How do you expect Americans to respond to the characters Britishness?
Well, when we first sold the Wallace and Gromit shorts to America, there were people who suggested that we get rid of the strange British accents and put clear American voices on them, and we held out. I think Jeffrey would agree that anybody who did that would be shooting themselves in the foot. Since then we’ve had so much response from Americans that like the voices. It shows that if you respect the audience enough, they can take onboard things that are not, um, native. Going back to the beginning, how did you come up with the character of Wallace? Well, the way his wide mouth evolved, the way he says “Cheese”, was actually the way the actor Peter Sallis says cheese in his very northern English way. I actually animated some of Grand Day Out with a smaller mouth and then it came to the point where he had to say cheese and suddenly his mouth had to go, “No cheeeeese, Gromit”. Is he based on anyone Since I made Grand Day Out, I’ve thought how similar he is to my father because my fathe
