Our first interview of 2001 happens to be a big one: Frank Welker, the voice of Megatron, Soundwave, Wheelie, and many other characters from the Transformers cartoon series. His list of credits is exceedingly huge: Mr. Welker has voiced literally hundreds of cartoons and done vocal effects for movies such as Gremlins, Species, and video games such as Baldur's Gate. His work has thrust him into the status of a legend, especially among Transformers fans. We had the rare honor of interviewing the "voice god," so here it is:
Could you tell us a little about yourself and how you got into voice acting?
I抦 originally from Colorado, was educated in California and started in the business while attending college. My first professional job was as an actor in a "Bold" detergent commercial. I continued on doing commercials and then created a stand-up act, which led to my first voice-over job. A creative director from Irwin Wacey Advertising saw me performing dogs & cats on stage and cast me as the voice of the "tail" on one of the dogs in a Friskee抯 commercial. Thus began a perilous, peculiar journey known as 搈y voice-over career.? Oh, and did I mention hilarious...?
Who are some of your major influences in voice acting?
Some of the people (and there have been many!) who have influenced me are from all over the entertainment industry. In the voice area, first and foremost: Mel Blanc, for his originality, strength in his voice and the fact that he really was the beginning. Let抯 just say for me, he was "The Beatles." And if Mel Blanc was "The Beatles", Daws Butler and Don Messick were "The Rolling Stones!" While I didn抰 have as many opportunities to work with Daws as I would have liked, I had the privilege of working with Don for many years and he would always amaze me with his simplistic, professional clarity when it came to creating [voice] magic. Daws and Don did for Hanna-Barbera what Mel did for Warner Brothers! Since even the Internet has a limited amount of bytes, I抦 only going to give you a partial list of some people I admire greatly:
Paul Winchell
Jonathan Winters
John Stevenson
June Foray
Bill Dana
Peter Ustinov
Stan Freeberg
....And of course, I learn and feed off my fellow performers like, Jim Cummings, Peter Cullen, Rob Paulsen, Jeff Bennett, Tress MacNeille, Kevin Michael Richardson, Billy West, Tom Kenny and many, many more friends and fellow voice actors!
Of all the roles you have ever played, what was the most memorable to you and why? How about least favorite?
For reasons of voice, I would have to say two characters that really were based in the same range: the Shmoo and Slimer (from The Real Ghostbusters). I enjoyed doing the character[s] because the voice placement and the ease of articulation, while still giving the effect of an unusual voice, allowed me to ad-lib ad nauseum! Doing [these] character[s] was so much fun until producers or the studio would begin to reign you in. My least favorite is also one of my favorite performances: I did all of the vocal fx for the creature 慡il?in the movie "Species." Artistically, I was very proud, but physically, it tore my throat up! I think I could probably do one of those a year!
Was voice acting always your ambition or were there originally other plans?
I always liked entertaining and I knew I wanted to do something in this field, but when I started, I didn抰 even know what voice acting was! I think most of us that do this usually are performing in some other area of the business: on-camera, radio, singing, comedy... and the voice business is this little, shining area that we bump into and some of us are lucky enough to remain there and it redefines our careers. Kind of look at it like medicine: it抯 a big field with lots of branches: you have your anesthesiologists, surgeons, pediatricians, neurologists and in the case of network executives-proctologists! But seriously, no matter what branch you抮e in, it抯 wonderful being in medicine!
We have learned from previous interviews that some recording sessions are done with the whole group and sometimes you record as an individual. What are the pros and cons to these to different methods (in your opinion? Which do you prefer and why?
There are both advantages and disadvantages for me. When I抦 working in an ensemble cast and have characters with dialog, it抯 more fun to work with the whole cast. It抯 pretty well accepted that the performances will rise a level if you抮e working with a solid, professional cast. But any professional worth his salt can give you a superb performance recording solo. If I抦 doing monsters or painful characters, I prefer to record alone and concentrate on what the director needs without the delay of a normal session. But truly, either way works. One thing you didn抰 mention in your question: the method of looping to picture-which happens to be one of my favorites. The reason I enjoy looping is because it抯 a real challenge to see how fast I can match the picture and I don抰 have to try and interpret what the director wants because it抯 already on-screen.
What is your most memorable moment in the studio?
The time I was at Hanna-Barbera, sitting on a high stool with a 50-page script in front of me. The stools were of the "malt shop" variety-meaning you could hook your feet in the ring towards the bottom. One day during a recording session, the studio full of actors and guests, I was gesticulating wildly-rocking my stool to and fro. Finally on one moment of great punctuation, over I went! Fifty pages flying: music stand hitting music stand hitting music stand...! Gordon Hunt, our director, stared in disbelief! Engineers and fellow actors rushed in to see what cataclysmic tongue position had caused my sudden journey to the studio floor. For weeks people kept asking me if I was okay...
While I haven't proven this theory yet, I can't help but sense that the voice acting industry of today is far different from the one you started in, in that the realm of TV for today's new actors has already been predefined and the industry is in full swing. I look at the time you would have entered the acting industry as wonder how primitive the world of acting was then. What was it like, being an actor so many years ago? What was it like, being a newcomer to a relativly new industry for its time, and what was it like not only growing with that industry, but also being one of its most prominent characters?
You are correct. The industry has changed a great deal, as all things do. You are right about the "pre-defined" attitudes. It affects me in ways that are less artistically satisfying because I am no longer called on as much as I was in the past to be a creative force in the building of characters. In the past, we would be presented with a series of different character drawings, then allowed to pick the ones we felt most interested in and the fun and creative part of that was wonderful. Whether we got the job or not didn't matter: we had so much fun performing in the auditions. Now-and I understand why-you are called in for doing something you have been recognized for doing a gazillion times before and the creative, child-like playing dissolves into a kind of voice type-casting. Because of budgets, time constraints and fear, it抯 a different world. Who抯 to say it抯 better or worse? But it is definitely different...
I look at your list of credits and realize that you voiced most of the characters I grew up with. How does it feel knowing that your voice has shaped and will always be remembered by my generation?
I wish I would have "acted" better.. Seriously, it抯 always a wonderful surprise and a nice wakening into reality when you realize that people are actually watching and listening to what you抳e done. But since it is a collaborative effort, I will say "Thank you" if you enjoyed it, and "It was their fault..." if you didn抰.
If the opportunity were to arise, would you once again assume the role as Megatron?
Yes.
As a kid, I could never own the Megatron toy because it resembled a real gun. While I feel this would have been more of an issue with the toy company, did you ever get unpleasant letters from concerned parents? Have you ever gotten concerned letters on any other shows you have ever voiced?
Believe it or not, I never got any letters from anyone on Transformers-at least, that I saw. I don抰 know if Sunbow or Marvel kept the mail or if the show just didn抰 get the lead flowing, but since I played seven characters-both good and bad-you抎 think I would have gotten at least a "hello" from Jerry Falwell... The best letter I ever got (and I have had lots of mail) was from a little girl back east who invited me (AKA "Hefty Smurf") along with Papa Smurf and Smurfette, to have tea with her in the forest. It was the most charming, innocent, sweet letter I ever received. But no-no letters for Megatron!
Every now and then, I go back and watch an old episode of Transformers, GI Joe, Dino Riders, and compared with some of today's shows... I'm blown away. A lot of today's cartoons are well designed, they have awesome stories and very intricate plots. I look back at some old Transformer episodes and feel like I could have written them. Have you ever been reading a script in a recording session and thought to yourself "This is the most absurd thing I have ever said in my life"? How does it affect your acting when you are reading from a script you think is horrible?
Better scripts get better acting. The most difficult thing for me as an actor is when the dialog is wooden-doesn抰 flow-but the director and writers insist on "every word as written." Usually we are encouraged to make the dialog flow. Since I enjoy ad-libbing, that is easy and will always make the performance more natural. Since animation is pretty far-out, a lot of the scripts won抰 make a lot of sense when you just read them, but there抯 nothing better than a good story and good dialog to help an actor make a good performance. Most of our writers are so creative I wouldn抰 begin to tell them plot... but I do always have a few suggestions with dialog and fortunately the suggestions are mostly welcome!
For years the animation has been handdrawn. With the sudden advent of CGI animation, a lot of cartoons are going for the sleek, almost lifelike cgi animation cartoons. What was your initial reaction the first time you saw the new generation of animation? Do you prefer it to handdrawn?
I don抰 mind the CCI or animatics or other innovative or cost-saving processes. I still personally like full-on, full-color hand (and computer when necessary) drawings: shows like "Scooby Doo" and "Smurfs" still are very pleasing to the eye. The Nickelodeon-style stuff now is very original and wonderfully wacky, but I抦 still partial to the old style.
What are you currently working on?
I am mostly doing peripheral characters for Disney, Warner, Nickelodeon and the Cartoon Network. The shows are: "House of Mouse," "Lloyd in Space," "SpongeBob SquarePants," "Dexter抯 Laboratory," etc., as well as continuing characters on "Futurama," "The Simpsons" and a recently completed (4th) direct-to-video good ole?"Scooby Doo."
Is there anything you would like to say to the Transformer fan community?
To my Transformer friends: the show was a blast to do because I played seven characters and it was a bit like being the entire world; which meant you were good, you were evil and you knew you抎 be around for all the episodes. It was a pleasure working with all the actors who played the various characters-and my archenemy, good-guy "Optimus Prime" (AKA Peter Cullen) was a pure delight, in the studio and the real world. The time during the production of these shows was great: creative, fun and artistically satisfying. The fact that there are those of you out there that enjoyed our work and still remember the original group is gratifying and makes the growling, crunching and yelling all worth while!
