STUNT GRUNTERS

DISNEY HIRE 'STUNT GRUNTERS' FOR VOICE-SAVING TRICKS http://www.contactmusic.com/new/xmlfeed.nsf/mndwebpages/disney%20hire%20stunt%20grunters%20for%20voicesaving%20tricks

DISNEY bosses hire "stunt grunters" in a bid to save the stars' voices when they're making animated movies. The voice extras are called in to add vocal sound effects to save the stars from developing rasps after talking into a microphone for long periods.

RICK DEMPSEY, the animation director for Disney, reveals the grunters are also called upon to save executives asking movie icons to make revolting sounds. He explains, "We actually have stunt grunters if it's getting too late, and we were working with LAUREN BACALL on the dubbing for HOWL'S MOVING CASTLE until about 10pm one night. "She plays THE WITCH OF THE WASTE and when the character is going through her transformation, we didn't want to put her through that grunting, so we had this actress do it and you can't tell where one starts and one stops." Dempsey admits the use of vocal extras doesn't always help to save stars' voices.

He adds, "For JEAN SIMMONS (in Howl's Moving Castle), we always had hot tea available and fruits and lemon because she was dealing with some things with her throat and we had to cancel BLYTHE DANNER's session three times because she had laryngitis and couldn't get rid of it for a month. "We ended up going with a little bit of a rasp because she's an invalid in a wheelchair, so it worked."