Walt Disney Records' Andre Mika talked with Tom Hulce after a recording session for the Hunchback of Notre Dame Read-Along.

Tom Hulce:
Actually, it was the possibility of singing that intrigued me. As an actor, I've never done any voice-over work for which I found that sort of "standing in front of a microphone" to be a particularly comfortable experience. I climb into a part physically first, so that's been challenging. I definitely harbored musical fantasies.

WDR:
Do you have any background in music or musical theater?

Tom Hulce:
Yeah. I sang a lot up until my voice changed, and had a fair amount of musical training because of that. I was pretty serious about it. I briefly played the violin. My mom tried to get me to take piano lessons, but I didn't have the patience.

When I first went to New York and started working, Pippin was playing. My first job was in a Broadway play called Equus. I was hired to understudy the main part. Across the street was Pippin with Stephen Schwartz, who wrote the lyrics for The Hunchback of Notre Dame. Because I needed to be at the theater, but not actually working, I made a deal with him in which I could stand in the back of Pippin and watch it over and over again. I'm a big fan of his and also of Alan Menken's, since Little Shop of Horrors.

WDR:
What's it like working with Alan Menken and the The Hunchback of Notre Dame production team? Did you enjoy that?

Tom Hulce:
Yeah, it's great. I wish I were where they were, because I'm in front of the microphone in the soundproof booth. They're all in the other room. You know, they can say anything they want -- I'm sure what they said was extremely generous. But I can only imagine when those moments of frustration come for them.

WDR:
How did you prepare musically for The Hunchback of Notre Dame? Did you do any private study before you got into the role?

Tom Hulce:
I came in and sang what would be the main song for Quasimodo ["Out There"], which the studio definitely needed to hear before they were comfortable. And then I worked with the music director for the movie; went into the first session, which was unbelievable. It was at a place called The Hit Factory in New York. You've seen all those videos of people with headphones on their ears, singing. . . . I'd never done it, and here I was. There was about a 77-piece orchestra. It was an overwhelming and breathtaking experience.

WDR:
Could you describe the musical process for The Hunchback of Notre Dame ? Did you record the music and the soundtrack before or after you voiced Quasimodo's dialogue?

Tom Hulce:
It's been a process that spread over two years. The first two sessions I did were both the same week. One was a first-dialogue session. The other was to record "Out There"; and then, over the months, there were various sessions, often redoing stuff we had done before as it got reworked or rewritten. Or somebody had a better idea, and so we'd do it again.

WDR:
As an actor, do you prepare differently for an off-camera role than you do for being on-camera, or onstage? Were there any unique mental preparations for being behind the mike?

Tom Hulce:
It took me a good long while to figure out how to do something just for a microphone, instead of developing it through rehearsing and physically doing it. Actually, what I ended up doing was working with somebody in a kind of peculiar rehearsal process, so that I could find a way to identify what was uniquely "Quasimodo" for me.

WDR:
Any advice for young actors and performers on how to prepare for a role that involves music and singing while in character?

Tom Hulce:
Tough question. I haven't done a lot of parts that involve singing. Obviously, I had a big collaborative experience with a major amount of music in Amadeus. That was a phenomenal adventure that included many hours a day in preparation. Because of the amount of musical work that was included in the story -- and also because the brilliance of the man meant that he could do effortlessly what would be very hard for most of us to do -- my job became not only to learn how to do all of those things, but learn how to do them so well that it looked like I didn't even know I was doing them.

WDR:
A lot of animators at the studio think that The Hunchback of Notre Dame is the best film they've done in decades --

Tom Hulce:
Great!

WDR:
How do you feel about being a part of the Disney legacy?

Tom Hulce:
Well, that's a very cool thing. . .a very cool thing. The Disney films that live most potently in my imagination are Fantasia and some other early ones. If this is anything like that, then I couldn't be more thrilled to be a part of it. I've heard people talk about how this is a return to the classic style. I'm very excited to see it.