We caught up with Lee at the film’s recent press conference where the new Chipmunks star dished on everything from watching the series as a kid and working with CG characters to playing video games, his iPod and collecting music.

Jason Lee on watching The Chipmunks as a kid:

"Yeah, I caught Chipmunk Punk in 1980 and then I guess the cartoon started again in ’83, I think. So I caught that wave of it, but I’d always heard the Christmas song like most people living on planet Earth."

Lee on the challenges of working with CGI characters:

"Fortunately I had other actors reading off-camera dialogue, otherwise it wouldn’t have worked. At the very least, we needed the timing for everything. But yeah, it was tough pretending that the chipmunks were on a couch or a counter in the kitchen. The toughest thing was - at first I had a tendency to look down at the table, so I had to keep reminding myself if I was looking at a chipmunk it would actually be like 8 inches above the table where their eyes would be. And following them as they moved around, there was literally nothing [that] moved around, and there were three of them. It was tough, but I got used to it after awhile and I did six weeks of basically that."

Jason Lee on looking so much like Dave Seville:

"I don’t know what you mean. Maybe it’s from seeing Earl and the moustache, it’s such a different look. That’s part of the reason I did it, and having a son is the other reason. That was one of the thoughts behind it, was to do something totally different than I had been doing for two years on Earl. This is my first movie since I started Earl."

Lee on initially getting involved with Alvin and the Chipmunks:

"They called and said, ‘They want you to play Dave Seville.’ And I was like, ‘Okay,’ and that was that. I just approached it the way I approach everything else. Chipmunks are not - I still have things I have to do as a character and they could’ve been kids or chipmunks, I still approach it the way I approach anything else."

On getting into Dave Seville as a loser in the beginning of the film:

"I can kind of relate to that. I’ve done my share of producing and trying to get projects made in Hollywood, and it’s not always easy. People are interested or they’re not, and I’ve had plenty of experiences where I walked away thinking, ‘God, I suck. I’m just not cut out to do this.’ I mean that’s just a part of it. I’ve never experienced it musically like Dave, of course, but in Hollywood I’ve experienced it plenty of times."

Jason Lee Chases Chipmunks, iPods, and the Holidays Page 2