- 2 days ago
Join legendary voice actor Steve Blum (the iconic voice of Spike Spiegel in Cowboy Bebop, Wolverine in X-Men, Tank Dempsey in Call of Duty, and countless others) live on stage at Grand Rapids Comic Con!
Watch as Steve shares hilarious behind-the-scenes stories, answers fan questions, and drops into some of his most famous character voices live in front of the crowd.
Watch as Steve shares hilarious behind-the-scenes stories, answers fan questions, and drops into some of his most famous character voices live in front of the crowd.
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NewsTranscript
00:00It started out as the race, and it was a multi-racial group.
00:04We had pretty much every race that we could fit into the group represented there.
00:09We became a group called Magnetic.
00:12We were the Ivory All-Stars, International Love Affair.
00:16We went through all these different crazy things, ILA for short.
00:20It was nuts, and I was terrified all the time.
00:25I was a rhythm guitarist, and I wasn't that good.
00:27He was the only professional in the group.
00:29He would change up the set that day.
00:33We would practice.
00:34We'd turn it into a 15-piece stage band with choreography, horn section, background singers.
00:41Just when we started getting comfortable with the songs, he would go,
00:43oh, we're not going to do that anymore.
00:44We're going to try this one.
00:45We haven't even tried that.
00:47We'd go on stage, and all of us felt like we were going to poop ourselves.
00:50I was scared all the time.
00:52But to support that habit, I needed to get a job.
00:55I had kids on the way, and so I got a job at a low-budget film studio.
01:01At the time, it was called Empire Entertainment.
01:03We were famous for Re-Animator and Ghoulies from Beyond.
01:07Eventually, we became Full Moon Entertainment.
01:08We did the Puppet Master movies and a ton of other stuff.
01:14I began to work in their mailroom just to support myself.
01:19I happened to have the deepest voice in the mailroom.
01:22The guy who was the head of the mailroom, a guy named Victor Garcia, said,
01:26if you come on a Saturday and try out for this Japanimation thing that we're doing,
01:33we'll give you free breakfast and lunch.
01:36And as a starving musician, I thought, all I heard was free food.
01:39And I went, okay, I don't care what we're doing, man.
01:41I'm going to do that.
01:42You just want me to growl?
01:43Yeah, I can do that.
01:44So he needed a creature voice, and they showed me some footage on the screen,
01:49and it was a show called The Giver.
01:51Oh.
01:52And they wanted me to be creatures called zoonoids,
01:55which are just these horrible, drippy, nasty things.
01:59And the first scene that I saw was one of these giant zoonoids
02:02ripping the arm off of another one and beating him with it.
02:05And so he goes, all right, what would that sound like?
02:07And I just look at the screen, and I went,
02:11He goes, all right, you're hired.
02:16Because I guess nobody else was willing to do that.
02:18I didn't care.
02:20I wanted my free food, man.
02:22I wanted my pizza.
02:24I'll growl all day.
02:25But because of the musical training,
02:27I had a natural ability to match the lips of the characters
02:31and eventually with speaking roles,
02:32because language is rhythmic.
02:35It's a very musical thing, at least in my mind.
02:37And I was able to match the lips of the original Japanese,
02:41and it was just an organic thing for me.
02:42And the acting I had to learn by stealing from everybody else in the room.
02:47Back in those days, they brought in 20 actors at a time.
02:50We all tried to dip in and out of the microphone,
02:51so we got to watch each other work.
02:53And I learned from the best actors in the city,
02:57and in some cases the world,
02:59just by watching what they did and mimicking it.
03:01And I just kept doing it for fun.
03:03They kept hiring me, idiots.
03:07And I worked with that studio for many, many years.
03:09There was a guy named Kevin Seymour,
03:11who was very instrumental in my early days.
03:15Kevin is no longer with us.
03:16He passed away a few years ago,
03:17but he really started the anime community in Los Angeles for dubbing
03:22against a lot of odds.
03:24We were up against the Subber versus Dubber problem,
03:29and I had my life threatened at the time.
03:32They were saying that Dubbers were ruining the art form.
03:36And so I didn't really care,
03:39because I was just having fun doing it.
03:41And I didn't watch him.
03:42I just thought, this is really fun.
03:43I like going in and making stupid voices,
03:45and people like it.
03:47Some people like it.
03:48And then the ones that didn't, I kind of liked that, too.
03:50I just loved all the feedback.
03:51I didn't care if they loved me or hated me.
03:53I just loved getting a response.
03:54It was fun.
03:55So I just kept doing that for years and years,
03:58still working at this film company.
04:00It was my day job.
04:01I became an executive at the film company.
04:0314 years later, I was head of marketing,
04:05and had a corner office in Hollywood.
04:08And you'd think that that would be the end-all, be-all,
04:11to have this beautiful office in Hollywood,
04:13making decent money, working for a film studio.
04:15That's the Hollywood dream.
04:17And I hated it.
04:18I hated going to work every day,
04:19because it became corporate, and it became nasty,
04:22and the entertainment industry is a mean place.
04:25The only place that was really nice was voiceover,
04:29the people that I worked with in voiceover.
04:31I love that community.
04:33It's the kind of community where we become
04:34lifelong friends, and even if we're up for the same part,
04:38we'll refer each other for roles.
04:41We'll all go in for the same audition,
04:42and I'll just say, no, you can do it better,
04:45and I'll just walk out.
04:46And that's what we do for each other.
04:48We just are about what is good for the project,
04:51and what is good for our friends, too.
04:53And I loved living that way.
04:54I felt better about myself.
04:56I didn't feel sleazy at the end of the day,
04:58you know, working for a nasty film company.
05:01So I just kept doing it for fun,
05:02and then eventually, in about 2000,
05:06I was 40 years old,
05:08I was going through a divorce,
05:10and I booked my first 7-Eleven commercial.
05:13I was the guy who said, oh, thank heaven.
05:15I was that dude.
05:16And I thought, oh, man, finally I can get out of this,
05:19and I can do voiceover full-time,
05:20and 7-Eleven's going to buy my new home,
05:22my first home.
05:24And then the union went on strike
05:27for about 8 months.
05:28And I was out of work for a year and a half,
05:30but I kept doing voiceover on the side for fun.
05:33And I knew at that point that
05:36if this was something that I could do for no money
05:38and be willing to starve
05:39and put my whole life on credit cards,
05:41that I was doing something of value.
05:43I was doing something that was fulfilling,
05:45and I didn't care if I ever made money at it.
05:48And then eventually I did.
05:49Eventually I got a good agent,
05:51and I started booking much better roles,
05:54and now I support myself with it.
05:56But I didn't start doing it full-time
05:57until I was 40 years old.
05:59So it was a grind for a while there.
06:01Yeah.
06:02It still is.
06:03I mean, I work harder now
06:04than I think I ever have in my life.
06:06I bring a portable recording studio with me,
06:09and I'll be recording auditions in my room tonight.
06:11So I audition more than I do anything else in my life.
06:16Was there a role that your agent came to you with
06:18and you just said, I've made it now?
06:20I mean, besides 7-Eleven.
06:22Post-7.
06:23Wow.
06:25Probably Wolverine.
06:26That was a big one for me
06:29because I grew up in a comic book store.
06:31My grandfather owned this big, beautiful bookstore in Hollywood,
06:34and my uncle ran the comic book department,
06:36and it was one of the greatest collections of comics
06:41anywhere in the world at the time.
06:44And so my job at 12 years old
06:46was sorting through comic books
06:48and occasionally Playboys,
06:50which was kind of fun for him.
06:52He would buy these lots of comics
06:55from collectors who were either going out of business
06:59or their estate sales, that sort of thing.
07:02So he would buy these tons of boxes
07:04just for a bulk rate,
07:05and my job would be to sort through them
07:06and sort out the comics and find the valuable ones.
07:10And so doing that, at 12 years old,
07:11I had voices in my head when I would read a comic.
07:14My favorites of those times were probably Fantastic Four
07:17and Spider-Man, that kind of thing.
07:19And looking, I remember back then,
07:21even looking at something like the Green Goblin,
07:24and I had this voice in my head.
07:28And then eventually, many years later,
07:30I booked the Green Goblin on Spectacular Spider-Man.
07:33And so Wolverine was one of those things where
07:36he didn't really exist back then
07:37because I'm really, really old.
07:39But when I first saw Wolverine appear
07:41in the Hulk versus Wolverine comic,
07:44whatever that was called at the time,
07:47that voice was in my head.
07:48I just heard this voice in my head
07:50when I read the comic.
07:52And I couldn't do the voice
07:54because my voice in my throat hadn't dropped
07:56at that point.
07:57So in my head, it was like this.
07:59And outwardly, it was probably like this.
08:03But when I got to read for Wolverine,
08:05when I actually got into the studio
08:06and I got to read for Wolverine,
08:07this is the voice that came out.
08:09And they said, oh, that's what we're hearing too.
08:11Awesome.
08:13And I went through three or four series of callbacks
08:16and then booked that job
08:17and squeed like a fangirl.
08:19And the rest is history.
08:21I think the first time I booked Wolverine
08:22was on X-Men Legends in the video game.
08:26And I felt like I was going to cry
08:28through the whole thing.
08:29It was so exciting.
08:30And I thought, wow, I've made it.
08:32This is bigger than anything I'll ever do
08:33in my whole life.
08:34And then other stuff just kept coming.
08:36I couldn't believe it.
08:37So I look at every day as just a happy accident.
08:43It's wonderful.
08:44I was going to say,
08:45because you could still be playing with ILA.
08:47Yeah, I could be.
08:48I'd be a really good musician by now.
08:50I'd be really good at it.
08:52I'd say most of the people in this room
08:53are glad things turned out the way they did for you.
08:55I hope so, yeah.
08:56Who knows?
08:57I always sort of wonder
08:59what it would have been like
08:59to become a professional musician.
09:02I just didn't have the discipline either.
09:04And the voiceover had been something
09:05that I had been doing naturally
09:06since I was a little kid.
09:08And the technical part of it,
09:10I was willing to learn
09:10because it still felt like an organic process.
09:12Music to me was really arduous,
09:15especially as a guitar player.
09:16It's a hard instrument.
09:18And it takes a lot of study.
09:19And I have deep respect for musicians
09:21who have the intestinal fortitude
09:24to play six or eight hours a day
09:26and really learn the craft.
09:27I just, I'm too lazy.
09:31It's probably what I don't do on camera either.
09:33I don't want to memorize lines.
09:35You know, I'm just a lazy dude.
09:36But I worked it out.
09:38I worked it out.
09:39You talked about being Wolverine in a video game.
09:42You've done a lot of video game voice work.
09:44Yeah, I've done a few.
09:45I've done a few.
09:46Yeah, I found out a few years later,
09:49I think it was in 2012,
09:50that I won the Guinness World Record
09:52for the most voices in video games.
09:54And I hadn't been keeping track of any of that.
09:57So I actually had to sit with my agent
09:58for almost four months
09:59going through my own IMDb
10:01to figure out if that was for me or not.
10:04I'm glad it took you guys four months
10:05because it took me four months
10:06to get through your IMDb too.
10:10Yeah, and I don't play games either.
10:12So I didn't know.
10:13And most of the time
10:14when we're working on video games,
10:16we don't even know the title of the game
10:17or if our characters' names
10:19are even going to stay the same in the game.
10:21Everything is under top secret,
10:23non-disclosure agreements.
10:24So it was really hard to figure out
10:26what I was in and what I wasn't.
10:27And I still don't know
10:28if that list is complete.
10:30But right now,
10:30it's somewhere around 400 games.
10:32It's ridiculous.
10:34And I had no idea.
10:36The funny thing to me was, too,
10:38that as a child,
10:39I thought,
10:40I want to win a Guinness World Record.
10:42That was a big deal
10:42when I was a little kid.
10:43Right.
10:44But I thought it would be
10:44for like pogo stick
10:45or fomper.
10:47Spitting on, you know,
10:48as far as you could.
10:49I didn't know it was going to be
10:50for quantity
10:51for, you know, something.
10:53I thought I'd do something
10:54for quality.
10:54So it's okay, though.
10:57I'll take it.
10:57I have the plaque on my wall
10:58and I like it.
10:59It's fun.
11:00What's the most,
11:01I guess,
11:01the most fun part of your job?
11:03I mean, other than, of course,
11:04stuff like this
11:05with people wanting to talk
11:06to you about what you do.
11:07What's the most fun
11:08you get to have
11:08while you're at work?
11:09Do they still have
11:10those 20 people in a room
11:11voice sessions?
11:12Yeah.
11:13Well, now it's different
11:14because I don't do
11:14a lot of anime anymore.
11:16I do mostly original animation.
11:18Anime has moved out
11:19of Los Angeles.
11:20So in original animation,
11:22we actually work
11:22as a full cast together.
11:24And they're some
11:25of the funniest,
11:27craziest, sickest people
11:28in the world
11:29that do this stuff.
11:30And we've all become
11:31really close.
11:32A lot of them
11:32came from comedy.
11:34A lot of them
11:34were improv people.
11:35A lot of musicians.
11:37And so the shenanigans
11:38that go on in the room
11:40sometimes eclipse
11:41the funny in the actual show.
11:43And I wish that we could
11:45use the stuff
11:46that we're doing in the room
11:47but most of it's too filthy
11:48to ever make it.
11:50Is there anything
11:51tame enough for this room
11:52at least?
11:52Yeah, well there's
11:53quite a few things.
11:54I mean, we all prank each other.
11:57We have a lot of fun.
11:58We make faces at each other
11:59while we're trying
12:00to be serious and working.
12:02One of the funniest things
12:03I talk about this all the time.
12:04My friend Darren Norris
12:06and I worked on
12:08Transformers Prime together.
12:10And Darren is known
12:12as Cosmo
12:13from Fairly Oddparents
12:13and many, many, many
12:16other things.
12:17He was knockout
12:19on that show.
12:19I call them knock boots.
12:22But I was doing this scene
12:23as Starscream
12:24and it was one of the rare
12:26moments in Transformers Prime
12:28where Starscream
12:28had a vulnerable moment
12:30and he was talking
12:31about his feelings
12:32and really trying
12:34to dig deep
12:34and I was really
12:36focusing intently
12:37on this.
12:38And usually Starscream
12:39is like jazz hands.
12:41That's crazy.
12:42So in this,
12:43it was a rare moment
12:44of inner,
12:46you know,
12:47looking inward
12:47for Starscream
12:48and I'm concentrating
12:49really hard
12:50and I see something
12:51wiggling over
12:51off to my right.
12:53And I look over
12:55in my periphery
12:56and Darren had taken
12:57a piece of string cheese
12:59and he had ripped it
13:00in half
13:01and he stuck one half
13:02up each glass plate
13:03and he's standing there
13:05next to me
13:06just waving it
13:07back and forth.
13:09And it's like
13:09that string cheese
13:10is going back and forth
13:11and I'm trying
13:12to keep my composure
13:13and deliver my lines
13:14and I licked over it
13:15and I lost it
13:16and I couldn't work
13:16for about 10 minutes.
13:18It was just rough.
13:19It was just rough.
13:20And, oh man,
13:22so many things.
13:23There was another instance
13:24where I was working
13:25on an anime.
13:26I don't even remember
13:26which one it was
13:27and we were in a room
13:29that we call
13:30the refrigerator.
13:30It's a whisper room.
13:32They call it a whisper room
13:34and it's a soundproof
13:35portable booth.
13:37And this is comfortable
13:39for two people.
13:41Super, super tight
13:42for, did I say
13:44four people?
13:45No.
13:45Comfortable for two people.
13:46Super tight for three people.
13:48We had five people in it.
13:50And one microphone
13:51and we were doing
13:52what they call walla
13:53which is background voices
13:55for a crowd scene.
13:56And so in this particular scene
13:59we were supposed to be
14:00a screaming crowd.
14:01And I'm in the front.
14:02They're all sort of
14:03squished in behind me.
14:04And I was a regular
14:06on the show.
14:06The other people
14:07were kind of extras.
14:08And it was four guys
14:09and one girl.
14:11And so I'm in the middle
14:12of the scream
14:13and I'm winding up for it
14:14and I just go,
14:15ahhh!
14:16And then all of a sudden
14:17a finger goes up my butt.
14:20And I'm in the middle
14:21of the scream
14:21and I go,
14:22ahhh!
14:22And I find this giant loop.
14:27And there's,
14:28in the front of this booth
14:30it's all glass
14:31and there's a monitor
14:32on the other side
14:32of the glass
14:33and so this loogie
14:33lands on the glass
14:35right in the middle
14:36of the screen
14:37so we can't even see
14:37what's happening
14:38on screen anymore
14:38and we're just
14:39watching it slowly.
14:42And there,
14:42I'm going,
14:43who did that?
14:44I mean,
14:44I barely knew
14:46some of the people
14:47in the booth.
14:48I knew,
14:48I think two of them,
14:49the other two,
14:49I had no idea
14:50who they were.
14:51And I said,
14:52who did that?
14:53And I come out
14:54of the booth
14:54and we're cleaning
14:55up the glass
14:55and the director
14:58is laughing.
14:59He's just laughing
15:00hysterically.
15:00I said,
15:01are you in on this?
15:02And all of a sudden
15:03the girl who was
15:04in the booth
15:04just starts going,
15:05it was his girlfriend
15:08and he had set her up
15:09to do this.
15:11It was all planned out.
15:13And, oh man.
15:14So, yeah,
15:15so that's the kind
15:16of stuff that I can
15:17talk about.
15:18It gets a lot worse
15:19than that.
15:21But, yeah,
15:21we do a lot of
15:22crazy stuff like that.
15:24It's really fun.
15:25Well, I don't want
15:26to speed forward
15:26too much,
15:27but I do want to leave
15:28some questions
15:28for other people.
15:29Let's jump ahead
15:30to what you're working
15:31on right now
15:31and that snazzy jacket
15:32you've got on there,
15:33Sarah.
15:33Right, this comes
15:34from Star Wars Rebels.
15:36Actually, this is not
15:36from Star Wars Rebels.
15:37This is from Episode 7.
15:39This is a crew jacket
15:39from Star Wars movie.
15:41Star Wars Rebels.