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Billy West Interview on Geekza

Voice actor Billy West (Fry, Zoidberg, a myriad others) was recently interviewed by Geekza, a site "that generally centers around geeky things related to the world of filmmaking." In the first half of the video interview, Billy tells about his inspirations for the voices of some of the Futurama characters he did.

Thanks go to Alan for letting us know.

View comments | Sep 29th 2007 | contributor

Comments (5)

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RyanSep 30th 2007, 18:28
What a great interview! I always thought that Billy was doing a Phil Hartman as Zap Brannigan, and never heard anything in the commentaries, but finally my suspicions that Phil was supposed to do the voice before he passed are confirmed. Also interesting that Fry's first name was a dedication to Phil Hartman.
RichardOct 1st 2007, 04:10
Don't ever say that to Billy West. He claims he had the voice as a demo before he heard Phil ever try out for Zap. He never said in that interview that the voice was based off Phil, he said he was originally going to do it.

I don't know how much of that is true, because clearly, it sounds like Phil Hartman doing Troy McClure. But that's what Billy says.
SpankyOct 1st 2007, 23:05
Zaps voice is discussed in one of the early episode commentaries. If I remember correctly, it was said that the voice ended up being the natural choice given the character and was not meant to emulate anyone in particular. I agree that is the natural choice and that Phil Hartman would have done it to perfection.
RichardOct 2nd 2007, 01:39
Sometimes you have to wonder if voice-over actors can be unbias in voice-over criticism. For instance, you can hear Billy West praising the minor-character actors in many commentaries because they have to "come up with a new voice everytime", and yet, all of Dave Herman's voices sound the same.

Maybe he doesn't notice he sounds like Phil Hartman when he does Zap.
GeorgeOct 2nd 2007, 20:41
The episode in question is Season 1 Ep. 4: Love's Labours Lost In Space. Billy West does make reference to Phil Hartman being cast originally for 'Zap'. But, David X. Cohen states that the current voice that West uses for 'Zap' is in fact his original pitch for the character and not a copy of the Hartman voice.

I am the biggest 'Futurama' commentary fan there is. I can't wait to hear if the actors can get Katey Sagal in for some commentary with John, Billy, and Maurice.

Long live Elzar!!!