Dominic West is as lazy as his character in 'Finding Dory.'
Dominic West and Ellen DeGeneres at the UK Finding Dory premeiere
The 46-year-old actor thinks filmmaker Andrew Stanton felt he was the natural choice to portray lethargic sea lion Rudder in Pixar's new animated movie - the follow-up to 2003's 'Finding Nemo' - because they share so many personality traits.
Speaking at a press conference in support of the movie in London on Monday (11.07.16), he said: "I think I was lazy before I met Rudder, things haven't changed much since.
"I fitted rather well into the role. Probably that's what came to mind when Andrew was thinking 'Who can we get in? We need someone that just sits around on a rock all day doing nothing? I know there's that English actor.'.."
But writer-and-director Andrew insists Dominic wasn't cast because he was lazy, simply because he thought it would be funny for the actor and his former 'The Wire' co-star Idris Elba - who voices Rudder's sea lion pal Fluke - to portray the characters as "thuggish Londoners".
Andrew explained: "I couldn't get it out of my head, these sea lions being sort of street, kind of thuggish Londoners. It just seemed funny to me."
Meanwhile, Dominic - who has daughter Martha, 17, with ex-partner Polly Astor and Dora, nine, Senan, seven, Francis, six, and Rose, two, with wife Katherine Fitzgerald - admitted landing the role in 'Finding Dory' gave him a lot of "kudos" with his children.
However, the actor quickly found his youngsters couldn't keep the news of the long-awaited sequel a secret, but he didn't mind as they were so impressed by his casting.
He said: "I can't keep any secrets, so I think Andrew probably knew that and didn't tell me [any]. I don't know if I said I wouldn't tell anyone, but I immediately told my kids, thinking, 'They're not going to tell anyone.' And of course they told all their friends. I think they'd [the film's producers] anticipated that, so it didn't seem to spill any beans, but it did get me a lot of kudos at home, which is all I long for.
"My daughter's called Dora, so she was particularly interested."
'Finding Dory' - which features Ellen DeGeneres in the lead role - is out now in the US and released in the UK on 29 July.
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