Category: Television

“wilw: I think I may die from too much fun today. I’m working on Naruto this morning, then Family Guy this afternoon.”

This morning, I finished my arc on Naruto. I can’t say anything specific (I actually shouldn’t have said I was working on it at all until it aired. Oops.) but my shows will start airing in about a month, and I can tell some behind the scenes stuff then.

After I finished recording, I had about 2 hours before I was scheduled to work on Family Guy, so on the way I stopped at this pizza place I’ve always wanted to eat at in Burbank called Dino’s. Oh my god. I had this pizza called the caponata: roasted eggplant, green olives, garlic, onions, tomatoes, capers and fresh basil. OM NOM NOM NOM NOM NOM NOM.

While I was there, I read an actual newspaper, which was a rather exciting and retro experience. I used to read the Los Angeles Times and the Daily News every day, and the New York Times on Sundays, and today was the first time I’ve held a newspaper in my hands that wasn’t The Onion in over a year.

After lunch, I drove down to Hollywood for Family Guy. On my way down Highland, I saw at least a dozen different street corner prophets, hollering at traffic about one thing or another. In the median at Highland and Melrose, I saw legendary Hollywood crazy person Melrose Larry Green. He had a political sign, but he was waving it around so much, I couldn’t read it. Dang.

I record Family Guy (and Cavalcade) in an office building down on Wilshire near LACMA. It’s a really cool place, where the Evil Monkey tells people to recycle, a Family Guy pinball machine is available on free play, and a ping pong table takes up much of the waiting area near the recording booths. There were two people playing when I got there, and after I read my sides (holy shit is it a funny scene) I looked up to see Seth Green playing.

I sort of knew Seth when we were much younger, because he was one of those guys I’d run into at auditions all the time. He was a little nerdy, and always really nice and unassuming, with a great sense of humor. I remember once, back in 1998 or 1999, I said to him, “You know, Seth, you’re a little nerdy, and you’re also nice and unassuming, with a great sense of humor. You should do a TV show where you satirize movies and popular culture with animated action figures.”*

I wasn’t sure if he’d remember me since it had been so long, but it turns out that he did, and after talking to him for a few minutes I was really happy to see that he’s the same exceedingly nice and easygoing guy I sort knew all those years ago. Before I left, we played some ping pong, and discussed the awesomeness of being on Team I Have An Awesome Beard. He recently moved to team I Don’t Have A Beard Because It Was Too Itchy, but the bond between bearded and formerly-bearded brothers was still strong. And awesome.**

When I recorded my lines, Seth MacFarlane directed me. My scene was with Peter Griffin, and I am as proud of myself as I’ve ever been that I didn’t lose my shit when Seth read me into my first line in Peter’s voice. I also told him that I’m still laughing about Surfin’ Bird, and nearly convinced him that members of The Trashmen were all deadbeat dads to the same former groupie, so the increased sales on iTunes was finally feeding her numerous bastard children. (This was way, way funnier than it seems now. Making outrageous shit up like that and committing to it completely is one of my favorite ways to amuse myself.)

On my way home, I hoped to complete my strange trip into Hollywood with an Angelyne sighting, but I got to see a hobo getting all Office Space on his shopping cart instead, while a bunch of other hoboes watched . . . and guarded theirs.

There was no traffic on the freeway, and I got home in 27 minutes.

I think it’s safe to say I had a very weird day.

*This never actually happened.

**Awesome.

So I worked on Naruto today. I don’t think I can say what character I voiced, or what the story was about, but I’m going to be in more than one episode, and it’ll start in about a month. I’m recording again on Friday, and I’ll ask then if I’m allowed to give up any details.

I had to get up much earlier than usual to make it to the studio on time this morning, and my brain, as it so often does, decided that the best way to ensure I got a good night’s sleep was to sing songs, make me too hot then too cold then too hot then too cold all fucking night long. I think I slept for 3 hours, and I’ve felt a little blurry all day.

Naruto is originally in Japanese, so I was dubbing this character for the English broadcast. It was really different from working on Legion or Ben 10, and was more like looping live action. It was a lot of fun, though, and the episodes I saw while I worked today were much darker than the stuff I’ve seen Nolan watch. I think the damn kids today will dig the story arc that I’m part of, but when I tried to tell Nolan what the story was about while I drove him home from school today, he was adamant that I not give him any spoilers, so my one opportunity to actually check in with a reliable representative of the damn kids today was cut off.

I had a lot of fun, though, and it was really satisfying to work in a genre that I’ve wanted to be a part of for a long time. If you count Macross, Robotech, and Battle of the Planets, I’ve been watching Anime since I was a little kid. If you’re more of a purist, I’ve been watching since I got Akira on a fifth-generation VHS bootleg at a con when I was 14. (Funny-but-true story: my friends and I watched that tape over and over again, but since the original Japanese dialog wasn’t subtitled, we had no idea what the story was. We built one of our own that we thought was pretty good, but turns out was completely wrong.)

I’m not super hardcore or anything, but I enjoy anime and manga, and I was awfully excited every time I got to do all the traditional anime sounds, like the various gasps, and the occasionally-awkward translations and bits of dialog we had to add to match the mouth movements (which were originally animated to go with Japanese. Mostly, though, I felt the tremendous satisfaction that comes with bringing a character to life and making him my own.

I always tell people who want to be actors that they have to need it, the way we all need to eat or sleep. It’s a long hard road, fraught with uncertainty and more defeats than victories, and if you don’t have a visceral, primal, almost supernatural need to do it (that is deeper than “I want to be rich and famous”) it’s just not worth it.

Bringing a character to life is how I chase the dragon. Whether it’s writing, acting on camera, or acting with my voice, I need that fix, man. For a few hours today, I got it, and it felt so good.

Maybe that’s why my brain was so worked up last night. Maybe I was subconsciously shivering with antici . . . pation.

I wonder how I’ll sleep tonight?