Rihanna’s Tip for Working in an Animated Movie: Be Emotional

Singer/actress Rihanna shared her acting vocal talents for the first time in the upcoming DreamWorks animated film “Home,” and parts of the experience just “wrecked” her.

The “Diamonds” singer plays Tip, the only human seemingly left on Earth after an alien race called the Boov takes over. She meets Oh (Jim Parsons), who has been cast out of the Boov gen pop, and the two embark on an adventure to find their rightful home.

Talking with reporters at a sneak peek of the film, Rihanna explained “the story just spoke” to her when she read it. “I felt like I identified with Tip. She's essentially like a role model and for me it was very strange to read a character that you can look up to. I was very excited. I've never done an animated film. You learn so much when the camera's not there.”

She added, “There's one specific point in the movie that really wrecks me. I feel like it's going to kill everyone. When I was watching it for the first time, it was just stick figures, no animation yet. I was balling my eyes out, and was like, 'Oh my God I'm so embarrassed right now! I'm crying at literally stick figures!'”

Rihanna also contributed a song to the movie. “The music is such an important and crucial part to an animated film. You don't think about it, but you could watch 'Tom & Jerry' and there are no words. You can watch that for hours, but music dictates the emotion and it dictates where the story is going or how you're supposed to feel-the suspense. Everything is in the music.”

As for what she hopes kids will walk away with after seeing “Home,” Rihanna said, “Personally when I watched the film I felt like the message became clearer and clearer as it went on. You see these two individuals from completely different worlds. By the end of it, you start to see all of these similarities being revealed and that's really the basis of their friendship when they start to know more about each other.”

What is home to Rihanna? “It's wherever I feel safe really, safest. Anything that feels familiar or comfortable. Most of the time, that's just Barbados. It's warm, beautiful. It's the beach, my family, the food, the music. Everything feels familiar. It feels right. It feels safe. Barbados is home for me.”