Interview: Phil LaMarr Talks MADtv, Pulp Fiction and Fan Expo Toronto

In one week, Phil LaMarr will be attending North America’s third largest convention in Toronto, Fan Expo Canada. This will give fans the opportunity to meet him, as well as participate in a Q&A and get photos with him. Recently, we had the chance to talk to LaMarr about his acting career including MADtv, his extensive voice acting resume and his memorable part in Pulp Fiction.

Was acting something you always wanted to do or did you sort of fall into it?

No, the first acting part I had was a play I did in elementary school and I only auditioned for it because it was based on a book I loved. For me, it wasn’t about wanting to be famous or anything, it was just a part in the book that I loved and it was actually a small part, and I auditioned and ended up getting cast as one of the lead parts instead. Once I got onstage and in front of an audience I was hooked.

MADtv was such a great show with a talented cast, what was it like auditioning for it?

That was interesting because sketch comedy shows are one of the hardest jobs to get. You have to show then your own work, they ask you to do characters and impressions, so basically you write you write it from the first audition. Then if they like you they make you come back and then do some of their writing, so you’re performing your material and their material and you do that over and over again because they’re trying to build an ensemble so they match people up and then eventually, I remember the final audition for MADtv, I think there was fifteen executives stuck in someone’s office, powerful people stacked up in a room, and I remember the producer Quincy Jones was literally an arm’s length away from me and you have to go in there and do the same thing again. You do five minutes of your material and then you go out and you’re paired up with people that you don’t know and you have to perform a scene together in front of the most powerful people in Hollywood to hopefully change your life. No pressure. [Laughs]

How much improv were you allowed to do on the show and was there pressure on you and the other actors to keep pushing the envelope each week?

Well, the improv mostly came in rehearsals because unfortunately when you have cameras there, you can improvise all you want but if the camera doesn’t catch it, it isn’t doing anyone any good. The cameraman has a script that tells him to zoom in during certain lines, so basically you work out as much as you can in rehearsals and every once in a while, once you’ve become seasoned, you’ll know when the cameras are on you and then you can start putting things in.

As far as pushing the envelope, not really. There’s not really an external pressure for that, it’s more internal. You have to write the things that make you laugh, it’s almost impossible to write something to make someone else laugh because who knows what makes someone else laugh, all I know is what I think is funny. Sometimes you do end up pushing things, I remember Will Sasso did this Kenny Rogers impression and I remember at first it was just a straight impression, but then they wanted to keep doing the character over and over again and Will was just trying to keep it interesting for himself, the character got bigger and wackier and more insane every time he did it, to the point that by the end, his Kenny Rogers character was unrecognizable to the real guy. In that sense, you raise the bar for yourself and your co-worker, it’s like ‘oh yeah, well let’s try this’, but I don’t think there was ever a time where we purposely did a sketch that was edgy or something that people could protest about,

How do you approach each voice acting role you take on? Do you have a specific routine you follow or does it change depending on the character?

It depends on the script and the character. Every project is different, some are very comedic based and in some younger kid’s games and shows you know that the tone is sort of light, that it’s just got to be wacky and fun. Other things, such as Futurama, was very writer driven, very joke driven, so all I had to do was play the character and say the words that these brilliant writers came up with. Some of the video game stuff is very dramatic and it’s really about getting a feeling across. In general, my first thing is to find the character. What’s the attitude, what’s the voice and usually they give you a description and a picture and you say alright, if I was a nine foot tall red alien with one eye I’d sound like this and then you adjust from there. It’s a very collaborative process as well, that’s the great thing about it. You feel like, if on camera, you come in and you have an idea for a character and you do your thing and if it’s not exactly the thing they want they go ‘thank you, next.’ In animation they’ll say I like parts of what you did but can you make him younger and add a little more gravel to it, and they seem much more willing to work with you to try and get it to be what we all thing is fun and funny and works.

I’ve heard some voice actors say the physically get into the role as they’re doing it. Do you move around a lot or do you prefer a more stationary way of doing your lines?

It’s funny because I did a show called Justice League, a superhero action show that was one of my first series and I remember thinking there’s a lot of fight scenes and I couldn’t make those sounds without lifting my arms and moving my body and I thought you know, once I get really good at this I’m going to be able to do this just sitting in my chair. Now fifteen years later I realize no, you can’t. There are certain sounds that if you don’t move when you make them it doesn’t feel like it sounds right. I can’t do getting punched in the stomach without at least bending my body a little bit.

Do you have a favorite medium to work in, TV, voice acting, movies, or do they all have a certain charm for you?

Well you know what’s funny? I find that really great writing is sort of its own medium. I’ve been lucky enough to work on some great stuff and I would say that Futurama has more in common with Pulp Fiction than it does with say Clifford the Big Red Dog. Even though Clifford and Futurama are half hour animated TV shows, the level of quality sets things apart. I’ve found the same thing with great stage plays, animated shows and feature films in the sense that good stuff is easier in a way that you don’t have to work to make it work, you have to work to embody the greatness that’s there. It inspires you and gives you energy whereas I’ve done bad movies, bad cartoons and those are work, man.

You mentioned Pulp Fiction. Do you still get recognized as the character Marvin from that movie?

Every once in a while, yeah. The other day I had a friend, who I’ve probably known for ten years, who saw the movie for the first time since we’ve known each other and said ‘I had no idea you were in that!’ It’s strange, I’ll get a lot of that from people I already know.

What did you think of the film when you saw the final cut?

I knew from the moment I read the script that it was just amazing. It was the sort of thing that leaps off the page and into your brain. Your imagination starts moving, you feel these characters and you don’t even feel like you’re reading as much as watching something and seeing it in the theater I’d have to say I didn’t get how significant it was. I knew it was great but it was cultural change in cinema. Working with Tarantino was a blast and it was the nicest set I have worked on to this day. I came on at the very end of the shoot, usually when people were done with each other and looking for their next job. Every Friday night a flyer went out where everyone was going out and everyone went, Travolta went, it was just a very open, easy and collaborative set, everybody wanted to be there.

Did that have more to do with Tarantino, the script or a combination of both?

I think a combination. One, it was a script that everybody wanted to be part of so you’ve got that. Everybody knows they beat out the competition to be there and everybody’s happy and also, he ran a really egalitarian set. He treated the lower production assistants with as much respect as he did the big producers and that sets a tone. If the guy on top is not being a jerk then even if you’re inclined to be one on any other set you think twice about it on this one.

How much has the entertainment industry changed since you started on the Mr. T cartoon show?

Oh dear god! I feel as if we are dinosaurs and the meteor has landed, we’re just waiting for the ice age to come. [Laughs] It has changed so much. I studied at The Groundlings Theater, you went through classes and you wrote sketches and went to your next class. In between, if you wanted to do something with the material you’ve written, you had to go and rent a theater on your own dime and try and get people to show up just so your work could be seen. Now, somebody can pick up their phone, say whatever they think is hilarious to themselves and post it on YouTube to potentially millions of viewers. Now granted, that makes for a lot of crappy things, makes it harder to wade through them, but it also means as a performer you don’t have to wait for permission, so that in of itself is a tremendous change.

Who was your biggest influence when you started out and who is a big influence today?

Wow. It’s funny, because I always used to joke that my biggest influence when I was growing up was Bugs Bunny. It’s still true in a certain sense, although now I also add to that list Sidney Poitier, Tom Hanks because now I’m looking at, god willing, to have a career over a length of time and to see what people like Poitier and Hanks are capable of in terms of continuing to do good work as actors but expanding as producers and directors and continue to do great work over a span of time and not become irrelevant.

What kind of advice would you offer to someone who is looking to get into the acting business?

Temperament is more important than talent. You have to be able to weather the ups and downs, the instability, and that is actually harder than being good. You can work to become better but if you are constitutionally unable to live with where your next paycheck, where your next rent check is coming from because in this business we are just glorified temps. When the job ends there are no guarantees and that’s the psychic weight that all of us bear and some people just can’t. I’ve seen really, really talented people just say I’m out, I can’t do it.

What is it you look forward to the most at conventions, such as the upcoming Fan Expo in Toronto?

The first thing I look forward to, as an old comic book geek, I check to see which of the great artists and writers are going to be there, people like Bill Senkevich and Neil Adams. Then of course there are the fans. It’s funny, I find myself remembering the names of people who come up and get autographs more easily then people I work with, I don’t know, maybe it has something to do with writing it down. I really do enjoy having those moments because so much of what we do is done in a bubble or in a booth, you say something into a microphone and then it goes away. It’s always nice to find out that it matters to somebody, that it landed somewhere and somebody thought it was cool.