@@@AICN COMICS BEYOND!@@@
With the popularity of comic book properties spilling over into movies, TV, and other forms of entertainment, the @$$Holes of AICN COMICS thought it might be interesting to offer our own take on these things. So while some of the other reviews on AICN come from aficionados of film, the @$$Holes are reviewing from the perspective of the rabid comic book reader. With the number of comics being adapted into film ever rising, look for more AICN COMICS BEYOND! in the future.
Matt Adler chats with voice actor Steve Blum!
Matt Adler here. Steve Blum is the consummate voice actor. Known for his work from anime (Spike Spiegel in COWBOY BEPOP) to traditional animation (WOLVERINE & THE X-MEN, HULK VS. WOLVERINE, MARVEL SUPER HERO SQUAD) to videogames (Marvel Ultimate Alliance, Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions), his list of credits and range of roles is truly staggering. To that list he has added TRANSFORMERS PRIME, the latest Transformers animated series, which debuted in November on The Hub television network, a joint venture between Hasbro and Discovery Communications. Steve portrays the deadly Starscream, second-in-command of the Decepticons, but always scheming to move higher. I spoke to Steve about his career in voice acting, and what it’s like playing in the sandbox of a storied franchise like the Transformers.Matt Adler: How did you get your start in voice acting?
Steve Blum: It began…geez, I don’t even remember when it was, close to…20 years ago? IMDb says 30 years, but they got my birthday wrong too, so what the hell, let’s perpetuate the mystery. Anyway, some time ago, I was working as a driver and mailroom guy for a low-budget film company (and as a musician on the side). Everybody that I was working with happened to be actors, and the head of the mailroom at this company was casting up this “Japanimation” project. None of us really even knew what that was; none of us had any experience with anything like that. But he said that he would pay me 7 bucks a line and he would feed me if I would come out on a Saturday, if it worked out, if I could match lip-flaps on this Japanese animation stuff.
I thought that was a pretty cool deal. And I was a starving musician at the time, so I went, and I ended up screaming for a couple of hours and acting like a creature ripping the limbs off of another creature. They hired me for 25 more episodes, and I just kept working for that company for another couple of years, until other people started to notice. Then I put together a demo reel, and eventually just sort of built it as a sideline thing for fun. I did a lot of mailings and self-promotion, but I never thought I could make a career out of it until about 12 years ago, when I finally quit my job, got a great agent and started doing it full time.
MA: So now you’re working on “Transformers Prime”; how did you get involved with that?SB: Besides the usual begging, bribery, crying and car washing, it was a normal casting process like anything else; I do most of my auditions from home. I have a studio, and I send mp3s to my agent, my agent sends it out to the casting people, so that was the first round. The second round was callbacks; I went in and met the producers and directors of the project and booked it from there, and then just started working the gig. What was different was the attention to details by the folks at Hasbro and the Hub. Very hands on and approachable folks. They made sure things were done right.
MA: Did you know much about Transformers before coming on to the series?
SB: Well, I had worked a little bit on some Transformers projects prior to that; I worked on a show called “Robots In Disguise” back in 2000, which was an anime version of Transformers - and on some of the games. And of course I was aware of Transformers long before that just because it was such a huge, iconic phenomenon for so many years. But I wasn’t really a huge follower of Transformers early on, because when G1 came out, I was already in my 20s, and kind of concentrating on other things at that time. But I certainly had it in my peripheral vision, and it was just sort of shocking when “Prime” came about, because it is such an iconic piece of animation history to be associated with. I did, however (and still do) play with the action figures.
MA: So when you come to a new role like this, what do you do to find the voice of your character?
SB: It starts by looking at a model sheet, a picture of the character. A voice will usually be conjured up inside just by taking a look at that. I grew up reading comics; my grandfather owned a bookstore. So I was able to translate visual images into voices from a very early age; just never thought I could do it as a profession. So that’s where it starts for me, and then the directors, producers, and writers will give me some description of how this incarnation of the character is going to be animated and move and speak, and the general story arc that this character is going to take, and I just sort of build it from there. It usually starts with a gut instinct, and we build it off of that.
MA: What’s an average day like, working on this series?SB: They’re four hour sessions; we usually come in as a group-- the bigger, the better as far as I’m concerned, but we don’t always have everybody there at the same time. We get a script a couple of nights before (which is a big luxury in the animation world) so I usually have some sort of familiarity by the time I get there. Once we get the guest stars’ voiced locked in, we’re off and running. We’ve become very close as a cast, so it’s a pretty organic process in there. There’s a lot of playtime, and some of the biggest players are Peter Cullen and Frank Welker; those guys both have great senses of humor—they’re very, very funny together, like a well-oiled comedy duo. Some of my favorite moments in our sessions are spent sitting back and watching them and their shenanigans. Everybody in the cast is funny though, so we play a lot between takes, and I think that helps the morale of the show. And we’re all very much fans of the franchise too, so it’s a pretty happy room. We laugh a lot, but when it’s time to work, everyone steps up to the mic and does their job.
MA: You’re playing Starscream; what’s your take on him as a character?SB: He is…delusional. He’s dangerous. He is disrespected; he’s sort of the Rodney Dangerfield of the Cybertronian world. I like playing him a little bit darker than he’s been played in the past. My take on him is that he really is capable of wreaking some havoc, and I think that’s pretty evident from the very first episode. But he also has that girly screaming side when he gets in trouble, and the cowardly portion of Starscream can very readily come out when he gets in any kind of compromising situation. So he’s got a lot of colors, but I start with the dark and I work my way up.
MA: Have you drawn any inspiration from Chris Latta’s performances as Starscream?
SB: Well, I think I’ve always had his voice in the back of my head. I don’t intentionally do that; that’s not my process, to work from other actors’ performances - unless I’m specifically asked to. But I think his performance, of course, is always running around, screaming in my brain. I think I have a little bit of all the past actors in my head when I’m doing Starscream, including the great Charlie Adler who’s been doing the movies, and sick talented Tom Kenney who did, I believe, the last animated incarnation. Besides their obvious brilliance, they’re my friends, so I think just to honor their performances, I try to throw in a little bit of them, but that all sort of happens after the fact. I kind of start with my own take on it, and then I sprinkle that in as I go. It usually happens unconsciously anyway.
MA: What would you say is the most demanding role you’ve ever played?
SB: They all have their challenges. Technically, I would say Wolverine, only because there was so much screaming involved, and the battle scenes were so vicious that I still remember the pain I was enduring after those sessions. My whole body literally felt like I had been beaten to crap by the Hulk – and despite the rumors, my healing factor ain’t as efficient as Mr. Snikt, so technically, I would say he was the most difficult of all. Other than that, I would say the most typically challenging roles would be voice-matching others’ performances for specific characters, because I’m not really an impressionist. There are guys that do that very, very naturally; for me that’s a much more difficult task. So even to do something like Yakky Doodle for Harvey Birdman, I’d been playing with that voice since childhood, but to actually get it right for the show I had to study, and I’m not a big fan of that! I guess creating original characters has made me lazy through the years! So I had to go back to school…well YouTube, Wikipedia and Google school anyway. I think I’ve done more research in the last few years than I ever did when I was in college.
MA: Does your voice ever get worn out?SB: Oh yeah. Big time. I do a lot of very physical types of characters. Fred Tatasciore and I seem to do most of the screaming in L.A. Particularly on videogames when we’re doing 600 lines in 4 hours, and most of it is screaming, I’ll need a day or two to recuperate afterwards, and sometimes even more. Fred and I don’t hold back. We’ve both passed out screaming.
MA: Do you ever sit down and watch your projects with your family?
SB: Not really, no. I don’t think my parents have ever seen a full episode of anything I’ve ever done; it’s just beyond their scope of understanding. And they’re a little bit older now too, so I can’t blame them completely for it. My kids are mostly gamers; I think they’ve probably played more of my games than they’ve seen my shows. Lately they’ve started watching a few things I’m in, but often, it’s not their primary reason for tuning in. I don’t take it personally; enough people seem to be watching. And my girl, Trina just isn’t a fan of cartoons. She’s very active in animal rescue, saving lives, so I figure her time is better spent there anyway.
MA: Apart from your work, are you personally a fan of animation and videogames?
SB: I love animation; I’ve always been a fan of animation. And I love and appreciate the concept of games; I’m just not a gamer. I just don’t have that skill set, I never really took the time to develop the eye/hand coordination necessary to be a good gamer. I played back in the days when it was a couple of buttons and it was a pretty easy thing to do without a huge learning curve and time commitment. Nowadays, it seems like the level of work that it takes to get to the point of being a good gamer is just beyond me. Kinda missed that boat and simply don’t have the time to catch the next one.
MA: Have you done any live acting?
SB: I did a couple of films on camera just to get my union cards years ago, and I didn’t really enjoy it. I’m not a big fan of doing on-camera work. I don’t like sitting for 14 hours on a set and having to look a certain way, wearing makeup, hitting marks and memorizing lines. I’d rather just bark and spit and look ugly and create an unusual universe without anybody caring what I look like.
MA: What other projects do you have in the works at the moment?SB: I’ve got a lot of things happening, but I’m not allowed to talk about any of them right now! I have to sign these non-disclosure agreements, and there are threats on my life if I breach that contract. So unfortunately I’m not allowed to talk about that stuff. But I do make announcements from time to time on my website which is Steveblumvoices.com, and I’m also doing a lot of conventions; I’ll be doing appearances all through the year, all over the world, and as soon as I’m allowed to make announcements, I will be making them at the conventions. And my page on IMDb tends to have a lot of information on the newer projects even before I know it’s okay to talk about them! So that would probably be the best place to check in.
But for the time being, I would hope that people are watching “Transformers: Prime” and supporting The Hub and all of their new programming, and also I hope that people are watching “Superhero Squad”. It’s a show that we worked on with a lot of love, and it kind of got buried in a very early morning timeslot. So I’m hoping people watch it and it will continue.
There’s a LOT of stuff in the pipes for this year and next, so stay tuned! Thanks for watching and playing, folks! I’m very grateful.
MA: Thank you, Steve! You can catch TRANSFORMERS PRIME on the Hub Television Network.
Matt Adler is a writer/journalist, currently writing for AICN among other outlets. He’s been reading comics for 20 years, writing about them for 7, and spends way, way, too much time thinking about them, which means he really has no choice but to figure out how to make a living out of them. He welcomes all feedback.
