Ben Whishaw has a "weird relationship" with the Paddington movies.

The 44-year-old actor voiced the titular bear in the beloved family film series but he feels almost like it "has nothing to do with" him because he is so removed from the finished picture, though he gets a lot of pleasure in hearing about how much children enjoy them.

He told Sunday Times Culture magazine: "I have a weird relationship to it. Because I am very aware that I just contribute one tiny part to it, I almost feel like it has nothing to do with me.

"But the films are lovely and it's gratifying to hear how much children love it.

"I bumped into somebody who told me about their very autistic grandson and how he finds lots of life quite difficult, but he is absolutely obsessed and, apparently, calmed by Paddington 2. He watches it over and over and goes into some other place. That's wonderful."

While voice acting is deemed as under threat by AI software, Ben believes nothing can replace the "extraordinary" impact of a human voice.

He said: "A human voice is an extraordinary thing.

"Like if you lost someone … When one loses someone, not hearing their voice again is one of the things that you are so pained about. Someone is completely present in their voice -- I don't think it's a small thing at all. It's an amazing thing, someone's voice."

The Black Doves star can next be seen in Peter Hujar's Day, in which he plays the acclaimed photographer and he was happy to shine a spotlight on the artist and his work in Ira Sachs' movie.

He said: "Lots of people don't know about Peter. Yet he was extraordinary. He didn't like things to look self-consciously arty. He had this enormous sensitivity and way about him that enabled people to feel really intimate, because his photos have this amazing nakedness.

"I mean, sometimes they are literally naked. But even when they're not, you feel almost painfully close to the people in the images."

Peter was diagnosed with AIDS in 1987 and died less than a year later, and Ben was fascinated by the changes of his work.

He said: "I mean, as a gay man who grew up in the Nineties, having reached the age I am? That period is very fascinating to me.

"Great art was made by queer people in that time, and what is sad about Peter is his images document that transition from the Seventies through to the Eighties. You see the fear and absolute tragedy of the losses of that period."