Title characters were coddled on the ‘Popper’s Penguins’ set

James Tupper is happy to dish about his co-stars: the Gentoo penguins populating “Mr. Popper’s Penguins.”

“They were such divas,” he said, tongue firmly in cheek. “They were like: ‘God, my robe isn’t correct.’ ‘My driver spoke to me in a mean way.’ No, I’m kidding. They were always the same.

They’re penguins.”

Gentoo penguins, found in places such as the sub-Antarctic, stand 19- to 22-inches tall and are notable for white stripes across their heads and orange feet.

The movie, based on the 1938 book by Richard and Florence Atwater, stars Jim Carrey as Mr. Popper, a successful real-estate developer in Manhattan.

To accommodate the penguins, the set had to be kept between 36 and 40 degrees for the critters, which came up to Tupper’s knees.

The movie uses both computer-generated and real penguins, who were housed in a facility built for them next to Steiner Studios in Brooklyn.

“You could go at any time during the filming and hang out in their pen. They had kind of a little house of their own. It was bigger than my star trailer. I was quite upset about it,” joked the onetime carpenter from Nova Scotia.

“They had a little pool there, and it was freezing-cold arctic water,” the actor said. “You weren’t allowed to touch them or obviously interact with them, but you could stand just a little bit off and watch them do what they do.”

That meant running around in a pack, as if they were trundling around a school yard. “They’d all be following each other around, and it always seemed a bit of a harried mess,” and any time fish were tossed to them, it was a free-for-all.

The book, about a house painter who dreams of traveling the world, obviously has undergone some changes.

“I think it’s about the way animals help heal people and help make them remember what is most important in life,” Tupper said. I think it captures the same spirit the book has, but there are definitely changes.”

The movie is about more than just penguins crashing a black-tie gala or making dinner a literal feeding frenzy.

“It’s a love letter to relationships, how to keep families together, how to deal with poverty and how to keep your heart open,” Tupper said. “I think the movie captures all of that.”

The actor opened his heart and upended his life after falling in love with “Men in Trees” co-star Anne Heche. They left their respective spouses and forged a life together with her son, now 9, and their boy, born in 2009.