Now with the voice of Count Dooku, who was originally played by the great theater and film actor Christopher Lee, do you channel his voice or make it more of an unique blend with your own voice?
Christopher Lee is a traditional English, Shakespearean stage actor, so that's a base I use for a lot of characterizations. I can naturally sound pretty close to Christopher Lee, and tried my best to substitute for him in other Star Wars projects. When we started The Clone Wars series, it was emphatically expressed to take the characters in our own direction. So I simply shut off all of my mimic circuits and took it from that basic tone and his characterization and played it as it instinctively comes from me, and from the words. I like to work very closely with what is in the director's mind because they're hearing it in their head as well. So just a word or two to nudge me in one direction or another makes it very easy to know how to deliver the lines and understand what's going on in the scene, as well as the emotions of the character.
Count Dooku is always cloaked in mystery and a sense of godlike power like a Greek god such as Zeus. Dooku never shouts or screams. Inside he might be boiling over, but he's going to keep it all contained. It's very much like what Sir Alec Guinness did with Obi-Wan Kenobi -- very calm and all-knowing on the surface.
What is it like acting opposite of yourself when you're playing Count Dooku talking to Ziro, or Bane talking to Ziro?
Once again, that's where the radio drama training comes in. They call that "doubling." I expected in fact, when I first got into this business, that when working on animated cartoons that we would all naturally do them in real time jumping from voice to voice. I just picked it up from the old timers by watching them toggle back and forth between characters, within the same breath they would switch. It's as though I'm seeing the scene in my head and throwing the words into their mouths. It becomes quite natural after a while. To me it's much easier to play the two characters at the same time than to record them separately. Because when I'm in character, I never know how the character is going to deliver the line until I hear myself deliver it. Then I know how to play off of that through the other character. Good voice acting has been compared to channeling. I tell people who are interested in studying voice acting to lose yourself and don't think about your own voice, let the character inhabit you and the character will know what to do; they take over.
Which Clone Wars character is your favorite to voice?
Cad Bane is a real joy to perform, and it's completely effortless. Not that it's a strain to do any of the three main characters. Dave Filoni has such a good sense of casting that we always end up with character roles that come naturally and don't require a lot of thought and effort.
I've done some bit parts on the show too. General Loathsom was fun to do with his Scottish accent. I did the voice for the droid TX-20 and loved the way it turned out. I did it in a detached robot monotone voice and when it was processed it ended up something like Colossus in the movie Colossus: The Forbin Project which was voiced by one of my idols, Paul Frees. So I was very proud of that.
Well, you're no stranger to doing robotic voices, especially since you voiced Shockwave in the original Transformers animated series.
Oh yes, I've done a lot of robotic voices. It's so funny to see in the new Transformers movies that they act so human and that there's nothing robotic about their voices. They're robots, should they really be straining and grunting? (laughs)
Who was your favorite Star Wars character in the films?
When I first saw A New Hope I identified with Luke Skywalker. I even did some looping for The Empire Strikes Back and met Mark Hamill. At the time I had been cast as a sound-alike for Mark for the Disney Storyteller Read-Along records. Mark always impressed me with his absolute, real-guy, genuine openness. He has none of that pretension. He had me autograph the record. (laughs)
I also love James Earl Jones' voice for Darth Vader. And I admire the elegance and sinister voice quality of Peter Cushing as Tarkin.
Do you prefer voicing villains over heroes? It seems that villains always have the best voices.
I have to say so. In fact, unless forced to, I will usually turn down a happy, all-American, accent-less role.
Well, your Abe Lincoln for The Amazing Screw-On Head was pretty impressive.
That was a send up of the Disneyland Abraham Lincoln caricature of what voice actor Royal Dano did.
From your '80s cartoon days which was your favorite franchise to voice for -- Transformers or G.I. Joe?
I never played soldiers when I was a kid so I was never into G.I. Joe. I was more into monsters like Frankenstein.
If I had a third of the talent you do, I would probably sit at my desk making prank calls all day. Do you ever have the urge to freak out telemarketers or leave bizarre voice mail messages for your friends?
I actually feel uncomfortable doing prank calls. I'm a child of the '50s and raised to be polite. It's hard for me to be mean. Once I was egged on by friends to order at a fast food restaurant drive-through as Bullwinkle the Moose. I did it and then guy who took the order was not amused.
Find out more about Corey Burton's work, as well as information about voice acting as well, on his official site here: Corey Burton.
