00:00I know my cars. This is a 52 Chevy pickup with the Ramjet engine. Let's go. Lift it up.
00:04Bring that drill over here. All right, let's go.
00:08Hi, I'm Nancy Cartwright, and you might not recognize my face, but you probably recognize my voice.
00:14Hi, I'm Bart Simpson. Who the hell are you?
00:18I do other voices on The Simpsons. I'm Ralph Wiggum.
00:21When I grow up, I want to be a principal or a caterpillar.
00:25Nelson Muntz.
00:25The thing about huckleberries is, once you've had fresh, you'll never go back to canned.
00:31Todd Flanders.
00:32I get to anoint their feet.
00:35Well, Maggie, there's Maggie.
00:41I'm also Chucky on Rugrats.
00:43I hope there's not any clowns. There aren't any clowns on there. I don't like clowns.
00:49Rufus the Naked Mole Rat.
00:54I know. I get paid to do that. It's ridiculous.
00:56Today, I'm with Vanity Fair, and I'm going to be doing some improvisations for some characters
01:03that I've never seen before and give them some personality.
01:06I mean, the first thing you notice about this little gal is that she's messed up.
01:10I like to check out, normally it's just checking out kind of the mouth and the jaw because that
01:15helps me in terms of deciding the diction and if he or she has a lisp, stuff like that.
01:23She looks like Wednesday from the Addams Family, you know, gone awry.
01:27All those little nails and tacks that are stuck in her nose and her belly button and her neck
01:32and ear and head and hair and all that. I think it's self-afflicted.
01:36She's tough. Her eyes are not the same size.
01:40Her tongue is sticking out.
01:42If she would say, I don't know, it'd be sort of hard to talk with a nail.
01:46It'd be hard to talk with a nail in your tongue.
01:49I don't even know how she would shut her mouth.
01:51She would have to talk like that.
01:53Get away from me.
01:55Did you notice my earring? I do have an earring on.
01:58She might sound like that.
02:00By the time she's middle-aged, and I'm just kind of creating on this myself,
02:04I don't see any hints of any coffee or cigarettes, but it'd be kind of hard to smoke.
02:10She started out like this as a teenager and she can't quite close her mouth when she's talking.
02:15By the time she's middle-aged, she might be a little bit more beaten up.
02:20And perhaps she's talking a little bit slower.
02:27The accent just came naturally.
02:29Sometimes you just have to trust your instincts on these things.
02:32Oh, this guy's cute.
02:34Right off the bat, I mean, obviously, he's a bookworm.
02:38You know, don't mean to be stereotypical, but he's got a tie on.
02:41He's bald, so I tend to think that he's a dude.
02:44And he's smart.
02:46If he's a bookworm, by, I mean, the idiom means that the guy's, whoever's a bookworm is, like, really smart.
02:53He has, he's got his tongue sticking out, too.
02:56Major key.
02:57Major key is where that tongue is.
03:00But he's, he's a little dude.
03:04He's also really smart, but not nerdy smart.
03:06He's kind of cute smart.
03:08He's a little adorable.
03:09So I think he might sort of sound like this.
03:12He's got a little bit of a, you know, here's the deal.
03:15I just love reading.
03:17And sometimes I like to look up words in a dictionary.
03:20So if I look up a word, like, for example, this will surprise you.
03:23The word nice.
03:24When you look up nice, if you look up the etymology, that means the derivation, of course.
03:28If you look up the etymology of nice, this is amazing.
03:31But nice actually comes from, um, somewhere.
03:35And it actually means foolish or stupid.
03:37That is not me.
03:38I just am a bookworm.
03:39And I like to read.
03:40Thank you very much.
03:41So if he was a professor, I would probably bring his voice down and say,
03:44Ladies and gentlemen, students of my class, here I go.
03:47And you see, I just brought the pitch down just a little bit to make him sound a little bit
03:51older.
03:52May I please have your attention?
03:54Your attention.
03:54All eyes up front.
03:56Thank you very much.
03:57This is like the baby.
03:58This is like the baby on The Incredibles, right?
04:01It's just sort of like Baby Jack, except like 2D.
04:04And for a baby, this baby looks like, well, the blue tends to indicate that it's a boy,
04:09but it could be a girl.
04:10And I mean, for little babies, sounds, it doesn't really matter if it's a boy or a girl.
04:15I mean, there's a whole universal thing about baby sounds that,
04:30Did you hear that?
04:31It was a little blowing.
04:34If this was a baby on The Rugrats, oh, like a little baby of, like, say, Chucky.
04:38Say, Chucky has a little baby brother.
04:46I can't quite say Chucky.
04:49Chucky, Chucky, Chucky.
04:51This is kind of a throwback to me.
04:54I love this art.
04:56She's tough.
04:57She's kind of like Rosalind Russell, maybe, or she could be Katherine Hepburn.
05:04She looks like a leader.
05:06The short hair, but I think she's really pretty.
05:09But she's got a strength about her.
05:11Look how she's holding her fist there.
05:13And she's interested in fashion.
05:15She's got the necklace on.
05:16She's got earrings.
05:17She's got a long thumbnail.
05:18When I think of her, I kind of, kind of,
05:20All right, you guys, we've got deadlines we've got to hit today.
05:23Hey, what are you doing over there?
05:24Put that coffee down when I'm talking to you.
05:26Pay attention.
05:26We've got a Hill 10 going on here.
05:28We've got to hit this by 10 o'clock this morning.
05:29Let's go.
05:30She's kind of tough like that.
05:32But if she's a glam queen, she might say,
05:36See, for me, if I lower my voice a little bit, I don't sound so much like a kid.
05:39I've got a natural sound of like a kid.
05:42But doing, Brenda, I like her name, Brenda.
05:45Hi, guys.
05:47So I'm here.
05:47Hey, listen.
05:48So I was just wondering, can somebody go out and get me a coffee before we get started here?
05:53And if I just slow her voice down just a little bit and give it a little bit of a
05:56breathy quality.
05:58I don't mean to bother you, but I was just wondering, can you see the holes?
06:02I'm not wearing any earrings right now.
06:03I was just, can you see the holes in my ears?
06:06This is Vanity Fair.
06:08That's a pretty dragon.
06:10That's a pretty dragon.
06:11But, you know, that fire and he flies.
06:15What I get from this is like, I get like bad breath.
06:19I don't know, like, wait, what?
06:31There's no voice?
06:32Oh, he doesn't have a voice.
06:33Sort of like Rufus the Naked Mole Rat.
06:35Oh, awesome.
06:36Okay.
06:37I love her.
06:38I instantly love her.
06:40I think she's very soft-spoken.
06:42The glasses are kind of a hint.
06:44And perhaps stereotypical that she's kind of a subtle geek.
06:49But I think by the time she's 20, she's going to be a multi-multi-millionaire.
06:54She's probably going to invent something on the internet or some app or something.
06:58But her mouth is shut and I think she's a little bit mousy.
07:03And I think she's sort of like, okay, listen, I have an idea.
07:08And I was wondering, you guys, I know it's like 2 o'clock in the morning,
07:11but I would like to stick around and I'm good.
07:14I'm good.
07:16Just give me another coffee.
07:17Hey, you know what?
07:18I just inspired myself.
07:19I'm going to change that.
07:20I think this is better.
07:21She goes, I'm good.
07:22I'm good.
07:23You know, I'm going to stick around here a little bit longer.
07:25I know it's 2 a.m., but give me another coffee or something like that
07:27because I've got to stay up late.
07:28I've got this deadline and I've got a hit.
07:29And I've got to do it by 10 o'clock in the morning.
07:31And if I go home right now, I'm never going to make my deadline.
07:33Oh, ooh.
07:35So, yeah, we can twist this.
07:36And here she's looking really sweet and everything.
07:38But let's say she's been picked on and she's been a little bit victimized in order to defend herself.
07:45She used to be like, okay, I've got a lot of things to do.
07:51You know, I really don't appreciate it when you talk to me like that.
07:55You know, it's really kind of mean.
07:57And actually, you look really ugly today.
07:59Leave me alone.
08:01This one looks like a challenge to me, too.
08:04He's got a cigarette in his mouth and he's also, like, blowing up.
08:08So he's got something.
08:09And he's sort of smiling.
08:11He's sort of grimacing.
08:13And he's, you know, oh, he looks like Edward G. Robinson.
08:16He looks like, all right, you guys.
08:19All right, hear me now.
08:20Hear me now.
08:21Or maybe soften it.
08:22All right, you guys.
08:23Hear me now.
08:24Listen, has anybody got a light?
08:27And I don't mean for my cigarette.
08:29He's going to be sort of tough.
08:30And look when I do this.
08:31Look what happens when I do this voice.
08:33You know, when I do Ralph Riggum, his eyebrows go way up like this.
08:38But when I do Nelson Monson, it comes down like that.
08:40When I do the Saturn bomb.
08:42All right, you guys, listen up.
08:44Listen up, all of you.
08:44I need your attention, please.
08:46Somebody light my fire.
08:47So, if he was a she.
08:50If he was a she.
08:51I don't know.
08:52I guess I could bring it up a little bit higher.
08:54All right, you guys.
08:55I could also do it like that.
08:57Make it a little bit more nasal.
08:58This is a little bit more nasal.
09:00All right.
09:01All right.
09:01Somebody.
09:02Somebody.
09:03Toss me.
09:03Because I feel a little bit held down here.
09:06I'm about ready to blow.
09:07I'm about ready to blow.
09:08I'm ready to blow.
09:11All right.
09:11All right.
09:11This one.
09:12This monkey.
09:14It's a cute little monkey.
09:15He looks like a baby.
09:17He kind of looks like he's just a little guy.
09:25What's wrong?
09:26Why are you looking at me like that?
09:27And he surprises you by the way that he talks.
09:31He's got teeth.
09:31He cries a lot.
09:33I don't have a problem.
09:35Stop it.
09:36Somebody.
09:37Why am I naked?
09:39But on the other hand, he's spitting because he's just frustrated and spits coming out of
09:45mouth.
09:45But what if he's laughing?
09:46Because he could be actually really laughing.
09:49And that's just, it's the same spit coming out of his mouth and you know, as a tip, if
10:03you're interested in voiceovers, there are a few things that you can do to help yourself.
10:07And one of them is take classes on improvisation because you get hired and the producers are
10:14counting on you as a talent to be able to contribute to what it is that you're doing.
10:19Improvisation is coming up with something on the spot that you are inspired by who your
10:27character is.
10:28So depending upon who your character is, that little phrase or expression or sentence or
10:34thought that you come up with makes your character more real.
10:38Way back when, some 30 years ago, when we were doing a table read of The Simpsons, it
10:45was just something that I blurted out.
10:47It was an ad-lib.
10:48And I said, eat my shorts.
10:51In high school, I was in the marching band and we would march to the cadence of the drummers
10:55going, dun-da-da-dun-dun, Fairmont West, dun-da-da-dun-dun, Fairmont West.
10:58And one summer it changed when we were getting ready for the fall and the drum section and all
11:05the trumpets and including me started saying, dun-da-da-dun-dun, eat my shorts.
11:09And people would line up on, you know, on the street to watch us march by.
11:13They had no idea what we were saying, but we knew that we were saying something that
11:18was a little naughty perhaps back then.
11:20And that was fun.
11:21And just all these years went by and next thing you know, it's on three million t-shirts.
11:25So I'm Nancy Cartwright and those were voices of some characters that I've never seen before.
11:30Hope you enjoyed it.
