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ANIMATION WORLD MAGAZINE - ISSUE 5.11 - FEBRUARY 2001
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I Call On Charlie Adler WR: Just like London. CA: Yeah, you're a craftsman. WR: You do all these different things. CA: Right, exactly. It's like London so you're considered an artist and so there are no rules about that. When I came out here and Mark (Pearlstein), the then agent at Abrams, said, 'Well, we're gonna sign you for on camera.' I said, 'Well, great,' and then I said, 'Do you guys do a lot of voice-over? 'Cause I do a ton,' and at that time I was doing anywhere from 7-15 radio spots a week and here -- by the way I think I've maybe done 15 radio spots in my entire career in Los Angeles -- they just do not get it. I make everybody very nervous. But New York got me, which is why it's so odd. WR: Is it possible you actually have energy and so does New York, do you think? CA: Yes, my energy was very off putting. But it is in life and I don't expect to go to the prom nor do I want to be invited to every prom. It's fine by me. WR: I'll keep that in mind.
CA: I'd absolutely consider your prom. So Mark made it very clear to me that you do not, when you sign with an agency out here, sign across the boards and I said, 'Well, I have to be represented for voice.' He said, 'You have to meet that department separately.' And I said, 'No, I do not, it's all or nothing. Buh-bye.' He said, 'Wait right here!' So I had never been particularly clever in business. WR: You mean to say, you had a certain amount of leverage and you didn't realize it at the time? CA: I don't know if I was even aware of the fact that I had leverage. I just think it annoyed me. I think it was that visceral and I'm that immediate. It just pissed me off is what it did and five minutes later I was down in the voice-over department and I met Arlene Thornton and (Ginny McSwain), who was then the agent there, who totally had no interest in me whatsoever. WR: So it wasn't love at first sight? CA: You know, the re-telling of the story is how it was instant love but it wasn't. That first meeting was very difficult and it was, 'Yeah, yeah, yeah, come on back in a week. Do you have any tapes?' And I said, 'No, I didn't need a tape in New York, I just work. I don't have a tape.' Well, what do you do? I had done one animated thing in New York. I did two of the specials, My Little Pony I and My Little Pony II, and that was it. Spike the Baby Dragon is my career. Hello! So I didn't have any tapes of that nor did I have any voice tapes. WR: But, of course you were there in person. With your actual mouth. CA: Right. So they said, 'Come back in a week and we'll make a tape,' and I didn't know what the hell to make so I ended up -- luckily, I had done a lot of improv in New York and a lot of improv in life and a lot of character work and so I just threw together -- they said five minutes, I did twelve minutes -- but I did it wearing this fine hat and sunglasses and with my back to them 'cause I was too embarrassed. WR: Your back to them? You, of the theatre?! CA: I didn't want anybody to look at me, which really, honest to God is true. Now they remind me what a retard I was. I just absolutely would not be looked at. I was so embarrassed. WR: We pause now to conjure up this mental image. Okay. So that was your audition and then you had representation?
CA: And then I auditioned and then they got me a general audition at Hanna-Barbara. Then I was flown up to San Francisco to do an on camera commercial for Beck's Beer and I was up in San Francisco and got off the plane and checked my voicemail and there's a message from Arlene that said that I had been hired to replace Joey Kamen as a Smurf. They had killed off one generation and they were turning them in to the babies. So they turn on the Tidy Bowl. So I did that. That was my first animation job out here was Smurfs. WR: What was your awareness of animation prior to working in it? CA: Not a lot, not a lot. I mean, like everybody else I had stuff that I loved and I certainly loved all the -- my favorite stuff didn't have voices. My favorite thing was the Road Runner. That always just made me pee in my pants. I loved that. Let's see, do I not want to see it or do I want to take a dump? Hmm. That's a weird expression. So my favorite characters probably were Tweety Bird. I loved Tweety Bird and I loved Krazy Kat. WR: The comic strip?
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