Very Voice Actors – Grey DeLisle

Grey seems to attract many meaner, more evil, sassier types of characters. But what’s interesting about Grey is that in real life she couldn’t be more opposite. Full of smiles and laughter, she does her best to make sure people have a fun time around her. She constantly acknowledges that she has a strong desire to win people over.

So where does this darker side that manifests itself so often in Grey’s work come from?

Well, while she’s certainly a charming and pleasant person to be around, she channels much of her humor and conversation through a filter of hilarious sarcasm, sharp truths, and strong self-deprecation. Through interviews, behind-the-scenes looks, and her heavy social media presence, one could easily see where she draws this biting personality and blows it up to fit the characters she plays.

Whether voicing the abusive baby-sitter Vicky in The Fairly Oddparents, the devilish Mandy from The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy, the feisty Kimiko of Xiaolin Showdown, goth girl Sam from Danny Phantom, or the chillingly evil Azula from Avatar the Last Airbender, Grey seems to find common ground with these darker characters by amplifying her own pleasantly twisted senses of humor and life views.

A good amount of her personality could be attributed to her grandmother (89), whom she was largely raised by. Grey apparently takes her grandmother with her on various recording sessions and has seen her repeatedly, (and unintentionally), insult various actors and celebrities. Once when she ran into John Ritter after he’d gained some weight and grown a beard, Grey’s grandmother told him he was barely recognizable and “looked like he was running from the law…but he at least still had a cute face”.

Each of Grey’s characters listed previously, however, are certainly vastly different from one another, even if they do fall under the “darker” description. But like most great voice artists, Grey offers a wide variety of talents as she brings to the table cartoon icons like the kind hearted Frankie from Foster’s Home For Imaginary Friends, the polite Daphne from many iterations of Scooby Doo, energetic characters like Flicker the Flashlight in Handy Manny and Wubbzy from Wow! Wow! Wubbzy, the sweet protagonist girl Emily in Clifford the Big Red Dog, and the regal Padme Amidala from the ’03 Clone Wars series.

These chipper and polite characters actually showcase Grey’s other prominent side of her personality. They branch from her demeanor in which she executes her sense of humor. While telling a dirty joke or whipping out a dry biting statement, she’ll do it with a smile and a laugh to follow.

I bring these two different, (more like opposite), sides of Grey up for a reason. A great lesson can be taken out of this for all voice actors. That lesson is this:

Characters branch from a part of who you are.

It may be a small part or a hugely encompassing side to your identity, but your characters are grounded in some element of your being.

In this way acting is less like trying on different masks and more like taking those masks off to show the world parts of your true self in the manifestation of a character. That is why it is so important for an actor to be active. Watching movies, adapting hobbies, going through the ups and downs life offers…these are all ways to give us more to draw from. The more involved we are in life, the more we have to amplify or reveal in our characters just as Grey has done with her wide expanse of credits.

But widening our identity is only part of the process. We need to develop the ability to draw that applicable part of us out and throw it into a character. That’s where training comes in.

Grey worked her whole life to have this ability. She started acting as a baby in stage productions. Throughout school she became known for her impersonations and eventually garnered the nickname “Dorothy” for her spot on Wizard of Oz impressions. She attended a fine arts high school and went on to obtain a theatre degree in college. She had started stand up in her early teens and incorporated her voices into her routines.

These years of training prepared her to express/exaggerate the elements that made her who she is.

I believe we all have a million characters hidden inside of us. We just need the training (and talent, don’t get me wrong) to be able to bring those characters out.

So which side does Grey sway towards more heavily? It’s probably her friendly bubbly attitude because she states that Azula was the most difficult and challenging character she’s ever played. But you couldn’t tell by her flawless performance that it was in the least bit challenging. Why? The training. The practice. She had Azula in her. The lifelong hard work helped bring her out.

What crazy unique characters are inside you? And how hard are you willing to work to bring them out?

Very Voice Actors – Pat Fraley

Cowabunga dudes!

If you grew up a rad eighties child or a gnarly nineties kid than it’s very likely you were raised with the voice of Pat Fraley.

He wasn’t one of the turtles, however, he was actually the guy helping the turtles and the creature opposing them. That’s right, Pat played the sports sporting vigilante Casey Jones as well as the slimy screaming sack of Dimension X brains known as Krang!

Having started his career doing Shakespeare in Australia, he was pulled into the the voice over world when an audition call came into his theatre asking for someone who does a James Cagney impersonation. He got the part and, after going into record the spot, realized he not only enjoyed it but also made more from that one gig than he made from a week at his theatre.

Soon after, Pat came back to the States and moved to Los Angeles where he got his first cartoon credits as additional voices in Hannah-Barbera’s Scooby-Doo Goes Hollywood. He continued on doing Scooby-Doo villains in the late 70’s but, according to Pat, everything took off in the 80’s when more new original cartoon series began airing in the afternoons and not simply on Saturday mornings. Suddenly work was flooding in like crazy for Fraley and others lucky enough to be in animation at that time as there were, in his words, “only about twenty of us that could do multiple characters in a 22 1/2 minute show.” His first credit as a recognizable character was Major Glenn Talbot on the early 1980’s The Incredible Hulk cartoon series.

Pat called that time a “golden era of animation” as far as the work went. His co-voice-actors and him would take on all the additional voices as well as primary characters. Pat jokes there would be conversations that would go:

– Producer: “Alright who’s light on their contract?”

– Pat: *Raises his hand*

– Producer: “Ok great, you’re the Asian professor.”

– Pat: “I can’t do Asian!”

– Producer: “You do now!”

Finally in the late eighties, Pat landed on a gold mine when he auditioned for and booked the roles of several reoccurring characters on the soon to be smash hit show Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. He went in to audition for the show and remembered thinking to himself “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles…oh this’ll never go anywhere, what a stupid title.”

With only minutes to prepare a voice and after reading the brief description: *KRANG: An evil bodiless blurb of a man. A chortling villainous character but funny; Pat began breaking down his thoughts on the character. Check out the video, it’s a hilarious story.

He eventually went on to book, not only Krang and Casey Jones, but also Baxter Stockman and the crazy teenage turtle Slash.

With the Ninja Turtles, Pat says he finally came to the point in his career when his kids were interested in “daddy’s work”. Often in his kid’s school functions during auctions and sales, they would actually auction him off to use his voice for whatever purpose the bidder had in mind.

Pat is a veteran of animation voice over and one of the first in the group that essentially founded the business. He was, however, a bit younger than the rest, and such legends as June Foray, Daws Butler, and Mel Blanc would affectionally call him “The Kid”.

He attributes his success to both his mentors, such as Ed Asner and Chuck Blore, and to God and Jesus.

Currently, Pat is continually hard at work in the voice over business having done recent work on The Legend of Korra and the feature film Box Trolls. He’s been on a countless amount of radio shows, podcasts, blogs, and TV programs giving his stories and lessons. He offers coaching as well: http://www.patfraley.com/Learn/Learn.html

Pat got a reputation for his ability to quickly create characters. This, among other qualities, proves Mr. Fraley to be a model in creativity and risk-taking.

NEXT WEEK’S FEATURED VOICE ACTOR: He’s strongs to the finish when he eats his spinach, it’s Jack Mercer the VO man!

Very Voice Actors – Rob Paulsen

Rob Paulsen. What can I say? He’s toony and a whole lotta looney.

A role model is what he is.

Sure he’s big in the voice acting business. I mean BIG. He’s the voice of so many-a starry eyed kid’s childhood. You can hear him singing about llamas, going crazy over pizza, naming every country in the world, and Narfing up a storm on your screen. Some of his lesser credited roles are some of my favorites! Jack Phenton never ceases to send me into fits of laughter. Mark Chang is a thoroughly entertaining character. And Batroc the Leaper from The Ultimate Spiderman is an absolutely hysterical bit.

But these things aren’t what put him at the tippy top of my role model list. (Well, they do, but something else seriously solidifies his place there.)

He is a model citizen in socialization.

I mean it, you listen to him on his growingly popular Rob Paulsen’s Talkin’ Toons, hear him talk to his fans at conventions, or watch him in any interview and you’ll see that he’s what every entertainer should strive for. He’s stupidly polite and makes the person he’s talking to feel like a million bucks. He has a joke up his sleeve and a voice ready to pop out at any minute. He does his best not to bad mouth a soul and endlessly sings the praise of the people he’s so honored to work with.

I’m fascinated by the way he can essentially get along with anyone. You throw him in a crowded party without a soul he’s familiar with and you can bet he’d have a list of friends by the time the night’s over.

Don’t get me wrong, his acting chops are among the best. I mean, come on, I feel like I don’t even have to say anything to applaud his award winning performances. But it’s the way he gets along with everyone so well that draws me to him constantly.

He’s got it all. The right mind set for the business, the acting skills, AND the inability to be disliked.

We could all do well to take a page out of Paulsen’s book. Whether it’s self-deprecation, just as Rob mocks his own film career with credits such as “Body Double” and jokes of his age saying “I was the entertainment at the last supper”; whether it’s in humility, just as Rob praises the musicians and directors of Animaniacs and Tiny Toons saying they are the true rock stars; or whether it’s in charitable acts, just as Rob donates the proceeds of his ordered autographed photos to The Wounded Warrior Project and Operation Smile, Rob Paulsen is an icon to follow.

No, I’m not Rob’s secret promoter. And no, he didn’t slip me a twenty. 😉 I simply want to spread good advice: Be like Rob Paulsen.

NEXT WEEK’S FEATURED VOICE ACTOR: Is it Ricky Gervais? Is it President Bush? Is it Robert De Niro? NO! It’s…All of them! JIM MESKIMEN