I use voiceover just like I use dialogue. There's a way to give out information or give out insight to the character or give out their worldview, and maybe you have to slip in exposition, but it's all about how you write it.
I've been able to work with some incredible voice talent, most of whom I grew up hearing in my favorite cartoons.
I lived in San Francisco for about eight years and I did a lot of improvisation there. The improvisational world ruled the voice world in San Francisco, so I became a voice talent there and did a lot of commercials and worked all the time. But I never could break into animation.
I prefer to be handcuffed at home. The idea of voice work to me is great fun, especially when it's a chance to do two different voices.
Animated program was definitely a different process but it was fun though, it had elements of doing my podcast where we were all in a booth with microphones joking around and stuff. It was definitely a fun process.
Since we've done that type of work [ voiceover], we know how isolating it can be, and we wanted to make the actors more comfortable.
On 'Shrek,' Eddie Murphy was locked in as the donkey before we'd even designed the donkey.
I've been called 'the voice actor.'
Darkwing Duck and Don Karnage are the most fun to do, because they're both probably the closest to me - I kinda improvise a lot of them, kinda ad lib.
I look at some of the old villains in the Disney movies. If you really listen, you can hear some of the villains or some of the supporting characters, they use the voices over and over because they were so versatile in the way that they performed on voiceovers.
Some people like doing crossword puzzles or Sudoku. I love auditioning. On camera, I hated auditioning. But voiceovers I like trying to figure it out, then getting in there and seeing how close you can get.
When I was a kid, I wanted to emulate Mel Blanc, who is arguably one of the most legendary voiceover recording artists of our time. I used to watch all the cartoons where he would voice Daffy, Elmer Fudd and Porky the Pig. I knew one day I wanted to do that.
Well, actually, I do the voiceover for Quentin Sands.
The way I choose voice talent is I don't let them tell me who the actor is.
[Voice acting] is such an easy job. It's like stealing money, really. Which I'm always happy to do.
Voice work is usually not that big of a time commitment. You can go in for a couple of days or a couple of months, here and there, and just go in and play. I like being able to do that. You don't have that luxury on film sets or television sets.
I just want to get into the action. And voice-over work is all action.
It's fascinating to see actors who do voiceovers every day.
I did take some voiceover classes. I always loved the idea of doing a voice for a cartoon character. I just voiced the character of Suzi X in the upcoming 'The Haunted World of El Superbeasto.'
Doing voice work is more like recording music that people are going to listen to. You're creating an oral experience using whatever bells and whistles you have in your voice, and you can shut your eyes and use your imagination and nobody's going to see if the faces you make don't match the voices you make. That's a lot of fun.
I just don't like it when people get credited for their voice work and it's really shitty. It's really thin, there's nothing to it, there's no meat behind it. It's, like, "Oh, it's a celebrity."
Voicing acting is usually fun. I'm very curious about that world. I'm a fan of documentaries, as well, and the voice kind of makes it right. Mostly for me, though, it's all about the acting -you don't have to get hair and makeup and the whole bit. You just can have fun with the acting.
I've made it very clear that I'm interested in voiceover work. I mean, I'm always looking for voiceover gigs. I love that.
