Clones Wars Series Voice Actors (minor spoilers)
Posted: 2009-10-05 10:55pm
Story:
So what do you think of the voice work? I think it's generally quite good and frankly, the actor who portrays Padme does a hell of a lot of a better job than Natalie Portman ever did. I also very much like the work of the actor who does Palpatine as well (neither of these actors are mentioned above, but you can read about the whole cast at the Wookiepedia entry on the show.Voice-over actors give life to Cartoon Network's 'Star Wars: The Clone Wars'
By Michael Sheridan
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Sunday, October 4th 2009, 4:00 AM
They are the most unrecognizable actors in a galaxy far, far away.
Audiences generally associate Hayden Christensen and Ewan McGregor in the roles of the famously iconic Anakin Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi. But, the truth is, other actors have inhabited those roles in far more performances, yet you'll never know what they look like.
They are voice-over actors, men and women who bring these Jedi Knights to life each week in the computer-animated series, "Star Wars: The Clone Wars."
And that's just the way they like it.
"If we do our job right, you have no idea you're hearing us," says James Arnold Taylor, who performs Obi-Wan Kenobi on the Cartoon Network series, which premiered its second season on Friday.
Taylor, who has also voiced the venerable Jedi Master in several video games, has been giving life to the animated version of the character for nearly seven years.
Initially, the 40-year-old actor shaped his vocals to mimic McGregor, so as to stay true to Episode III, which had not been released at the time.
"Now I've been given the freedom by Dave Filoni [series creator and director] and George Lucas to make the character my own," said Taylor, who also provides the voices of Fred Flintstone, along with Harry Osborn in "The Spectacular Spider-Man."
"I take a little of Alec Guiness... and I take a little of Ewan McGregor and I make my own Obi-Wan Kenobi."
Tom Kane, another veteran voice over actor, doesn't quite have the same freedom with his gravelly portrayal of Jedi Master Yoda.
"It's an odd experience doing a voice that is so well established," Kane told the Daily News from his home in Kansas City. "Your job is to not change him."
He also never forgets the man who created the voice in the first place, film director Frank Oz.
"I always have to run it through my Frank Oz filter," Kane said, even though he has never met the former Muppet man, despite having voiced Yoda now in multiple video games and shows for nearly a decade. "How would he inflect this, or how would he say that. That's always my concern, that it would true to what I think he would do."
The uniquely identifiable vocals of Yoda are made doubly challenging because of the manner in which he speaks, something Kane dubbed, Yodese. But after doing it for so long, easy it has become, the 46-year-old said.
"Dave [Filoni] and I, we know the moment when I say it if it's not right," he said.
Voicing Yoda does have another challenge, as well.
"Physically, it can be hard on your throat," Kane said, noting its harsh inflection. "But Yoda doesn't talk much, so I don't have to do it for long periods of time."
Ashley Eckstein, who voices Anakin Skywalker's padawan, Ahsoka, doesn't have to worry about mimicing another actor's voice. Her character is unique to the series and was never featured in the films or previous television outings.
"I don't have to try to sound like somebody else," Eckstein said. "I can just let a line fly off the cuff based on what I think she would sound like, not what someone else sounded like."
Ahsoka, who Eckstein promises will mature greatly and become far more independent in the second season of "Clone Wars," got off to a rocky start with more traditional "Star Wars" fans.
"I know in season one, she teeter-tottered the line of being annoying at times," Eckstein said. "But I think most of that goes away in season two."
"The war does take its toll on her," she noted, adding that Ahsoka will be targeted by the much ballyhooed bounty hunters that will take center stage in the new season.
Unlike many of her co-stars, 28-year-old Eckstein began her career in front of the camera, with roles on several shows including "That's So Raven," "Blue Collar TV" and "That '70s Show." But she sees doing voice over work as an education in acting.
"I feel like voice over is the boot camp for using your imagination," she said.
Of all the actors, however, Dee Bradley Baker's role has him routinely playing multiple characters.
You could say, Baker puts the clones in "Clone Wars."
The one-time stand-up comedian provides the vocals for the show's many clone troopers, offering him the unique challenge of using the same voice but keeping each one different at the same time.
"They want to give a sense of individuality and humanity to the clones," he explained. So "for me, it starts with the script... and sometimes the [trooper's] name will give you a clue as to how [the writers] want you to play them."
In season one's gritty episode, "Rookies," Baker played several troopers throughout the majority of the story, each often talking to one another.
"The goal is to try and make these guys feel like individuals," the 46-year-old actor said.
Of course, Baker isn't the only one talking to himself through different characters.
"In several shows I'm in conversations with myself," notes Taylor, whose talent for changing his voice has led him to provide voices for many characters, including Jedi Master Plo Koon, a fan favorite.
Kane also does multiple voices, his most notable as the show's Narrator, a feature of the show that was initially widely criticized by fans.
"It got a lot of, I think, unfair criticism when it was in the movie," said Kane, who also does voice work for many film trailers, as well as animated shows and video games outside the "Star Wars" universe.
"I think it threw people for a loop," he said. "But George has gotten the last laugh on that, because what was criticized in the movie because it was different works brilliantly well on television."
Although Kane often does much of his voice work either in his home studio or by himself during trips to California, the actors in "The Clone Wars" often work together to act out scenes, reminiscent of old-time radio shows.
"I don't think we would have been able to achieve the kind of relationships both with each other and in the show if we weren't able to record our dialogue together," said Eckstein, whose first onscreen appearance was in the Nickelodeon game show, "GUTS," when she was 11 years old.
"I feel so blessed that I get to work with this amazing cast," she added, noting that she's been able to learn a lot from the experienced voice actors.
"I was very green when I started, kind of like Ahsoka," Eckstein said. "I'm very grateful they shared their knowledge with me, and were patient with me."
The biggest challenge for her was learning how to do all those grunts and groans actors need to perform, especially in the elaborate action sequences.
"I think a lot of oncamera actors get very uncomfortable when they learn they have to made their grunts and groans," Taylor said. But "you have to have no inhibitions."
He also made note that clothes make the voice actor.
"The key to voice over is quiet clothing," he said. "Sometimes you'll get someone who'll come in and has never done voice over work before, and they'll be all dressed up in their nice shirt and jacket. The first thing I tell them is that they've gotta lose all that stuff."
Taylor, who exercises his voice regularly after nearly losing it several years ago due to some toxic mold, stressed that voice actors need to keep it simple.
"Jeans and a t-shirt, and sneakers that don't squeak," he said. "And no jewelry, that's the key to a successful voice over."
Each of these actors also stressed that fans will have a lot to look forward to in the new season of "Star Wars: The Clone Wars" - even if they weren't able to tell you much about it.
"I can't give away the specifics," said Bradley, an actor who specializes in animal and creature sounds, who developed the moans and groans for the zombies in 2002's "Dawn of the Dead" remake.
He did say, however, that "there are going to be a lot of surprises coming up, and there are going to be a lot of characters [fans have] never seen, and several they've seen but never heard before."
In fact, he provides the voice for one such character, although he refused to give up the ghost as to who it would be. Still, he was naturally quick to champion the show.
"I've seen about half of them already, and speaking as a fan of Star Wars, they're really incredible," Baker said. "There are some episodes that have some interesting angles and twists."
"I think [the show] is going in places more like ['Empire Strikes Back,']" said Taylor, where "you got to see this darker side where the good guys don't always win."
"Season two is the season of the bounty hunters, and they definitely come after Ahsoka," said Eckstein, who noted that the voice work for the season has already been completed. "By the end... she's definitely one tough cookie."
'Star Wars: The Clone Wars' director Dave Filoni (l.), with cast members Ashley Eckstein, Tom Kane (back) and James Arnold Taylor.
Voice of the clone troopers, Dee Bradly Baker.
