It’s almost that time of the year when The Polar Express takes over households!
The animated movie is a holiday favorite and a staple every year around Christmastime, ever since it premiered in 2004.
Now, though it’s been known and she’s mentioned it before, singer Tinashe opens up about being a part of the movie, 20 years later.
During a new interview on Zach Sang Show, Zach brought up how he didn’t know Tinashe actually played the little girl in the movie – well, sort of. Based on TikTok comments, many other people had no idea either!
Keep reading to learn more…
“I was the motion cap… We shot it right here at the Paramount lot. Literally right there, yeah,” she said. “I was in fourth grade and we had to come in everyday and wear these big motion capture suits. It was in the very early days of mo-cap technology, so it took them like four years to animate it, and if you watch that movie, the animation is so weird now. It’s crazy that it took them that long to make something that looks so weird.”
#funfact I shot the movie the Polar Express in fourth Grade… we acted it out for 10 weeks and they animated over top for the next 2 years!
— TINASHE (@Tinashe) December 6, 2011
“We had all the little dots and the electrodes. It was a really cool experience, working with Tom Hanks. And also, what was really cool, was because we weren’t actually on real sets, it was all in a studio, and they would build the sets out of wires, so that they could see through the walls or the floor or whatever so they could… Because pretty much all they’re capturing is the information they’re getting from the electrodes on your outfit,” she continued.
“So, yeah, it was all very make believe-y, because, you know, a lot of times when you’re acting, you’re in a real room, or in a real space and you can get a little bit more into character that way. But this was like, we’re really pretending. Like, this is a train made out of wires, you know.”
“We were reading the lines, but then they re-recorded all of the audio, so it was like we acted out the entire movie and created the entire film, you know, with no dialogue, and then they dubbed the whole thing,” Tinashe added.
If you didn’t know, Tinashe was also in the original Los Angeles run of the musical 13, before it went to Broadway, where Ariana Grande, Elizabeth Gillies and Graham Phillips starred.