Griffin, the Invisible Man in Hotel Transylvania: Transformania, is just a regular guy, according to David Spade, who has voiced the character in all four movies of the franchise. Griffin with Frankenstein, Wayne, a werewolf and The Mummy are Dracula’s friends and live at Hotel Transylvania, a place for monsters to chill, away from humans.
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Speaking from Hollywood, the stand-up comedian, writer, and television host says, “Griffin is a doofy friend of Drac who wants to hang out and be part of a gang. He is like how I was in school. Griffin goofs off and tries to say jokes, which is kind of what I did in school — just try to fit in, be with a bunch of not-so-smart people and have a good time.”
Directed by Derek Drymon and Jennifer Kluska, Hotel Transylvania: Transformania, tells of what happens when monster hunter, Van Helsing’s monstrification ray, turns the monsters into humans. Dracula turns into a human while Griffin becomes visible. “It is a big adjustment,” Spade says. “It is not something he thought through. Griffin is a little fatter than he thought and does not look like Prince Harry (laughs). The red hair makes him look more like Bozo the Clown. Griffin might have thought he would be a little bit better looking…”
Preparing for the movie was like what he would do for any animated movie, Spade says. “You just make up a voice. It is pretty much my voice, a little higher though. I have done a couple of different movies and they usually want something pretty close to my voice so people know it. I did a movie called The Emperor's New Groove a couple of years ago, and I was a llama. When I was doing the voice, I said ‘do you want it like this? Do you want low, do you want it character-y’ and they said, ‘no, just your regular amazingly annoying voice’.”
For the love of voice
The pros of doing voice work, according to Spade, is that it is not as hard as movies. “Shooting for a movie means being on set at 5 am every day, memorising lines, shooting on location, where it could be cold or hot. You might have to wear a heavy coat in summer and pretend it is fun. Shooting a movie is good but tough. With voice work for an animated film, you go in for four hours at a time, look at the screen and repeat the lines. The shoots are not quite as long. It is intense but I like doing voice work.”
Spade says he has watched different versions of The Invisible Man movies. “It was always fun to watch but it was always very similar. They were always scared at first and they would have to wear so many things to look like a person. And then there was the unveiling where they take it all off and prove they are invisible. There were camera tricks to make it look like you are running around the house knocking things over.”
Invisibility is such a good superpower to have, according to Spade. “It is one of those things where you might find out too much about life and ruin it because you could hear someone talk about your life. I would definitely like to try invisibility. If I was invisible for a day, I would drive around and make it look like no one was driving my car and then people would get scared.”
Hotel Transylvania: Transformania is currently streaming on Amazon Prime Video
