I Know That Voice Page #3

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the cartoons don't even

have to be that good.

I gotta tell ya,

that's the sad truth.

When you get started,

when you really start,

start listening to what people

are actually doing.

A lot of actors get into it

and they don't know

how to act for voiceover.

It's a very different

style of acting.

It's much bigger,

it's much more theatrical.

It is not about I can say,

"Eh, what's up, doc"

better than anybody else,

you know, no.

It's can you read anything

as that character,

can you become that character.

It's about hearing

all those little voices

in your head beforehand.

When you look at a script

and you have to give an A,

a B, and a C take.

When you look at a script

you have to give an A,

a B, and a C take.

When you look at a script

you have to give an A,

a B, and a C take.

All of 'em have

to be different.

Voiceover's about creating

characters who may be funny

or may be dramatic,

or may be scary or whatever.

It's the same as acting

it's just you don't have

to get up at six o'clock

in the morning,

which is why I'm interested.

Even before I knew

it was Mel Blanc,

I would have told you

it was Bugs Bunny

was my hero and then,

and Daffy Duck

and Foghorn Leghorn,

I really loved Foghorn Leghorn.

I didn't know who I was

listening to back then

except for guys like Mel Blanc.

- Mel Blanc.

- Mel Blanc.

- Mel Blanc.

- Mel Blanc.

Mel Blanc.

Mel Blanc, of course,

is the name you have

to kind of throw out first

because he lit the way

for just about everybody else.

I remember what really

astonished me was

that Mel Blanc did everything.

That's what I thought

was pretty magical,

was that Roadrunner,

and Tweety, Wile E. Coyote,

and Bugs, and Daffy,

and Elmer Fudd.

You break down the voice.

It's New Yorky, it's nasally,

and he's a smart aleck.

That could be such

an unappealing voice

and yet endearing,

timelessly endearing.

Well, he told me that he was

a tough little stinker.

So I thought maybe Brooklyn

or the Bronx.

So I uh, put the two of them

together, doc,

that's how I got

the voice for Bugs.

In the episode uh,

"Wabbit Season, Duck Season",

that episode of Bugs Bunny

where they're sort of

arguing as to which season it is

and who Elmer should shoot.

Bugs come out dressed as Daffy

and Bugs does

a Daffy impression

and then Daffy comes out

dressed as Bugs

and does a Bugs impression.

And they're,

they're different voices.

One sounds like Bugs

trying to be Daffy

and the other sounds

like Daffy trying to be Bugs,

and that's... it's unbelievably

impossibly hard to do.

Basically it was Bugs Bunny

stepping in to do

an imitation of Daffy Duck.

It wasn't Mel Blanc

doing Bugs and then Daffy.

In fact I remember Lou Costello

writing on a picture,

it says "To my favorite actor. "

So Mel actually

was a great actor,

and that's why he was so good

in all the characters.

He was a method actor.

He became the characters.

I was going to

a recording session

and we were waiting

for Mel and he's usually

right on time.

And I turned on the radio,

they said "Mel Blanc",

the famous voice,

had a terrible auto accident. "

He was in a coma

for about 14 days.

And the doctor got an idea

and he went over to Mel

and clapped his hands and said,

"Mel, can you hear me?

Can you hear me, Mel?"

And Bugs Bunny was on the air.

And he... it didn't do anything

and so the doctor

thought "Bugs. "

So he said,

"Bugs, can you hear me?"

And Mel goes,

"Eh, what's up, doc?"

He said, "Porky,

can you hear me?"

"I c-c-can hear. "

So he came out of the coma

doing the voices.

The characters

saved Mel's life.

He was in the hospital

and so they wanted me

to take his place

at Warner Brothers Cartoons,

and I said, "No,

I don't wanna do that. "

Wait'll Mel comes back. "

He broke practically

every bone in his body.

And so he would record

at his home,

and I would go to his home

in Pacific Palisades

and we'd record there.

June Foray is

Rocky the Flying Squirrel,

Rocket J. Squirrel,

from "Bullwinkle and Rocky. "

Hokey smoke, they remember

Rocky the Flying Squirrel.

She's Natasha Fatale.

Of course Natasha, darling.

When you trace her back,

she was on, like,

back in the '40s.

She's 90 plus years old now

and still working.

And still working.

So I started with Granny,

oh, it was like, 1956

that I started with Granny,

and I'm still doing it.

Approaching a legacy voice

it uh, it can depend.

It'll depend on who's

running the show.

Kinda have to have an ear

for do they sound the same,

is it the same,

is on the same timbre?

Um, but then from there,

can they actually

deliver the performance?

There's much more

to a character

than just the voice.

Eh, what's up, doc?

Of course, you all know Goofy.

Marvin the Martian

from the Loony Tunes show,

isn't that lovely?

Sir, how dare you?

I used to do, like,

a Winnie the Pooh for my kids.

Oh, it's a smackeral of honey.

And then Jim Cummings walks in,

you're like

"Oh, that's real good. "

Job one, you gotta

sound like the guy.

You gotta do that right away.

And then you, then you dive in

and you get all the aspects

of the personality and...

but the first thing is

you have to go,

"Oh, that's Pooh Bear,"

or "That's Tigger. "

He bounces, he bounces,

and he kicks!

All of this

not kicking the ball

has made me quite tired.

Count out the sounds.

Eh.

Eh buh.

Eh buh beh.

Eh buh beh eh boy, okay?

So it's four sounds

in the word.

E chch eh chair.

Eh dede eh desk.

Now you wrinkle your nose,

you make it kinda nasal.

Eh buh beh eh boy.

And then for the third sound

you push it more.

Eh beh beh eh boy.

Eh ch ch eh chair.

Eh de de eh desk.

Then you have to put together

full sentences.

The eh beh beh eh boy

sat in the eh ch ch eh chair

next to the eh de de eh desk.

And nobody can do that

and that's why

I have job security.

When I got the gig

as Fred Flintstone

I was the least likely

guy to get it.

Five foot four,

115 pounds soaking wet.

"Hi, I'm here to do

Fred Flintstone. "

They literally looked over me.

Henry Corden, who was the voice

of Fred Flintstone,

he took over

after Alan Reed passed away,

was there and he yelled

to the director "Would you stop"

looking at him

and just listen?"

And Henry Corden is,

you know, Fred Flintstone,

was more nasal.

To the moon, Alice,

it was more Jackie Gleason.

Alan Reed was more,

Eh, Wilma, Barney,

it was smoother,

and oh brother.

So I tried to kinda

combine 'em both

and there you get

Fred Flintstone.

Every single actor

that's worked for me

playing the Joker,

and there have been many,

brings their own twist to it.

And that's what you want.

You want someone to just

do Mark Hamill,

then you bring Mark Hamill in.

Everybody sort of knows

the Joker here

when he's up and exuberant.

You can't do it quietly.

Okay, here's how he laughs.

You have to really let it rip!

I always approached

each script like it was like

the first time

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