'Teddy's Christmas' Interview: Zachary Levi

Moviefone speaks with Zachary Levi about 'Teddy's Christmas' and the future of superhero movies. "I'm sure Marvel and DC are having conversations," he said.

Opening in North America theaters on December 1st is the English-dubbed version of Andrea Eckerbom's hit Norwegian CGI-live action hybrid movie ‘Teddy’s Christmas,’ which features the voice of Zachary Levi (‘Shazam! Fury of the Gods’) in the title role.

Zachary Levi stars in 'Teddy's Christmas,' which opens in U.S. theaters on December 1st.

Moviefone recently had the pleasure of speaking with Zachary Levi about his work on ‘Teddy’s Christmas,’ how he got involved in the project, dubbing another actor’s performance, working with the director, playing a different type of character, and making a Christmas movie, as well as his opinion on the state of Superhero movies today.

Zachary Levi attends the World Premiere of 'Shazam! Fury of the Gods' in Westwood, CA. Photo: Eric Charbonneau.

You can read the full interview below or click on the video player above to watch our interview.

Moviefone: To begin with, how did you get involved with ‘Teddy’s Christmas,’ and what was it like dubbing over another actor’s performance?

Zachary Levi: I got involved because they came with an offer. They said, "Hey. We made this delightful little movie, ‘Teddy's Christmas,’ in a very different language, and we'd like to bring it to the American market. We think Zach would be the perfect English voice to be Teddy." I thought, like I said, it was a delightful project. It was already really a wonderful little film that they had made, and I'd never voiced a teddy bear before. You got to do that once in your life. But also, I had never dubbed anything. I had been dubbed, but I was never the dubber. I was like, "This could be a really interesting challenge. I've never done that." That's honestly a lot of what I try to do when I'm picking roles, is there a challenge in there somewhere? Is there something I've never done? Is it a skill I need to learn, or an emotional place I've never been to, or a character I've never really put on? In this case, it was a little bit of all that in that I'd never played this exact type of character, but also, I had never dubbed anything. I thought that would be an interesting experience, and it was, by the way. It's an interesting challenge, because you must do it, obviously, in sync. I mean, fortunately, Teddy doesn't have lips, so it's more of an open and shut case, if you will. But still, you got to kind of line it up to that, and then, also, there's a certain amount of time Teddy's talking. So, whatever you're saying must fit into that time, whereas if we're doing an original piece, the lines can be kind of as long or short or whatever. You're creating it in the moment. But with this role with Teddy, it was a different type of challenge, but a fun one.

'Teddy's Christmas' opens in U.S. theaters on December 1st.

MF: There is a lot of Norwegian humor in the movie. Did you watch the original Norwegian film first, and did any of the jokes go over your head?

ZL: I didn't get all the jokes until later when we were recording. You're basically going scene by scene, line by line. But it was interesting because I understood. Not only did I understand the script and the story better doing that, but also, we were able to adjust. Because there were certain references that were very Norwegian and there was no translational equal in English. So, we were kind of having to figure that out, like, "Oh yeah. What would we say here?" Also, "What do we say here that matches Teddy's mouth that is this long of a sentence or a time?" So yes and no. Watching it, you don't really understand all of it, because again, there's some inside baseball stuff for those guys. But then, that also made it more challenging and therefore more enjoyable in some ways.

Zachary Levi stars in 'Teddy's Christmas,' which opens in U.S. theaters on December 1st.

Related Article: Zachary Levi Talks 'Shazam! Fury of the Gods' and Playing a Superhero

MF: What was the recording process like, and did you find Teddy’s voice right away?

ZL: Well, the voice was me, basically. Listen, I do all kinds of different voices, dialects, accents and stuff, but I don't get hired for that as much. I think also, part of getting hired was that they're looking for an actor of some repute, of some kind of name or marquee value, because they're bringing this movie to the U.S. So in that case, they're banking on your voice, because nobody can see your face. So, if I change my voice too much, then it's like, "Why did we hire that guy? We didn't need that guy. We could go get somebody else." So, the voice was pretty much still my voice, but obviously, the character of Teddy is not exactly my character. It's interesting, because he's kind of very naive to most things in the world. He's this stuffed animal come to life with all his little toy friends, and so they're very ignorant about a lot of things. But also, he's already got all these big dreams. He's like, "I want to go travel, and see this, and do that," and this ego that's in him of like, " I can't do that with a kid. I need an adult. I need an adult that's got money, baby." So, it was fun getting to hold those two things, those seemingly very paradoxical things, this naivete, but also this almost jaded ego. The director for my sessions was a wonderful dude who was not in the booth with me. I think he was in Germany, and he gets hired to do a lot of these foreign language projects because he speaks multiple languages. So, what he'll do is he'll watch the foreign language version and get the translation of that. Then, he's looking at Teddy and all the human's mouths and everything, and he's trying to rewrite the exact sentiment, but in different wording so that it matches the way the lips would move if you're saying it in English because obviously, languages transpose a lot of different things and whatnot. So, it's really a fascinating job, and because I had never dubbed anything, I had never really met anyone like him. So that's how the process was. It was a couple different sessions, and we just, very systematically, thoroughly made our way through and made sure that it was all there, that the tone was all there, that it matched with the rest of what the movie is and what everybody else was doing, and that all the lips were synced, and that was that.

'Teddy's Christmas' opens in U.S. theaters on December 1st.

MF: Teddy is a different type of character than we’ve seen you play in the past. Can you talk about the challenges of playing this role, and since this is a Christmas movie, do you hope that the film will become a holiday tradition for families to watch?

ZL: I mean, nail on the head in that that's so much of what you hope for. I mean, listen, every time I take on a job, anytime I go do a movie or a TV show or whatever it is that I'm doing, my initial hope is, "I hope this blesses people. I hope that this brings joy, love, peace, and hope." Or with dramatic roles, "Does it shine a light on something important? Does it stir something in their soul? Does it make them angry about something?" Sometimes, you need to get people to say, "What's going on in the world? Let's go make a change. Let's do something about it." So that's the initial hope, that whoever sees it, whenever they see it, that they're positively affected by the piece. Holiday movies are, more than any other season or other holiday, Christmas holiday movies have a season, and they come through. They're on, and you want to watch them, because they keep you in that same festive, holiday kind of vibe, which is the best part about the holidays. All the running around and the stress of getting all the gifts and doing all the things, we should all be generous, but we should be generous all year long. It's one of the things about the holidays that's always kind of bugged me. I feel like everybody waits for Thanksgiving to be thankful, and they wait for Christmas to be generous. It's like, how about you just do that all year long? Why do we need a day to remind us? Because we've lost our way. So, it's great to be a part of that ethos with holiday films, and I've gotten to do a couple of them now at this point. I love it. Also, I love being able to make movies that, while Teddy isn't exactly a character I've ever played before, the four-quadrant family entertainment of it all is something I'm very well familiar with, versed in, and blessed by, and I've been blessed by for many years. I love that I've been doing this for 25 years as an actor professionally, which is crazy. So, it's amazing. But I've been doing this for this long, and I've gotten to do, essentially, family entertainment since the beginning of my career. So, there are kids that watched ‘Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel’ and ‘Chuck’. Right? That was back in 2007. Those children are adults now. They're adults, and I'll meet them, and they go, “I loved you in ‘Alvin and the Chipmunks,’" or "I loved you in ‘Chuck,’" or ‘Tangled,’ or ‘Shazam!’ or the various things I've gotten to do. So, I hope that this is one of those things, too. I hope that there are kids years from now that go, "Were you the voice of Teddy in ‘Teddy's Christmas?’ I loved that movie when I was a kid," or even adults that I'll meet now, and hopefully they enjoy it just as much.

Adam Brody as Super Hero Freddy, Zachary Levi as Shazam, Meagan Good as Super Hero Darla and D.J. Cotrona as Super Hero Pedro in New Line Cinema’s action adventure 'Shazam! Fury of the Gods,'a Warner Bros. Pictures release. Photo Credit: Courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures.

(L to R) Adam Brody as Super Hero Freddy, Zachary Levi as Shazam, Meagan Good as Super Hero Darla and D.J. Cotrona as Super Hero Pedro in New Line Cinema’s action adventure 'Shazam! Fury of the Gods,'a Warner Bros. Pictures release. Photo Credit: Courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures. Copyright: © 2021 Warner Bros. Ent. All Rights Reserved. TM & © DC.

MF: Finally, as you are probably aware, there has been a lot of online chatter recently that the superhero genre is dying because both Marvel and DC have had a difficult time at the box office this year. You’ve appeared in both Marvel movies (‘Thor: The Dark World’ and ‘Thor: Ragnarok’) and DC films (‘Shazam!’ and ‘Shazam! Fury of the Gods’), so you are uniquely qualified to answer this question. In your opinion, what do you think is the future of superhero movies? Are audiences tired of the genre or do you think it will make a comeback?

ZL: Well, listen, I'm not the authority on the matter in that I'm sure the people at the top of Marvel and DC, they're all having conversations, possibly even with each other, commiserating about these various things. So, 15 years ago, that was really the beginning with ‘Iron Man.’ Not that there weren't other superhero movies prior to that. Obviously, Michael Keaton's ‘Batman’ and ‘Superman,’ things that were still very powerful. It was like, "Now, we have the special effects. We have CG, and it's ready.” Because there were some movies that could have been pretty good, but the CG wasn't great yet, and ‘Iron Man,’ from soup to nuts, Robert Downey Jr. and Jon Favreau created something very special. Then, the computer graphics were there, and that really led the charge into, I think, the modern era of these last 15 years of superhero movies. There have been so many great ones, I think in both universes. But listen, the state of it all right now, I think that there are things going on internally, I'm sure, at each company. There are things unique to those companies that they are navigating, they are trying to figure out and bring audiences the best movies that they can, I hope. It's all above my pay grade, but I will concur that I think it's obvious that too much of a good thing is too much. Also, maybe it's not even just too much of a good thing. Maybe it was a good thing for a while, and now it is losing. It's not just people burning out on the genre, but also studios and filmmakers having a harder and harder time reinventing the genre. The formula starts looking old, and you're like, "Do we do the formula? Because the formula worked.” Sometimes people really want that. They really want the formula, audiences, but then, also, they don't. You know? I think a great example of something like that, in fact, it's a perfect example, is ‘Joker.’ While not a superhero movie, obviously, it's a supervillain movie, but a super comic movie, nonetheless. What they did with that film was a reinvention on the genre. Right? It was the same genre, essentially, I mean the same universe, but kind of a different genre, because it was like ‘Taxi Driver.’ It was like this exploration of mental health and illness, which I thought was incredible, and it won so big, and deservedly so. Because it wasn't just making a Joker movie that would somehow fit into the same slipstream as everything else. So, I think that's what it's going to take. I think it's going to take not just, hopefully, people being less fatigued, but I think the fatigue is directly connected to the fact that they're tired of the same thing. If we can give them even variations on the theme, like, "Well, here's what we were doing, and here, we're going to do this." Maybe that can even fit into this universe? I like that finally, both universes are claiming a multiverse, because a multiverse essentially allows you to not have to connect everything. Everything can kind of exist in its own thing, and if you want to, you can connect a character, but it's played by a different actor. Because it's that human playing that character in that part of the multiverse. So, I think the more that we can think outside the box into those worlds, and making movies that are even more specific to that character in that universe, I think will be cool. I think that will help.

Teddy's Christmas

G1 hr 16 minDec 1st, 2023

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What is the plot of ‘Teddy’s Christmas?’

While visiting a Christmas market in her Norwegian town, eight-year-old Mariann (Marte Klerck-Nilssen) suddenly sees an unbelievable sight: on the top shelf of a carnival game booth, the most adorable stuffed teddy bear (Zachary Levi) has just moved his head and sneezed. Feeling an instant connection with the living stuffed-animal, Mariann can’t think of any better Christmas wish than to win him as a prize. But when someone else wins Teddy, it’s up to him and his new hedgehog friend, Bolla (Lene Kongsvik Johansen), to reconnect with Mariann and discover the true importance of family and friendship.