Speaker 1: Hey, Christy, Hey Will, how are you. I'm doing pretty good.
Speaker 1: We have a great guest today. Yeah, I'm really really excited.
Speaker 1: This is a man I've known for many, many years,
Speaker 1: and he is truly one of the best in the business,
Speaker 1: not just voice over, but on camera as well and
Speaker 1: human being. Yeah, he's a great guy. Talk about inspiration.
Speaker 1: Will wait to hear this one, everybody. He is an
Speaker 1: amazing person, an incredible actor, and just so inspirational. We
Speaker 1: can't wait to hear from him. Who's joining us today, Christy.
Speaker 1: Guys is Dietrich mad Hi, how are you? I'm okay. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm okay. Hey Christy, okay, I'm okay. Hello. Thank you
Speaker 1: for coming. Oh yeah, pleasure. We are going to be
Speaker 1: I don't know if you know anything about our podcast,
Speaker 1: but we just talked about different ice cream flavors for
Speaker 1: an hour. I'm glad you came on too. Oh, Dietrich bad,
Speaker 1: thank you so much for joining us on. I hear
Speaker 1: voice is. Apparently you guys are very good friends. I
Speaker 1: did not know that everything do any research. I just
Speaker 1: said anything for Will. Now I realized I'm going to
Speaker 1: talk about ice cream for an hour. This is this
Speaker 1: is this is not the thing to do a little
Speaker 1: bit of a little bit of research, A tiny bit
Speaker 1: of research. Wait, so how do you guys know each other?
Speaker 1: I'm seriously, I didn't know. I was trying to think
Speaker 1: about that. Teacher. Can you remember the first show we
Speaker 1: did together, because I actually remember the exact episode. Um,
Speaker 1: it was the Zeta Project if I remember, well it
Speaker 1: was it was it was the Batman Beyond episode that
Speaker 1: pect that's set up, but it was like a backdoor
Speaker 1: pilot for the Zata Project. And uh and Will was
Speaker 1: this is that was the last season of the of
Speaker 1: your show? Right? Yeah? What is a backdoor pilot for
Speaker 1: people that may not know? Oh yeah, um sure, that's uh.
Speaker 1: That's when you introduced characters that are going to be
Speaker 1: in a series that has already been picked up. So
Speaker 1: they basically they already know that it's going They just
Speaker 1: want to do an establish show like Will show and say, well,
Speaker 1: here's this other character. Wow, wouldn't that be amazing if
Speaker 1: he had his own show? And then they're like, wait
Speaker 1: a minute, he does. What are the chances of that's incredible? Now?
Speaker 1: How obviously people and we're going to get into this
Speaker 1: because that's the other thing you probably should have done
Speaker 1: some research about it's an eleven hour show. UM. So
Speaker 1: uh yeah, so we're here all day, We're in for
Speaker 1: the long haul. You got that, you got the whole
Speaker 1: the thing about bringing water and so every we're gonna
Speaker 1: get into your on camera stuff, which again is nice,
Speaker 1: is obviously extensive. But by that episode where I met you,
Speaker 1: had you been doing a lot of v O by
Speaker 1: that point. Uh No, I was pretty new to the world.
Speaker 1: I started with just a guest star spot. Jamie Thomason
Speaker 1: brought me in for um, uh Gargoyles, and I had
Speaker 1: done some things. Yeah, he's great. He really started my career. Um,
Speaker 1: but I had done some things, and um, I didn't.
Speaker 1: I did some guest star spots for Andrea Romano, who
Speaker 1: did both series of the series that Will was just
Speaker 1: talking about in Zata Project and um, and then she
Speaker 1: brought me into audition for the Data Project and that
Speaker 1: was That was the first time I was a regular
Speaker 1: on anything, and I was the lead and it was
Speaker 1: very very different from me, and um, you know it was.
Speaker 1: It was really fascinating being a regular on an animated show.
Speaker 1: I mean because it's like, um, first of all, the
Speaker 1: way Andrea records like a radio play. Was like a
Speaker 1: dream because it was Zike Freed shut up. Oh my god,
Speaker 1: it's amazing. Is Roy there to calm him down. He's
Speaker 1: actually named after the Get Smart character by um So anyway,
Speaker 1: so yeah, that was that was really a fascinating process
Speaker 1: and and uh and something I really truly loved. UM.
Speaker 1: I would record it on Wednesday mornings. We did the
Speaker 1: Drew Carey Show. I was then on a show called
Speaker 1: The Drew Carey Show that we shot on Tuesday nights,
Speaker 1: and then uh, and then I would come in Wednesday
Speaker 1: morning and and uh and do this show. And then
Speaker 1: I would go to um the read through of The
Speaker 1: Drew Carey Show. So it was like it was like
Speaker 1: a dream. Although I will say I don't think I
Speaker 1: did a single Zeta project without a hangover why so
Speaker 1: needless to say, we won't be talking about specific episodes.
Speaker 1: That's all kind of it. That's I mean, that's yeah,
Speaker 1: that's the way it was. It was because when we
Speaker 1: did Batman Beyond, we did it Thursday morning, and I
Speaker 1: would go right from from recording that episode too, then
Speaker 1: we recorded our show we did we taped point me
Speaker 1: to all Thursday night, so it was. Yeah. Yeah, So
Speaker 1: the story I always tell, which is absolutely true, which
Speaker 1: is one of the worst one of the worst days
Speaker 1: of my career was the last episode of Batman Beyond
Speaker 1: recorded Thursday morning, and then I drove to the last
Speaker 1: taping appointment to all that Thursday night. They ended on
Speaker 1: the same day. So yeah, it was that was that
Speaker 1: was That was a tough Thursday. That was one of
Speaker 1: the tougher Thursdays. Did you see Dietrick that day? He did.
Speaker 1: He slapped me in the way that nice career jerk,
Speaker 1: and then he just walked away after backhanding me. So
Speaker 1: from an acting standpoint, yeah, exactly. It well one of
Speaker 1: them every day being friends with Dietrich since has been
Speaker 1: a time. Um. So from an acting standpoint, do you
Speaker 1: approach a voiceover character any differently than you'd approach and
Speaker 1: on camera character. Um, that's a great question. So, um,
Speaker 1: I don't think you necessarily approach the character a different way,
Speaker 1: but you approach um the way that you do it
Speaker 1: in a different way. There's just different levels of volume
Speaker 1: depending on what format you're in. So if you're on stage,
Speaker 1: it's pretty big because you've got an audience that can't
Speaker 1: really make out the micro signals that you send, so
Speaker 1: you you you kind of have to build everything bigger.
Speaker 1: Then there's then there's like a television um where the
Speaker 1: camera's pretty close but it's still not movie screen, Like
Speaker 1: you're enormous on the screen and you really should do
Speaker 1: very little. Um. But voiceover is like you've got to
Speaker 1: turn things up to eleven. You've got to be much
Speaker 1: bigger than you think. You can't just think the proper thoughts, um,
Speaker 1: you have to really like project UM. There's an old
Speaker 1: acting term like indicate, which is basically just indicating what
Speaker 1: what you're thinking, and usually that's for Boden, but um,
Speaker 1: in voiceover, you kind of have to indicate a little
Speaker 1: bit otherwise, like I've worked with so many and you
Speaker 1: have too, well, but work with so many. They bring
Speaker 1: in on camera actors a lot into the voiceover world,
Speaker 1: kind of for the novelty of it for one thing,
Speaker 1: I think, And the other reason is because they've got
Speaker 1: like some heat at that moment or whatever, or maybe
Speaker 1: the casting director is just interested in meeting them. I
Speaker 1: don't know, but anyway, UM, they tend to be super
Speaker 1: flat UM because they're used to camera sticking in their face,
Speaker 1: so they're thinking all the right thoughts, they're just not
Speaker 1: using their voice as the primary and instrument um. And
Speaker 1: they often I'm sure you've noticed this too. Well, they'll like,
Speaker 1: when you do a scene together, they'll look at you,
Speaker 1: so they'll go they'll go off my Yeah, so I
Speaker 1: did that at the start. I did that when I
Speaker 1: started my career, was like, hey, Kevin Conrad, it's not right,
Speaker 1: that's not right, let's do it's not exactly. Yeah, got
Speaker 1: into the microphone and Kevin Kevin. Kevin had a background
Speaker 1: in Shakespeare. We interviewed him on one of our first episodes,
Speaker 1: and it's funny how you say about the preceni um
Speaker 1: and just sort of the medium of which whether you
Speaker 1: know it's something like sitcom with your carry and and
Speaker 1: how you're projecting for that type of comedy or whatnot.
Speaker 1: And then wow, it really is a wonderful point that
Speaker 1: you make. Their d n was the first graduate from Juilliard.
Speaker 1: You know he went to He was in the first year,
Speaker 1: which is cool. Yeah, I don't know if that's if
Speaker 1: that's real. I don't know. More more time I spend
Speaker 1: with Kevin, the more I think he's just making the
Speaker 1: I'm not sure he was even Batman. If I'm if
Speaker 1: I'm honest, I'm not sure he was even Batman. Um.
Speaker 1: But that's so that Okay, So you you you're in
Speaker 1: that So the first time you ever star in a series,
Speaker 1: you and I have very similar origin stories, which we
Speaker 1: want to get to your origin story eventually. But where
Speaker 1: the first series you're doing, you're thrown in and you
Speaker 1: are instantly working with Andrea Romano and some of the
Speaker 1: best in the business. Um, did you know that going
Speaker 1: in kind of the team you were being thrown into
Speaker 1: or no? Uh no, I don't think I did. And
Speaker 1: I also because I was new to the world, UM,
Speaker 1: I didn't understand just how incredibly talented. Um people in
Speaker 1: the voice over world are. Um because on camera actors, UM,
Speaker 1: I'm just gonna be completely honest, some of them are
Speaker 1: not entirely please. Yeah, sometimes some of them you're not
Speaker 1: entirely sure why they're there. Um. You know, you you
Speaker 1: work with them, and you're like, Okay, that's apparently how
Speaker 1: you're going to do that. UM, So I guess we're
Speaker 1: gonna have to interesting interesting choice. Let's work around that
Speaker 1: is where we're gonna This is what you got, all right,
Speaker 1: so when it comes to my coverage, I'm gonna pretend
Speaker 1: that you're amazing exactly, Yeah, because you have to have
Speaker 1: to cover your own. But you can't like pretend that
Speaker 1: a scene. You can't. You can't say like nobody talks
Speaker 1: that way, or you can't, you can't. You just have
Speaker 1: to create. You just you're given what you're given and
Speaker 1: you have to just go. Um. But in the voice
Speaker 1: over world, to watch somebody like you know, our good
Speaker 1: friend John DiMaggio make three different voices in right in
Speaker 1: front of you is like, you know, somebody doing a
Speaker 1: sleight of hand where they just go frough like that
Speaker 1: and they do it, and you like you've watched it happen.
Speaker 1: It happened right in front of you, but you still
Speaker 1: don't know how it happened. You're like, that's a totally
Speaker 1: different person, and that just happened right in front of me,
Speaker 1: Like working with de Bradley Baker, Frank Welker or somebody
Speaker 1: that can create, like somebody like that. Yeah, right, those
Speaker 1: those three particularly that can make sounds that humans shouldn't
Speaker 1: be able to make, and uh, and we just we
Speaker 1: accept them because you know, like uh, Frank for example,
Speaker 1: Jurassic Park, like we just assumed, oh, that's how dinosaurs sound.
Speaker 1: It's like, we don't know how dinosaurs sound. Everybody, you know.
Speaker 1: The irony is if you walk around sixty million years ago,
Speaker 1: they just sound like Frank Welker, he's talking normally. Yeah, money,
Speaker 1: It's like, yeah, hey has everybody telling everybody has everybody?
Speaker 1: So you're that's that's the fun part about it. Um Well,
Speaker 1: the thing that I the magician um analogy is very
Speaker 1: interesting to me because when you when you talk to
Speaker 1: a magician about hey, how did you do that? They
Speaker 1: can walk you through the mechanics. Some of the voice
Speaker 1: over actors can't. Where it's like, how do you do that?
Speaker 1: I don't know. I'm just Eric Bowser and you're not.
Speaker 1: Um is kind of the answer, and it's like it's
Speaker 1: it's just a talent that comes from nowhere. But it's
Speaker 1: also why are you know it? It's growing, thankfully, but
Speaker 1: why our pool is so small? Like you walk into
Speaker 1: the room and you're gonna know everyone in the room
Speaker 1: because I do too. I do too. But I'm glad
Speaker 1: that it's getting to be Obviously you and I've talked
Speaker 1: about this and that it's getting to be more diversified
Speaker 1: and more more people represent it. That's all really good,
Speaker 1: but what is not being sacrificed at all is the
Speaker 1: quality of the talent. Know that all we can do
Speaker 1: is benefit from a widening talent pool. That's absolutely for sure.
Speaker 1: And one thing that I'm really happy about is that uh,
Speaker 1: white people are no longer doing people of color UM,
Speaker 1: which I always had a problem with. I remember on
Speaker 1: one UM show I did UH. I was a regular
Speaker 1: on the show, but they wanted me to do another
Speaker 1: voice and it was of an Inuit. Now it's like
Speaker 1: they're they're probably aren't deeminy Inuit actors, but there are
Speaker 1: a lot of Asian actors that could have been to
Speaker 1: do that. And I I was like, uh, I'm uncomfortable
Speaker 1: with this and they were like, can you can you
Speaker 1: just do it this one time? Maybe it's just a
Speaker 1: scratch track, and I'm like, that's not going to happen.
Speaker 1: This scratch track doesn't I'm going to record this and
Speaker 1: then you're gonna use that is what's going to happen.
Speaker 1: When they were like please, and I was like, and
Speaker 1: I gave in, I'll be honest with you. Idea, we
Speaker 1: all do we all, we all did, we all did?
Speaker 1: You know it? And it's one of those things where
Speaker 1: a lot of people don't know that when you walk
Speaker 1: into a booth um, what they'll do is they'll hire
Speaker 1: you sometimes to do three voices, and you don't necessarily
Speaker 1: know what those voices are going to be when you
Speaker 1: get in there, and they want you to sound different.
Speaker 1: So it's like, all right, now you're the mayor, do
Speaker 1: it with an Indian accent, and you go okay, and
Speaker 1: you throw on some horrible Indian accent and then you
Speaker 1: walk out going, well, I did my three voices. And
Speaker 1: and it's not until recently when when we've been going,
Speaker 1: wait that that wasn't okay, that's that, that's not all right,
Speaker 1: you're no, and it's it's you know, we always talk
Speaker 1: about you know, we we always talk about how and
Speaker 1: it's one of the things, one of several things we
Speaker 1: try to we're trying to do with this show where
Speaker 1: we'd like to eventually get the word out there that
Speaker 1: these big, huge on camera actors that you're talking about
Speaker 1: that are brought in to do some of these voiceovers,
Speaker 1: and they're brought in to do huge projects. These big
Speaker 1: pis are big Disney Big and Crowd. They should absolutely
Speaker 1: do them because there are a ton of fun Every
Speaker 1: actor should should be able to experience them. They're wonderful,
Speaker 1: but they should go in saying fifty percent of the
Speaker 1: cast needs to be regular voice over actors. I'm taking
Speaker 1: I want to make sure that fifty of the cast
Speaker 1: are hard working journey people voice over actors. So hopefully
Speaker 1: we're trying to get that word out. But Dietrich, how
Speaker 1: how actually like possible? Is that? Like? How many A
Speaker 1: listeners are actually gonna say, oh, I'm not going to
Speaker 1: be you know Pixar's new Massive Well yeah, I mean
Speaker 1: they're going to be the massive fish or whatever it is, like,
Speaker 1: but like, how many of them would actually stand up?
Speaker 1: Do you think, like, how do you make that normalized?
Speaker 1: I I think it's a great idea. Well I I
Speaker 1: totally appreciate it, But I don't see anybody doing that.
Speaker 1: I mean, you know, having known um, having known um
Speaker 1: A list actors, Um, they are um. They they live
Speaker 1: in a rarefied world. You know, it's like they I
Speaker 1: always compare fame to um Ah Oh my god. Okay,
Speaker 1: so Othello takes place on an island, right, and it
Speaker 1: only works because there's there's nobody is coming and going.
Speaker 1: Nobody has nobody says to othello, hey dude, you know
Speaker 1: this amount is awesome. Nothing's happening there because because there's
Speaker 1: nobody coming in. So FAM is like that, you know,
Speaker 1: they they're on this island. And UM, as as good
Speaker 1: a person as they may be, they have been completely
Speaker 1: isolated for many, many years. They simply don't know how
Speaker 1: the rest of this the thing works. And UM, we
Speaker 1: were just talking about how Andrea Romano reads everything like
Speaker 1: a UM radio play. Well, the opposite happens in movies.
Speaker 1: You go in by yourself, and UM, you don't know anybody,
Speaker 1: and you don't know who else. Wasn't the rest of
Speaker 1: the cast? Um, you know, you just go in. I
Speaker 1: mean I remember doing surfs Up and like I think
Speaker 1: we had been recording and gone into like maybe the
Speaker 1: fifth session, which was probably the sixth month of recording,
Speaker 1: before I knew that Jeff Bridges was the star. I'd
Speaker 1: seen it twice before I realized, and I was saying, yeah,
Speaker 1: I love Jeff Bridges, and I was like smelling the studio.
Speaker 1: I get that Jeff Bridges. Yeah. Yeah. When we were
Speaker 1: doing with Lisa Shaffer when we were doing Kimpossible. It
Speaker 1: was towards the end of the I'm Christie. I'm not
Speaker 1: sure I ever even told you. This was towards the
Speaker 1: end of our recording series. And I walked outside and
Speaker 1: there was Brad Pitt standing out, Yes you have, and
Speaker 1: I was like, I'm gonna talk to Brad Pitt, so
Speaker 1: I will you know. Well, first of all, he at
Speaker 1: the time, I don't know if it's different, but he's
Speaker 1: razor thin, which people don't. It's like you see somebody
Speaker 1: on screen and they look like they're jacked. He looked
Speaker 1: like he was a twenty pounds so can wet and
Speaker 1: he's like six four, so he looked like a string bean.
Speaker 1: Um And I asked him and like, what are you
Speaker 1: doing here? And he was doing the Pirate Treasurer movie
Speaker 1: whatever was he was recording for the UM Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: whatever it was. And I said how long are you recording?
Speaker 1: He's like, I don't know, five six days, and you
Speaker 1: could tell it was just him in a booth. That
Speaker 1: was it. He was recording his parts. He was coming
Speaker 1: in when he needs to come in, and he was
Speaker 1: taking off. So's there's almost a disconnection from doing voiceover
Speaker 1: that you don't get when you're on film. It's like,
Speaker 1: here are the yeah, here are the lines, just read it.
Speaker 1: So I guess I would Taylor Christie's question then to ask,
Speaker 1: how do we stop that disconnect so that the A
Speaker 1: list actors realize that it's there are other actors involved
Speaker 1: in the project you're doing, and those actors to also
Speaker 1: be kind of heralded. Yeah. No, I I honestly don't know.
Speaker 1: I thought about this a lot because you know, it's
Speaker 1: like his ex wife, Angelina Jolie, for example. I mean
Speaker 1: this is not to pick on her, but um, you
Speaker 1: know she's in Kung Foop Handa and they paid her
Speaker 1: a tremendous amount of money and then Cary did her
Speaker 1: voice in the series. Matched Angelina Jolie for Kung Foop Handa?
Speaker 1: What did video games? Oh no kidding for the video game?
Speaker 1: And then and then as up Car in this series,
Speaker 1: and it's like, so hell if I could tell the
Speaker 1: difference right exactly? You know, you know who can Bank
Speaker 1: of America No exactly five million? And again this is
Speaker 1: not to pick on her, her agent or the most
Speaker 1: money that they could. This is how the business, what's
Speaker 1: their job. But but the kid that watches the movie,
Speaker 1: the series and the video game, Christie, has absolutely no idea,
Speaker 1: no idea, no interest in seeing an Angelina Jolie movie.
Speaker 1: It doesn't they I mean, like my five year old
Speaker 1: son wasn't like, Oh, Angelina Jolie movies in that good
Speaker 1: in that I'm gonna have to watch that. You know.
Speaker 1: It's not that doesn't happen, um, because because like you
Speaker 1: have an on camera actor, and um, do you want
Speaker 1: to see them on camera? Angelina Jolie looks like Angela
Speaker 1: Nina Jolie. That's part of the reason that I want
Speaker 1: to see here. Um. I will say though, that there
Speaker 1: are some stars that I mean like Jack Black, for example,
Speaker 1: in Kung Fu Pandem. I mean, that's an incredible, incredible performance. Now,
Speaker 1: Nick Mike Nick did a great job with the series.
Speaker 1: That's absolutely true. But the template that was created was
Speaker 1: really great. Jack was great in that. Um. Yeah, So
Speaker 1: I have no problem with using movie stars if they're like,
Speaker 1: for example, let's say Chris rock in um, what's his face?
Speaker 1: The one in Madagascar? Um, that's great casting. He's great
Speaker 1: in it. Um, he's really really funny and vulnerable. Uh,
Speaker 1: you know it totally works. But that doesn't mean that
Speaker 1: the rest of the Okay. I mean, you know, like
Speaker 1: Sasha Baron Cohen, did he do a better job than
Speaker 1: Danny Jacobs. No, Yeah, now I know I do that.
Speaker 1: I will do that too because we know so many
Speaker 1: talented people. I will watch a movie and be like
Speaker 1: Johnamago would have been funnier there that you felt that
Speaker 1: wayte al right, to see the problem, But I will
Speaker 1: tell you this guy's Let me just chime in. I
Speaker 1: feel like celebrity, especially in the day and age of
Speaker 1: social media, as there are many negative things that come
Speaker 1: with social media. I think that fame and the classic
Speaker 1: Hollywood icon and all that goes with that is diminishing
Speaker 1: as we've seen like Tom Cruise is one of the
Speaker 1: last you know, big male, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: So I think that there's a there's a proliferation of
Speaker 1: opportunity that is animated motion capture. I feel like there's
Speaker 1: such a wide array of opportunities. That's why I think
Speaker 1: I hear Voices is presenting this as an opportunity for
Speaker 1: people to get involved invested because they already have the
Speaker 1: talent and they just happen to live in the middle
Speaker 1: of nowhere. And that's a great segue because I think
Speaker 1: Dietrich might not know about this, but we we are.
Speaker 1: We are brushing upon it very quickly, just while we
Speaker 1: get our ducks in a row. But you know, Dietrich,
Speaker 1: we are with I heart now and we are have
Speaker 1: officially announced, uh, this super awesome contest to become the
Speaker 1: next big voice actor. Um. And so what it is is, uh,
Speaker 1: some some amateur actor is going to get an opportunity,
Speaker 1: uh to sign with a major voiceover agent for a
Speaker 1: year and they are going to be flown out to
Speaker 1: l A to meet their agent and do all that
Speaker 1: kind of stuff. So we're gonna make careers come true. Contest.
Speaker 1: It's gonna be a great it's gonna be a ton
Speaker 1: of fun. We'd love to have you involved further and
Speaker 1: we will get more into that. Uh, we're we are
Speaker 1: hoping it's going to be around the Halloween area where
Speaker 1: were Halloween time where we will be launching. But it's
Speaker 1: a it's a fun contest, and somebody's going to get
Speaker 1: the opportunity to have the door cracked open just that
Speaker 1: much and then you're gonna have to kick it down
Speaker 1: the rest of the way yourself. Absolutely. To get back
Speaker 1: to what you were talking about, I have I have,
Speaker 1: I have a question because I haven't been able to
Speaker 1: pinpoint it. But you're a thousand percent right. When I
Speaker 1: was growing up watching animation, which was my true love
Speaker 1: growing up as a kid, I never once grew up
Speaker 1: going oh, I wonder who that voice is? Who is that? Oh? Wow?
Speaker 1: Did it? And so it didn't matter that it was
Speaker 1: Will Smith in something. It didn't matter that they got
Speaker 1: Robert to new organism. When do you think that changed?
Speaker 1: Because I I have kind of an idea in my
Speaker 1: head where it went a different route. But when do
Speaker 1: you think it became about the celebrity coming in as
Speaker 1: opposed to just the voice over actor. It's a good point.
Speaker 1: I think I think you can pinpoint it pretty easily.
Speaker 1: By Jeffrey katsonburg Um he Um. He has a thought
Speaker 1: that that stars aren't just stars because of lucky. There
Speaker 1: are stars because of talent and um, and that he
Speaker 1: is casting talent um and that they are worth the
Speaker 1: price because you're getting somebody really truly exceptional, and that
Speaker 1: they stand out for a reason. Um. I disagree. Um.
Speaker 1: I think that a lot of it is like just
Speaker 1: sheer luck. And um, people people just get cast. I mean,
Speaker 1: you know, we're all cast in the same role. Then
Speaker 1: then maybe, yeah, would you would be able to stand
Speaker 1: out and then you know you're amazing. But sometimes you know,
Speaker 1: you just fall in because like, um, let's say, for example,
Speaker 1: Grand Budapest Hotel. Up until two weeks before shooting, Johnny
Speaker 1: Depp was supposed to be the Maitre d no, no,
Speaker 1: the concierge. Um, and uh, that would have been an
Speaker 1: entirely different movie. I don't know if I would have
Speaker 1: liked it, frankly. Um. And so Ray Finds dropped in
Speaker 1: two weeks. That's a lot of lines to learn in
Speaker 1: two weeks, ladies and gentlemen. That's like you have to
Speaker 1: put a whole character together in a pretty short amount
Speaker 1: of time. Um. But but it would have been a
Speaker 1: very different movie. So, uh, these things just happened. So
Speaker 1: you know, one thing, and then you know, let's say
Speaker 1: you're cast in a movie and you're great in it,
Speaker 1: but then the movie doesn't make any money. Um, then
Speaker 1: what happens then people don't care in the business. You
Speaker 1: get like people that really love the movie. Um. And
Speaker 1: so that's really super cool. I mean that's great, It
Speaker 1: really is great, but it infar as your career is concerned,
Speaker 1: it means nothing. Um. And that's the hard cold truth
Speaker 1: of it. Um. You know, it just doesn't matter. People
Speaker 1: are going, oh, you're so good in that, but it bombed.
Speaker 1: So the success only breathe success and um, because a
Speaker 1: motion picture is such a large thing. It's so much
Speaker 1: bigger than any I mean, the actor, come on, the
Speaker 1: script has been there for sometimes they were developed for
Speaker 1: fifteen years, so it could have been it didn't happen overnight.
Speaker 1: And then they pre production, then they get the director,
Speaker 1: then they get the studio, then they get the rest
Speaker 1: of the cast, then the DP, then the rest of
Speaker 1: the crew. Then they then you're there for this incredibly
Speaker 1: short period of time, sometimes just days, and then and
Speaker 1: then they edit it, and then they marketed, and then
Speaker 1: it has to be released at a time that isn't
Speaker 1: too competitive with something else that's on the same strap.
Speaker 1: You know, you can't release two kids movies on the
Speaker 1: same weekend, dudes, because it's not gonna work, right, So
Speaker 1: you want to make sure that. So they have to
Speaker 1: book like sometimes nine a year in advance, like figuring
Speaker 1: out where what weekend will work for that now. Of
Speaker 1: course the businesses has really radically changed since the pandemic.
Speaker 1: But all of these things factor into your personal success.
Speaker 1: Even though you've worked on the project ten days, right
Speaker 1: in ten days, um, so it's uh, that's it, and
Speaker 1: then your your other made or you're not made, and
Speaker 1: those ten days are the biggest days of your life
Speaker 1: or they're not. Yeah, that's I mean, that's kind of
Speaker 1: the difference between your career and my career is that
Speaker 1: I've never been in a good movie. No, I take
Speaker 1: that back, let me take let me take back. I've
Speaker 1: never been in a in a successful movie. I guess
Speaker 1: my date with a TV movie. But like so that
Speaker 1: most of my movies are movies that nobody but maybe
Speaker 1: my mom and not even that all the time has seen.
Speaker 1: So you have a very unique perspective because you've been
Speaker 1: in some blockbusters, I mean some true I mean Napoleon
Speaker 1: dynam I mean some some big movies. Um. And so
Speaker 1: you've kind of gotten to see both sides of of
Speaker 1: that argument, which is which is very interesting that it's
Speaker 1: it's amazing that you said, Katzenberg, because to me, I
Speaker 1: can kind of pinpoint the shift to the first toy
Speaker 1: story because you know, you've got not only time, and
Speaker 1: it's not just because of Tom Hanks and Tim Allen,
Speaker 1: who were great, who were absolutely great, but it's because
Speaker 1: people for the first time got to sit in the
Speaker 1: theater and go, oh, oh the pig, that's John Ratzenburg.
Speaker 1: Oh he's from Cheers, And all of a sudden it
Speaker 1: was then like, okay, yeah, who can we get? Now,
Speaker 1: who's a name that you know? So then it's all
Speaker 1: of a sudden you're sitting there going, oh, even the
Speaker 1: person who only had thirty lines or twenty lines and
Speaker 1: the entire thing. Now we've got to get this person
Speaker 1: who's got you know, people know they're a name. We're
Speaker 1: getting Dave fully, we're getting this kind of thing. And
Speaker 1: then the person who would have done that, who was
Speaker 1: an awesome voiceover actor who it didn't matter what their
Speaker 1: name was. Person that's like you, Now you're not even
Speaker 1: gonna get a shot anymore. Now we need to go
Speaker 1: get somebody with a name to even do the smaller roles. Yeah,
Speaker 1: they even have that. Most of the time. They look
Speaker 1: for name talent when they do certain auditions looking for
Speaker 1: a name. Yeah, yeah, totally, and they put it right there.
Speaker 1: People don't really Yeah, it's right on that. Well, because
Speaker 1: that's the other thing that that people don't or we
Speaker 1: haven't really talked about a whole lot on on our
Speaker 1: show is the fact that not a yeah, we're going
Speaker 1: in new we're taking it real today on I hear
Speaker 1: voices people, um where. The other thing that we talked
Speaker 1: about is the fact that it doesn't matter usually how
Speaker 1: big a voiceover actor you are, you're still auditioning for everything.
Speaker 1: I mean occasionally somebody will come and make you an offer.
Speaker 1: Hey come in and do a couple of lines of
Speaker 1: my thing, or hey, we got but you're still reading
Speaker 1: all the time, so you know, Yeah, you become a
Speaker 1: big on camera actor, and it's offer, offer, offer, offer,
Speaker 1: offer voiceover, it's still I've got twenty auditions I gotta
Speaker 1: do today. It doesn't matter that I'm Batman. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: mean I don't. Yeah. That's the one thing that people
Speaker 1: don't recognize is that I audition. I audition way more
Speaker 1: than I work. Um I I auditioned almost constantly. I've
Speaker 1: got three I have to do today. Um well, that's
Speaker 1: one of the reasons I'm happy I set up this microphone.
Speaker 1: I will not be outside when I do it. But
Speaker 1: but I could just see you, like and Gotham the
Speaker 1: people you have to Freedum. But yeah, no, it's like
Speaker 1: I audition all the time, and um, you just keep
Speaker 1: you just keep going at it. And uh yeah, I
Speaker 1: mean it's yeah, it's it's a it's a strange world,
Speaker 1: but I love it. I love the voice over world
Speaker 1: so much. It's like crazy. I I so enjoy being
Speaker 1: around the talent. I think one of the things that
Speaker 1: I really miss about the before times is the studio sessions. Um,
Speaker 1: where I got to because you didn't do this largely.
Speaker 1: You go in by yourself, but Warner Brothers I think
Speaker 1: because of Andrea And I don't know if that's entirely true,
Speaker 1: but um, you know you did everything together, and um,
Speaker 1: I I really really loved it. I mean like it
Speaker 1: brought out the little kid in me because I was
Speaker 1: playing and um, you know you it was like playing.
Speaker 1: I don't know how else to put it. It's like
Speaker 1: it's like you've got your friends together and all of
Speaker 1: a sudden you're with your g I Joe's and you're
Speaker 1: moving them around and it's like, you know, and you're
Speaker 1: totally committed to to the the action that's happening with
Speaker 1: your and um, it's really fun and it's genuinely fun
Speaker 1: and um, yeah, I don't know how else to describe it.
Speaker 1: It's it's like, yeah, well, it's true. It's like I've
Speaker 1: I've met so many actors that have never done voice
Speaker 1: over before, that have been on television, that have been
Speaker 1: in film, and you can tell that, you know, the
Speaker 1: on camera side of the business can beat you down,
Speaker 1: even even even if you're successful, it can kind of
Speaker 1: beat you down. And they come in and after one
Speaker 1: session they look at you and the like you do
Speaker 1: this every week, like this is it's just fun, pure
Speaker 1: acting again with you and a microphone and you get
Speaker 1: to just have a great time. But you're right there.
Speaker 1: So one of the questions we ask everybody, and we
Speaker 1: don't even need to ask you, is do you prefer
Speaker 1: recording a loan or with a group of people? A
Speaker 1: group of people? But but I will say too, I
Speaker 1: also prefer doing voiceovers to being on camera if it
Speaker 1: paid the same. Next question because exactly exactly if if
Speaker 1: you compare like um, miss Congeniality to which I was
Speaker 1: very happy to be cast in, and everybody and it
Speaker 1: was greatly, thank you. Fun to work with. Um, but
Speaker 1: you know we would do a scene, you know, sixty
Speaker 1: seventy times, um, you know, and so I mean you
Speaker 1: would do your coverage and you you did at least
Speaker 1: like fifteen twenty takes, So sixties that's that's that's really
Speaker 1: you could do it hundreds of times. Um and um
Speaker 1: you know it's Look, my dad sent me to work
Speaker 1: on a farm when I was a kid, so so
Speaker 1: that I knew what real work was like. So I
Speaker 1: know that it's not real work. Don't get me wrong.
Speaker 1: I haven't completely completely lost respector I just told you
Speaker 1: I love so much. By the way, ladies and gentlemen,
Speaker 1: there is no dog Frank Welker microphone, oh cone to
Speaker 1: Oh no, he's been acting. Now I would too, And
Speaker 1: now I have to ask. I have to ask because
Speaker 1: every voice over actor, if I've spoken to every voice
Speaker 1: over actor i've spoken to that has a pet, does
Speaker 1: zig Freed have a voice? Yeah? Yeah, come on, give
Speaker 1: me the every everybody does. Give me the zig Free
Speaker 1: voice interrupted. But things, he's just a vague jourman that
Speaker 1: he talks like these things. I'd love to earn it
Speaker 1: out of doors. Does anyone like to do that. I do.
Speaker 1: Every voice over actor's pet has their own voice. Our
Speaker 1: first docks and waster Arthur serious, what's what's going on?
Speaker 1: Oh my god, I never will laugh like this before.
Speaker 1: It's so funny. Oh man, that's really this is lithium six.
Speaker 1: He talks everyone. I also luck to urinate out of tools.
Speaker 1: It looks like that. Yes, I do very much. He's
Speaker 1: a proper English Chapanee. Sometimes I love to bark when
Speaker 1: I pope as I'm poping, I'm barking. He does that
Speaker 1: when we go to walk just it's barking. I'm like, dude,
Speaker 1: I got your back. Nothing's going to happen that you're good.
Speaker 1: Oh my alright, So voice over wise, I have a
Speaker 1: question for you because we went right from what we
Speaker 1: did you did say to project and then we got
Speaker 1: to do another. One of my favorite projects actually from
Speaker 1: my career. Uh that doesn't get enough credit is never
Speaker 1: isn't talked about enough, And frankly, one of the reasons
Speaker 1: is because of your performance, um the Secret Saturdays. Oh
Speaker 1: do you remember how fun recording Secret Saturdays was? Now
Speaker 1: for people who don't know Dietrich did a character and
Speaker 1: Secret Saturdays that never really spoke an actual line of dialect.
Speaker 1: We did one episode where you got to speak, but
Speaker 1: for the most part he just did these I've tried
Speaker 1: to mimic them many times and I just can't. Can
Speaker 1: you tell us how you came up with the character
Speaker 1: of Fiskerton on Secret. That's really interesting that you were
Speaker 1: bring up because it actually called um. It brings up
Speaker 1: your idea that you said earlier, where there people make
Speaker 1: it intellectual choices and then other times things just appear
Speaker 1: to you wholesale. Um. Fiskeerton came to me entirely um
Speaker 1: like uh. They said it was like a giant cat gorilla,
Speaker 1: and I was like, where was that, you know? And
Speaker 1: then I was like I just did it, And I
Speaker 1: was like, I haven't heard that in years. I have
Speaker 1: not heard that in years. The occasional words, yeah, a
Speaker 1: little bit in there. Yeah. The only one where I
Speaker 1: got caught and they told me not to do it
Speaker 1: was I was like, I didn't say a word. Well.
Speaker 1: The thing that was amazing it was because I remember
Speaker 1: the sessions and they were so great and it was
Speaker 1: you know, Phil Morris and Nicole Sullivan as the parents.
Speaker 1: Sam Lerner, who played u Um oh jeez, I remember
Speaker 1: zach uh and then uh you and and Fred has
Speaker 1: next to each other and your he did two characters,
Speaker 1: and you did a character, and there was you would
Speaker 1: have full conversations and there was no dialogue, and it
Speaker 1: was not the weirdest thing. No, it was just you
Speaker 1: did and then and you'd make the entire room. This
Speaker 1: is the thing I remember is whenever Fiskeerston got sad,
Speaker 1: you did, and the whole room would go oh like
Speaker 1: it would like it hits you in the gut. It
Speaker 1: was like, oh no, not Fiske. Yeah, I love playing.
Speaker 1: That was a thank you for bringing that up. That
Speaker 1: was a genuinely fun job. Like that was just like um,
Speaker 1: you know, like we were alluded to earlier. Yeah, and
Speaker 1: that was like yeah, because I had no lines, I
Speaker 1: just was supposed to react to various things and they
Speaker 1: just kept my microphone open and the so it's just
Speaker 1: like it was completely improvised character, which is rare. And uh,
Speaker 1: I really that was really fun. That was a really
Speaker 1: great great I wonder where Dietrich wasn't on Kim possible
Speaker 1: he would have been an amazing Yeah. I don't get
Speaker 1: that either. Lame. Yeah, that was a great show, by
Speaker 1: the way, great show. Oh thank you, Chris. Christie and
Speaker 1: I still get together on Zoom every night and just
Speaker 1: pretend to be Kim and Ron for a half hour.
Speaker 1: It just it just makes us feel like, let's pretending.
Speaker 1: We figure it's healthy past. Yes, I'm in on it too.
Speaker 1: Now I'm in on it too. Did we go back
Speaker 1: to how Dietrich actually started at all? I guess we should.
Speaker 1: We should get into it. Well again, show got tons
Speaker 1: of time, but yeah, Christie, can you can you maybe
Speaker 1: set us up for the origin story part? I did? Well.
Speaker 1: You had said that you guys have similar origin stories,
Speaker 1: so is that true? In the voice over world we
Speaker 1: have similar origin story well in terms of how you
Speaker 1: started with like Andrea and with Andrea and with that,
Speaker 1: Oh I'm glad. Oh yeah, and then we're bat brothers,
Speaker 1: which we'll talk about later. But um, how did you
Speaker 1: how did you find let's just just acting in general,
Speaker 1: how did you how did you knew you want to
Speaker 1: know you wanted to become an actor? Um? I actually
Speaker 1: have an origin story? Um? Okay, so, uh, when I
Speaker 1: was very little, about to turn three, we moved to Paris.
Speaker 1: It's a capital of France. And um, uh got it,
Speaker 1: nailed it? Um. And also a town in Oklahoma, isn't
Speaker 1: it Just for the record, So I was really like
Speaker 1: I just learned English basically, and then I was thrown
Speaker 1: into another language and rather than thriving, UM, I closed
Speaker 1: in on myself and became very quiet, very very quiet.
Speaker 1: And my parents were worried that I was like disturbed
Speaker 1: or something like something's wrong with me because I was
Speaker 1: so quiet, and um, they wanted to bring me on
Speaker 1: my shell and uh, so they would pay for my
Speaker 1: siblings to take me to the movies. And I fell
Speaker 1: in love with silent actors Harpo, Marx, Buster Keaton, but
Speaker 1: particularly Charlie Chaplin, and I became a little obsessed with him,
Speaker 1: and so I would go to Charlie Chaplin movies all
Speaker 1: the time. And um, the one day, when I was
Speaker 1: about five, we were still there, and um, I want
Speaker 1: to go see a Charlie Chaplin movie. And my favorite
Speaker 1: movie theater. By this point I had worked on a
Speaker 1: Charlie Chaplin act in my room. Um, and uh it
Speaker 1: was my favorite theater because there was live musical accompaniment.
Speaker 1: There was so often when you see a silent movie
Speaker 1: in a theater they'll they'll play like a soundtrack that
Speaker 1: was prerecorded, or sometimes just an organ player that had recorded,
Speaker 1: you know, something for it. But the live move musical
Speaker 1: accompaniment is one of the greatest experiences if you can
Speaker 1: possibly do it. To watch a silent movie that it's
Speaker 1: it's great because they improvise, and um, Fats Waller this
Speaker 1: is the offshoot. But Fats Waller particularly was supposed to
Speaker 1: be really particularly good at it. Um. Anyway, we went
Speaker 1: to go see I can't remember what I was five.
Speaker 1: Um and uh, the the film burned, got caught burned,
Speaker 1: and everybody booed, and the lights came up, and I
Speaker 1: thought to myself, nobody boozed Charlie Chaplin and I ran
Speaker 1: in between the screen and the audience and I did
Speaker 1: my Charlie Chaplain act and um the organ player played.
Speaker 1: Uh the musical company meant for my little dance, which
Speaker 1: I was very happy about. And uh um I did
Speaker 1: a role at the end and daff my panamiam hat
Speaker 1: and I got a standing ovation and uh that is
Speaker 1: the reason I'm an actor. Wow, that that why it's like, oh, oh,
Speaker 1: you know, I went on a field trip and got
Speaker 1: bitten by a spider and got boring compared to that. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and what's crazy, This is what's a little weird about it.
Speaker 1: I forgot. I forgot that that happened. Um And then
Speaker 1: I went to go see Chaplin Um with Robert Downey Jr.
Speaker 1: And when he is five years old, his mother is
Speaker 1: a vaudeville performer and has a nervous breakdown on stage
Speaker 1: and the audience starts booing her, and he thinks to himself,
Speaker 1: nobody boozs my mother. And he jumps up and does
Speaker 1: a panamam act. And that was the first time he
Speaker 1: did a panamiam act. And um, my memory came back
Speaker 1: and I was sitting in the theater and oh my god. Yeah,
Speaker 1: like it was really and so you were you were Proust,
Speaker 1: Prust just took a bite the mat everything and I
Speaker 1: was like, yeah, it was wow, that's so cool. So now,
Speaker 1: how do you go from being a mime to being
Speaker 1: a voice box? Well, you gotta walk against you. I
Speaker 1: think that. Um, I just wanted to do whatever it took.
Speaker 1: My attitude has always been just that I want to work.
Speaker 1: I just want to work. I never wanted to be
Speaker 1: a star. I never wanted to be anything other than
Speaker 1: a working actor. So to me, UM, it's just as
Speaker 1: exciting for me to get a voice over part than
Speaker 1: it is to get a movie or on a TV show. UM.
Speaker 1: I just love it. I love it. I've never loved
Speaker 1: anything as much. UM. It literally is the greatest thing
Speaker 1: you can do standing up. Um It's it's really really
Speaker 1: fun and UM I recommend it to everyone. Express yourself,
Speaker 1: go for it. I love what you're doing and reaching
Speaker 1: out and trying to find other people to do it.
Speaker 1: I wish everybody was an artist. Would be great. We'd
Speaker 1: probably eat a lot less because there wouldn't be much,
Speaker 1: but I just wish everybody could. There be a lot
Speaker 1: of waiters. So I know it's a tough career and
Speaker 1: I but I think it's a beautiful thing. Create art
Speaker 1: and to uh to express yourself and and just realize
Speaker 1: what you have. I mean, not to to trigger your
Speaker 1: uncontest like creating a Fisker tune in that way and
Speaker 1: discover something about yourself that you do. You like, where
Speaker 1: did that come from? I don't know. I mean, I
Speaker 1: don't know where that. I just like came out and
Speaker 1: I was like, oh, look at that. Greg tells a
Speaker 1: story about beast boy, that was his first audition, and um,
Speaker 1: the voice just came out as it was, and as
Speaker 1: it's he's played for how many years now, it's like
Speaker 1: twenty years. He just walked in. He was like, dude,
Speaker 1: I was just yeah, I was gonna be yeah and
Speaker 1: so yeah, yeah he discovered that was a perfect impression,
Speaker 1: by the way. Um and he just discovered he just
Speaker 1: discovered that, and um, it just happened. It's like you
Speaker 1: you find something within yourself, like an island that you
Speaker 1: didn't know it was there, and you you go get
Speaker 1: on look at that bringing it all back. Great. No,
Speaker 1: he didn't say anything. No, it's okay. So we do
Speaker 1: we do have to get in a little bit of
Speaker 1: this because we do. We we we we have both
Speaker 1: worn the cowl. What so, what was it like to
Speaker 1: get cast as Batman and braving the bold, which is uh,
Speaker 1: you know, it got some of the acclaim it deserved
Speaker 1: when it was on the air and die hard fans
Speaker 1: were are still die hard fans, but it's now getting
Speaker 1: more acclaimed because people are seeing it for what it was,
Speaker 1: which was brilliant. So what was like to get because
Speaker 1: I don't know if you remember, but you and I
Speaker 1: both found out we were on that show, like on
Speaker 1: basically on the same day, and it was a day
Speaker 1: we were recording secret Saturdays. Um. So we looked at
Speaker 1: each other and I was like, I was excited about something,
Speaker 1: and you're excited about something but you're not allowed to
Speaker 1: tell anybody what it is yet. And then we start talking.
Speaker 1: It's like we're excited about the same thing. So yeah,
Speaker 1: were you how how you know? Again? What was it like?
Speaker 1: Auditioning and then finding out that you were going to
Speaker 1: be the next Batman? So auditioning, that's when I met
Speaker 1: James Tucker for the first time. Andrea and I had
Speaker 1: already done a show together. Um, and auditioning, Uh, you know,
Speaker 1: I just came in with a bad impression of Kevin,
Speaker 1: like a really bad impression. So good though, and uh,
Speaker 1: and I was like, this is how we do Batman
Speaker 1: because I sound like Kevin. And when I heard myself back,
Speaker 1: I was like, don't sound like Kevin and all because
Speaker 1: I got my own things, but I thought I was
Speaker 1: doing Kevin. But anyway, Um, so I didn't quite get
Speaker 1: the tone of the show immediately, and I didn't know
Speaker 1: why they wanted somebody that largely does comedy like yourself,
Speaker 1: Um to do Batman because Batman is like, you know,
Speaker 1: how much revenge are we talking about? A lot a
Speaker 1: lot of events. That's the entire premise of the show.
Speaker 1: He's literally never going to get over it exactly. Um.
Speaker 1: But yeah, so I didn't know. I didn't know if
Speaker 1: it was going to I was like mystified that why
Speaker 1: I was cast. But but I was ecstatic because it is,
Speaker 1: without exaggeration, the best part. It's just the best part.
Speaker 1: You know. One of the things that is great about
Speaker 1: acting is when you start to think like somebody else, um,
Speaker 1: where you actually become someone else and it's a My
Speaker 1: acting teacher, that was my mentor. Um, he said, it's
Speaker 1: a breaking through. He said it like this, He would go,
Speaker 1: it's breaking through once you realize it's no longer you,
Speaker 1: it is someone else in your head. I was like, yeah,
Speaker 1: that's he wasn't Russian, by the way, he was just
Speaker 1: like a guy. But this is how he spoke where
Speaker 1: he was problem. It was weird. Um but anyway, uh
Speaker 1: he uh, he's the Batman is the greatest in that
Speaker 1: way because that backstory, the revenge that I was making
Speaker 1: fun of is is him recovering from a traumatic incident
Speaker 1: over and over and over again, which is what most
Speaker 1: people that have really gone through trauma have to do. Um.
Speaker 1: Is it's a beautiful story. And um I'll still never
Speaker 1: forget the day when we were recording in the Chill
Speaker 1: over Night when a batman met Joe Chill, who killed
Speaker 1: his parents, and uh, you know, we're recording it in
Speaker 1: that semi circle and uh and I'm talking to the
Speaker 1: killer of my parents and I just started crying and
Speaker 1: I realized, oh my god, I broken through. I'm now
Speaker 1: Bruce Wayne, Bruce Wayne. I've done it this. I feel this.
Speaker 1: I really feel this. And umaire so bonus exactly. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and uh and I can make like all kinds of things.
Speaker 1: But anyway, uh no, it's it. The acting world is
Speaker 1: just a fascinating thing because it's like to to tap
Speaker 1: into that kind of trauma just for a brief period
Speaker 1: of time. I mean, this is why not to bring
Speaker 1: up politics for for too long. But I saw an
Speaker 1: interesting question on Twitter where they asked why so many
Speaker 1: people in show business are your Democrats? And I think
Speaker 1: it's because of empathy. I think it's because we can
Speaker 1: look at somebody else's story and go, oh, I see
Speaker 1: where you're coming from. And uh, that's the only politics
Speaker 1: I'm gonna bring up in the whole thing. But I
Speaker 1: think that's what it is because you have to in
Speaker 1: order to tell somebody's character's story, well, you have to
Speaker 1: figure out why they're doing what they're doing. I'm you
Speaker 1: can't just play a bad guy, and you can't just
Speaker 1: do a funny voice of you know that guy, I'm evil.
Speaker 1: You have to why is this guy doing it? You know,
Speaker 1: as they say, everybody's the hero in their own story.
Speaker 1: Uh you know. Um my son Sebastian when we were
Speaker 1: watching teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, which which one? Which version?
Speaker 1: Which one? Original animated version? So he goes, um, dad
Speaker 1: a shredder and I go, yes, uh, Shredder is the
Speaker 1: bad guy and he goes, no, dada, Shredder is the
Speaker 1: other sense, And I was like, whoa, that's that's whoa? Whoa? Yeah,
Speaker 1: Shredder wants what he wants and he also is something.
Speaker 1: He is an example for everyone to learn from. What
Speaker 1: can you learn from Shredder? As if you're a mutant
Speaker 1: ninja turtle, he's the other he's your other sinset and
Speaker 1: it's like, Uh, that's that's like the way to think
Speaker 1: about it. Every time subsequently that I've played a bad guy,
Speaker 1: I've always tried to think, like, what does this guy
Speaker 1: really want? I'm I think I can say it now. Yes,
Speaker 1: I can't say it out. Um, I'm the new Transformers
Speaker 1: bad guy and no great part. And it's very straight,
Speaker 1: like there's no jokes anywhere in it, like even remote
Speaker 1: Welcome to the world that Transformers. Yet again, it's really cool.
Speaker 1: I'm totally excited about it. I really can you say
Speaker 1: the character name yet? Or no, I'm not allowed animated
Speaker 1: it's animated or screen. We won't say the name yet,
Speaker 1: but that is you know, it's really cool. There's gonna
Speaker 1: be an action figure, which of course I totally love.
Speaker 1: But anyway, um, it's like what does this guy want
Speaker 1: and why does he want it? And um, you know
Speaker 1: when is like and you know, talking to the writers
Speaker 1: about it and really like, let's get into it. Let's
Speaker 1: let's talk about it. Why why is doing this? And
Speaker 1: I just I love it. It's it's beautiful. Yeah, well there.
Speaker 1: It's so it's so interesting that you said that because
Speaker 1: I was watching something the other day. I think it
Speaker 1: was actually inside the NFL UM or something along those
Speaker 1: lines where they were they were interviewing one of the
Speaker 1: UM football players whose brother has been in prison for
Speaker 1: most of his life, and they said, what do you
Speaker 1: think of your brother? And he said, he's my role
Speaker 1: model And they said, how can your role model be
Speaker 1: somebody's been in prison your whole life? And he said,
Speaker 1: a role model can still teach you what not to be.
Speaker 1: And it was that really interesting thing about he's taught
Speaker 1: me the life I need to have, because he's taught
Speaker 1: me the life I shouldn't. And it's that same kind
Speaker 1: of thing you're talking about where with the Shredder, where
Speaker 1: it's like you do it's the two halves of the point.
Speaker 1: Oh my god, we can get philosophical about the whole
Speaker 1: this is. This has been a great episode of I
Speaker 1: hear voices. I'm sorry that we have to wrap it
Speaker 1: up to at least for part one of the eleven
Speaker 1: part series that we're doing UM and now Rocky Road
Speaker 1: versus Cookies. And that's right. I know when I get
Speaker 1: to the meat. No, so before we wrap up here.
Speaker 1: Uh So, other than Transformers, is there anything else you
Speaker 1: have coming out that you want to talk about and
Speaker 1: also social wise work. Can people find you? Um My Twitter?
Speaker 1: I think I can't remember what it is, but I'm
Speaker 1: on the Twitter. It's not first then I'm also on
Speaker 1: uh the Insta. But you know, um my Insta. You're
Speaker 1: gonna have to like accept the fact that it's just flowers.
Speaker 1: It's just flowers in my car. But that's amazing. Ye.
Speaker 1: I'm not very cute, so I don't I don't post
Speaker 1: pictures on myself. So it's it's flowers, and I just
Speaker 1: hope that it's Yeah, um, I think it brings you
Speaker 1: can meditate on the flower for a long period time. Um.
Speaker 1: But anyway, Oh, you're by the way, you are at
Speaker 1: just for the record, you're at Vader Underscore Dietrick on
Speaker 1: Twitter underscore. What is the underscore? There's also a John.
Speaker 1: There's like a line, there's like your name and then
Speaker 1: a line and then your last name. Yeah. I think
Speaker 1: I was just randomly assigned that thing, and I didn't know, um,
Speaker 1: like what I was supposed to do. Like I didn't
Speaker 1: know you could do like the numbers or whatever. But
Speaker 1: I mean, you know, I don't know how many people,
Speaker 1: how many diebrick baters there are that would be weird.
Speaker 1: But anyway, UM, so yeah, no please, Um, but I
Speaker 1: don't know what else I can plug because I I yeah,
Speaker 1: there's there's stuff coming in, but they like to as
Speaker 1: you know, they like to roll it out on their
Speaker 1: own time frame. And then they're like, why aren't you publicizing?
Speaker 1: And I'm like, dude, you told me not. I literally
Speaker 1: don't know my Twitter hands. What do you want? Don
Speaker 1: give me a green light? That's all you need. Um.
Speaker 1: But so, um but yeah, I know I got other
Speaker 1: things going on, but you know, um, I've been I'm
Speaker 1: just getting back into doing on camera stuff next month
Speaker 1: because my son left for college. And uh, I was
Speaker 1: totally like Cats in the Cradle and the Silver Spoon, dude,
Speaker 1: and and realized that American Housewife got canceled at just
Speaker 1: the right moment for my family because I was able
Speaker 1: to spend time with my kid in a real and
Speaker 1: sustained way, and um, it was really beautiful and a
Speaker 1: great opportunity for me. And then when on camera stuff
Speaker 1: came up, they were like, um, do you want to
Speaker 1: do a show in London? And I was like, no,
Speaker 1: I don't. I don't want to do that. I have
Speaker 1: been very very blessed that I don't have to. And um,
Speaker 1: as long as I keep my hours up as far
Speaker 1: as SAG is concerned, and we can get our insurance,
Speaker 1: which is part of it. Let's face it, we have
Speaker 1: to because residuals don't count towards residuals anymore. I'm sorry,
Speaker 1: towards our insurance anymore. So I have to keep working.
Speaker 1: But I'm like streaming count Oh, come on, as you know,
Speaker 1: it's like it doesn't you have to put in those
Speaker 1: that time, So you have to keep working. But but
Speaker 1: I'm yeah, I'm very happily just doing the voiceover stuff
Speaker 1: for a while because I can pop out and pop
Speaker 1: back in and then, you know, and still be with
Speaker 1: my kids. Um. But yeah, he's his first day, official
Speaker 1: day of colleges today, and wow, he's gonna do great. Yeah.
Speaker 1: So anyway, I was in his bedroom smelling his pillow
Speaker 1: earlier today. So I'm like, not doing great, creepy at all.
Speaker 1: That's not creepy at all. That's not I'm not doing
Speaker 1: great about it. You're okay, You're doing great. You raised
Speaker 1: him right now, he's going to the next chapter of
Speaker 1: his life. You did it exactly right. You're going to
Speaker 1: be depressed as hell, but he's going to have a blast.
Speaker 1: So yeah, that's that's a five and a three year old. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: it's it doesn't it's it's interesting because it's like how
Speaker 1: much joy does it bring you as opposed to how
Speaker 1: much pain? But it it just it is. It's like, yeah,
Speaker 1: it is. It's so worthy. Journey, journey, Nothing worthwhile is easy.
Speaker 1: And will you say you don't yes, please please. It's
Speaker 1: the biggest cliche in the world. But really, carpet dium, Um,
Speaker 1: it does go by faster than you think, and um,
Speaker 1: everybody says that, and it's incredibly true. Like I mean,
Speaker 1: you know, the same day that my son started, uh college,
Speaker 1: I had to drop my daughter off at her last
Speaker 1: year of high school and uh, you know, she looked
Speaker 1: over it. I was like, she just held my hand.
Speaker 1: She was very sweet. She's a girl, so she was
Speaker 1: very sweet about it. You also have two of of
Speaker 1: the nicest, most talented kids around, so you know they're
Speaker 1: going to be fine. I think, I think, will I
Speaker 1: think you need to like go take d trick out
Speaker 1: for ice cream later a little bit. There's nothing like
Speaker 1: sitting at a nice ice cream shop as he's weeping
Speaker 1: horribly into his Sunday. Just look at you're out going.
Speaker 1: He's okay, don't worry. Please gonna sul It's gonna be alright.
Speaker 1: It's alright, si frea um sorry. Thank you so much
Speaker 1: for this was so much fun with a great idea
Speaker 1: of co a show and I really enjoyed it. Well,
Speaker 1: hopefully will you come back U and mentor maybe one
Speaker 1: of our young actors who is going to going to
Speaker 1: try to win this contest back and you know, do
Speaker 1: a couple of sessions where they can learn from the
Speaker 1: best and figure out out what they want in their life.
Speaker 1: And that would be really really I would love to
Speaker 1: do that is awesome. Thank you so much. And then
Speaker 1: just just to make sure you're qualified to do it,
Speaker 1: can you can you say super awesome contest to become
Speaker 1: the next big voice actor for us? Wait say one
Speaker 1: more time, then super awesome contest to become the next
Speaker 1: big voice actor. Super awesome contest to become the next
Speaker 1: voice over act. I almost slipped into Batman today. You
Speaker 1: did almost a little like skirting Batman. You also added
Speaker 1: voice over where it's just voice actors. You're not going
Speaker 1: to get the role. I told you I haven't been.
Speaker 1: I don't have to memorize anything in a while. Dietrich,
Speaker 1: thank you so much for joining us. I don't Yes,
Speaker 1: you're gonna be fine. Pictures and some flowers and you're
Speaker 1: going to be good, my friend. I promise to be
Speaker 1: so proud of your kids. They are remarkable human beings
Speaker 1: that are going to do amazing things on this that far.
Speaker 1: But thank you guys, thanks for including me. Thank you
Speaker 1: to hide your family, and let's talk soon. Bye bye
Speaker 1: bye dich Wow, Oh, everybody, that is the kind of
Speaker 1: thing you need to I'm gonna be totally honest with you.
Speaker 1: I wake up some days with this business that is
Speaker 1: changing that I don't know what I want to do,
Speaker 1: that I'm not sure that I have the same love
Speaker 1: for it that I do. And then you talk to
Speaker 1: somebody like Dietrich who just finds the joy and everything
Speaker 1: and it turns your whole day around. He's that's the
Speaker 1: kind of guy he is, and that's that kind of
Speaker 1: conversation that you want to have. And if you are
Speaker 1: feeling down about yourself, you're not going to make it
Speaker 1: in this business. You're not gonna make it in life.
Speaker 1: You're not gonna man listen to somebody like that, because
Speaker 1: he does kind of make the sunshine on a cloudy day,
Speaker 1: doesn't He's not incredible? I was, I was really, um,
Speaker 1: my mind was blown several times during this episode. I
Speaker 1: think he is a joy and I think he's very inspirational.
Speaker 1: And you don't think like, oh voice actor, you know perspective,
Speaker 1: they just do funny voices. But everyone that we've interviewed
Speaker 1: has had such an amazing like origin story and you know,
Speaker 1: love of their craft and just sheer camaraderie with us
Speaker 1: that you know they may know you will sometimes like Sean, Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's like a shared love that we all have um
Speaker 1: for the same thing. And and all of you listening
Speaker 1: at home, like, we love you too, and we're excited
Speaker 1: to continue to engage with you as a community of
Speaker 1: I hear voices, uh fans and um, you know, we
Speaker 1: hope you enjoyed today. Thanks so much. Yeah, thank you
Speaker 1: so much. And uh, as we're leaving, you know, we've
Speaker 1: been we've been publicizing it quite a bit that we
Speaker 1: are going to be doing the super awesome contest to
Speaker 1: become the next big voice actor. We're obviously getting all
Speaker 1: of our ducks in a row, but we're thinking it's
Speaker 1: going to be sometime October November. But hit us up
Speaker 1: if you want to know more about the contest and
Speaker 1: uh everywhere you know, all the questions that you have,
Speaker 1: our questions that hopefully we're going to be able to
Speaker 1: answer very very soon. So Christie, where can everybody reach us?
Speaker 1: So we're on TikTok and Instagram. Um TikTok is I
Speaker 1: Hear Voices podcast and we're really trying to grow that
Speaker 1: and we we do lots of fun little cutdowns and
Speaker 1: and things there. Um, So so go ahead and and
Speaker 1: go find us and start to uh make us a
Speaker 1: part of your scrolling habit. Yeah, and let us know
Speaker 1: if you like what you're hearing, if you want to
Speaker 1: change what you're hearing, if there's certain things that we're
Speaker 1: not addressing that you think we should be, and also
Speaker 1: what you're looking for or two in the Christy, why
Speaker 1: don't you say the name of the contest? Oh no,
Speaker 1: why are you making me do this again? We did
Speaker 1: this last week? Come on, roll it out, let's finish.
Speaker 1: Let's let's finish it up for amazing contest to become
Speaker 1: the world's next voiceover. No not super awesome, super the
Speaker 1: super awesome contest to become the world's next voiceover. No,
Speaker 1: I know it. It's the super awesome contest to become
Speaker 1: the next big voiceover actor. Yes, yes, we just have
Speaker 1: voice actor. But that's close enough. You were close by
Speaker 1: the end by for the record and for everybody out
Speaker 1: there listening. I literally have it written next to me
Speaker 1: and I have to look down at it every single
Speaker 1: and I kind of just like winging it. To be honest,
Speaker 1: I love it too. That's my favorite thing ever. Thank
Speaker 1: you so much for joining us. And if you think
Speaker 1: you got what it takes to stand behind the microphone,
Speaker 1: then come and put your voices where your mouth is.
Speaker 1: Thanks every buddy. I Hear Voices as hosted by Wilfred
Speaker 1: l and Christy Carlson Romano. Executive produced by Wilfredell, Brendan Rooney,
Speaker 1: Amy Sugarman and Vicky Ernst Chang. Our executive in charge
Speaker 1: of production is Danielle Romo. Our producer is Lorraine Vera
Speaker 1: Weez and our editor slash engineer is Brian Burton. And
Speaker 1: that was my announcer voice. Some side effects of listening
Speaker 1: to I Hear Voices are sore abs from hilarity, falling
Speaker 1: down the Coco Melon rabbit hole, sneezing due to mass nostalgia,
Speaker 1: and hugs. Follow I Hear Voices wherever you listen to
Speaker 1: podcasts so you don't miss any of the amazing voices.
Speaker 1: Be sure to follow us on Instagram and TikTok at
Speaker 1: I Hear Voices podcast. To see the video stream, subscribe
Speaker 1: to my YouTube channel. You can also check us out
Speaker 1: on my space omeigal Vine, Lime Wire. Hey I'm a napster. Okay,
Speaker 1: well let's teach you about the Internet, the who