Rob Paulsen – Voice Lessons

By starrymag | September 5, 2019

By: Kelly Kearney

 

 

Q) Many fans know you from voicing some of animation’s most beloved characters. What does it mean to you have been such an important part of so many lives from children all the way to adults?

Rob: Boy, you nailed it. It’s just kind of a question that answers itself. It’s just a huge privilege an you’re right. As a result of doing this great gig, for three and a half decades I now have this incredible opportunity to travel around the world and meet people and sometimes I’ve seen three generations of people who have grown up watching these characters. They have become way more important than any action figure or a paycheck to millions of people. The reason why I’m kind of astonished by that is because I think especially when I grew up cartoons were always a big part of the cultural landscape and continue to be for me, obviously. I guess because the nature of social media, conventions and pop culture events people who do this gig you know we don’t get recognized on the street. So, now when people find out, they’re like, “Oh my God! That guy’s Pinky. That guy’s Raphael, That guy’s Donatello and he was on ‘The Tick.’” So, you know, it’s a proud gift to me; a huge compliment that is virtually unquantifiable, but moreover, I see the joy that these characters bring to people. I mean, I see “The Simpsons,” “Sponge Bob,” good gracious! Nothing but one hundred percent positivity. So, I honestly don’t know how to even put it into words other than I am just grateful to have the opportunity to see it and respond and interact with people all over the world. It’s mind blowing.

 

Q) Besides all the cartoon characters you’ve brought to life, fans might be surprised to hear you’ve also written a memoir titled Voice Lessons What made you decide now was the time to write your biography?

A) Well, I had been approached by peers and some fans years ago to do that because I’ve had the great fortune of working on things and I am so glad you put it the way you did, which is to bring them to life or help create because I don’t draw and I don’t write. I make it clear to everyone that this is a deeply collaborative effort. The characters are famous and I am part of that, but I am not all of that. It’s an important distinction. However, years ago, people said, “Wow. Not every actor gets to have a career that’s lasted this long and you’re continuing to work on things that continue to be pretty significant. What a great memoir!” Honest to God, the last thing the world needs is another celebrity bio, especially a celebrity who is not really a celebrity. The characters I’m playing might be, but when I went through my experience with throat cancer three years ago at this very time I was being treated that really was, like for most people, a life altering circumstance. In my case, I got to kind of reflect on all these characters that brought so much joy to people and, in many cases, to people for whom these characters brought joy, are no longer living. All of them (my friends and I) would call a young boy or girl as whatever character they wanted to speak to at that moment and the kids don’t make it, but their parents keep in touch with me. And I am telling you, it’s just utterly astonishing and crazy heartrending to read the mail that people send me years after their children die. They might see a headline, oh you know, “Hollywood Voice Actor Has Stage Three Throat Cancer,” because it’s social media and these people take the time to reach out and say, “Oh my God, Rob! Just know that we are thinking about you! You know little Chad passed away about twenty years ago and here’s the last few pictures of you when he was talking to you or when you came to visit my little girl.” And I’m telling you that not only contextualized my own relative struggle, but it really showed me the power of these characters. It turns out the title of the book is Voice Lessons and for that specific reason. I learned a lot about how to deal with humor and joy in my own dark circumstance precisely because I was able to deliver that on behalf of these characters, to hundreds of other people, many of whom are not living anymore. So, it was turned back on myself and I got to…I got to tell you, I really believed in my recovery and my ability to still do my work as a result of sort of this inherent joy that my work brings to others and now me. That was a, “Now you got something. Now that’s an interesting story,” kind of moment. It’s my own anecdotal evidence and it happens every, pardon me, God damn day. I am telling you; It is just utterly joyful. So, it makes for an interesting perspective on the power of joy. These characters are way, way, bigger than just something for kids to watch while they’re eating cereal in the morning.

 

Q) A man who won an Emmy, Annie and Peabody for his voice work suddenly gets struck down by throat cancer. What was going through your mind when you realized your career was in jeopardy?

Rob: It feels like the very thing that has been putting braces on your kid’s teeth and paying insurance bills and mortgages for thirty-five years has betrayed you. Honestly, I am not that deep and kind of chuckled and said, “Well…what’s that old adage? We make plans and God laughs?” It was just my turn to get thrown a curve. It is important to know I was sixty years old when I was diagnosed. So many of these children that I’ve had the good fortune of speaking with and keeping in touch with their parents never made it to seven, fifteen, twenty-five and never got married or never knew what it was like to go to the prom and all that stuff. I am profoundly fortunate. My son is thirty-four years old and healthy and experienced all of those things. I never once, or did my family, freak out. We just kind of said, “Well, why not me?” In life stuff happens. I was never a smoker, was always very athletic and it was just one of those things.  Once I got the diagnosis I was told, “Here’s the deal. We can cure you. It’s stage three and spread to your lymph nodes in your neck, but we got it early enough so we won’t have to cut on you.” That’s really what you don’t want. You don’t want to end up like poor Roger Ebert, where it’s a really messy way to go. It’s awful when they start removing part of your face. It’s just a mess. So, they told me they could cure me, but before they do, they’re going to have to almost kill me. The treatment is gnarly for obvious reasons. Your mouth, your tongue, your throat – you can’t eat and can’t swallow or speak. It’s tough, but it is a cure. So, once I got the diagnosis, it was time to just put my head down and go forward. That’s when I started to really reflect on the bravery which has been displayed by so many children and their families and none of them bartered for this.

 

Q) Fighting cancer is an exhausting and thankless war that many do not win. Just getting through one day to the next can feel like an eternity of struggles and thankfully, you’ve been lucky enough to come through the other side and in remission. How or where did you find the energy to write this book? And what do you hope the readers take away from your memoir?

Rob: Boy, your questions are spot on. Thank you! I have to say the energy. My co-writer Mike Fleeman, is a professional writer out here in L.A. and teaches out here and he writes full time. That was a fascinating experience because when I was recounting my life, the stuff that to me was relatively boring in the context of what a lot of people in L.A. do to make a living in the entertainment business, I was far enough removed from some of these pivotal moments in my life where I thought, “Jesus, that’s pretty fricken cool. I’ve done some cool stuff. I got to work with Stephen Spielberg! Yeah, that is pretty cool.” But, you know, I’m not reminded of that every day when I’m walking down the street. So, that whole experience was almost cathartic and very interesting. When, it was put together by a professional writer, all of it is my words. All of the stories are true, but you write…and I get it now. My son got his degree in journalism, but boy, having a story put together in a readable, constructive way that makes it interesting and maybe a little dramatic and a little humorous, with knowing how to structure it…And I know I am preaching to the choir here, but what an incredible thing you guys do! I would take it and be like, “Okay, I’m going to read chapters one through six,” and I found myself enjoying it! It was me and I thought, “Oh my God! This is a great story.” Not just when I read it off my emotional checklist, but when it was put in the hands and the mind of not just a word processor, but a pro, it was totally different. It is all honest and totally authentic but readable. It’s so interesting and the energy was probably taken over by my friend Mike because he did all the heavy lifting. I just had to tell him all this stuff. As for what I would like the reader to take away, I think joy, like love. At the risk of sounding too existential, but I really do believe this. I think we can cultivate and find joy in the most unexpected places, just like love. There’s a great song called “Love Comes in the Most Unexpected Places,” and if you live long enough you know that’s true. You just don’t know whether it’s a stranger on a plane or bumping into someone in an elevator. You just don’t know and I can tell you and I’m not just talking about something that makes someone chuckle. I’m talking about a profound life changing, something that was your life line as a child. Maybe something when you’re an adult the type of joy that comes from these collective characters. So, I think, if nothing else, I would like it to be interesting. The timing on this is really good, but the metaphor or the example is that don’t sell short your opportunities in life to either find or spread joy. It doesn’t cost money; it doesn’t cost more than the opportunity for a handshake or a hug.

 

Q) Let’s talk a little bit about your voice work. What is it about voice acting that you find fulfilling?

Rob: It’s totally different than onscreen acting. Totally. When I came to L.A., forty-one years ago, it was extensively to do that – screen acting.  I was a singer before I was an actor. I spent years on the road before I moved to L.A., as a young person doing live music and theater. I came to L.A. to apply my trade in the moving picture business and that’s what I was doing. I did a lot of episodic television and, of course, in those days (the days of “MacGyver,” “Hill Street Blues,” “Three’s Company” and stuff like that) there were lots of commercials and TV spots, as well as a lot of music. But one of the things you find out pretty quickly as a young actor in L.A. or New York is that there are a million average looking white kids from say Flint, Michigan who come to LA and New York. Many of them are profoundly talented and some are not, but it doesn’t matter. They all come out here and until you become a celebrity (and there are very few people who do) you are limited by the way you look and how you’re hired. When you’re just starting out, it’s like, “Okay, we’ve hired this girl to be your girlfriend and you’re good but you’re too tall.” Or, “Nah, you’re a terrific singer but you’re too short.” And that’s just the nature of the beast and so while I didn’t come out here to do this gig in particular, I just wanted to work. Remember, when I came out here the cartoons were primarily relegated to Saturday morning on three major networks. It wasn’t nearly the ubiquity we have now. I mean, now there’s proprietary stuff being made now on iPhones and then Hulu, Netflix, Amazon, Disney Channel, Cartoon Network, Boomerang and all the many ways in which we consume entertainment. That was not around. So, my timing was good and when the opportunity came up to read for animated projects I thought, “Well sure,” because I wanted to work. It didn’t take me about three gigs to go, “Holy crap! This is the gig, man! Nobody cares what I look like! I’m just limited by my talent, my creativity and the kindness of people who hire me.” Then they said, “So you can sing right? Can you sing in character?” I said, “Sure,” and then it was like I had an even narrower niche because I can sing for Warner Bros, Nickelodeon and Disney. I was animated and funny and do dialects and I could sing in character. Then, I started getting hired to sing for people who created these wonderful characters but couldn’t sing like their characters. It wasn’t long before I started getting hired to do shows in which I was the main character who got to sing and do a dialect and all these things I had a background in. My wife was the one who said, “I hope you don’t take this the wrong way, but you may not be cut out for the on-camera version of this because it looks like you’re starting to get a whole bunch of work. If you think your ego can handle not being recognized…” [laughs] And I thought, “I’ve got no problem with that!” I never did. I love to work. I’d be lying if I said I don’t love it when people make a fuss over me. I’m human and it’s fabulous, but I have to say I like it because it makes people happy. Nobody ever criticizes me other than saying they like this character better than another one. There is really no downside to it and so I embraced it. I didn’t get rid of the on-camera stuff. I just jumped with both feet into the cartoon pool. Of course, I got to be surrounded by all these other incredible and wonderful actors, many of whom I grew up watching on television. Like Jonathan Winters, Casey Kasem, Harvey Korman, Tim Conway – these guys all did work in cartoons and I had a blast working with people I enjoyed watching and listening to. My timing was good and one thing led to another and that’s how that came about and I am really glad it did. Now, at sixty-three, people still don’t care what I look like, you know? I can still do all the voices and I still go to people and conventions and open my mouth and they just smile or cry or start shaking and break out laughing. It is never not wonderful.

 

Q) Do you have any advice for people looking to get into this line of work? Maybe something you wish someone had told you when you first started out?

Rob: Well, what I didn’t know and what I learned…Going back a little bit, you’re actually right. Now I run into people who are twenty, twenty-five and thirty and they are compelled to be a voice actor. Period.  They are not interested in doing on camera work, specifically because of what I talked about and not being held back by your appearance. Video games are turning wonderful actors into rock stars! When you have a video game franchise that goes four, five, six games and people listen to that voice for one hundred hours, it really becomes part of the whole experience. So, people are being inspired by wonderful actors like Jennifer Hale and Troy Baker, who are becoming rock stars for being in giant video game franchises. So, what I tell people is I didn’t know this then, but I do know now and it wouldn’t have changed my approach because acting is acting. Voice acting is about acting. It’s about improv. It’s about utterly being not self-conscious about the way you look. You’re a 5’10 beautiful woman with long blonde hair or a 4’8 guy who weighs about a buck eighty-five, you are not limited one bit. You are still asked to create, to improvise and be fearless.  While we take the gig very seriously, we don’t take ourselves very seriously. That’s the magic of it. It’s not being worried about the way you look. Like when we went in for “Ninja Turtles,” I couldn’t imagine that pitch. Like, “Look, these four turtles have been flushed down the sewer and they encounter this blah, blah, blah…” Well, here we are thirty-five years later and six billion in merchandising later, dozens of reiterations that I have been lucky enough to do twice with a twenty-five-year gap that is arguably as popular as it was when we started the original show. Now we have two or three generations, all over the world. I mean, you can talk to people in Iceland and they might not know who Brad Pitt is, but every goddamn one knows Donatello and Raphael and the rest. So, you never know. The whole reason people get into show business and performing and acting or being the tree in a school play is because that is exactly what it is. It’s play! The same thing that compels me to do it at sixty-three or fifty-eight or nineteen is the same jolt I got dong it at eleven. That’s the trick, honestly; to not let that ability to be amazed and that ability to be inspired by those around you. Trust me, when you’re in L.A. or New York and you have people who do this gig and they are mind-blowingly talented and you can choose to be either terrified and compare yourself or you can be like, “Ok that terrifies me, but it also inspires me. Like how does that woman do that? I got to get to know this lady because I really want to work with her.” Or, “I want to work with this kid who is half my age but man, this kid is on fire!” So, put your ego aside and learn! Then, if you really choose to look at this gig like a marathon or you’re in a good position where…For example, I’m fortunate enough to talk to nice people like you, something that I would do for free, I realize that not everyone gets to do this and I do know I am very lucky. I started out not knowing anybody either and it really is about getting out of your own way and being willing to play and learn and swing for the fences.

 

Q) Partnering with Nerdist, you also do the very popular podcast titled Talkin’ Toons. As if you weren’t busy enough, where did the talk show podcast idea come from and who are some of your dream guest stars?

Rob: Thank you. Oh my God, I have had a couple of dreamy guest stars as you can imagine. Thanks for asking about the podcast. It, like everything else, you know you’re in the entertainment and creative business and it starts as a labor of love. I had a very slow point in my career about nine years ago and, even though it’s showbiz, there are ups and downs and it happens all the time. This one was a little more protracted than anything I had in a very long time and I really got freaked out. I started to panic because it was longer than I had experienced in a long time and death for any creative endeavor leads to panic. You know, it’s like writer’s block or whatever. If you go in to meet with a casting director and you’re not feeling your best or come off desperate they just have to say, “Sorry, you’re not the guy,” and I get that. Fortunately, I had a moment where I was taking stock and trying to figure stuff out and it wasn’t like I was missing mortgage payments. I just wasn’t use to the break and I looked at my phone and started thinking about podcasts since I had been a guest on one every now and then and I quite enjoyed it. It was a relatively new format and as I was looking at my phone I thought, “Clearly you don’t have to be an MIT grad to plug in a USB or do some talking,” and I am certainly not a super intellectual, but obviously I don’t have a problem speaking. I mean, you were kind enough to ask me some questions and I haven’t shut up for forty-five minutes! [laughs] So, I thought, “God, people have been asking me to come on their shows and people really get a kick out of it.” I was getting feedback from fans who said, “Wow! I never knew what that guy’s name was but I sure do love Pinky.” And I thought, “On my phone is Mark Hamill, Nancy Cartwright, Kevin Conroy (who was Batman for twenty years) the cast of ‘The Simpsons’ or Billy West from ‘Futurama.’ Whomever. I wonder if I started talking to these people about what we do…” Well, I was right! So, I started calling all my buddies up and I would go to their homes. Then, we moved to doing it live so we would go to comedy clubs like the Improv or here in L.A. and be like, “This week on Talkin’ Toons at the Improv, my guest is Mark Hamill.” What was so fascinating, Kelly, was that I remember so clearly that Mark (who I had known forever) was fixing to go do one of the recent Star Wars and I remember Mark saying, “I just want to make sure. We are going to do a Q&A, but I can’t really talk about Star Wars.” So, if the questions came up, I told him we would just be very respectful and decline to answer but do you know, that evening, two hours of Mark and I chatting and then we did an hour of Q&A, not one person asked about Star Wars. Everyone wanted to ask about The Joker because he was the Joker on “Batman” for twenty years! They all knew who he was, but it was about the animation side. We didn’t even have to preface it by saying, “Please no questions about Star Wars.” Then, Nerdist got involved. Chris Hardwick is a good friend of mine. I was on his podcast and he was on mine and then when Nerdist was bought by Legendary Entertainment he said, “Hey man, you’ve got a million people listening to your podcast on iTunes every week.” I did it for free! So, Nerdist came along and I did another ninety of them. Then what happened was studios would start calling, like Netflix and Hulu and Amazon, who are now creating proprietary animation for their own platforms. So, all the people in the PR groups and studios are calling me like, “Hey Rob, can we get the cast of ‘Voltron’ on?” All the kids cast in this reboot grew up watching things that I did and they all wanted to be on Talkin’ Toons! They wanted to be on my show simply because they knew who I was. It became this really great opportunity to take advantage of the zeitgeist and kinda go, “Holy crap, dude. You’re pretty famous!” I am utterly humbled by that and I promise you I probably go too far the other way, so people don’t think I think I am all that. I get 100% that it’s the characters that garner that kind of love and excitement, but man, I gotta tell ya, it is a glorious experience when I meet somebody and they say, “I love ‘Animaniacs,’” and I say, [Yakko voice] “Yeah, ya like that show do ya?” and they just smile. It’s a cool thing! It leaves people with a wonderful memory and a smile on their face. I also hope what people take away from the podcast and the book is that they take time to realize that there are some really good actors in Hollywood that you not necessarily recognize when they’re walking down the street. I hope it shines a light on this enormous group of gifted actors in Hollywood that might not have the same juice in terms of celebrity but in terms of talent? They are utterly unstoppable. And, honestly, thank you because really kind journalists and writers and radio personalities are being so very kind to me and my friends. Every one of us are down to earth and are thrilled that people like you take even a cursory of interest in what we do.

 

Q) So, now you are cancer free and working more than ever. CONGRATS! You’ve got the book coming out, the podcast, you’re heading out on a live tour of “Animaniacs in Concert” and you’re directing Nickelodeon’s “Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.” You are a busy guy!  What’s next for you?

Rob: Oh boy. When people ask me what my favorite character is I always say the next one because it means I’m working. [laughs] But, you know, if you are living as a creative person, your artistry never goes away. I still sometimes think, “Wow! I can’t believe I’m getting paid to do this!” You know, most people don’t make a living doing the things that I do. What’s going to happen when people finally figure out, I have no idea what I’m doing? [laughs] Somehow that desire keeps me on my toes, so I am always looking for opportunities to do something new. Things are coming up and will be announced soon. Some very exciting things are coming down the road. I’m not supposed to say anything officially just yet but what I’ve been told what I can say is that we can neither confirm nor deny that some very familiar friends could be back next year. So, keep your eyes out for that.

 

Q) You have millions of fans across generations who love and follow your work. What would you like to say to everyone who is a supporter of your work and where can they get a copy of your book Voice Lessons?

Rob: Yes, the one credo for which I live my life by and I continue to…I don’t know how old you are, but when I was a kid I always read Reader’s Digest because it was always in the doctor’s offices and at the end of every digest there was a joke section that said, “Laughter is the best medicine.” Of course, that wonderful axiom I have appropriated for my own use. Laughter is the best medicine and the cool thing is you can’t OD and the refills are free! That’s how I finish every podcast and that’s how I live my life. I just want to add that the book is available for pre-order on Amazon and I think every major online bookstore, too. I’m also doing the audio book as well. That’s actually pretty cool because the way it’s written my characters ask me about what’s going on with my cancer. So, that is really it, but I wanted to say this whole thing is about taking the opportunity to be joyful and whatever that means to you and the fans.

 

 

Grab A Copy of Voice Lessons