Miranda Cosgrove is Margo in Despicable Me 3

By: Lynn Barker

In Despicable Me 3, former “iCarly” actress Miranda Cosgrove again voices oldest Gru daughter Margo. Since she played a feisty student in the fun movie School of Rock, the actress has been a tween and teen fave. She’d like to remain in comedy films and one day write her own material like her idol Kristen Wiig.

 

In “D3”, Margo discovers she has a uncle; dad Gru’s twin bro Dru. Will the reunited duo decide to return to a life of crime? Will Margo be able to influence her dad not to turn back to the dark side?

Check out what Miranda has to say about recording her character’s voice and her hopes for the future in this interview.

Kidzworld: This is the third one for you. Has doing the work changed for you? Has it gotten easier?

• Miranda: I think it’s always been pretty fun and easy but I do think it’s gotten easier because when I first started I think I was thirteen or fourteen. Now I’m twenty-four. When I was a young teen, I think I was a little more shy maybe about doing the lines. Because you have to pretend a lot, like you’re on a roller coaster or you’re falling off the side of a mountain. So, sometimes I think I held back a little more. Now, I think I’ve gotten to know everybody and it’s just so much fun to be in the booth and kind of go crazy with it.

Kidzworld: In the new film, your character Margo is trying to help her new mom Lucy (voice of Kristen Wiig) adjust to parenthood.

• Miranda: Yeah, it’s like the roles are switched up because Margo has been a mom to her two sisters and now (the new mom) is telling her what to do.

Kidzworld: Do you get the chance to work with anyone else (to record the voices)?

• Miranda: I feel like I’ve gotten to know Steve Carell pretty well just from doing the publicity from the movies but actually doing the recording for the movie, we record it all by ourselves.

Kidzworld: I assume it’s over a period of time.

• Miranda: I think I went in twelve times for this movie in all and every time I went in it was maybe an hour or two. So, it’s not like too long or too crazy. It’s probably a lot longer for Steve, especially for this one because he’s playing two characters. They do all the animation in Paris, the directors are on Skype and they help the entire time with “Try one this way. Try it that way” or “Do whatever you want with it five times and just see what comes out”. You can go in in your sweats and it’s so relaxed and then you get to see the movie in the end and what they’ve been putting together for the last four years and it’s really exciting.

 

Kidzworld: You are still going to college at USC. How are your film studies going and how are you balancing that with your career?

• Miranda: It’s pretty easy to balance it because, with college, I haven’t really been in a huge hurry to finish so basically I’ll focus on school and do a semester then take a semester off and I’ll do a pilot or a season of a show. That’s basically what I’ve been doing since I started which has put me behind but I don’t mind too much. I just want to finish eventually. I have like three semesters left to do but I’m getting there and it’s cool because I want to act. That’s why I don’t mind taking a semester off here and there.

Kidzworld: I’ve heard you are most interested in learning screenwriting. Right?  

• Miranda: The reason I wanted to major in film was because I wanted to take screenwriting classes. I love Kristen Wiig because she writes a lot of her own stuff and Tina Fey too. “30 Rock” is one of my favorite shows. With female comedians, it seems like they really know their own strengths so if you are able to write that yourself, that would be the best thing ever. It’s just been fun because I’m trying to find a voice in writing. I’m getting better at it.

Kidzworld: Like with Steve, I assume to see Kristen when you do promotions for the movies so what’s it like getting back together with some of the cast members?

• Miranda: It’s really fun. With the last movie, I was so glad to get to meet Kristen because she’s one of my favorite actresses. It’s funny. She was in the first movie too but played a whole different character (Miss Hattie). She was the mean head of the orphanage. She’s playing such a sweet role now (Lucy Wilde). She can do so many different things. It’s cool getting to be in a movie with her. I think she’s hilarious. I would say I’ve gotten to know Steve Carell a lot better because I’ve been around him more. But Kristen is awesome, really cool and nice.

Kidzworld: The Minions have branched off into their own movies and want their own trailers. Do your fans know you are the voice of Margo and do the kids ask you ‘What’s it like being  Margo’? Do you get that kind of fan mail?

• Miranda: On Instagram and Twitter and stuff people will be like ‘Oh, I can recognize your voice. I knew it was you’. Some people seem to figure it out just from watching the movie. It’s cute because I have a friend who has a 4-year-old niece. My friend was explaining to her that I was the voice of Margo she was like ‘No. Miranda doesn’t wear glasses and Miranda’s old. She’s not twelve’. She just didn’t get it at all. She thinks the Minions are really out there somewhere in the world and that all the characters are real.

Kidzworld: Do you have a favorite Minion?

• Miranda: Bob’s my favorite Minion. He’s the one that has the different-colored eyes. He’s really cute. I think he’s the cutest and I like Mel in this movie, He came out of nowhere.

Kidzworld: Yeah. Mel’s like a break-out role.

• Miranda: Yeah, suddenly he’s taking over all the Minions.

Kidzworld: Do you get to do some improvising with the dialogue?

• Miranda: Yeah. The way the directors do it is really cool. The lines are pretty straightforward so they’ll be like ‘Do it exactly the way it is on paper then try it this way and that way’. Then they’ll say ‘Okay, you know what the scene is so do the lines as you’d like. Do what you’d do in the situation’. So, you can add extra lines or little funny things. Then, obviously, in the end it’s up to them which takes they choose but it’s just fun to be in the booth and get to try a bunch of different things.

Kidzworld: You’ve seen the final version. What do you think? Can you watch it objectively since you aren’t seeing, but hearing yourself?

• Miranda: Definitely more than anything else I’ve done because I didn’t know what it was going to be like other than the parts I recorded and didn’t know exactly what they’d turn out like. Even with the first movie, after seeing pictures of the Minions and little clips and pictures of my character I still didn’t really know exactly what it was going to be so it’s kind of like a surprise in a sense.

Kidzworld: What are you up to these days? Are you writing or recording music or is that on the back burner?

• Miranda: Sometimes I record songs. Because I’ve been focusing more on school I guess, I haven’t been as focused on music although I still really like it. I really love the show “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend” and she sings on the show but in a comedic way so I think if I ever were to do music again, it would be fun to do something that was funny like that. I like singing but mainly I really like acting in comedy so it I could incorporate that it would be cool.

See Despicable Me 3 in theaters now!

 

Have Your Say

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