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  Toonami Infolink :: View topic - The Rob Paulson Interview
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The Rob Paulson Interview

 
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Andromaton

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By Martin "Dr. Toon" Goodman

Annie and Emmy award-winning Rob Paulsen has seen a lot of changes in animation during his 20-year career as a voice actor.

Rob Paulsen is one of the most talented and active voice artists working in animation today. His résumé includes countless voices on 200+ animated series as well as two Annie Awards for his work on Steven Spielberg Presents Animaniacs and Steven Spielberg Presents Pinky and the Brain. Rob also scored an Emmy in 1999 for his voice work as Pinky. A devoted pro hockey fan, Rob lives and dies with the Detroit Red Wings; he often plays in charity matches and has a pretty mean wrist shot.

Dr.Toon: You’ve been working for more than 20 years now as a voice artist. Over that time, how do you think cartoons have changed?

Rob Paulsen: Well, the obvious change is that there’s more CGI stuff, which has become both more cost effective and nicer to look at. One of the great things about Jimmy Neutron for instance was that the movie was very successful and it translated beautifully from the small screen. It even looks better now than it did on the big screen because the folks who are doing the work at DNA productions are an incredibly talented group of people. They constantly find new and amazing magical tricks to make things look great. The CGI stuff is becoming more and more prevalent and I’ve worked on a lot of shows over the past three or four years that are CGI — Jimmy Neutron, Butt-Ugly Martians, another one called Dan Dare that’s airing in England now. Of course, with the success of Finding Nemo, Toy Story, Monsters, Inc., and Shrek — it’s all CGI stuff and that technology absolutely astonishes me.


Paulsen’s work on Pinky and the Brain won him an Emmy in 1999.

In terms of the voice aspect, the single most noticeable change is the advent of celebrities. There’s a lot of celebrity talent that I work with, and I enjoy that, but competing with them is difficult. I have no problem competing with them talent-wise — I feel that I’m good enough at what I do to hold my own with any actor in Hollywood — in my segment. I feel good about my ability to improvise, to sing, to do dialects.

The thing I can’t compete with is celebrity. I’m not Brad Pitt, I’m not Mel Gibson, I can’t compete with the marketability of an actor in the context of a new animated feature. It’s a double-edged sword, because I have respect and admiration for anyone who makes it to the top in this business, but at the same time, it’s difficult because, like you said, I’ve put in 20-odd years in this business and I’ve won Annies and been nominated for Emmys but I don’t have the face to go along with the marketing plans that big features have.

So, it’s disconcerting as a voice actor but it’s also exciting to get to work with these people every now and then. The only thing I can really do is just be the best actor I can be and hopefully get to the place where people say I’m the best guy for the job.

But having said that, every time people find out what it is I do, they freak out, because there are usually one or two characters they’ve grown up knowing and they love the characters. The times I have been on talk shows I could be there for two hours. People say, “Let’s hear more Pinky! Let’s hear more Yakko!” or, “I hear Rafael (from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles) and it makes me feel like I’m back in my pajamas watching TV.”


Last edited by Andromaton on Tue Nov 18, 2003 1:36 am; edited 1 time in total
PostTue Nov 18, 2003 1:29 am
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Andromaton

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Dr.T: Do you feel that there are different demands on voice artists since the days you started working?


A career highlight has been working with Maurice LaMarche, who played the Brain to Paulsen’s Pinky.

RP: No, the demands are pretty much the same. I get paid to improvise, to bring something to the party, to be fearless — by that, I mean not to be afraid to be stupid, try things — that’s one thing I think voice actors have over the celebrities, because it’s not about how big your muscles or your boobs are, it’s about being fearless. You might be asked, “Here are the talking sunglasses, they’re coming to life, what do they sound like?” I don’t know, I’ll try whatever you want! Do you want it fast or slow, do you want a dialect — that’s what all of us do, Billy (West), Maurice (LaMarche), Frank (Welker), Kath (Soucie), Tara Strong, E.G. Daly, they’re just amazingly gifted folks and they’re unafraid. In my case, I’ve been doing this so long that people expect a certain level of professionalism and competence from me, and I’ve always expected and wanted them to expect the best from me.

Dr.T: You’re also a singer, Rob. When you do a song you can probably tell when you’ve nailed it just right. How are some of the ways you know that you’ve nailed a characters voice just right?

RP: That’s a great question. When I can carry on a conversation as a character and I have the same sort of thought processes that the character has and can answer questions that aren’t scripted. For instance, it’s when I can speak like Pinky all day long and things come out of my mouth when speaking like Pinky that wouldn’t come out of my mouth when I’m Rob. To me, that’s kind of the litmus test. It’s like that with Carl Wheezer from Jimmy Neutron — just like Yakko was quick, Carl is very slow, he has a lazy “l” like Tom Brokaw, I have this crackly voice and I would be reticent, probably avert my eyes a lot and be very shy, and so the character feels very organic.

It feels like the character came from someplace before you see him on the screen, and when he’s done he’s going to go someplace else. There’s a life for this character that happens exclusive of the 22 minutes you see him on screen. There are other ones that take me awhile to get a hold of but the best ones I’ve done, the ones that I’m proudest of and people seem to like the most are the characters that I can just be for hours at a time... which may be disconcerting to my wife just a bit!

Dr.T: You’ve given voice to nearly 200 animated characters. Have you ever been handed one that’s really stymied you in terms of coming up with a voice?


Paulsen felt that fellow actor Frank Welker did a better job with the character Furball from Tiny Toon Adventures.

RP: Hmm. The short answer is no, because if that had been the case, then I wouldn’t have kept on doing it. I’ve been replaced before, and usually it’s because I think the person who replaces me is better. As a matter of fact, I did a character called “Furball” on Tiny Toon Adventures, which was a cat who didn’t speak; he just made kitty noises. I was pretty good at it but they ultimately gave it to Frank Welker, and they should have — Frank was better at it.

I guess I have to say no, there really hasn’t been a character who stymied me, because before the character went too far down the road and I felt like I couldn’t get it I would have said, “You know, the best guy for this is Jeff Bennett.” And you’ll find that a lot in voice work, magnanimous gestures by voice actors. Frank, Jeff, Jess Harnell, people who will say, “You know, I can do this, but if you really want a good Al Gore, go to Jeff.” I sometimes get stymied because the producers change their ideas about what they want throughout the course of the character, so I sometimes get a little confused about that. The producers sometimes don’t know what they want — they’ll know it when I hear it — but I’m not a mind reader.

Dr.T: Well then, how important is the chemistry between you, the producers, and the directors? Do they ever give you suggestions or ask you to make changes?

RP: Oh, absolutely. The chemistry is important, and usually it’s there. I have to say that I get along pretty well with most of the folks with whom I work. There was a great period for me when I worked at Warner Bros and I went from Tiny Toons to Animaniacs to Pinky and the Brain to Histeria — it was just a great run. I was with Tom Ruegger, Andrea Romano and Steven Spielberg and Jean McCurdy — a great group of people.

It was as if all the cartoon stars aligned at the same time. Peter Hastings was there, John McCann, Paul Rugg, Audu Paden and Richard Stone — God bless him —who scored all this incredible music. Randy Rogel, who wrote a lot of the music that we all got to sing, Julie and Steve Bernstein — and we were all together for this almost a 10-year run at Warner Bros. Everybody won Emmys and made money and got notoriety — and we worked on really good stuff.

I remember looking at Tress McNeill during one episode of Animaniacs and saying, “Boy, honey, take a look at this room, because this is as good as it gets!” It wasn’t only Tress and myself — there was Frank Welker and Jim Cummings and Jess Harnell and Maurice LaMarche and Jeff Bennett. It was incredible! We need to be cognizant how fortunate we are now, because it’s not always going to be like this. So, the answer to your question about how important chemistry is: Very important.
PostTue Nov 18, 2003 1:31 am
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Andromaton

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Paulsen found a way to make Carl Wheezer’s slow and lazy speech organic to the character in The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron, Boy Genius. Credit: Nickelodeon.

Dr.T: You’ve done a number of workshops for aspiring voice artists. What are the most common pitfalls for a beginner?

RP: I think underestimating the competition. What happens is that people grow up thinking, “I can do this! My uncle’s told me I do a great Yogi Bear.” But it’s about acting, not just about doing funny voices. You have to be able to think like the character, make choices like the character. The best actors make the best voice actors, and that’s no surprise. My job is to give them information on breaking into the business. But there’s a giant caveat that says, “All of this doesn’t mean a hill of beans if you don’t have a couple of breaks along the way.” I was 19 when I first came to L.A., but 22 when I moved here forever, and at 22 things are a little different than at 42. You have the time to make mistakes and the time to get over your fear of competition. You can walk in to audition for something and there’s Mel Blanc and Daws Butler, Don Messick and Frank Welker and June Foray — all those people that make you think, “I haven’t got a prayer.” You have time to get over that. When you’re 45, you don’t.

I would never say “Don’t try it” to people, but in my seminars I’ll play demo CDs of actors with whom I work; they don’t get as much work as I do but are every bit as talented. They have agents, they’re members of the Screen Actors Guild and they can’t get a job. The point I’m trying to make to these folks is, you need to know that there are people that they’ve never heard of who are really good and are going to get the call before you do. They’ve already got representation and have been here for five or 10 years.

People aren’t aware of how much competition there is; there are things I never even get a shot at and I’ve won an Emmy. I’ve done a couple 1,000 half-hours of work on a couple of 100 series and I still have to audition and still don’t get everything I read for. That’s the two big things: Knowing there’s a lot of competition and realizing that it’s not all just a matter of doing funny voices. It’s also acting, the ability to sing and improvise in your characters.

Dr.T: Speaking of acting, early in your career you had a couple of live-acting parts. Weren’t you in a film called Eyes of Fire?

RP: Yes, I was. Gosh, that was in 1983, I think. I had this horrible beard that bugs used to get into. We were on location in the Ozark Mountains — lovely people but a really horrible place in late July. The film was a period horror piece; I played a guy named Jewell Buchanan, and it turned out to be not a very good film. I had a blast but I don’t think I did a very good job in it. I did a pretty bad Irish accent, as I recall, but I blame that on the fact that I had a beard in my mouth most of the time!


Paulsen voiced Dr. Scratchandsniff (left) and Yakko Warner in Animaniacs, which led to a jacket delivery and lunch with Steven Spielberg.

Dr.T: Would you still consider doing live acting?

RP: I’d love to! If there are producers out there interested in having an average-looking white guy to do silly voices — or even my regular voice — that’d be great. Unfortunately for my live-camera career, whenever I would get the call to audition for an episodic TV show I was too busy working with my voice. Mr. Spielberg was nice enough to give me a job as a talking lab mouse and I’m not going to tell him I’m not coming in because I have a chance to be second banana on a goofy TV series. I don’t make gobs of money like some of the top TV guys do, but I have longevity and steady work.

Dr.T: Let’s say you could have broken into voice acting in 1933 instead of 1983. What classic cartoon characters do you wish you could do the voices for?

RP: You know, I would have loved to have tried Dudley Do-Right. I hesitate to suggest anything Mel Blanc did because he’s the gold standard. All the stuff that Mel did, that was just astonishing. There are a couple of obscure characters — Tom Slick; I thought he was pretty cool. I really love Michigan J. Frog because I love the cartoon and I would have loved to have sung that character.

I don’t know the actor that did that but his voice was incredible (Harry William Roberts — Dr.T.). Carl Wheezer, that I do on Jimmy Neutron, is sort of like Elmer Fudd so it might have been fun to try something like that. And Bugs Bunny. I suppose Bugs would have been easy because he’s quick, sort of a smart ass and I did a couple of those, like Raphael and Stanley Ipcriss in the animated version of The Mask. Some of that stuff was really quick, so I think I could have given Bugs a shot. Yeah, Tom Slick, Bugs, Michigan J. Frog and Dudley Do-Right.
PostTue Nov 18, 2003 1:33 am
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Andromaton

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Dr.T: Really liked those old Jay Ward ‘toons, eh?

RP: I liked Jay Ward’s stuff a lot. I’ve had the opportunity to work with Stan Freberg on a couple of things, and of course June Foray. I never had the pleasure of meeting Bill Scott, Jay Ward or Hans Conreid but I do know Corey Burton, who got the opportunity to work with all those guys. He does the best Hans Conreid; it’s like he’s channeling Hans Conreid.


The character of Mr. Smartypants on Histeria was part of a great Warner Bros. period for Paulsen when he also voiced Tiny Toons, Animaniacs and Pinky and the Brain.

Dr.T: Working with Maurice LaMarche on the Pinky and the Brain cartoons had to be a career highlight. What do you consider to be some other highlights during your career?

RP: Well, Pinky and the Brain certainly has to be up there. I won some awards — an Emmy for Pinky in 1999 — and that was a huge thrill. Working for and with Steven Spielberg. Being able to create characters that had some life, and I think some legs to them. Getting to work with people like Maurice and other folks that I really do like and respect. Raphael was certainly a highlight because that was the first big, big show that I worked on. It was an iconic show; everyone in the world knew Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, so that was pretty cool. And, of course, all the stuff that happened as a result of those things, such as getting to play in charity hockey games with my heroes like Gordie Howe, Bobby Orr, Stan Mikita — all of the people I’ve gotten to meet through doing cartoon voices.

I remember years ago we had jackets made up for Animaniacs. Jess Harnell put together these really beautiful leather jackets that were airbrushed on the back, and there were only six of them made. One for Tress, Jess, and myself, one for Andrea Romano, one for Tom Ruegger and one for Mr. Spielberg. When we saw Tom Ruegger we told him “When you speak to Mr. Spielberg please tell him we have this jacket for him. Maybe you can take it to him as a gift and tell him thank you very much.” The next day I get a call from Mr. Spielberg’s secretary and she said, “I understand you have a jacket for Steven. Maybe you’d like to come over, have lunch at Amblin and give it to him.” So, two days later I find Tress, Jess and myself with Steven Spielberg having lunch at Amblin, just the four of us. He was the sweetest guy, never took a phone call, gave us all his attention. It was one of those days you call your Mom and Dad and say “Guess what? I just got done having lunch with — Steven Spielberg!” It was truly special.

A few months ago I did a pilot for Nickelodeon with Carl Reiner, Dick Van Dyke and Rose Marie. That’s another one where I called my folks. There are a number of highlights. If I walk out of here and die in the next five minutes, honestly, I’ve had a hell of a run. To be able to do what I do, make money, have a family and be friends with Gordie Howe? I’ve been so fortunate.

Dr.T: Other fine work you do involves charities, families and children. What are some of the projects you’re involved in at present?

RP: It’s more stuff that I do on my own. I’ve been involved in a project called “Famous Phone Friends” which we all do, Nancy Cartwright, myself and Dan Castellaneta. It puts athletes, celebrities and actors in touch with children in the hospitals, who would like to talk to them. I can be helpful because these children, through diabolical circumstances, find themselves spending their days watching what I do. My feeling is, you can’t not do something about it. More than the children, who are very brave, there are the parents who are absolutely devastated. I really love to do it, and I get as much out of it as the kids — because I go home and I’m a much better parent. Having your kid spill ice cream on the couch is nothing compared with your child being ill. I do some stuff with the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation; I’m always calling kids or doing something. I get a lot of requests for autographs and things to raise money for charities, and I’m always glad to do it.

Dr.T: Okay — a producer gives the greenlight to an animated series about the Detroit Red Wings. Whose voice do you want to audition for?

RP: Oh boy, Gordie Howe, right off the bat! What a guy, a real sportsman, even gracious when losing. I don’t know if I could do as good a Gordie Howe as some other actor friends of mine but I would definitely audition for the role. If I could be Gordie Howe — hey, that’s all I’d need to be!

Dr.T: So tell me, Rob... how would Pinky end this interview?

RP: (as Pinky): “Oh, Martin, thank you so much for flying across the country to talk to a silly old person like me! And — “ Oh, wait, you should ask me, “Pinky, are you pondering what I’m pondering?” Go ahead!

Dr.T: (a poor imitation of the Brain): “Pinky... are you pondering what I’m pondering?”

RP: (as Pinky): “Well, I think so, Martin, but if Jimmy cracks corn and nobody cares, why does he keep doing it? NARF!”
PostTue Nov 18, 2003 1:36 am
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Zechs

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He did Max on Mighty Max. That guy kicks ass.
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PostTue Nov 18, 2003 2:58 pm
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Andromaton

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He's definitly one fo the top talents in the industry. That guy has more vocal talent in his left index finger than most people have at any talent. He's crazy good.

As for having to audition still, I think voice acting is one fo the few industries where that is required seeing as you do have talking sunglasses and such... you never know when somebody can do it better than a "big" name.
PostTue Nov 18, 2003 6:15 pm
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