The Smurfs Casting: Hank Azaria And Katy Perry Lend Voices; Jayma Mays Nabs Female Lead
UPDATE: Neil Patrick Harris says on Twitter that Hank Azaria will play a live-action Gargamel in the film, not voice an animated version of the character. Original article follows.
We've had a good bit of casting for The Smurfs (not Smurfs: the Movie, as we'd seen it written before) so far, including Neil Patrick Harris as one of the primary humans, and Jonathan Winters, Alan Cumming and George Lopez as some of the little blue guys in white pants.
Now more names have been thrown onto the pile: Hank Azaria, Katy Perry and Glee's Jayma Mays.
EW reports on Azaria and Perry. Hank Azaria will play Gargamel, the sworn enemy of the Smurfs, while Perry plays Gargamel's creation, Smurfette. Guess that means that my hopes of having Neil Patrick Harris as Gargamel have been dashed. Note that I use the term 'hopes' in the loosest possible sense. Sure, Azaria will be good, but NPH could've been magic. This will be Perry's feature acting debut, so long as you don't count Get Him to the Greek, in which she appears as herself.THR, meanwhile, notes that Jayma Mays will appear as the pregnant wife of the character played by Neil Patrick Harris. The story takes place in Central Park in New York City, and "centers on the happy expectant couple's lives being turned upside-down upon meeting these blue creatures." A previous casting report pegged the lead female character as Grace, "a late 20's/early 30's first-time expectant mother who is juggling an overworked husband and a household fill of Smurfs."