Sykes takes animation roles to new levels

The audience will easily recognize whose voice is behind the skunk.
KNIGHT RIDDER NEWSPAPERS
The minute the animated character -- a female skunk -- opened her mouth and spoke, you could hear two words being whispered by moviegoers throughout the darkened theater where "Over the Hedge" was being previewed:
"Wanda Sykes."
She possesses one of the most recognizable voices in America, which is one reason stand-up comic Sykes has, in addition to acting roles, carved a sideline career voicing cartoon characters.
"It's not like I planned it or anything," Sykes, 42, said from Los Angeles. "It just kind of crept up on me."
In "Over the Hedge" she plays Stella, a crabby skunk who, at a crucial juncture in the plot, must pretend that she is a feline to seduce a tomcat guarding a suburban home.
Asked if she remembered Pepe Le Pew, the romantic skunk of the old Warner Bros. cartoons, Sykes chortled. "Pepe was my inspiration. He was a little freaky, you know what I mean? Always chasing the ladies, even if they weren't the appropriate species."
Not only does Stella the Skunk sound like Sykes, she moves like her.
"When you're recording your lines they've got this tiny camera in the recording booth taping your mannerisms," she said. "I didn't realize it until later, which is good because if I'd known there was a camera on me I might have started hamming it up. But the artists studied the tape and borrowed my gestures and expressions for the character."
In addition to her work on "Over the Hedge," Sykes also provided the voice of Gladys Murphy on Comedy Central's "Crank Yankers."
Lonely work
Doing animation voices is easy, and the money is good, she said. The drawback is that it's solitary. She never saw her co-stars: Bruce Willis, Garry Shandling, Steve Carell, Eugene Levy, Catherine O'Hara, William Shatner and Nick Nolte.
"It's pretty much just you and the microphone," Sykes said. "It's the loneliest job I've ever had. At the time I recorded my lines I hadn't seen anything that would tell me what the movie would be like. There was no footage. I never saw a complete script -- just my own lines. You've got to trust the director, who's talking to you over your headphones."
Over the three years "Over the Hedge" was in production, the script would change because of something another actor said. "Bruce or Garry might ad-lib a line that the director wanted to use. But that meant I had to come back in and record new lines to play off the ad-lib."
Though her professional efforts are concentrated on TV and movies, the stage is never far from Sykes' thoughts.
"That's where I got my start, and that's the thing that fires up my creativity. I just shot a new stand-up DVD in Seattle -- my first in three years. And every weekend I'm doing stand-up.
"Movies are actually pretty easy work. Stand-up ... now that's challenging."