Christopher Judge (Kratos, Tealc)

How you doing out there? It's me Tigger and Dark Wayne Duck. It's
me Bunkers keep Bobcat. All right, y'all, is it rate your favorite
firefly you desire? Hold old knock Gud. My name is Jim Cummings and
welcome to tune Gin. Ladies and gentlemen, Welcome back to tuned In with
Jim Comings today. Today, I hope you're sitting down because we're copping a
squad. We have none other than the world famous Chris Judge. He is
here. He has flown in on his tilt machine. And yes he is
the god of war, so please don't mess with him. Christopher Judge God,
come on down. Well, welcome man. It's great to have you.
We're neighbors, but other than that, we have nothing in common.
Well you know we have to go around the world actually say, well,
that's that is true. Yeah, but we probably live about five miles apart.
Yea, I'm up here. One of my favorite golf courses is right
on the corner. Oh okay, life is good. Life is good.
Well, now I know what you're doing after the after the show. You
won't be home for dinner never never, Okay, you touching that one.
But I'm glad you're here. I'm glad you're here. No, there was
nothing, there was nothing, There was no conspiracy there. I just yeah,
dinner. Oh damn, well, I'll eat it for you. How
do you stay so big not eating? You know? I honestly I don't
know. I really don't know. It's I've got into this fasting deals bosting
thing, so I fast sixteen hours of the day and I can eat eight
hours of the day and just my body really likes it. Yeah, yeah,
yeah, well good for you. Yeah, well you're doing it.
Man. Oh thank you look great. That's astonishing. I'm going to try
that. It wouldn't matter if I did. Well, listen, some congratulations
are in order to you, young man. I'll tell you what I saw
you over there man handling al pacino. That that's wrong with that? Well,
you know, I've got you know, I've always watched award shows and
go so corny, like why would you be like so excited, like you
know you're there, what Peter whatever. But there's like legendary people who've always
been legendary, who you've always wanted to meet, regardless of the context.
And uh, it was just one of those moments where I just got that's
awful. Sure well you you yeah, well you were entitled the greatest thing.
And he's so humble and kind, funny, and afterwards, his son's
a big gamer and that's how they got him their son. Basically, Dad,
you have to do Oh wow, that's cool. And so afterwards he
says, Christopher, Christopher, would you mind taking a picture with me and
my boy? Would I mind? Maybe? So we go back and I
stand in between he and his son, and his son is shaking like a
leaf, and uh, he leans, he leans into my chest. My
favorite actor. Oh and I looked at your Ted's al Pacino. Yeah,
and then Al says, I told you he's a big fat That's cool.
That's cool, that's something serious. Yeah, that was I just made that
up. Wow, he's gonna be using that. You get that on your
next that's good stuff. What's your favorite Patina I roll? Oh god,
you know, there isn't one. It's it's it's it's a work of art,
like his entire career. It's uh, you know, we'd be here
all day, you know. Yeah, his ability to make every character so
human and so relatable, and so it's it's it's a gift. I mean,
it's not a gift. It's hard work. Yeah, yeah, it's
hard work. And you know, he's he's perfected, and he's not afraid
to take risks and chances, and you know, so, I mean he's
he's kind of the pinnacle. Yeah, that's for sure. He did a
movie with with Gene Hackman that I thought was very underrated, and it's like
thirty years ago. I cannot, for the life me remember it, but
I remember being so impressed because I mean, he played someone who was kind
of like slow, you know, and and it was so the opposite of
this sharp witted Michael Corleone. And he went from Master of the Universe to
oh, well, you know, you know, almost like a farm hand.
Yeah, something like that. And I I thought, and they were
both as each one as believable as can be. Yes, there you go.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, did you google that or did you google
that? Yes? I did not know that. Yeah, it's pretty good.
Yeah. So yeah, he's got the range. Yeah, we're not
worried about how Yeah, you know, but that's the thing about that.
I think I think everyone has a tremendous range in them. But it's just
the fear of what you'll be perceived as, or the fear of if you
go too far or hurt your career, the fear of you know, and
so that's I think one of the levels of performing is being able to perform
without fear, and then that's when you do great work. That's true.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. That's kind of like a tenant in
the business, isn't it. You have to go out there and no risk,
no reward, That's right, I would think. I mean it's true.
I mean it sounds good in premise, but you know, we've been
on sets, you know, a lot of the times that is not afforded
to you until you're over a certain number on the call sheet, you know,
then you're, hey, let it fly, you know. But you
know when you're not, let's just read the lines like you know. Yeah,
so that's why I do voice over. Then nobody they can't they can't
stop me too late, I said it. I just tear it out something.
If it was good, if it was good the writer wrote it.
If it was bad, shut the hell up redo it again. Yeah.
So yeah, it all comes out in the wash, as it does.
Yeah, So what is the what are the plans for for cradles now that
he's king of the world again. Well, there's you know, there's a
lot of stuff in the mill we can't talk about. Oh God, here
we go. You know, we can't talk about it. But you know,
it's it's interesting. There's really no firm decisions have been made yet.
You know, there's a world of possibilities. Now, how do you whittle
that down to what you're gonna do? You know? And sometimes that process
takes a year. Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's true. They have
to convince each other. There's a lot of cooks in that kitchen. Yeah,
yeah, yeah, yeah, you're That's a good way to put it.
That's a good way to put it. Well, Chris, you brought
up you brought up hard work, and something that we haven't talked about yet
on this show is actually I wanted to ask you, Jim, how would
you compare yourself when you first got into voice acting to now. Have you
felt growth? Is it just a natural thing? And could you talk a
bit about that, like, well, yeah, I definitely have felt a
lot of growth. I was I was astonished, I mean, you know,
knock on what I that I got my first job and what was your
Well, no, it was a little show called Dumbo Circus and it was
on this brand new thing that came out with it was called cable TV.
Brand new. And because back in the day we had like four channels,
PBS and the other three, and Disney Channel just came out on the cable
and they said, well, you know, let's let's bring back these.
They had a show on there, oddly enough, called Welcome to Pooh Corner.
This is before my time is Pooh. I wasn't in business, but
they were doing Dumbo again and it was people in costumes, little people,
big people, all sorts of you know, in costumes walking around and and
they needed a character to play Timothy the mouse from Dumbo. Dumbo Circus,
come on, tell them what you know? Whatever? You know that little
guy and uh, but they couldn't have, like, even if it was
a little person, they couldn't have a four foot mouse. So they made
him a lion. And so I was a little bit different because there's a
lot of four foot lions out there that's more a lible. And so so
I auditioned for it and I got the very I mean very first job I
ever auditioned for Wow. And the good news was for me was that they
did sixty five episodes and it took a year and a half. So and
I didn't even have an agent. I just heard about it. Yeah,
sixty five and we did two a week. So I was making like four
hundred bucks four fifty at the video depot. Now all of a sudden,
I'm making like eight hundred and I was like, wait, that's almost double.
And I'm working four hours a day, you know, because we did
two shows in one day, and I said, well, I'm doing this,
you know. And then I got an agent through through that experience,
and it gave me a year, year and a half cushion to you know
where I didn't have to worry. So I'd auditioned here, an audition there.
And then at that point I had passed X amount of auditions, and
I was doing radio commercials and I was doing TV commercials and then you know
the occasional movie trailer, and you know, one thing led to another,
and I finally had an agent. That always helps, you know, And
I've never had to have a break. For thirty nine, It'll be forty
years next year, whoa, So yeah, longevity. Yeah, And I
was only eleven when I started. Now, how did you even come to
it? Always interests me how people go, I want to do this?
So what led you? Oh? Well, that's an easy one for me.
I've said it before. I was watching I was sitting with my dad
watching the Jack Benny program. He was on TV and uh he had mel
Blanc, the original vo monster cartoon guy. He was on there and he
was doing a bit ce ce cy, you know, he was wearing a
sombrero and this and that. And my dad goes, you say this bastard.
I go yeah, and he goes, that's you know what he does?
And I go no. He goes, you know what you get up
on Saturday morning? You're watching Bugs Bunny and the Daffy and the Tasmania and
then the little Sylvester. I go, yeah, he goes, that's him.
I go, what do you mean that's him? He goes, Wow,
he does all the voices. And I went, I'm doing that,
well, you know, and I said, he doesn't have to stand in
the corner for being weird, right, right, so everybody likes him,
right, I want to be him. So I grew up and now I
got to be him. Well, now I get to hang out with you.
It's awesome. That's awesome. What about you, Chris, when did
you Because you started out life playing football, you know, played college,
played proprity. I believe he was a football player. But okay, well,
for me that was just always a means to an end because when I
was high school, Uh, we had this great affinity in the house for
the Rams because my mom had bought her first Volkswagen for Merlin Olsen. Oh
yeah, and so we watched the Rams religiously. So Merlin Olson was one
of the first football players to actually transition to acting. And I thought,
well, because I hate it. I hated it. And the only thing
that was tolerable tolerable about it for me was that game days were like performances,
so I had an audience. That's cool. Yeah, but I knew
from I remember. I remember when it hit me. I was watching Sounder.
M hmm, Cicely Tyson, Paul, Yeah, Paul wentfield and Sounder
was about, uh, this kid who his dad goes to jail and his
best friend is his dog, Sounder. You know, dad comes back,
but Sounder gets killed, and I remember I was I couldn't stop crying.
I couldn't. Man, I was like, and that came from that.
I want to do that. I want to do that, and it just
it never changed. Yeah, because you reach out, you're touching the people.
Yeah, you're breaking hearts, put smiles on faces. That's right,
that's right. And you know, sometimes it gets lost on us that because
you know, I don't know if it still happens to you or if it
ever happened to you. But sometimes some days it's just crazy shit goes on.
You go, what a what a fucking ridiculous way to make a living?
Yeah? Yeah, wow that could you kind of get into the bubble
and you you lose sight of some of the stuff mean stuff to people,
you know, letting you into someone's letting people letting you into their home.
If you're like a series or cartoon or whatever it is on a weekly whatever
or whatever basis, it is is an incredibly personal thing. You know.
So these things that we do and that are recorded and people allow into their
homes, it's incredibly intimate and it really meet they form connections that that are
meaningful. Yeah, you're right about that. That's a very good insight.
Yeah, yeah, I've you know, I guess it's mostly with Winnie the
Pooh uh and somewhat extend Tigger two. But but it's that that heartfelt stuff
and if people lock onto it, especially at an early age, yes,
you know, it's the earlier you know, and you just become it's almost
like being a family member, you know, because I've heard and I know
you must have had this occur because I think the first person I uh ever
heard say that it was Sonny and Cherre had that show, the Sonny's Share
Show, and people come up to him and he would be any any place,
you know, an elevator or something, Sonny, Hey, how you
doing? My man? Look at you all? Get over here you and
he's this and that and the other thing, and he says and then he
could realize that the person just went, wait a minute, I don't know
this guy. He doesn't know me. I just see him on TV a
lot. I feel like he's my cousin or my uncle and he's looking at
me like, why the hell are you hugging on me in an elevator?
And uh. And it's that instant familiarity, absolutely, you know, and
if it's a bond, but it's it's kind of one way unless you go
to comic Con or something like that and everything, then everybody's going, hey,
you know, then it's kind of like their job to be happy with
you. So so yeah, I I hear you. That's that. Well,
that's it's a little it's a little cherry on top and that is you
know, it is you know, all those people just touching all their lives.
Yeah, because I've had situations where people say, you got me through
this horrible thing, this mess or whatever, and they play like a Winnie
the Poo song in there they can get through it, right, Yeah,
And I know and you're you got Tilk was. It was very interesting.
It was a very interesting character. Think you yeah, I mean he wasn't
he wasn't an he wasn't a vulcan. He wasn't you know, the standard
didn't have any horns. Well, actually touching on that. One thing that
I don't think people know. I don't even think it's online, is Tilk
originally had like long ear lobes, right ear lobes. He had the oh
crap, now I forgot the name of it. Was called the third eye.
No, no, just the it's the Egyptian long beard thing at that
and what they realized was, well, if tealcat it, we have to
put it on all the Jaffa, So just mine in the beginning with all
that took about two hours, so for you know, for background people,
they didn't want to be spending an hour and a half per person. And
JAFA episodes were always the big ones, so there'd be one hundred Jafa.
So it just became you have to pair this down. How about let's just
do this? Yes, how about golden eyeliner? Yeah, there you go?
Perfect. Yeah. Did you have any input in how that character looked
her, any of the prosthetics or anything like that. Well, the thing
that I wanted I wanted him to have an almost air of androgyny and also
the sense that he was almost a newborn because he's going to this new situation
where he knows nothing. And it's not because he's wild by. He's wild
by Like, Wow, these people are primitive because compared to the technology that
he's been around, this is like they don't have the wheel, you know,
how do they exist? You know? So all credit to Brad and
Jonathan because we had really at length discussions about how I wanted to play Tilk
and they were so the audition. They really weren't certain what they were looking
for, but a sci fi to have an alien. Yeah, yeah,
yeah, So I remember when we were doing the screen tests. There were
three people there for Carter, there were three people there for Daniel Jackson,
there were three people there for General Hammond. But there were ten tilks there.
There were white tulks, there were Asian tulks, Mexican tulks, two
black tulks. And our first screen test was for MGM. So they're calling
out the names of the people who won't be going on to the showtime screen
test. And when it was all said and done, I looked around and
I was the only talk left. Oh, there you go. So Brad
came up to me and said, just do it like that and it's yours.
And I still to this day teach them about well part of the excitement
of getting apart in anticipation but not knowing. Lad, you ruined it for
me. It was a hell of a good really it was. It may
maybe we all have get ruination like that. And you guys went on to
do that for how many years? Seasons? Ten seasons? Seasons? Yeah,
that's that's changed. Yeah, it was. We were in a weird,
weird good position. Yeah. We had a two season order to start
with, so we knew that we were going to do forty four episodes,
so we didn't have to make these huge leaps in character. Oh you had
two seasons, I mean twenty two episode seasons. Yeah, and then the
night the pilot aired, it was at that time the biggest thing that ever
been on cable. Wow, got more viewers than the Tyson Tyson was not
Tyson Holyfield, Tyson Tyson anybody, Yeah, because that they were all they
were all big. Yeah. So the next day we got three more seasons,
so we knew we're gonna go at least five. That was amazing because
they never gave me that many an amazing, right, gentlemen. Yeah,
so you could take your time developingships. Boy, nothing like nothing like being
paid to get better and come more comfortable and ka ching, let's don't forget
ka ching. Wow. Oh God bless you. That's good. And one
thing led to another and you've done You've done a lot of cool stuff.
Okay, audience out there, and I'm sure they're listening because they're live,
like I was saying up here, and I always look at Brandon. I
was watching a movie. It was a three part, three trilogy movie,
and I think Christian Bale was in it. Oh yeah, he got and
he was he was Batman and he was down there and he was doing doing
this and doing that, and all of a sudden, this familiar face comes
up and puts the puts the quietus on him, trying to kick Chris Batman's
ass, and uh. And I was like wait and then you you were
like, but that's a that ain't bad. That's not bad. You know,
that ain't bad. I call it eight weeks of work for forty seven
seconds of screen time. Wow, but the checks clear. Yeah yeah,
but that was you know we're talking about like the Paccino moment. Yeah.
Somehow I negotiated for a trailer, and the trailers are called the oh a
trailer. Yeah, I was thinking of movies. Trailer, am I gotcha?
So in this circus of trailers, there's Bail Yeah yeah, there's Hathaway,
Yes, yes, there's Morgan Freeman there. You know, so it's
like what Yeah, yeah, there's a big What am I doing here?
You know? So it was just like having a ball I reckon Hardy Yeah,
yeah, it was a strange thing because Hardy really doesn't break character,
so I had never really worked with and you know, I hesitate to use
method because for everyone that's not actually what it is. But the I remember
going to wardrobe and it was this big deal, like why are all these
producers here? Like it was just wardrobe. So my original wardrobe I had
on a full kind of bikers outfit, all the pat like the the kind
of skeleton of padding that they were underneath to help lesson injuries, and then
seven layers on top of it. So I looked massive, but you were
cold either. Yeah, I was naked under everything. Now I'm not sure
why that matters. Uh So I come out and immediately see all the heads
turn and then I did something wrong, So hey, Chris, can you
take off two of the layers? So oh yeah, you want long story
shore I ended up just weren't one layer of clothing, and but still I
was so much bigger than Tom. Basically everything I did. I think there's
one scene right next to him where my arm is in it. M that's
it. Everything else with me with Tom was cut. Most of my scenes
were Tom, so yeah, it was, but still it was and you
know at that point, you know, Bail had had this reputation for you
know, being he was so cool and so and I had a little accident
on set and Bail was the first one they ever seeing him. I was
okay, hey, and it was he was a lovely dude. But one
of the things, like, so, I was in stunt rehearsal for a
week for that one scene and Christian and Joe couldn't because they were shooting other
stuff. So I watched Christian on the day watch his double do it twice
and it was complicated. M all right, I got it, let's go.
And he did it first take, first take, No, that was
it, and that's the one they used. You didn't do it a couple
of times. Well, we had to do it a couple of times.
In that take, Joe was supposed to punch me and it was a big,
huge miss for where the camera was. So the sun coordinator comes and
says, Joe, you gotta sell the punch, and he walks away.
And when you tell an actor who doesn't have a lot of fight choreo experience,
you got to sell the punch, that means closer. Yeah, yeah,
I would think so. And it's never about being closer is just knowing
what cameras are on you, what angle you got to be at. In
my mind, so I'm gonna get hit. And then Joe punched me right
in the eye and my eyes starts spurting blood and oh crist oh man.
And because my head was on the ground, so there was nowhere for me
to go. And poor Joe. He felt Joseph ordon Lea, he felt
so bad. I was like, no, no, no, it's my
eyes. And so here's where you know, you're pecking order in the world.
So we were filming at the old bridge that they tore down, and
I like, that's where Gotam was built. And where was it the you
know, the third Street bridge that they tore down. I think we were
the last ones to use the nod one, but of course they couldn't keep
that from the fans. So there's hundreds of people surrounding so over the radio
here we need an ambulance. Chris is hurt. So the ambulance gets there
and they make this big deal of putting me on the gurney, but the
actual ambulance is through this throng. Oh perfect, So as I'm going through
like okay, we're getting christ I hear someone go, oh thank god,
we thought he meant Chris Bale. You could hear a collective sigh from hundreds
of people like, oh god, but that that'll keep you, that'll keep
your humble? Yes it will, but it could have been a lot worse.
Oh Jesus, man, but what and give up show bab Exactly right,
exactly, that's crazy, man. I wanted to bring it around to
voice work. You done obviously a lot of voice work is well not really?
Yeah, well really do you remember your first voice? Well, that's
crazy. He's got these great pipes. You know something. You know,
I'm and I always want to because it always comes off weird when I say
it. I always say I'm not a voice actor, Like that's a that's
a separate talent. That's not just having a good voice. Being able to
craft these characters. Yeah, out of basically nothing, you create characters.
It's not just about being able to talk deep, you know what I mean?
So I I and I No, I agree you're right that I'm being
I'm like, no, I'm saying I bow down because I don't possess that
ability, you know what I mean? Wow, that's pretty good over here.
But I know what you're saying. Well, you know, my buddy
jessar Now has a good way of putting. He goes, when it comes
to being a voice actor, it's a small V, but it's a capital
A. You know. So because you know people, you know, there's
people that are on the internet. And there was a guy maybe eight or
nine years ago, I don't know, and he goes, I'm gonna sit
here and do all Jim Cummings's voices. I have to tear the flamps in
the night. And he went all the way down you know, dark wing
and pooh and take her and and I was like, okay, well,
okay, okay, and he couldn't but he couldn't act. What if you
threw him in the pool? You know, and you know it's just just
still it's but it's all your but no, it's but it's it's true,
you know. I mean that's just doing an impression. Okay, Well can
you can you cry? Can you are? You? Can you can you
bounce? I don't know. You know, you gotta do a lot.
You gotta do what that character would do, and you have to react the
way that character would react like I do dark Wing Duck just recently, and
and his reaction is not going to be the same as Tiggers or you know.
I mean, it's just that simple. There. There, they're characters
there. I'm basically just a character actor that has a bunch of voices.
You know, I'm not you know, but no Shakespeare over here. But
that's okay, Well that's a whole another, that's a whole another Chris.
But I don't so for me, everything has to be visceral. M but
what you guys do, there can be nothing there, and generally there is
is It's never like yeah, your performance, oh yeah, yeah, so
ill on your head. I guess I don't. I don't possess. Hence
I've never auditioned before anything animated and gotten it. What about Wacky Races?
You did Wacky Races with Billy Wes, Tom Kenny my partner. I did
it, Mike Lisa, the showrunner is my partner. But the battle to
have me be one of the leads was like, who's this guy? And
then you know, Michael was like, well he's you know, didn't mean
ship in the animation world, you know, So it was like a battle.
Yeah, Well, I don't think it means Yeah, I don't think
it means squad anyway in the animation. That's in fact, buddy mine.
Charlie Adler first pointed this out a long time ago, and I never thought
of it, but he said, uh, it doesn't matter what you did
last week, it doesn't matter what you did this morning. You have a
fresh audition. You're going to this place in Burbank called the Voicecaster. And
now you can't go in and get I mean, you know, get a
get a bunch of I don't know, Chevrolet commercials because you did ever Ready
battery commercial last week. No, don't you understand I did the ever Ready
batter the okay, right, well here you want to sell some Chevyes because
that's what's up. Now, that's and I just the whole I just I
can't wrap my head around you know what I mean? And like there's no
like I need about fifteen minutes more. Yeah, what are you talking about?
You're dead, you're you know you're here, Yeah, you're done.
Yeah, So I yeah, it's it's just and I so I have done
animated stuff, but I would always record by myself, not because I was
elitist. I was afraid. I was afraid to be in the group records.
So what was that experience like when you were with such legends like Billy
West was on the show, like Tom Kenny, fucking terrifying and coming from
him, you know, it's like wait what now? You know? Yeah,
I know who everyone in the room was. And I'm the only dude
that's not a legendary Boys person. You know. I know you were with
Phil Lamar Yeah yeah, yeah, I like him, like we've become friends.
But yeah, one of my actors, man, and I was telling
him, I was saying this earlier. One of my favorite cartoons growing up
was Hong Kong Fu. Yeah yeah, so played by Scatman Brothers. You
know him from the Shining Yes, but you know, I was legendary.
He was a legendary performer and one of the things he did was Hong Kong
Fu. And I was Saturday morning, brother, up, we were at
eight in the morning. That's we were watching Hong Kong That's right. Uh.
And so when Scatman Passionate brought back Phil is voice, right, So
every time I see him, I wondn't even say hi. I'll just say
come on man, yeah, like man, oh, Chris is good to
see your baby. That's cool, that's good stuff. Yeah, meeting meeting
your idols, right, but it is just such. And so to get
to your question, uh, I made it about my work schedule that I
couldn't ever ah, oh, there you go. And and the truth of
it was, I was terrified. So I tried to do this with wacky
races. Well thank god, wait when nobody's going to see this, But
unfortunately Mike, my writing and producing partner, he knows my schedule. Oh,
so back out of it. So the first record, I literally sweated
through my clothes. I was dripping. I was so scared. I can't
imagine that. I was terrified. And then you know, you know Tom,
you know, you know everybody. They're just going off on and just
voices and yeah, yeah, yeah, that's all I got. Well that's
probably all you made it, so you golden. It was the one time
that I actually got out of my head and actually did like a character voice.
And I would probably be the last time because it just sounds so weird.
I don't know. Well, Don la Fontaine only had that one voice,
but he made Yeah, I worried about him. I got rest is
soul. But yeah, my first and this was just luck. I happened
to out of college being modeling for Nike, and the designers heard my voice.
And this was Nike was bankrupt. They were bankrupt, and they had
gotten the bounce back ended up doing okay, wait, worried about them,
and the designer said, I love your voice. So she called some of
the other designers in and they sent me right there down the street to the
recording studio where they were recording this thing. And it was for the Air
Revolution. Oh, the Air Revolution by Nike. Sure, gravity is just
a game. Oh. It was my first job and then I didn't do
another one for twenty five years. I hope the resildts were good. Well,
let me tell you. Yeah. I had no idea. Yeah,
but I also had no idea about the business. So I thought this is
the way it is. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. People are talking about
it's a struggle. Yeah yeah, yeah, I remember thinking the same thing.
I had something similar like that. I like I said with that first
up. But I ran into a guy in San Diego when I first started
out, and maybe everybody, maybe people out there are going to remember this,
but he he was vo guy and he was probably about fifty years old
then, and he said that, well, I said, so what are
you doing? I'm trying to break in and you know this? And he
said, well do you do you watch TV? And I go yeah,
I goes if I said to you, ok e double l oh double good
Kells? Best do you? And I said that's you and he goes yeah,
And that's on every guy, I don't know, Cheerios commercial and everything,
I mean Kelloggs and he goes yeah. And I have a really nice
house. Now can I please say some assembly required? Give me a tagline
something like that. And then Michael Bell is a friend of mine. He's
good old Michael Bell. And he was the guy I'll test your collective memory
out there again. But it was he was the guy that went on and
said butter, butter, freaking butter. And and that was on Park or
something. It's not Park, what is it? Butter? Yeah, and
it was that was it. And I said, I hate you. You
know, I'm over here doing books on tape and you know what, you
know, getting fifty bucks you know, oh man, But yeah, it's
that's that's the business, right, yeah, truly the business of show.
Yeah. Yeah. The I was doing action man in Vancouver, and uh,
well there were cast wasn't you know? The director said, no,
he's not going to be here anymore. That's something happened. Yeah, he
became the voice of ABC. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, well I
know that happened to Dorian Herewood. He did rather well with that NBC.
Yeah, coming up on NBC the voice of ABC. Who was that?
I forgot what his name was, Jernie Anderson. No, I think he
was envy because this was this was back in a long time, ninety two
thousands. Oh, okay, so it's been well. Yeah, well,
wherever he is, we're not worried about him. He's doing all right.
Yeah. I do have a funny, hopefully funny story. I was at
a place called Buzzies and this is a long time ago, and uh,
I went to bathroom, had to go to bathroom. I was doing some
spot it doesn't matter, and I hear from uh and I'm washing my hand
and I hear in the stall this is c n N no. Wait,
this is c N no. That's not good. This is c n N
yes. And James Earl Jones comes walking out and it gives me little I
got goosebumps. Gebump, Remember James. Yeah, I don't think I've ever
told that story. I'd forgotten that one. He's a wonderful, wonderful cat.
Oh yeah. One of my early jobs. He had a show called
Gabriel's Fire on ABC. So one of my early jobs was I played a
hit man. I had no idea about acting. You know, you need
a guy, you know, pretty much. That's what it was back then.
That's what like black dudes auditioned for. Oh there you go, Robert,
gang member, never do well, whatever it was. And now you
start as a guy who's actually white. And I don't mean that, I
don't mean it looks like me, but you know, only because he's covered
in the ashes of the family he killed. Well, that details have to
anybody. And I'm doing this thing. I'm get on the ground, you
know, you know that that like, oh yes, and so break for
lunch and I'm feeling good. I'm feeling good. So do Chris. Uh,
mister Jones would like you to join him for lunch? Wait, I
was like, what's always sat there? And he doesn't have that big old
he's actually very quiet. And he said, you know, you know a
lot of people don't really kind of. So I'm gonna give you a piece
of advice. Never move unless you have to. And that's that's buying the
first commandment for me. That's cool. I never move unless I have to.
Well, he would know, you know, and you know it's worked
out. Okay, Wow, jeez, that's cool. Ibou he told that
to David Prowse. He goes, no, don't move, you know,
stand there with that stupid you know. Yeah, that's crazy. Yeah,
but mister Jones was just I mean really, I mean, I owe my
career to that advice. That's really good. Wow. You guys writing this
down out there right. Look, I'm looking at the wrong thing. You're
writing that down. Okay, don't move unless you have to. Oh,
probably me there you go. You know I would see you performances and I'd
do them in the mirror. Mm hm. That's I grew up in a
really weird little city, well in Texas or no, in California, in
the South Bay, which kind of torrents were down the beach, spells very
that area and one high school at the same time, uh, Forest Whitaker,
Quentin Tarantino, Treece Rushian and yeah, okay, we all lived in
this neighborhood. Damon. Of course little brother was my brother's best friend.
We all came from like a four block radius. Oh cheerz all my neighbors
were like hit many Damn. I used to walk to Junior High with Quinton
and we the only thing we had in Commons. Wanted to be in show
business and people would laugh at us. Wow. People were just like,
you guys are idiots. You know. People where we came from, they
were athletes. Yeah you know that. It wasn't well that's okay, you
got you can get a two front, you know, that's right. So
yeah, it's uh, this group, we were the only ones that didn't
think we were weird. Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's true. Yeah
yeah. I can remember the first I had a teacher like that that and
it was weird beca because she used to be a nun and I went to
a Catholic high school and her name was Miss Baker, and she said something
about, well, you know, the nuns are gonna they're they're kind of
tough, and we go who but miss Baker, you can't say that.
She goes no, it's okay, I used to be when I quit WHOA
okay, but she was the first one that didn't think I was weirdo,
I was crazy. She thought, No, he's just different. It's okay,
he's not really all that, you know, because maybe he can do
something with this probably but you never know, you know, don't don't bet
on him, but he could happen, right, so you know, we'll
take that, right, we'll take it. I just want to jump back
quickly to what's the best advice you've ever got in your career? Yeah?
Yeah, don't be a mime? So no, uh, you know,
I've kind of adapted it over the years into a phrase, Instincts are the
best snakes, you know, and if because if you think you know in
your head and I don't really think that much because that doesn't sound right.
But what I mean is I really just go from God, you know.
And I will like to read things one or two times ahead of time because,
as you know, in VO, you don't have to memorize them,
you know, thank you Jesus, because my memory is terrible. But I
think that's why I'm a good ad liver, because I wasn't because I was
in a million places as a kid, you know, on on on a
stage and uh, and I wasn't good at memorizing, so I'd remember and
I'd be in the scene and I go, oh, Jesus, what,
well, I'll just say this, and and it kind of worked. So,
you know, my that's where it came from. Instincts are the best
stinks. And you know, I've had it said to me that, you
know, well, if you think it's funny and you think, well that's
not bad, probably you're probably not the only guy, probably not the only
person that's going to think that. So give it a shot, especially especially
uh in you know recording. I mean it's it was at the time it
was just tape. Now it's not even tape. You don't even have to
rewind and cut it, right, you just hit delete next. So yeah,
instincts are the best things. Now how long did it take you though,
too? Did you always from the beginning just trust your gut or did
you try to please who you were maybe auditioning for or yeah, a little
of both. Yeah, but it was always trust my gut. Because I
use an example that I did a cartoon called tail Spend long time ago,
maybe late eighties, and I was a pirate and at the time, oh,
the pirates were from Megland or Scotland or Ireland. There were always something.
But I thought that this guy, I thought it would be cool if
he was from the Caribbean. You know, I'm not like Pirates of the
Caribbean that was that was but it was a guy I think it was from
and I put in like this, and he was amazing and his name was
Don Carnage and the art you know, and everybody went, Okay, well
that's weird, you know. So I got the job. Well yeah,
and it was cool and and and it was not you know because at the
time, you know, the typical you know, uh uh Cockney, they
were all they were all pirates for Cockney. I don't know, it's it's
England's fault for having all those people. But yeah, so you know everything
that like I say, you know, you break the break through the expectation.
Yeah, and and and well that's not what I was waiting for,
but I like it, like yeah, it's it really is, I think,
the best way to be, but not always the best way to get
a job. Yeah, well that's true. It's because it's worked. It's
kind of worked both ways for me. Yeah sure, I mean, because
I've always tried to especially play when I would audition for black athletes. I
tried to play him exactly the opposite of how they were written, because they
were written so badly. And well, that's a good idea, and sometimes
it takes me really far down the road. The other times, you know,
it would be you know, I don't want to say any names.
Betty Thomas my agent, and said, don't ever have him auditioned for me
ever again? Wow? Okay, And it was And then I saw and
I don't want to say the movie Plato Nash, I saw who got the
role, and God blessed me his friend of mine. But it was exactly
how they wrote it and which and he was fine, he was great,
But it wasn't how I ever wanted to portray myself, which is a hell
of a lot easier to do when you have a job, because I had
a job at the time, So you can do that because you don't need
this job to eat. Yeah, yeah, that helps, so it but
yeah, I mean, just wow, And the thing is all I did
was make this dude smarter. She was so offended by that that you know,
I don't yeah, yeah, yeah, what do you know. I'm
past making enemies and yeah. Yeah, yeah, well he'll splatter spread it
all over the place. But I mean I was just so like and I
had it all memory. I was off book, you know. Yeah,
and for her to be that offended because I wouldn't like, hey, man,
what you doing over it? No? No, I'm just not going
well at all, you know. So yeah, yeah, well you know
I always say you can't play chess with the chimp. Now you have to
cut it. Yeah, I mean you know, it wastes your time and
it misses off the chimp. Absolutely, what are you gonna do? I'm
coming away with a wealth of nuggets and going to steal. But it's true.
It's true. Ship, we should hang on more avoiding you. Where
are we going after this? Got some clubs? Yeah? Yeah, no,
I'm at watching. I've never played golf. You're an avid golfer?
Yes, yeah, good for you. Yes, I mean I always joke
it's the one thing my dad, one of the two things my dad gave
me a love of golf and alcoholism. Oh wait, did your dad know?
My dad? Except for the golf, I'm with you. Yeah,
horseshoes. Horseshoes was okay? Oh man, See Brenda doesn't know anything about
that. They don't have any booze down there in Australia. Yeah, is
it still legal down there? They were trying to trying to litigate it out
of there, aren't they. I think we're pretty much knowing for getting pissed
every single day of the week. That's pretty much what the size of the
shots were like this now they're like that if you really, if you're willing
to pay more money, they'll make it. But that's what they're doing,
which unfortunately I found out. Well, I remember one of the first times
I ever ran into you. It was in Australia. Yeah it was,
And I couldn't remember the name of the convention, but it was in Australia.
Yep. Was it Super nov No, it was back then their competitor.
Yeah. I forgot who it was. Uh, yes, could be
because Wren. No, it was a it was a husband and wife or
a girlfriend boyfriend, whatever the situation was. Clarissa and I forgot good old
what's his name? Yeah, lovely people. Yeah, that was cool,
but that's where we first met. Yeah. I remember the first time I
ever saw Chris. It was at a Super and over after parties. I
was there with some other guests. I remember I went to the bathroom and
Chris was just walking out. I was walking to this mountain of mass and
I was like, what is this. I looked up and I was like,
holy shit, that's tilt. He's huge. Yeah, and then he
said, wait, mountains don't stumble when they Yeah, yeah, yeah,
yeah, I know I was drunk back then. There you go. Oh
god, I loved Australia, Yeah, yeah, yeah yeah. Did you
ever come back to Australia Do you think if the opportunity was there, Oh
god, yeah, oh absolutely. You know. I've just I just took
a break from doing conventions, because I mean I did him for twenty years,
like NonStop. So I just took a five year and I'm kind of
starting to gear up to them again. Do you find an entire new audience
now because of Kratos? Do you think of the fans would have winded away
and now you've got a new audience. No. Actually, because of the
pandemic, Stargate was on so many channels that people discovered it for the first
time. So now you have not only a parent in their kid, but
now their parent the kid and their young kids. So it's it's been a
huge resurgence of it. And uh and then with God of War, Yeah,
it was just a whole another just huge. You know, I thought
sci fi fans were rabid gaming fans. Holy, I mean they If someone
can ever have a project that melds the two together, it's going to be
a juggernaut forever, you know what I mean. You know, they actually
try I forgot the name of the show, but they actually tried around two
thousand and seven to have a sci fi show that also had a game component.
Two. But they tried to do it with two separate production teams.
So I mean it was it was a idea, but it just and technologically
it was the technology wasn't advancing. But now I mean it would be oh
yeah yeah, but nowadays, you know, it will require so much planning
and cooperation that that would probably kill it in the development stage. Yeah yeah,
yeah yeah. Lack of vision too, Yeah, absolutely definitely lack of
vision. Yeah. Well, since we're talking about video games, we had
Sonny Souljik, your co star of Gone of War on the podcast. Thanks
to you, I think you put the bug in his eyes, dude.
Yeah, and you've I've seen a bunch of interviews and you really you really
seems like you two really bonded, like you know, like actual father and
son, Like what was that experience like can acting with him? Well?
I think that it's kind of why I got the job initially because so much
of it resonated to me because I missed so much of my own kids younger
years because I was working all the time. And it was a chance to
kind of revisit because when I met Sonny, Sonny was nine, you know,
and he had just turned nine. So it was a chance to really
revisit because it was people think you just go to work and you don't think
about your kids, you don't think about what you're missing, but you do.
And it was so easy because I understood who he was, you know,
So it was it was really already almost you know. And I've often
said, you know that twenty eighteen, Uh Got a War was really a
love letter to my kids, you know. And but for me, Cradles
was a lot further along or a lot simpler than I was as a person.
Cradles narrows it down to, oh, sure, I'm going to protect
my kids and make my warrior. That's it. That's all that matters.
There is nothing else. Yeah, clarity of purpose, yes, most definitely,
Singularity, most definitely. Yeah, Yeah, cradles enough to you know,
work a job. Yeah, you know he didn't have to balance his
books. He wouldn't balance in any books. Oh that's well, you know
obviously being your son. That's right, folks, I am yeah, there
we go. It's the figure of it that's called an easter egg. That's
right. That's right. By the way, it's just a total coincidence,
has nothing. Okay, maybe there's a little something, but I mean that
was the craziest experience playing video games. And you know, like I've played
video games my whole life, and you know, even playing like Deaf Jam,
you know, was a completely different experience with you voicing. You know,
it was cool, you know, like growing up and I love that
game, but mostly for like the rappers and stuff that were in it.
You know, you were like, yes, you guys made that very apparent.
Yeah, you want to come to work now, you want to come
to work now, you want to come to work. Method man's going to
be there. Oh that's funny. Yeah. But playing God of War and
like I've seen you say in an interview, you know like it was what
was the phraseology that you used, It was like learning how to be a
father something along those lines, Yes, because I was never taught how to
father. Yeah. How do you teach someone the father that's never been fathered?
Yeah? And like I could really feel that, like that was the
most emotional video game I've ever played, because like I feel like I had
probably the most unique experience in the world playing that game, because it felt
like I'm even getting chills talking about it now, because like you know,
I really put myself in like a Trayas's shoes and every time you're talking,
you know you're controlling, but like it felt like you're taught. Like I
can hear your voice talking to me right, Like I even remember one time
playing and I don't know a Trea says something about his mom and you like
Gough, and I was like I have heard that size so many times in
my life. Like that was so real, and it was just like it
was like a really emotional journey and like you know, like you never really
got that emotional in front of us as kids, and like, oh man,
like I just the hair on the back of my neck is standing up
because I remember in the climax of that first game, you know, you
A Treyas gets taken. It's been a couple of years since I've played,
but A Treyas gets taken or something like that, and you're busting through all
the doors of the different realms and it's like a cut scene you have to
bust through, and like hearing your scream was like it like brought like tears
to my eyes because like I could hear the pain and the frustration and it
was so real. And like just playing through that whole game, it was
just like really like not to sound too corny, but like a life changing
experience because it was such a unique aspect, you know, like controlling that
character, like hearing the stories like riding riding in the boat, you know,
and you and the talking head. Sorry I'm forgetting your name. Yeah,
but what's the actor's name? Oh, Aliser, yeah, Alistair,
and man, it was just like a really cool experience. And obviously the
second one's great too, you know, I'm looking forward to whatever's coming,
but like I just really felt like I was in a unique position to play
those games from that perspective, especially about like fatherhood and you know, so
much of like what I do and what I aspire to do, you know,
acting and show business and all that came from growing up and being on
set, and that was you know, like the times that we got to
spend spend together, you know, even though I'd be in the special effects
trailer. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I worried about some of those antics
watching UFC. I'd be the trailer. They'd be like looking for me on
set because he would always trying to get me to sit there in the director's
chair, and I hated it. It was like the most boring process to
me ever, Like he'd be like, you have to learn, and I'd
be like, you have to Learn'd be like what, like learn what these
guys are setting up lights for an hour and then you guys do two takes
and I can't see ship Like yeah, yeah, I'd rather be in the
trailer with the special effects guys watching UFC and like shooting the paintball guns.
Yeah. Well that's and oddly enough, you have worked yeah behind the scenes.
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, I've worked on so you we may
have picked something up after all for sure. Yeah. I've worked in quite
a few departments and in front of the camera. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
you know, but you're you can see what a special place now that
you've been on other sets. What a special place Stargate? Oh for sure.
I mean where like it was always bring your family to work day,
was always bring your dog to work day. That was the Everyone knew each
other's kids, everyone knew each other's wives, husbands you can't and sisters because
they were always welcome and you know, and everyone looked out for the family
you brought, so there wasn't anywhere they couldn't go in the offices and them.
And I remember riding on Jason Momoa's motorbike, like he used to be
the freaking cool guy that was coming on his motorbike. Can't be coming his
set. I could just hear, are you oh you're little judge? Oh
get on this long before you know? He was like Jason, yeah,
you know, he was on Atlantis. I can't even remember what character he
played on there, but running decks. Yeah. But he was such a
cool guy, you know, like just such a down to earth dude.
And yeah, just that's someone you can really be happy for their success because
he's not a douche. Yeah. Always a good sign, yeah, yeah,
yeah, always a good sign. But that's that's what I want.
My mission is that at least every set that I'm number one on, it's
gonna be that, you know. Yeah, it's not gonna be people yelling
and screaming and call each names. Yeah, It's gonna be supportive and what
can we do to help you? And always a the floor is yours,
like the ideas are welcome, you know, and to make people when they
wake up happy to go to work. Now, yeah, I gotta go
to this motherfucker. Yeah, you know, like yeah, yeah, definitely
been definitely been on sets like that. And to give credit, you know,
I worked on Arrow for two years and you know, that's how I
got to know David Ramsey and that's how we got him on the show.
And that was like a very similar experience. It was a high stress.
I think it was higher stress probably than Stargate. You know, like it
was stress. Yeah, it was really long days and everything like that.
But you know, other than somebody, everybody was really kind. Do you
think having a season security added to the relaxation on set? And I was
like, well, we're not we're not going anywhere, so let's just all
have fun with this. It's a good question performer wise. Yes. Now,
when I say, I mean there was no stress relative to other sets,
there's still you got to get your days, you know, there's still
you know, things like that. You know, but when you are once
you're a series, it's and you find your stride and you find that formula,
then it's relatively simple to get your days until they whoever you do is
just wait, you got nine pages in ten hours, Let's do fifteen pages
a day. Yeah, then you know you're back. Okay, how do
we do that? Okay, you got fifteen and twelve, Let's see if
we can get eighteen pages a day. You know. So it's uh,
it's kind of always, but you know, and God bless them. Michael
Greenberg, he was twelve hours, and if you think about it, after
twelve hours, it's diminishing returns. Yeah. I was gonna say you'd be
winded down. Yeah, you can't. People can't fausted. And you know
that thirteenth hour eight like the first Yeah. Yeah, and that was back
in the days when pretty much all sci fi was shot in Vancouver. So
we hear about these shows. They were doing twenty two hour days. Then
they're asking people to wave turn around, and twenty four hour days. Even
when we first started, when we did the pilot for Stargate, we did
French hours, which means you basically are shooting you sketch jewel an eighteen hour
day, so but you're doing it with two crews, so you're in a
constant rotation. So it becomes a twenty four hour day shooting day because you're
constantly either at lunch and then another crew or you have I think you would
get a three hour break or something like that and then back and then you'd
have like a two hour break. It was really I had never heard of
it before, but it was. We were trying to shovel ten pounds of
shit into a five pound bag. So it just needed to be done,
and they had found actually a really creative way to do it. But then
they quickly realized it was untenable, or you know it is I wanted to
do you do you do you feel like once you achieve a certain level of
not even fame, acclaim, do you ever like have the thing? I
could settle a lot of old scores, right, yeah, knock on what?
I don't have many? I mean, you know, in my realm
and my coming up it was like, uh huh huh. Oh yeah,
So I wasn't gonna do nothing, huh, you know, and uh,
you know, it's it's just kind of that type of thing, you know,
some yahoo that used to bug you in high school. You know,
I had a guy throw me up against the locker, you know, back
in Catholic schooling to go, let me tell you something. Comings you ain't
gonna do squad all right? I know you. I know your family gonna
work in the steel mill for another twenty five years. You're gonna you're gonna
you're gonna sit around and lose money on on the Pittsburgh Pirates and on the
Cleveland Indians and on you know, cause we're in Youngstown right there. And
I was thinking, man, you're gonna brag about knowing me one of these
days. And that's my kind of revenge. That's awesome, you know.
And and so you know, and I went back and now I had a
I established a many moons ago, a permanent scholarship in my father's name,
God Rest the soul at that school. So it's like, okay, now,
what were you saying that again? You know, it is looking back
through the journey and you know how few people were actually supportive of you or
weren't. Weren't didn't look at you and go like, will you ever be
successful? You have you know, it's yeah, So it's it's yeah,
you're You're right. It is its own reward. Yeah, it is.
Well I remember, you know, like I said, my dad and different
people. Yeah, I know you want to do that, but what are
you going to do for a living now? No, I'm going to do
it. That's what I'm going to do. Yeah, but yeah, to
have something to fall back, you know, you know, it was always
something you gotta and it was something to fall back on. I'm not going
to fall back. I'm gonna I'm going to keep trucking to go forward.
I'm not looking to fall back on anything. I don't. I'm okay,
you know, And I'll go back and I'll be a deckhandhunt a damn riverboat
after but I won't. But I'll just keep the story that I got from
doing that, and then you know, then that'll end for the journey.
I mean Grandma, my mom, who bet my best friend, God bless
her. She never worried about me, like growing up, she always had
this belief that I was gonna be successful at something. You know. She
never really got on me to, you know, but so what are you
gonna do? You know? When uh, I decided I didn't want to
play football anymore, and so now I start working, and I believe it
was I gotten to show much I'll called Sirens. So when that ended,
she was like, so honey, what are you gonna You're gonna need something
to fall back on. It was like, wait, you've never ever come
on. So she made me take the Series seven exam, so I got
my stockbroker's license and we still laugh about it. To this man, I
was like, wait a minute, you wait until after I already started working
in this field that everyone told me I wouldn't be successful and you're never worried
about it. But as soon as I started working, well then I got
that's bass ackwards. That is bass ackwards. Oh wow, yeah, well
here, let me buy you a house. Now are you worried? Are
you're still worried? Yeah? What was it about? You know? I
loved the games themselves, I loved watching film. I loved. What I
didn't like was the control the these coaching was a lot less regulated than it
is now. So the guy who recruited me was also my position coach,
so he understood me. He left and went to Stanford, and the guy
who came in did not understand me and was determined to break me till I
fit his mold, and that wasn't going to happen. So like nowadays,
I don't even know if you can go live during full contact during the season
anymore barely. So back then, if we had a game on Saturday,
we'd go live Friday. We'd be in full pads hitting each other the day
before we go out. And I was vocal of us like, this is
the dumbest shit ever. Yeah, what what if called accidents for a reason?
You know? And this was, you know, this dude from back
South who I don't want to say he was racist. He just hated black
people there but other than that, but he was determined. And at I
went to Oh, I went to the Oh that's Oregon by the way.
Yes, we had had a bunch of players from the South Bay go to
Oregon and we were all characters, you know, and apparently, well I
know one was, and you know, he was determined that at least in
the position that he was in charge of, we were going to do things
his way. Sure, and that's not how any of us were recruited there.
You know, I was a free safety. You were recruited because you
yeah, you know, and he tried to put me in this very regiments.
Yeah, well you got in there being you. What was wrong with
that? Exactly right? Yeah, exactly right. But that was back in
the days of thinking that you could mold players into a coach's likeness. They
don't do that anymore. Yeah, Oh that's good. Yeah. I don't
even have a set to that, so that's cool. Yeah, that's good
stuff. Yeah. Well, I wanted to ask you, Jim. We
were just talking about, you know, being on good sets and creating a
family environment, and we've kind of touched on touched on it in other podcasts,
you know. I think Phil yesterday was saying, you know, like
the Voiceover World is kind of all of that. You know, it's a
very friendly environment. So I just wanted to ask you, what's like the
what's the best experience you've had on a show with the cast and the behind
the scenes. Oh, boy, gosh, the best on the show.
Well, see, I we don't do it that much anymore, but I
I always liked the whole cast being there. Yeah, you know, because
it's an organic feel well, you know, I mean, you know,
somebody says something and even if it's not exactly the right line, you react
to what they said, and now it became the right line, and your
line is a little better. Now everything just creeps up a notch, you
know. And it's at that camaraderie, that type of thing. In fact,
yesterday we were the other day we were talking with Terry McGovern and I
was dark Wing Duck and he was launch Pad mcquack. He was dark Wing
sidekick, and we did a show together. Out of almost one hundred,
we did one show one, the very first show we did together, in
the same room. Every single other one was he lived in Petaluma or somewhere
like that, San Francisco, you know, and and he was in a
studio. I was in the studio, but we're never in the same studio.
And it came off great. But that was because we had a rapport.
Whereas I think one of my favorite ones really now that I think of
it was the very last show of the Gummy Bears. Everybody remember the Gummy
Bears out there, Well, we had all these different people. There was
Katie Lee and Will Ryan and Lorenzo Music and oh gosh, I don't even
I want to shut up now. Noel North was there, and anyway,
it was the whole cast, Rob Paulson and uh. And we had the
whole cast there and I, you know, I should put this on somewhere
because I've got it on video and now it's on a DVD. And I
taped the whole session, you know, this back when nobody gave a darn
and I'm sitting there with this big stupid you know, the big old eighties
VTR and the camera there and and oh, sh it's my life, okay,
you know, and uh, And so I have it on there and
and it it shows you there's a rapport there, and I think it's a
little better, you know, when when you're doing it with everybody there.
Acting is part of reacting. That's exactly right. So exactly right. But
you know that people talk about the evolution of gaming, A lot of it
is because now we shoot the cinematics together, you know, we actually you
know, we're the peakap suits and we're in the volume together, and it
just makes all the difference in the world. As opposed to manufacturing something there,
you're playing the reality of what's there, and it just rings so much
truer that you know, I during the lockdown I did, I played Black
Panther War War for Wakanda, and it's so extremely difficult to do scenes without
even being able to hear, yeah what they were doing, well they were
doing. Yeah, So to record in a vacuum like that, I'll never
do it again. Yeah yeah, yeah, well you know I hear you,
boy. It really helps, Yeah, because you're having to having to
reimagine and imagine what this character right before me said, and who's coming up
afterward. And I mean even things like levels of volume. You know,
I mean, am I yelling across the field? Or is a guy right
next to me? I mean, you know, you get a sense of
that. But but it's a it's kind of a you know, I like
the feedback, and I just think it's better. It's just better to have
people around you. But I think I think with the video games, they
they're so focused on getting this stuff here, that stuff there, then then
they want to maestro it together. Okay, well it's been It's really the
change of it now is because the player has so much control. Now it's
not micro managing anything anymore because you have to do every version of it.
Yeah, so it's not really that Okay, we only have like one take
we can use. Yeah, you got to use them all because you don't
know the player is going to take a step left here. Yeah, that's
of course, that's right, that's right, you know. So yeah,
it's it's it's a whole different. Uh. Yeah. When we were doing
Ragnarock, you know, we had obviously delays because of the lockdown and all
that, but it was just so big on the page that, you know,
every time I would go in and say because they had come out and
finally and said that we were going to come out in twenty twenty two,
and I'd start off every session with gotta wear Ragnarok twenty thirty seven. And
let me tell you how quickly that got old. How did the pandemic change
the way you go about in your work with video games? To change the
business in any way, the video game business, the business know how we
shot it changed a lot. It was so fucking ridiculous, and not not
to have about what safety protocols were in place, that was other people's decisions.
But if I was going to hand Jim a prop, there would be
a prop guy who would sterilize it when it came out of mind. Oh
yeah, give me a break. Then he could put it in his gloved
hand and give it to you, and then you would continue to see that
makes me just want to sign. Yeah. But then the director as system,
everyone of the all the technicians, they all had on face shields so
you couldn't hear what the directions were. Oh god, And when we do
read throughs, everyone had on face shields, so you couldn't hear anything anyone
was saying. So that so slowed the process. But we kind of finally
not not to finesse it because we could. It couldn't be finesse because we
had two safety people on set at all times. So but we found a
way to deal with it and we it was frustrating, but we didn't let
each other wallow in the frustration. Yeah, you know, and that that
is strictly all due to what trust we had developed for each other in the
safety of that volume. That's cool. That's cool. How when you compare
the cut of wall family with the Stockgate family. The only reason that's not
a good question is because I won't answer it. Yeah, yeah, that's
true. Yeah, which is your favorite? Kids? Now it's like,
no, well it's a which is better? How did you compare? Like,
what's other similarities between the two? Or there are similarities, but one
is coming from the perspective of a guy who was four on the call sheet
compared to the perspective of a guy who was one on the car, So
it's from a different lens, you know what I mean. And they were
just both great places to be, you know. So one I kind of
had to go with the flow and the flow just happened to be good.
The other one, I make sure the flow is good. So that's just
the only difference. How did it feeling when you when you first went from
being like the four as you said, for stargeting, now you're the one.
How did you initially feel about that? Did you feel like you had
to change your approach to how you engage with others or how did you first
take being having that responsibility on your shoulders? I felt free because I knew
that my intentions were righteous. It was to be as supportive, as loving,
as open to criticism, whatever it may be, and take it all
as positive there was never a day in there when there was anything negative but
a bunch of us I mean, Corey, I mean we all said,
this is the holy space. This insulates us from everything out there, so
you could truly walk in and feel safe no matter what you're going through in
your personal life, no matter because the news wasn't always great back then,
you know, so no matter how down you felt about what's going on in
the world, here's the place you'll be like, yeah, yeah, that's
true, that's nice, that's nice. Yeah, yeah, I do that
all the time too, But I didn't bring my drumsticks. Oh yeah,
I drive engineers and that's occasionally. Okay, could you not do that on
the damn microphone. We've talked a lot about, you know, good times,
good casts and everything like that. One thing we haven't touched on,
you know, this this entertainment industry is so difficult and everything like that.
What has been for each of you? What has been like one of the
hardest moments of your career when you felt the most down or you know,
down trod in or struggling something really difficult for you? Boy? Oh boy,
well knock on what I've I've been fairly lucky in that regard, but
you know, uh, well, when they cast Christian Bale ahead of me
in Batman numb No, I think I've been fortunate enough to never have any
really bad down times, but I've always in the back of my head,
I think we all have this one is it? Well? What if I
don't cut the mustard next? You know, what if what if they what
if they come up with some character and I can't swing it? What if
they you know? And so uh, you know, you know, I
think it's the fear of the unknown. I would think, you know,
but so far, so good. You know, I made it this far.
I'm hanging out with him, and so uh. It's so fascinating for
me to hear that, because I remember I was watching an actor's roundtable on
YouTube and I forget who said it. I can't remember who said it,
but it was a big actor. And hearing it from you too, it's
just so interesting to me that that sticks with you your whole career, you
know, as like a young actor, you would think, you know,
you get to a certain point where it's like, Okay, I can take
a deep breath. You know, my body of work spece for itself.
And well, residuals are your friend. I can tell you that. I
mean, amen, right, you know, but I've always had that,
you know, I guess what, the fear of flying or fear of the
you know what if the phone stops ringing. And I think that's healthy a
little bit because it keeps you hungry. You know, have gotta have a
little fire in the furnace. You got to keep going, you know,
and uh and stretching and you know, and you know, I've been very
fortunate to have different auditions to pop up. And it comes from this angle
and that angle and this angle and and uh, knock on wood, which
I won't because it makes it loud noise. You know. I've I've been
fortunate enough to skate. You know, I don't know if it's skating or
whatever it is. But because I mean, I still in the back of
my head, I can go. I can hear my dad go yeah,
but okay, that's good. But what are you gonna do for a living?
Again? I go, no, I'm really going to do that?
Well, yeah, okay, you know, and and for me that you're
never so sure that I'll be able to do something without if somebody is sitting
over there going, You'll never you ain't gonna never do that. Man,
you you're fooling yourself. You're kidding yourself, You're kidding your family. You're
not going to cut that mustard. Okay, now I'm gonna sleigh. Now,
it's probably not the right way to be encouraged. But if it works,
if it worked, now coming, you ain't gonna make it. It's
like I told you that Jim Mount, who shall remain nameless, you know,
yeah, you know he bagged on me. He goes, No,
you're gonna be in a still and I don't enough. He was right.
I worked in the CEMO for six months, but that was it. Yeah.
I just wanted to get him enough money to move to New Orleans and
then I did. That's awesome. Yeah, not convoyd. Yeah, but
don't but don't. Yeah, that's true. You know the I can remember
the one time I had started working a lot, and now I'm going for
Leeds and series and I don't know, I don't even know if they still
do this. But one of the insidious things about being a regular on the
show, before you screen test, they negotiate your deal, so you know
exactly how much money this screen so well, because if they want you,
if you haven't already negotiate, you hold them for ransom. Yeah, okay,
so it's a profit deal. Nice where I guess that makes sense for
them. Yeah. So at that time I had already done a series,
and I was kind of trying to now not take guest roles and stuff like
that. So I just wanted to get leads and series. So I was
working at ABC Entertainment Center the night shift as a security guard. I come
home, work out, sleep for an hour or two, and prepare for
auditions or what have you, you know, and then repeat. So this
one pilot season, I negotiated six deals and didn't get any of them.
So when you're not working and you see this is for twenty thousand episode back
then twenty two episodes, Okay, you don't get it. Okay, a
role, damn. So that works for about two or three of them.
Now after that, it's tough. It's tough, and so yeah, six
didn't get any and I really that was my come to Jesus, maybe I
shouldn't be doing this. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, I'll give it
one more year. The first auditions of the next year was started Okay,
that paid off well. I had like my third year in the business was
very slim, and I ended up doing singing telegrams, a couple couple of
them, you know, for a b three or four months, and man
man, and it passed over. It happened. The Easter rolled around,
and so they said, okay, Jim, get over here, here,
here, you go here, here, he wants you to put this on.
I go, what the hell? It was an Easter bunny costume and
it was one of those solid heads. So here I am. I'm down.
I was a Orange County, California solid head with a little hole and
nick gauze around the eye. So you look through the look through the ice.
And I went up there and I go, here comes Pete to cotton
tail up and down the bunny trail, and I realized that there's no oxygen
in here, and I was there's the pod and I pulled a head off
because I was running. I was eating on my own oxygen. I was
on monoxide and carbonnoxide. And then it goes, you know, Easter buddy
just pulled his head off. So if you kids are watching this, you're
probably about thirty years old. Now I'm sorry, I'm sorry. Here comes
pe so don't try this at home. Oh god, that's all I got.
Okay, Thank you very much for watching. That was another episode of
Tuned In with Jim Cummings joined by Chris Judge. Thank you again so much
for being here. Don't forget to like and subscribe us on YouTube. You
can follow us on Patreon for bonus content and extra goodies, and of course
we're on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and all that good stuff. Thank you so
much for watching. This was tuned In with Jim Commings. We'll see you
next time.