fun and relaxed.  It was very laid back.

Jon:  Especially when you don’t have a hardcore script.  You just say whatever lines you get ..

Zooey:  And then you just have fun.

Jon:  Here’s your situation….now go!

Zooey: We had more time to work on the characters than any movie I’ve been involved with.  Over three years.

Jon:  And you start getting into certain territory and they like it so much they call you back a week or so or a month later, with ‘okay, now expand on that’.  It was weird because, the weirdest thing was no script.  After I signed on to the movie, I still didn’t see the script. I’m like ‘Can I see the script?’ and they’re like ‘we don’t really have one’.

Zooey: Yeah, they just formed it.  It evolved.  There was one character Arnold that I just started talking to.  He wasn’t really even in there.

Jon:  The little kid?

Zooey:  Yeah, then they’re like ‘yes, we love Arnold’.

Jon:  Did you make him up or was there a kid there?

Zooey: I think I called him Arnold.  They’re like ‘there’s this little kid you have to save all the time’ and I just started calling him Arnold and they’re like ‘okay, yay, he’s Arnold’.

Jon:  Do you remember the scene with the duckies behind me?  That got cut out but I said stuff about ducks and I think they’re like ‘horrible but we like the idea of the ducks.  Let’s put those in’.

So Chris and Ash would just say ‘here’s a situation, just make it up’, basically?

Jon:  Yeah, and they played the interviewers.  I think that’s their voices in the movie too.

What were the most people in a booth a one time?

Zooey:  It wasn’t a booth.  It was a big room.  Kind of like a recording studio size.  I think we had three at most.

Jon:  The most I ever had was us three.

Zooey:  I did a bunch of stuff with Shia and Jeff.

All day sessions?

Zooey:  A couple of hours.

Did you just come in your jammies? You don’t have to dress up or put make-up on?

Jon:  Did you just ask if we came in our jammies?  It’s true. Although she comes dressed up and I’m in my jammies, sometimes naked.

Zooey:  Pajammies.  They’re cute.

Do you think penguins are cute?

Zooey:  I think penguins are cute.

Jon:   Sure but they smell.  The last time I saw penguins was at an aquarium and they reeked. They smelled bad but they seemed cute.  They’re cool.

Zooey:  There’s a little penguin over there that’s so cute.  Oh my god.

What is the obsession with penguins?

Jon:  I don’t know.  Is it because they walk on two legs.

Zooey:  I think penguins were designed really well.  They look good.

What’s next for you guys?

Zooey:  So many. I had two movies at Sundance and a movie at South By Southwest and I’m about to do a mini-series “Tin Man” and Jesse James.  Tin Man is on the Wizard of Oz.  I play Dorothy.

On the Sci-‘Fi channel?

Zooey: Uh-huh.

The book was dark.

Zooey:  Yeah, it’s kind of dark.  Everything is sort of nods to but isn’t exactly.  I’m leaving in three weeks to do it in Vancouver. The new Hollywood. I hope they’re ready for me.

Jon:  To rock their world.

Have you and Emily ever done anything together?

Zooey:  Many plays that we wrote as children.  A movie would be fun. I would love to do that but she’s so busy.  She has to schedule her time like three months in advance.  She’s like ‘I can see you on May 27th at 4:30 PM’. I have to work out with her if I want to hang out with her because she has to do so many things at once because she only has a couple of hours a week.  We’ll have to run and chat.

They filmed you as you were doing the voices.  Do you see yourself in the performances?

Jon: You always try to look so cool.  I’ve seen so many animation and watching the behind-the-scenes. Zooey didn’t even think about it because she’s that cool and I get totally self-whatever.

Zooey:  I forgot that that video was on and then I watched it and I was like ‘oh my god. She has my posture and a lot of things that she was doing.

Jon:  He moves a lot like a chicken and I kind of forgot that while recording.