Nancy Cartwright.

Over the next few articles, I am branching out and asking my industry friends to give me their insider takes. I am going to focus on subjects that professionals need to have some knowledge of and get opinions from a wide range of specialties and hats in the business.

So far I have interviewed good friends Jack Thomas (The Replacements), Mike Scully (The Simpsons), Carolyn Omine (The Simpsons), Ginnie McSwain (voice-over director), AJ Riebli (Pixar Animation editorial manager), Al Jean (showrunner and longtime writer on The Simpsons), and now my good friend Charlie Adler, voice-over director and actor.

Emmy Award-winning director and two-time Annie Award nominee Charlie Adler has voice directed over 500 hours of television, including the series The Replacements, Emperor's New School, Flapjack, The Buzz on Maggie, Bratz, All Grown Up, Stripperella and Spawn, as well as numerous pilots, special features, and direct-to-video projects. Over the past decade, he has voice directed all the seasons and feature films of The Wild Thornberrys, Rugrats and Rocket Power franchises, as well as the best-selling DVD The Happy Elf starring Harry Connick Jr.

As a voice-over artist, Adler has appeared as a series regular in over 90 animated series and in the blockbuster Transformers movie as Starscream. Among his most memorable characters are Buster Bunny from Steven Spielberg's Tiny Toon Adventures, Ickis in AAAHH!!! Real Monsters and Ed and Bev Bighead in Rocko's Modern Life. He has also been a Smurf, a G.I. Joe, and a Glow Friend, starred as the Baboon in I.M. Weasel opposite Michael Dorn, and created the voice of the Internet's Mr. Smarmy in the series Mr. Baby.

Nancy Cartwright: How did you get your "lucky break?" And what got you interested in working for animation?

Charlie Adler.

Charlie Adler: First, I just don't use the word "lucky" to describe it. Being in New York, you are an actor; you went from job to job. You do a commercial during the day, do a play at night, the next day you went to a radio commercial, a soap opera. In the 70s and 80s... when I was doing a Broadway show, I auditioned for My Little Pony, which was a special at the time starring Tony Randall and Sandy Duncan, and that was my first animation job.

When I moved out to L.A., they started up the series My Little Pony. I got it and I had an advantage knowing the characters, but my very first animation job out here was for Smurfs. You and I started out at the same time, we worked on My Little Pony together. I did seven or eight series that first year I was in L.A. I was in the right place at the right time.

My first directing job wasn't until years later as guest director on a couple of episodes of the Rugrats series. Klasky [Csupo] pretty much kept me busy for a decade after that.

NC: You are both a top voice director and an actor for animation. Is it difficult to shift hats? Does it ever present a problem working with fellow actors?

CA: No, I think just the opposite. I think because I'm an actor we speak the same language. It has given me a great shortcut and a great advantage because, one, they trust me, based on my body of work with them in the room as a fellow actor and, two, because I have such a love and respect for actors. I hate to have actors manipulated or to see them treated badly and I like to keep it kind of a party and in a way it's made it a great benefit for me. The shorthand that we have evolved together is extraordinary.

These actors I work with are the creme de la creme, these people hear in milliseconds, they think in milliseconds, they deliver changes in milliseconds, and I try to keep that creative process moving by talking in milliseconds.

In terms of how other people in the business perceive me, I think I've paid a price as an actor because other directors don't necessarily feel comfortable having a fellow director they feel is competition in a room with them. They don't want to remind another producer that someone else is "out there," which is foolish because I love acting and when I am an actor I have no interest in directing. I want to be directed and I want to have a great time and let go of that responsibility. There's a trade-off for everything.

NC: When directing, how much do you rely on what the actors do to contribute to the final product?

CA: They are everything. Actors... my god! What are the animators going to animate without the voice track? I depend completely on my actors to deliver and they rarely let me down. People I get to work with are nothing short of miraculous, the most skilled actors in the business and very underrated, very underappreciated. I count heavily on them, and they on me. It's a great symbiosis. It's a great responsibility.

NC: Please describe the directing process for a show, (i.e., the preparation, the rehearsal, the record, postproduction, etc.)