Cad Bane, Count Dooku and Ziro the Hutt have more than sinister plans in common. Actor Corey Burton gives these evil characters memorable voices and more in The Clone Wars. But what fans might not also realize is that he's been voicing such iconic characters as the Decepticon Shockwave, Professor Ludwig Von Drake, Dale the Chipmunk, Captain Hook, Brainiac, President Abraham Lincoln and more for over three decades.
StarWars.com talks with Burton about his early days in radio dramas, who he channels to voice bounty hunter Cad Bane, and what happens when he tries to order food as Bullwinkle at a fast food drive through.
How did you prepare for the role of Cad Bane?
It's a character I've sort of known all my life because it's based on the old, eerie film star Peter Lorre's voice. Because I'm a fan of old radio dramas, I got to hear Lorre's work as a more serious, more subdued actor in Lux Radio Theater programs. It wasn't as cartoonish as some of his on-screen film roles. Since that was the suggestion from George Lucas, it just seemed natural. At first I wasn't so sure, thinking that it might be too funny. But taking it into the more sinister range makes it not the stereotypical Mad Monster Party type of voice. I was given complete freedom to take it more towards my own instincts and to create an original characterization; even though it's based on him, it's not an imitation.
Everyone loves the mystique of a bounty hunter, and clearly Cad Bane is also heavily influenced by classic westerns. For you, what makes him such an interesting character to play?
He does have that spaghetti western kind of strong, silent, killer-for-hire persona. There is a somber, world-weary sense to him. He has no allegiance to anyone but himself. But he's not entirely without a sense of humor. He almost has a certain insect quality to him, like a praying mantis kind of a vibe. He has no warm and fuzzy feelings.
Coming from a radio drama background where you don't have a lot of time to think about how to deliver your lines, well-written dialog just jumps off the page. For me, the less I think about how I am going to deliver a line the better it is. Where the words form the whole character in my mind and I just let that come out. There's very little calculation in it.
Working as a radio drama actor, you've done quite a few roles in westerns, haven't you?
Yes, when I was younger, I worked on western radio dramas. In the late '70s there was a rebirth of classic radio drama. It was first sponsored by Sears, and then became Mutual Radio Theater. I got to work with all the old Hollywood radio actors like Marvin Miller who was the narrator of The Whistler, Parley Baer who was a terrific character actor who was Chester on Gunsmoke, and John Dehner who was one of the great radio actors in Have Gun --Will Travel and Frontier Gentleman. I also worked with character actor Vic Perrin who was the narrator of the original Outer Limits series, and he was also in Dragnet. I worked with one of the most famous radio drama and character actress, Virginia Gregg, who was also in Gunsmoke, The Twilight Zone, Alfred Hitchcock Presents and many, many other programs.
Do you sometimes feel a bit like you've been transported back to your old radio drama days just when you're working on The Clone Wars with the other voice actors in the same room?
Oh definitely, all of the best animated voice character work is like good radio theater. When the dialog is good, and the direction is good, and the actors are playing off of each other, you can see the scene in your mind and that's where the magic comes in.
For the role of Ziro the Hutt, Lucas had another iconic figure in mind to base the voice off of -- author Truman Capote. Did you want to do a straight-up Capote impression, or did you tweak it to make it your own?
It had so much to do with seeing what he looked like from the concept art, and then placing the real persona of Truman Capote inside that character, as opposed to doing just an impression. I had grown up watching Capote on talk shows and was so intrigued by his outrageousness. At first I did a very subdued Capote, and then Dave Filoni told me to just have fun with it. The idea was to keep with the lighthearted notes with the series -- and yet there is a certain sinister quality, not just in the tone of Capote, but also in my own natural voice. It's very easy for me to creep people out. (laughs)
Fans are so used to hearing the low grumbling voice of Jabba the Hutt, that it's intriguing to have Ziro the Hutt sound like the late-great author of In Cold Blood, which is completely different.
It's interesting that you say the author of In Cold Blood, which is a good way to think of it, and probably the genius behind George's impulse to put Capote in there. Here was a voice that, on the surface, is ridiculous and silly, and yet here was a man with a sense of horror and melodrama and creepiness of those cold-blooded killers to be able to put that on the page.
