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<\/a><\/p>\nJames looks at the change in movie voice acting over the past 20 years, with a focus on Billy West.<\/em><\/p>\n As I watched the trailer for Brave, Pixar\u2019s latest release, I thought I recognized the voice of\u00a0Merida, the film\u2019s main character. The problem of not being able to figure out who the voice belonged to haunted me for approximately the next ninety seconds of the trailer, before I looked up the movie on the Internet Movie Database. It ends up that the voice belongs to Kelly MacDonald, a Scottish actress I knew best as the underappreciated Carla Jean Moss from No Country For Old Men. She was also in Boardwalk Empire, one of those movies with the kid wizard I don\u2019t care about, and Trainspotting. While those are some big credits, and she has been working steadily since 1996, I wouldn\u2019t call her an A-list actress and it surprised me that she is the star of such a big release for a studio as popular as Pixar.\u00a0It\u2019s not often such a large film opens with a lead actor or actress that the casual moviegoer probably hasn\u2019t heard of*. But this is different. This is animation. Since you don\u2019t see their faces, you just need an actor with the proper voice, right? Well that makes sense to me too, but increasingly isn\u2019t the case anymore. And no one is more painfully aware of this than Billy West.<\/p>\n Billy West\u2019s name is known even less than Kelly MacDonald, but I\u2019d be amazed if you hadn\u2019t come across his work before, even if you didn\u2019t know it. He is one of the most prolific voice actors working today, with IMDb crediting him as an actor on 176 different projects dating back to the late 1980s, and many of those see him playing multiple characters. West started to gain national attention for his many crude and hilarious impersonations on The Howard Stern Show, ranging from people like Lucille Ball to Larry Fine of the Three Stooges. From there, he went on to voice dozens of animated characters on Family Guy, Dilbert, King of the Hill, Powerpuff Girls, Johnny Bravo, The Oblongs, Hey Arnold and many more. And it\u2019s not just the amount of work he has done, but the prominence and longevity of many of his roles. He portrayed Doug, among others, on the Nickelodeon show of the same name (until he was replaced when the show went to Disney*), as well as the title characters of Ren & Stimpy. Recently, he is likely most famous for his work on Futurama, where he plays so many major characters that entire scenes are often comprised of West talking to himself in his roles as protagonist Phillip J. Fry, Dr. Zoidberg, Zapp Branigan, Professor Farnsworth, and others.<\/p>\n *And the show jumped the shark. Who thought Patti\u2019s haircut was a good idea?<\/em><\/p>\n His wide range of voices has caused many people to call him \u2018the new Mel Blanc,\u2019 which is both a massive compliment in voice acting circles and a harsh reminder of how little credit voice actors are given outside of those circles, as many casual animation fans are unsure who that even is. Mel Blanc was the voice of most of the major Warner Bros. cartoon characters in the 1930s and 1940s, including Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Sylvester the Cat, Tweety Bird, Porky Pig, Yosemite Sam and many, many more. He was known as \u2018The Man of 1,000 Voices\u2019 and a tally of his career actually shows this nickname is probably a little conservative. It is estimated that when Mel Blanc died, 20 million people heard his voice every day, yet despite this, many don\u2019t know who he is or what he did.<\/p>\n Billy West earned his nickname of \u2018the new Mel Blanc\u2019 not just by being extremely prolific and talented like Blanc, but performing some of Blanc\u2019s original trademark characters. In many cartoons, video games and commercials, West has played iconic Blanc characters like Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd. A major milestone for West came when he played these characters in Space Jam, a film my father once described as the loudest, most colourful movie he ever fell asleep to. The entire experience was not as glamourous as West likely hoped. Although playing the character billed above Michael Jordan, one of the most famous people on the planet, West was met with much less than the star treatment. When the premiere of Space Jam took place at the famous Grauman\u2019s Chinese Theatre, West and the other voice actors weren\u2019t invited to either the red carpet or the after party. In fact, the voice actors\u2019 viewing of the premiere was in a smaller theatre next door and, upon questioning this, they were told the big theatre was for \u201cthe actors.\u201d West is quick to point out that all the actors in Space Jam couldn\u2019t fill that theatre, and that seats that could have been occupied by he and the other voice actors were filled by people who had nothing to do with the movie, who were there merely to be seen and add star power to the premiere.<\/p>\n “I know this movie is about believing in yourself, but I don’t believe you matter enough to sit in the same room as me.”<\/p><\/div>\n In interviews about his experience with Space Jam, West\u2019s feelings of under appreciation and disrespect are quite apparent, but there\u2019s another related subject that can quickly turn him much more upset, and almost militant. That subject is not how live-action actors are treated compared to voice actors, but how they are simply replacing voice actors, and making more money doing so. There has been a change, starting about two decades ago, where major films (and to a lesser degree, TV shows) have been turning their backs on voice actors in exchange for the exponentially more well-known names of live action actors. Here is West answering a question on the versatility of voice actors in an interview with The AV Club<\/a>:<\/p>\n \u201cWe do multiple voices. We used to save producers’ asses, because they’d hire you and say, “Well, we were going to get six people, but we can’t afford it. Can you do this, this, and this?” And you’d do them, and they’d be perfectly happy, and they’d save a bundle of dough. Now, it’s the exact opposite. The minute they mention a CGI film, they’re already looking to see what Ren\u00e9e Zellweger is doing. They’re already looking to see what Billy Crystal is doing. This doesn’t make sense, to do what they do – spend zillions on visuals, and then have this totally fucking flat-lining voice track. You know, “Hey, I’m Will Smith, I’m a clam! I’m Will Smith, I’m a kangaroo!” All you bring to the performance is your own ego. They’re just being themselves. Let’s put it this way: Cameron Diaz is the highest paid voice actress in history: $20 million for\u00a0Shrek<\/em>. Why? Because she has a 9-foot mouth? That works somewhere else, but not on tape!\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n While it could be easy to write this attitude off as jealousy, he is right that there is a definite difference in their methods and in the results. West\u2019s method at auditions is to come in, look at the drawing of a character, work with the animators, writers and director on the project to get to know what the intended personality is, and then create a voice from scratch. Cameron Diaz in Shrek sounds like Cameron Diaz in everything else, and it is not difficult to see how frustrating this must be to other voice actors. It seems similar to training your whole life to be a marathon runner, and then being replaced by somebody who is allowed to use a car, and also earns an additional $20 million dollars to do so.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a>