Robin Williams understands sonic performances. He understands what it’s like to change your voice up.
BILLY WESTEverybody. Somebody would just stick their head in the door and say, “He sounds too Jewish.” Or, “He’s too tough, he’s off-putting. You gotta seduce kids, not scare them out the door.”
More Billy West Quotes
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In a black-and-white world, back in the ’50s, were voices from another era.
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Even when I was coming through school I was a loner and I used to study music and listen to it and play it and play it, and I was in bands.
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I’ve always said that you can’t be the new Mel Blanc by doing Mel Blanc’s voice.
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You should at one point become the hero of your own world.
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Somebody’s real voice is probably the hardest one that somebody could attempt.
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Don’t spend your life thinking about what somebody did or if they failed at this or if they did great at that or they got caught with a monkey, in a bathtub, having sex.
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Futurama is a sonic world, and everyone’s attention is focused on that sound and that little cartoon image. You can change it.
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You watch people and study them the way an alien would.
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All actors used to sound different. Robert Mitchum sounded different from John Wayne, and John Wayne sounded different from Clark Gable. They were like men’s voices, but they weren’t Everyman, it was them.
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But the throat just kind of falls into line once you realize in your head what it is. You got to remember the musicality of a character you’re going to do.
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John Kricfalusi is very talented; he used to really piss me off. But I did good work, you know? The Ren & Stimpy show without me was totally unsuccessful.
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I’m not like a high intellectual.
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I’m not angry. Everybody thinks I’m so angry because I have a point of view. They’re expecting me to just be all Smucker’s Jam.
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If someone gave me the chance to create something, I put myself into it. I just want to try to do something that will last forever and that won’t leave people saying, ‘Gee, it could have been better, it could’ve been this, it could’ve been that.’
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Life is for the living. I was a little scared before surgery ’cause of the release you sign that says there’s always a very small percent chance that you’ll die during the operation.
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