Spirited is a musical comedy by Ryan Reynolds and Will Ferrell. It marks the first time the Canadian has starred in a musical. We all know the Free Guy author can do a lot of things. He is multi-talented and can don a number of hats! He is an actor, producer, filmmaker, and businessman, and also owns a football team, but there was one thing the actor had never tried singing. 

The musical naturally needed the actors to sing live and Ian Eisendrath, executive music producer of Spirited, had to boost the confidence of the star cast to get them to belt out the songs. What was his secret technique? How did he get them to do it?

Ian worked with Ryan Reynolds and Will Ferrell to find their voice as themselves

Apart from being the executive music producer of the project, Ian had to play the role of a therapist on the set as well. He had to work with the leads, Ryan Reynolds and Will Ferrell, to find their voice. One of the primary challenges of the production was to get the actors to sing and record live vocals. In order to do that, Ian had to get them comfortable singing live first in the studio, then on the set, and finally on camera. 

He figured that if the text is connected to acting, then it becomes rather easy for the actors to sing live because they then start considering the lyrics as just dialogues or monologues.

“Suddenly, they’re able to do it. It’s almost as if their body and their voice know what they need to do to achieve what that character wants or needs to communicate in a scene,” he said. Ian recorded live vocals, edited and mixed camera work, vocals, and the orchestra.

Apart from Ian, talents like Dominic Lewis and Justin Paul were also a part of the project. The former developed the score, and the latter worked on the song cues. 

The Christmas movie is based on Charles Dickens’ 1837 novel, A Christmas Carol. It’s in theaters now. Have you watched it?