Posted in: Exclusive, Interview, Movies | Tagged: Eliza Roberts, eric roberts, hippo, interview, Kimball Farley, Kinematics, Mark H. Rapaport

Hippo: Eric Roberts & Eliza Roberts on Channeling Empathy & Narrating

Hippo stars Eric Roberts and Eliza Roberts spoke to Bleeding Cool about their friendship with star Kimball Farley, voiceovers & more.

Actors Eric Roberts and Eliza Roberts share a powerful bond with actor Kimball Farley and director Mark H. Rapaport since collaborating on the short Andronicus (2021). While Eric has taken a back seat narrating their latest film from Kinematic and Rough House Pictures' Hippo, Eliza is front and center playing Ethel, a single mother trying to raise her unhinging son Hippo (Farley), and her teenage, adopted daughter Buttercup (Lilla Kizlinger). Buttercup is a heavily religious refugee who lost her parents and made sense of her biological impulses. Hippo, an avid gamer, develops increasingly toxic embracing survivalist tendencies in his isolation, while Buttercup longs to create a family to make up for the broken home she came from. The Roberts spoke with Bleeding Cool about how they bonded with Rapaport and Farley during filming and beyond, how Eric approached delivering his lines as narrator, and Eliza's biggest challenge playing Ethel.

Hippo: Eric Roberts & Eliza Roberts on Channeling Empathy to Play Ether, How Rapaport "Conducted" Eric Roberts, Staying Focused Under Extreme Conditions

Bleeding Cool: What was it like working with Kimball and Lillia while you were trying to sort out the family's dysfunction and making sense of it?

Eliza Roberts: It was interesting because I had a biological child and, later, an adopted child in [Hippo]. It's my firstborn, and he's a son, so I naturally favored him. He was the more complex and difficult one, and [Buttercup] was more my buddy that emerged. I love working with Kimball. Eric loved working with Kimball in 'Andronicus' (2021), and we know Kimball well. We love going places with him, going to premieres, whatever.

[Kimball] is always the one, like the time we're lost walking to a screening of 'Hippo.' We can always text Kimbal,l and he's like, "I see you guys, you're right in the corner. Come on!" He's the greatest kid. I adore [Lillia], and I'm crazy about this girl, not to mention she's brilliant. We're comfortable with them. As Ethel, I was uncomfortable with them the entire time I was their mom, but we are so comfortable with those two kids. Eric, what about you and Kimball in 'Andronicus?'

Eric Roberts: We're buddies. We love them.

Eric, when you're reading the narration, were there any notes throughout or did you just read straight to the page?

Eric: No, I was simply a tool. They use me and tell me how to do it. I wanted to hear it, and that's how I did it—[Mark's] a bit of a genius. I deserved no credit except that it's my voice. He was my guide and director. He also told me to bring it down and give me a little more. He conducted m,e, and that's how he did it.

Was there any stark contrast between immersing yourself in a role and a straight voiceover?

Eric: No, it's all the same focus, commitment, and same care.

Eliza, was there a particular scene that took more prep than usual? It might sound like a similar tone throughout the film, but was there any scene that took more for you to do than the rest?

Eliza: Great question. Not emotionally or anything, and I'm not giving anything away. There is a scene where I happen to be in one of those blow-up kiddy pools, talking to the kids, telling them the facts of life, and it doesn't help my character's a little bit off. It was winter in the Berkshires and probably 14 degrees below zero.

Eric: [laughs]

Eliza: All they had was a hose, so no one is a fan of water that cold. They decided, in addition to my bathing suit, maybe they'd put a huge terrycloth robe on me in the water, which made it so much worse. Now, you've got something that weighs 300 pounds of freezing water. The amazing thing was I didn't even feel it. I wasn't on autopilot or anything, but I was enjoying the work so much. They brought a heater and did everything they could, but it was those are the sacrifices we make as actors. It's silly. There is also something that happens later that involves saranwrap, and I have claustrophobia. What's amazing is how you can rise to the occasion if it's important enough to you. All those things that would normally bother me didn't happen at the time. It was also during Covid. The whole thing was fun.

Directed by Mark H. Rapaport and co-written by Farley, Hippo also stars Jesse Pimentel and Vann Barrett and is currently in select theaters.

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