Fast & Furious star Vin Diesel certainly deserves a lot of credit for making a seven-foot, humanoid tree creature who can only communicate with very limited vocabulary most people?s favorite character in 2014's Guardians of the Galaxy.
"It's very, very challenging because you're limited to three words," Diesel told Total Film. "There's a secret script that I get where it has all of Groot's lines, but the catch of it all is the only was I can say it is: 'I am Groot.'"
For a fully-grown Groot, Diesel perfectly balanced gruffness and sweetness in his delivery. However, after Groot's tearjerking sacrifice ("We are Groot.") at the end of the film and getting resurrected when Rocket repotted one of his twigs, we're getting a much younger, pint-sized version of him.
So how will Diesel, who has a naturally gravelly pitch, be able to voice Baby Groot? "I change it super, super, super, super high," he smiled. "I have a feeling they'll do a combination of things [to alter the sound electronically]. I mean, I do it super high-pitched. [Adopts glass-shattering Baby Groot squeal] 'I am Groot!'"
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 is scheduled to hit theaters on May 5, 2017.
