Fact: Vin Diesel recorded the same line over 1,000 times for his character Groot in Guardians of The Galaxy.
Vin Diesel as Groot in Guardians of the Galaxy, had the option to get one perfect line of, “I Am Groot” down for the character. The director took this role extremely serious for its importance in the marvel comic book. But Vin Diesel didn’t just to a one take. Instead, he chose to rerecord it more than 1,000 times to ensure that the voice kept evolving through the movie, and that viewers would end up getting more for their money.
When Vin Diesel got to the set, he was stunned by the directors touch to detail. In an interview, Vin Diesel had only great words about the director who was so committed to the character and the guardians movie. Vin Diesel explains what led him to take a week to create all the various tone changes in those simple three words.
“I was really lucky, because I had a director, who is willing to indulge and wanted to really capture all the nuances of this character. What we know about Groot is that he’s got a wooden larynx so although he’s saying other things, other than “I am Groot,” all the novice ears or someone oblivious to his nuances of his speech can hear is “I am Groot.” It sounds like he’s just repeating his name. Because of that, when I came into the recording room, there was a fifty page document that on the left hand side it said “I am Groot,” and on the right hand side, it would have a paragraph or a sentence explaining what he was really meaning or what he was really trying to say. And so when you have that level of detail, when you have a director that committed, when you have studio so hellbent on creating such a great CGI character, I feel like I’m coming into a team…a winning team already. And all I have to do is spend a week there in the ADR booth breathing life into it,” said Vin Diesel.”
Chris Pratt also went all out for the movie. In the script, his character has a six pack and director James Gunn told him he would still get the part and they could digitally alter his stomach. Instead, Pratt asked for 6 months to lose 50 pounds and to get the six pack abs that was needed.
Gunn agreed and Chris lost 60 pounds and delivered the necessary six pack for the role. He used good exercises to lose weight and is a fan of the Paleo diet. Of course, this lack of padding backfired when Zoe Saldana had her infamous fight scene with him and missing his protective gear Zoe almost broke several of Pratt’s ribs during filming.
