Comedian David Cross has doubled down on his criticism of his time working on the Alvin and the Chipmunks franchise.
Cross, 62 — who starred as Ian Hawke, the villainous and exploitative music executive, in the beloved family comedy film series — previously made headlines in 2012 for calling the third installment the “most miserable experience I ever had in my professional life.”
During a recent interview on the Daily Beast’s Obsessed podcast, the Arrested Development alum was asked if he had any regrets about agreeing to do the first three Chipmunks movies or deciding to speak out against them publicly.
“I have no regrets,” Cross said, clarifying that he had a “good time” on the first two films, Alvin and the Chipmunks (2007) and Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel (2009).
“The only negative experience I had was on the third movie, which I was contractually obligated to do, and they were just so s***ty to me from the jump,” he claimed.
“I think I contributed quite a bit to this billion-dollar franchise, and I improvised a lot,” he added, sharing that it is one of the top roles he is recognized for by fans worldwide.
“And they were just so awful to me,” he claimed of the film’s team. “I don’t know what the deal was.”
Cross recalled that he was in London working on another project around Christmastime when his team called to inform him that he was needed in Hawaii by January 3 for the third movie, Chipwrecked (2011).
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“It was just crazy,” the actor said of the tight turnaround. He remembered his agent telling him that the Chipmunks team had threatened to sue him if he was not there.
“It got worse from there. It just got worse and worse and worse,” Cross said, claiming, “And then they were doing s***ty things on purpose, I don’t know what to tell you.”
He claimed that the team was intentionally “f***ing with me,” recounting one instance in which he was given a “s***ty trailer that was leaking.”
Cross insisted that he would “never work with any of those people ever again for the rest of my life. They were just so awful to me.”
The Independent has contacted 20th Century Studios for comment.
The first live-action Alvin and the Chipmunks premiered in 2007, starring Jason Lee as songwriter Dave Seville, who becomes the adoptive father of three talking chipmunks, Alvin (Justin Long), Simon (Matthew Gray Gubler) and Theodore (Jesse McCartney).
Cross appeared in the first three films but did not return for the fourth, Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Road Chip (2015).
During a January 2012 appearance on Conan O’Brien’s late-night show, Cross slammed an unnamed producer on the third film, saying: “There was one producer, I won’t say (who), but she is the personification of what people think about when they think negatively about Jews.”
He later followed up on Facebook, clarifying that the producer in question was not “Janice Karman, the wife of Ross Bagdasarian (the son of Dave Bagdasarian, the creator of Alvin and the Chipmunks) as some have speculated.”
“Janice and Ross were never anything but warm, giving, and gracious to me,” Cross wrote.