Jay Baruchel started his career at the age of 12, doing voice-over gigs. With several Hollywood movies in the bag, the 31-year-old actor has also become known for his voice-over work in the movie How to Train Your Dragon and the spin-off animated TV series on Cartoon Network. Debashine Thangevelo enjoyed a chat with him to find out more about his voice-over TV work and his forthcoming role in RoboCop...
ASIDE from the indie projects he has been in, Jay Baruchel has become a recognisable face thanks to his roles in The Rules of Attraction, She’s Out of My League, Knocked Up and The Sorcerer’s Apprentice.
And he branched out from the acting arena to explore the challenges of being a writer, producer and director in offer- ings such as Edgar and Jane, Goon and This is the End.
And he continues to be the voice of Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III, the head dragon trainer of the Berk Dragon Academy, in Cartoon Network’s animation, DreamWorks Dragons: Riders of Berk.
On when he realised he had a knack for voice-over work, Baruchel says: “I started my career at about 12 in Montreal. Some of my first gigs were voice-overs. Unfortunately, I wasn’t one of the kids who got to do the original. I was always used in the dubbing for French TV shows or cartoons in English. It was great preparation for all sorts of acting, if you can keep it together when dubbing.
“When I started doing How to Train Your Dragon, that was the first time in a decade that I started voice-over work.”
As for the spin-off TV animation, he says: “It’s really a terrific companion piece. It takes place between the first and pending second movie. It is wonderful for kids to spend more time with the characters. In a movie you have 90 minutes or two hours. With a TV series, you get to go more in-depth with these characters.”
Chatting more about his animated character, Baruchel shares: “I love two things. I love that he is incredibly righteous and forthright. He might be inconvenient and annoying at times, but he always errs on the side of right. He has a strong moral compass.
“He is also very much a teenager and he deals with the stuff I dealt with as a kid. He is funny, good and embodies a pretty important message, I think.”
Commenting on what it’s like to share the same platform as Ugly Betty’s America Ferrera as Astrid Hofferson (Hiccup’s close friend and romantic interest), he offers: “She’s incredible. She is somebody whose company I enjoy, period. We have been doing this character for six to seven years now. She knows her character as well as I know mine. We know how our characters relate to each other. There is an understanding and rapport. She makes me laugh.”
Moving along to his coming projects, one of which is RoboCop, a remake of the 1987 sci-fi, he reveals: “We shot in Toronto, which is five hours from where I live. It was really, really fun. It is the most fun I’ve had on set. And I also got to spend time with Gary Oldman (Dr Robert Norton), one of my heroes. That was a life-long dream. And I was working with Michael Keaton (Raymond Sellars), another legend. I was quite blessed to be working in Canada with people who inspire me.”
Not an actor who cares much for stereotypical roles, Baruchel maintains: “The movies I like to watch are all action. That being said, what I enjoy in acting is different types of movies, as long as I get to do something cool and work with cool people. I don’t know that I can pigeonhole myself. I know that it might come across as a cop-out answer.”
That said, give him any chance to be in a cop and robbers flick, and he admits to turning into a gung-ho eight-year-old.
Ultimately, Baruchel strikes a balance between work and play. After all, his job is undeniably fun!
• DreamWorks Dragons: Riders of Berk airs on Cartoon Network (DStv channel 301) on Tuesdays at 5.25pm.