Look who’s talking
Veteran voice actors are getting vocal overboldface stars taking top cartoon roles
THESE days, half the fun of watching an animated movie is figuring out which recognizable face is voicing which character. Next week, Catherine Keener, Bob Odenkirk, Sophia Bush and Isabella Rossellini join Craig T. Nelson, Holly Hunter and the rest of the returning cast in “Incredibles 2.”
It’s good times for celebs in animated films, TV, video games and commercials, with almost every cartoon movie featuring four or five recognizable names and each luxury car brand having its own celeb spokesvoice. This is a fact not lost on an increasingly irked community: the non-famous voice artists, who are being nudged out of their livelihood by boldface actors eager to pick up easy money hanging out in a recording booth.
“It’s star f-- kery,” rants one Los Angelesbased voice actor who asked to remain anonymous to avoid imperiling future gigs. “I cannot do voice-over full time right now, it’s not enough to pay the bills,” he says. “It’s not enough to raise a family on.” And, as he points out, “none of those guys need the work!”
It wasn’t always this way. Until the 1990s, animated characters were generally performed by voice actors known in the industry, but not to the public. Veteran voice actor Bill Timoney, who can be heard in everything from anime to Brian De Palma’s “Mission to Mars” (he’s the voice of the robot), says it’s a shame people don’t know Debi Derryberry, “the crème de la crème” of voice actors whose résumé includes voicing Nickelodeon’s Jimmy Neutron. “Or Veronica Taylor, who for years was the voice of Ash in ‘Pokémon.’ Those are really fantastic actors.”
Everything changed in 1992, says former voice actor Dominic Armato. “Not long after I moved to LA was when ‘Aladdin’
ropped, with Robin Williams. That was he moment everyone went, ‘Oh, we can ast celebrities in these roles and get huge mounts of attention!’” Williams gave a brilliant performance, all the voice actors with whom The ost spoke noted enthusiastically. But it icked off an alarming trend. “I’ve always called it the ‘Shrek’ factor,” says the nonymous actor. “That was the first anmated movie I can think of where the erformers’ names were above the title, green puffy letters: Mike Myers! Camron Diaz! Eddie Murphy!” Soon, every studio was doing it. “All the arge roles went to celebrities, some of whom were good, many of whom were ot,” says Armato, 41, who played the hero the “Monkey Island” video game series efore moving to Scottsdale, Ariz. “Then here would be a handful of astoundingly alented voice actors who would fill in all hose two- and three-line roles.” But Timoney, 60, is sanguine about the ea change: “Certainly there is resentment om the rank and file, who have a level of raft that is unparalleled,” he says. “But my oint of view is, I live in a democracy.”
For the non-famous, the best route these days is often to be a sound-alike. “You always hear references to actors that, if [companies] had the budget, they’d love to get, but they’re going for that sound,” says Dave Braxton, a 44-year-old, Las Vegasbased voice actor you can hear on promotional spots for “Showtime at the Apollo” and “Beat Shazam.” The name he gets asked to mimic the most is John Krasinski, whose Esurance ads have entranced ad execs. “He sounds so casual and laidback,” says Braxton.
“I’ll be honest with you, I get why they use [Krasinski],” says Deb Doetzer, a 52-year-old Chicago voice actor who narrates the video game “Injustice: Gods Among Us.” “He invented a read that’s very hip. But a lot of them, you’re like, really? I love Jon Hamm. I wouldn’t mind having a date with him. But I don’t really think he’s a great voice actor.” (Hamm is the voice of Mercedes-Benz.)
Still, not every voice actor thinks celeb voices spell doom for their industry. “A star can help a film get made,” Braxton points out. “So there are more smaller parts” for non-famous voice actors.
“My ego would love to play Buzz Lightyear,” says Bob Bergen, who’s the current voice of Looney Tunes’ Porky Pig and Tweety bird. “But as a guy who has mortgage payments and gets delicious residuals on these movies, I’m very happy to spend two or three days playing all the incidental characters.”
But a regular Joe may not even be able to get that gig, he admits. “It’s extremely difficult to get into this little club,” Bergen says. “It took me 10 years.”
Armato didn’t get that far. “My numberone goal for years was to do an animated movie,” he says. He never did. “My agent told me half-seriously that the easier route would be to make my name in live action and circle back as a celebrity.”