I Know That Voice Page #4

---

I'd ever done it.

I mean, there either had

to be continuity

that he had to be

exactly the same Joker,

and I figured he has

multiple personalities anyway.

There'd be the traditional

where he's wildly exuberant

and gleeful and maniacal,

and there'd be others

where uh, sort of much more

sinister and menacing.

I really love

all the other Jokers

except for

Kevin Michael Richardson.

I was feeling a bit screw loose

so I checked myself in.

And you know I'm kidding

because I love

Kevin Michael Richardson

so much,

he's a wonderful actor,

but I'm just jealous because

he got an Emmy nomination

and I never did.

I gotta give Mark props,

I don't want him coming

after me going,

"Did you really say that?"

'Cause I don't

think it's funny.

"I was the best Joker, not you. "

Mark never said that.

Mark's Joker is broad and

terrifying at the same time.

Everybody who's ever

played the Joker since

really has tried to come up

to that benchmark,

and everybody brings

their own twist to it

and has their different thing.

The trick is for people not

to do an impression of Mark.

So um, you know, John DiMaggio

did a stunning version

in "Under the Red Hood. "

That was completely different

and terrifying in its own right.

It was just

a very dark place, you know?

It's just allowing yourself

to go to that really,

really awful place in your mind

and everybody has one.

I tapped into it for that,

you know, vocally

and tried to make him

as evil as possible,

and it worked.

Does anybody realize

how brilliant

these voiceover "actors" are?

Who are,

let's just call 'em actors

because they have to get

every cryptic expression

that you would do on camera,

on mic.

They're storytellers.

That's their gift.

And man, nobody gets it unless

you're sitting in my seat.

Actors wanna go,

"It's so easy!"

It's like, yeah,

it's easy for you

'cause all you gotta do

is read out loud

in your own voice.

You know, this...

there is a misconception,

I think, that voice acting

is just "reading aloud. "

And it's not.

At the end of the day

it's two different job

descriptions.

Their job is to be

movie stars or TV stars

and sound as much

like themselves as possible,

and our job is to be

voice actors

and character actors,

and sound as little

like ourselves

or as little like

the last thing you did

an hour ago as possible.

People find out what I do

and like,

"I can do Donald Duck.

Do you want me

to do it for you?"

I'm like, "Please, don't. "

It's my dentist or, you know,

it's the guy at the bank

and he's like, "I can do

the greatest Donald Duck"

and I'm like,

"I will give you five dollars

if you do not do that. "

And I don't wanna be mean,

but the soul

of this business is acting.

And the voice, the funny voice

that they put on,

if that's what

you wanna call it,

is secondary to the heart

of the character

that they develop.

You always hear people like,

"Hey, my friends say

I do great voices. "

But they're not actors

and then they think, like,

"Well, you guys

just go in there"

and like make a crazy voice

"and then you

get lots of money. "

Like, no, we have to act

and then we get lots of money.

And make a crazy voice.

But it's gotta have stuff

behind it.

So it's not about "I can do",

I can do Christopher Walken,

I can do Johnny Depp,

"I can do Michael J. Fox,

I can do whoever," that's great.

Can you do anything as them

and can you stay in

that voice for four hours?

Can you scream in

that voice for four hours?

Can you get electrocuted

as Michael J. Fox?

Can you get punched

in the stomach

as Michael J. Fox?

If you can, great.

And can you do it without

going, "Hang on",

wait a second,"

just right then.

Whenever I get an audition

for a new character

I'll look at the drawing

of the character.

If they have a show bible

I'll read the show bible

so it says, you know,

what city they're in,

what time it is,

maybe it's a different planet.

And all those factors

come into play.

I don't necessarily

go into a role thinking

"Cartoon" I think,

"How would this being sound?"

It starts from the moment

you go in to audition,

when you look at the drawing,

when you see the script.

And then you look

at the character and you see,

if it's a little girl,

how old is she?

You know, is she,

is she five years old?

Is she really tiny?

'Cause then their equipment's

gonna be little

itty bitty, right?

But if she's eight she,

her voice box is bigger,

she knows more,

she's a little more

confident in the world.

For me it really starts

with the artwork.

I like to see a picture.

I like to see, you know,

how tall, how short,

how heavy, how light,

you know, could be Skeeter,

you know, mighty skinny,

ain't got no teeth so he's

got a little bit of a whistle

in it when he talks.

Like with Tommy, like, he's

got these funny lips, right?

He's... he's got this big

kind of slurry sort of thing,

you know, he's got this thing.

So when I first saw him

to me there was some

kind of speech thing.

I'm not really so sure about

what's going on around here,

but uh, I guess it's okay.

You know, here's a picture,

here's where he lives,

this is, you know...

he's half a child,

half a man, you know,

kind of Peewee Herman,

a little bit of Stan Laurel,

a little bit of Jerry Lewis,

little bit of munchkin,

and uh, you know,

it's not really a kid voice

like a Charlie Brown

realistic kid voice,

but it's not really

an adult either.

So, you know,

if the character has

really big buck teeth

you may do it differently

or if they have a very,

you know, big tongue

and they lisp a lot, you know,

if there's a lot of spit

involved in the picture

then you may do

something different.

If you sound like you

have a large chest,

they will animate you

with a very large chest.

Say that there's

a character and, you know,

he's a deep voiced character

and they want something

like a giant,

he's a giant and uh,

this is...

they want him like this,

but, you know,

they wanna keep him bright

and they want it, you know,

they wanna have him

very intelligent.

So, you know,

he's this kinda guy,

and you know, or maybe,

maybe he's got some tusks,

you know, so when you

put that in there or maybe,

maybe he's not that bright

so maybe he

would talk like this

a little bit.

That's the kind of thing

you're able to do

with a character.

You ready, man?

Yeah, dude.

Put your pants on.

Okay.

On "Futurama" we didn't know

what Bender the robot

should sound like.

A robot, what, you know.

'Cause the tendency

and what most people did

when they came in,

"I am Bender,

I talk like a robot. "

You know, there was all that

and variations of that.

I auditioned for Bender.

I just played him like

a construction worker.

Let me just bend that for ya.

We were really going through

a lot of people and then,

then uh, somebody said,

"Hey, Dave, you sound"

kinda like a robot.

"Maybe you should do the part. "

Rate this script:0.0 / 0 votes