In a black-and-white world, back in the ’50s, were voices from another era.
BILLY WESTI consider myself to be flawed, but I made it work. I’m not perfect. Anybody who thinks they are is whacked-out.
More Billy West Quotes
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The only thing I have to say to people – try being the hero of your own world one day.
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You have to have some kind of power of observation, almost like a trained observer.
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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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I don’t get to watch Futurama, until it’s on TV.
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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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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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Everybody. 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.”
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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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Robin Williams understands sonic performances. He understands what it’s like to change your voice up.
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I consider myself to be flawed, but I made it work. I’m not perfect. Anybody who thinks they are is whacked-out.
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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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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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Somebody’s real voice is probably the hardest one that somebody could attempt.
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You watch people and study them the way an alien would.
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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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Robert Mitchum sounded different from John Wayne, and John Wayne sounded different from Clark Gable.
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You should at one point become the hero of your own world.
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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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I don’t have that much of an ego where it’s like “How dare you, you can’t do something without me.”
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As long as I can apply my craft, I’m happy.
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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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I’m not like a high intellectual.
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It’s very hard to take a character out of nothing, and put a hook on it, especially because it’s only sonic.
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Tom Kenny is a master of changing a pubic hair this way or that way, and sounding like a totally different character.
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To me, it all comes down to things being character-driven. It’s hard for me to look beyond that. CG and all this cool stuff – so be it. But to me, it pretty much begins and ends with character-driven plots rather than technologically-driven plots.
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I did speak out about celebrities because I thought it was appalling. I thought that if the cartoon became popular, it was only going to last as long as the career of the people who are in it.
BILLY WEST