Spirit Untamed stars Jake Gyllenhaal and Julianne Moore share the most important piece of advice they have ever received.
They both have had long and illustrious careers, so it was quite a surprise to hear that neither Julianne Moore nor Jake Gyllenhaal have ever starred in an animated movie.
The big studios have a penchant for using big names to voice characters - Tom Hanks in Toy Story, Anna Kendrick in Trolls and Mike Myers in Shrek to name just a few - so it would have been a fair assumption to think Moore and Gyllenhaal would have popped up as a Disney princess or swashbuckling pirate somewhere along the way.
However, DreamWorks' latest ride to the box office, is their first animation rodeo. Spirit Untamed, tells the story of a young girl whose life is changed forever when she moves from the city to a small frontier town and befriends a horse.
Dora The Explorer actress Isabela Merced plays Lucky Prescott, who forges a special bond with wild mustang Spirit after the death of her mother, while Gyllenhaal plays her widowed father and Moore voices her aunt.
The prevailing message throughout the movie, "Be Fearless" struck a particular chord with Moore who told RTÉ Entertainment that when she was starting out in her career she was told that if she "wanted to this (acting) to go to New York and do it - it's not like it's going to come to you".
She added: "Get on the bus, show up and start auditioning and that’s what I did.
"I say that to other young actors starting out to. So much of it is perseverance, you really have to just keep doing it. That’s the most important thing."
For Gyllenhaal, the best piece of advice he ever received was when he was told to "just stop and listen".
He explained: "I do remember very specifically as an actor being in a scene and thinking I was fantastic in the scene and the other actor, who was much older than me, stopping me and saying you are not listening to a word I am saying.
"Just stop and listen.
"I am still trying to do that. Not just in my acting, but I think that is probably the best piece of advice I have gotten for both life and work."
Not only was this the first animation that Moore and Gyllenhaal were part of, but they also made it during lockdown which brought about a whole new set of challenges.
Gyllenhaal said: "When we were shooting we did this from home, so I had one computer to my face so they could record it for the animators to watch and one recording to talk to the filmmakers.
"I was amazed to know they were watching my face and my facial expressions and they used all of them."
Recording from home meant Gyllenhaal had to make sure his room was soundproof so he recorded the majority of his lines knelt down at his bed with "two pillows and a blanket over my head".
Spirit Untamed is released in Irish cinemas on July 30.
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