The latest chapter of the hit Despicable Me franchise has just landed in cinemas and sees comedian Steve Carell back in the voice booth.
This time he has a mate along for the ride - Will Ferrell. Two of Hollywood's greatest comedians are pitted against each other as the now anti-villainous Gru (Carell), and the super-villainous Maxime Le Mal (Ferrell).
Carell has of course inhabited Gru from the get-go, inventing Gru's now-infamous accent.
Carell told Newshub he didn't want to depict any country specifically.
"I wanted it to be a vague Eastern Europeanish kind of accent, I thought that would be the most accessible," he said.
Farrell immediately saw a moment to impress Kiwi audiences: "Either that or a Kiwi accent," he told Carell.
Whatever the accent, Carell is all in.
"I'm very method when it comes to voice acting, especially when it comes to a movie that is this serious," he joked. "It needs to resonate with people."
Shocking nobody, of course, his co-star took an equally serious approach (not).
"I was so into my character and creating my voice and getting the accent right, I moved to Paris," Ferrell said.
"I was wandering around the streets talking to people and really getting into it and then I realised I had moved to Paris, Texas. I had to throw that accent out completely and start from scratch."
Needless to say, getting a straight answer out of these two seasoned comedians was a futile endeavour for this journalist, but whatever the prep Farrell's commitment paid off. Maxime's Parisian accent is of course 'c'est magnifique' and can be experienced on the big screen right now.
Despicable Me 4 has just opened across the land.
