Source: ET Online

Interview with Entertainment Tonight Online

ET Online: 'Godzilla' must have been an incredible project to be a part of, just the hype alone surrounding the film. It must have been just incredible to have everyone talking about your project.

Hank Azaria: Yeah, it is weird. You know, but I can also be outside of it because all the advance press is about 'Godzilla,' it's not about any of us in the film. They don't even really know I'm in the film do they?

ETOL: Of course! (laughs)

Hank: Well they will when they see it. But no, in a way I am just as overwhelmed by this. They didn't consult me about what they were going to do with the project.

ETOL: And did you have any idea about what you were getting involved in when you were initially approached about the project?

Hank: Yeah, pretty much. You knew it was going to be at least on the order of 'Independence Day' and that kind of hype and build-up and marketing and that kind of thing. And certainly a big special effects movie like this you know what you are getting into technically. So yeah, you kind of really did know, but you can't really know, until you go through it, what it is exactly like.

ETOL: And acting opposite a twenty-story monster that isn't really there. Is that something that really comes easier to you - having done some of the "Simpsons" voices?

Hank: Yeah, I guess so. I mean I know I'm there. Sometimes they don't know this: we animate in layers - we do the voice recording first so that we are imagining it all, you aren't seeing pictures you know you naturally know. There is a natural transition to imagining there to be a twenty-story lizard. I've imagined stranger things. But five months of it is a bit much. You start going a little bananas, and try to replace Godzilla with other things in your head just to keep focused. What if my car were that big, what if my sandwich at lunch were that big (laughs) you know different things.

ETOL: Matthew [Broderick] said he'd look to you to see "Oh, what is Hank doing?" He'd kind of play off your expression he wasn't quite sure how big to make it.

<<Hank: (laughs) I'm glad to know that. I didn't know that. So he put me in charge. He'd often - he wouldn't always do it I'm sure -- we'd be looking here, and [Godzilla] would actually be up there.

ETOL: And you just about got stepped on by Godzilla in the film.

Hank: I just about did.

ETOL: That was a classic scene: your face, the noises that you made after he --

Hank: (laughing) Noises are the only thing for it. But how do you react to a giant lizard, let alone if he almost steps on you? It's hard to imagine what you'd actually do. But it was fun. Again weird! Nothing was there, but I guess that's what we are paid for right, to imagine weird things?

You do it in every movie. You do it with a big giant lizard. I've worked with other actors who gave me less to work off of.

ETOL: Were you shocked at the final cut of the film when you saw the film and saw yourself and your reactions?

Hank: It's very funny to see yourself in the middle of a big special effects monster festival like that. Anytime an actor sees himself it's always a weird thing for the first time. You are always staring at yourself. Even asking Godzilla to move over.