ComingSoon spoke with Poupelle oh Chimney Town star Antonio Raul Corbo about the upcoming anime film, as well as Antonio’s aspirations as an actor, and his affinity for anime as a whole.
Poupelle of Chimney Town follows Lubicci, a young chimney sweep who lives in a smog-filled town of chimneys. After meeting a mysterious man made from garbage, Lubicci and his new friend attempt to see the stars beyond the smoke for the first time. Be sure to check out our exclusive clip from the film, and the giveaway we’re running.
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Spencer Legacy: What about Lubicci drew you to him as a character?
Antonio Raul Corbo: Well, I think that his story is just very, very good. The way he was wrote, just in general, was amazing. He spoke to me … just his drive and his passion to prove that what he thinks is real. I just thought it was very inspiring, especially for a kid his age.
Lubicci’s more of an adult than some of the grown-ups in the movie. Is that the same with you, are you the mature one in your friend group or is it the opposite?
Around adults, I’m pretty mature, but with my friends, I’m probably not.
And he’s also afraid of heights. Are you in real life as well?
I used to be when I was younger, but now I kind of got over my fear. My uncle, makes me do a lot of things because he’s like, “you need to get over your fear!” And I’m like, “all right.” So I went to a lot of theme parks. I rode a lot of roller coasters, so now I’m not that scared anymore.
Nice. That’s probably the more fun way to get over the fear than ladders. So did have a favorite scene to record in the movie? There are a lot of really powerful ones.
There’s a lot of really good scenes. I think, as of right now, my favorite scene is when I’m about to go up on the boat and I’m having this whole speech. That’s probably one of my favorite scenes. It took a while to record it. I think we like split the whole monologue up in like two days, because we had to get it right, because it was a big driving point in the movie.
It’s a really touching story of the core of the film. Is that what drew you to the project?
Definitely, definitely. I mean just the whole story in general, it’s also really different. I live in the dark thick smoke and I’m trying to prove stars are real, and I look like I’m crazy or something and I miss my dad. So I’m also trying to prove it for him, and it’s this whole story. The way that these details like kind of insert themselves into the story it’s just amazing.
And did you get to record with other people or was it just you?
It was just me. So I looked crazy because I was in a booth, and there’s two people, my engineers on the side and then a bunch of people on Zoom. So I was kind of just like talking to myself.
Is it tough to do those like big emotional scenes when you’re on your own? Or were you able to kind of have a method for it?
It’s tough, but it’s also good because I can get in my head. I wasn’t like alone. I was talking to the amazing director and all my engineers, they were really cool, but I think they started picking up on like when the sad scenes were happening. They’re like, “okay, let’s let him have his moment.”
So have you met your co-stars then?
I’ve met two. Yes, I’ve met Stephen Root and Misty Lee.
How was that?
They were amazing people. I got to walk the carpet with them. They were very, very nice. They’re amazing at answering questions is what I’ve learned so far. They’re very good people. Very talented at this.
And what was the carpet experience like? Was that like a dream come true?
Very much so. Yes. I was very excited for that. I was probably more excited for that than probably anything else I’ve done in my life. So that was very, very fun. And then all my friends were like, oh my God, you were on the red carpet. So that was pretty funny.
You’ve also been on shows like Brooklyn 99 and Stuck in the Middle. What do you like about working on comedies?
I think that I could just be as crazy as I want, especially with the lines. Like there’s no, I guess, boundary of how wacky I can go with it. So I can either go really serious and have a deadpan line or just go all out with it. So I like the variety in it, but I do want to start getting to more drama also, I guess to diverse what I already have.
Do you have a dream role that you’ve always wanted, like a particular character or film?
Not really, because there’s always like new things being made. So I just want to have either a really big movie or a show that goes on for a while that I can just grow as a person on the show.
You were also in The Secret Life of Pets 2. Are you a big pet guy?
Very much so when I was younger, I think I had a snail. I had a garden snake. What else did I? I had two dogs, a cat, four fish, three or four fish. I had a lot of pets.
And you were also young SpongeBob, were you a big fan of SpongeBob before that? It’s kind of this generational show.
Very big fan of SpongeBob. Probably a couple days ago, I just got some new yellow shoes, so I was wearing a SpongeBob hat actually so I wear that a lot actually.
And since this film is an anime, I’ve read that you’re a pretty big anime fan. What are some of your favorites?
Probably Darling in the Franxx right now. I am watching Tokyo Ghoul with some of my friends. Yes. So I’m trying to finish that.
I also saw you were a Death Note fan. Have you seen the Netflix movie?
I have, I watched it a couple days ago with some friends <laugh>.
The last question is, are there any anime that you’d really want to do the dub voice for?
That’s a hard one. Well I know a couple people that were on Naruto, all my friends are very big Naruto fans. So probably try to get on Boruto. That would be really fun. But really, this was like really good to get my toes into the whole anime scene. And if anybody wants to watch it, it’s coming out on VOD and digital download May 17, and it’s going to be on Blu-ray and DVD May 31st. So if you wanna see how good I did, if I even did good, hopefully I did. you can check it out.
