Vin Diesel may have provided the voice of Groot in the Guardians of the Galaxy movies, but it’s not entirely accurate to say he was the only actor “playing” him. James Gunn, as many of you already knew, provided the killer/cute dance moves for the li’l sapling, and just to prove it, he has posted a Facebook video from his motion-capture sessions:

“I actually did three different versions of this dance at three different times,” writes Gunn. “The first time was when I first wrote the scene, in my office at home, recorded by Simon Hatt on his iPhone. That one was mostly so that I could remember the camera angles and camera movements I had in my head while writing than it did the actual dance. The second time was on set in Atlanta with a single camera and our visual effects team. That time it was doing the dance full out – there were some bits and pieces we used – but because Groot is moving and the camera was stable I was only able to travel for very short periods.”

This particular video comes from the final session in Los Angeles, “with many cameras lined down a long space so that I could actually do all the long walks and jumps Groot was doing.”

And yes, being a serious actor (truly–he’s good in The Specials), Gunn was dancing strictly in character, and avows that if you ever see him at the club, his physicality will not be the same. But it’s bound to annoy Drax nonetheless.

What do you think of the director’s moves? Should he put out an entire “James Gunn’s Jazzercise” DVD? Let us know what you think in comments.

Image: Marvel Studios