Here is the Voice and Puppeteer of 'Trixie' from LazyTown, Sarah Burgess –

January 30th, 2009

My times working on Lazytown have definitely been some of the most exciting moments of my life (so far!). It's one thing to be working in such an amazing country as Iceland, but then to also be part of such an incredibly talented team was something else.

   Magnus always knew how to get the best out of us – I've never met such a perfectionist. Whilst we were filming we got used to Magnus' cry of "Perfect! We do it again!" at the end of the take. Perfect was never quite perfect enough. But the detail shows in the final product and makes it something completely unique. I've never worked with a director that was so hands-on. He was in there, moving bits of set around, giving the crew a hand to speed up the process.

   The characters of the puppets were ingrained in his head, long before we all came along. By the time I came to perform Trixie, the character was pretty much set. Magnus knew exactly how he wanted her, what she should sound like, her energy. We always wanted to make her a little more rebellious, more of a wild card, but for various reasons had to rein her in a little.

   The puppetry was often very physical. Magnus wanted them to be able to do everything the human characters could do, so it was a real challenge to work out ways to get them to ride a bike, play baseball or do a tightrope walk! Brilliant fun. We also had to be fairly fit ourselves as the puppets were very heavy with all those animatronics inside, and so would work out at the Lazytown gym most days, earning ourselves a couple of extra muscles and some brownie points for the effort.

   The puppetry team was such a fantastic bunch of people. They were so supportive and everyone mucked in and helped when scenes got tricky. It was such an unusual job, spending so long together (initially out in Iceland for a year in 2004) so we got to know each other really well and made some really profound friendships.

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Cheers To Sarah!


© 2009 L.G. Wise (X RADAR Publ.)
All Rights Reserved

No part of this commentary can be used, reprinted, copied or stored in any medium without the publisher's authorization.





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