Justin Timberlake was a late addition to DreamWorks' new animated movie Trolls and his casting was initially a big secret, even from main star Anna Kendrick.
The 35-year-old pop star and the 30-year-old actress recently talked to E! News' Marc Malkin about the film, in which they play Branch and Poppy.
"Anna came onto the movie first," Timberlake said. "I had a little bit of an advantage of being excited to work with her on this and then getting to work on all the music too was very exciting for me."
"I had been working on the movie for a little while and I remember when they brought Justin on, there was some kind of weird degree of, like, secrecy happening and I was like, 'What's happening together? Everybody's acting weird today,'" Kendrick added. "And then they were like, 'Um, so we just wanted to tell you that we're bringing on Justin Timberlake to work on the music.'"
"They were telling me as though they were like, 'Is that OK with you? Is that OK for you? Is that going to be OK for you?'" she continued. "And I was like, 'Yeah, I mean, that's OK.' But I was like, 'Should I act like I'm having a hard time with this so that I can, like, ask for something later?'"
Timberlake and Kendrick made their comments to Malkin at San Diego Comic-Con International 2016 Thursday, before speaking at a panel for Trolls.
The pop star served as executive producer of the movie's soundtrack, which contains his dance single "Can't Stop the Feeling," currently one of this summer's biggest hits.
"The song was written specifically for the movie," Timberlake told Malkin. "I mean, it's in the movie. It's not like an end credits song. I think it definitely sort of encapsulates...part of the message of what our movie is."
Trolls is set for release on Nov. 4.