Katy Perry channels Smurfette anew

MANILA, Philippines - Nine-time Grammy Award nominee Katy Perry once again lends her own nuanced, energetic and sensitive combination to the voice of Smurfette, in Columbia Pictures/Sony Pictures Animation’s highly-awaited sequel, The Smurfs 2.

In the film, feisty Smurfette hasn’t been feeling like her sparkly self — it’s her birthday and that always brings reflection. She’s been having some uneasy thoughts that maybe she isn’t really 100-percent true-blue Smurf. True, wicked wizard Gargamel created her, but Papa used magic to make her a real Smurf. So, when Gargamel kidnaps her on the eve of her birthday, and she is introduced to her newly-created siblings, the Naughties, she starts to form a bond. Papa musters a daring rescue, but will she choose the family she knows, or the new family she’s discovered?

“It was fun to get back into character,” says Katy. “I blocked out a couple of days to prepare for it, because I get into a zone where I really have to turn it on. Smurfette isn’t my normal voice — it’s like my voice and a bag of rocks, with a pinch of sugar.”

Katy says she was gratified by the chance to work in scenes opposite Christina Ricci who provides the voice of Vexy. “It’s nice to know that she’s playing my evil twin,” says Katy. “I really look up to her, both as a person and as an actress — she’s done so many incredible films.”

“Katy’s performance is amazing, because she’s able to portray both sides of Smurfette — from one moment to the next, she finds the character immediately,” says producer Jordan Kerner. “On the one hand, you have the kittenish, funny, sweet Smurfette character that everyone in Smurf Village embraces. On the other hand, this is a very dramatic story for her character — she’s kidnapped, separated from the Smurfs, and thinks she’s never going to see her family again. All of that sense of abandonment, loneliness and fear comes through in Katy’s vocal performance. She’s just revelatory as a comedic actress. She will be a major comedienne in films. Brilliant instincts, inherently funny and just beautiful.”

Katy cemented her status as a best-selling superstar with the global success of her second studio album, Teenage Dream, which debuted at No. 1 in eight countries and spent every week on Billboard’s Top 200 album sales chart since its release over two years ago. In 2011, she sold out arenas around the globe with her California Dreams Tour.

Opening across the Philippines on Aug. 7, The Smurfs 2 is distributed by Columbia Pictures, local office of Sony Pictures Releasing International.