- I'm Bubbles, and I'm just as tough
as Blossom and Buttercup at improvising voices.
I'm gonna be hardcore.
Hi Vanity Fair , I'm Tara Strong.
I'm an actress,
mostly known for my animated voiceover roles,
like Raven from "Teen Titans."
I'm Bubbles from the "Powerpuff Girls,"
and Timmy Turner from the "Fairly OddParents,"
and Harley Quinn, and Twilight Sparkle,
[whines] and Baby Dil, and Truffles from "Chowder,"
and a whole bunch more.
Today, I'm going to make up some voices,
and improvise from characters
that I've never seen before.
[air whooshing]
The beauty of animation when you get an audition,
they'll give you a character description.
So, because we're not getting that I'm gonna have
to make that up from my head.
I think when I look at it I see a little boy,
and I'm going to pretend
that they said he thinks he's really tough,
but he's not that tough, and he's missing some teeth,
and he tries to fly into action, but he's a little chubbs,
so he slips and falls a lot, but he really wants
to be part of the team.
Hey you guys, ready for me, I'm gonna take off now.
[heavily breathing]
Here I go [nervously exclaims].
Wait a second, I'm gonna try that again.
Could we do the superhero thing, take two?
[sadly sighs]
They left, again.
If he had a really low scratchy voice,
it'd be somewhere around here.
He'd still wanna fight crime, and say, "Get out of my way."
[air whooshing]
I like this thing.
I don't know what it is.
Sometimes it's fun to go off initial thought,
maybe this is the prettiest this species comes in.
Maybe she's just beautiful,
♪ And when she speaks she sings ♪
♪ And she loves life and all her tentacles ♪
And she just wants to be your best friend.
Or, she could be somebody down here
that just thinks she's really pretty,
but she's kinda gross [snarls]
and she kinda makes these yucky sounds
when she [snarls] moves.
[Kara chuckles]
[air whooshing]
This is sort of a Mario type character, I guess?
I actually played Hip and Hop
in the original animated series.
There were these little Koopa guys like this.
So we could always do a little voice like that,
he could be somebody like that,
that's what I think when I look at him.
But if he's a little bit older,
we could make him like that.
And maybe he talks like that.
And maybe he's Italian.
Maybe he's ready to make some spaghetti,
but not with mushroom [chuckles],
we just want to be the fun guy.
[air whooshing]
Oh, they're so cute.
Oh my gosh, I love them.
I love owls, they're so cool.
Maybe the girl owl sounds like this,
or she could be a little older too,
this would be one of those things where
if they didn't specify in the audition her age,
I would call my agent to go,
"Why didn't they put the age on this character?"
Because the drawing could be a child,
it could be an old lady, I don't know.
I'd have to know before I did this audition.
If she was a little older,
maybe she'd say, "Wow, we've been married for 400 years,
and he's still pretty cute" [giggles].
And he could be like this guy [hoots].
I still love her too, she's my little darlin'[chuckles].
[Kara laughs]
[air whooshing]
Let's say that maybe she's from England,
and she's going to kick some butt
with her tribe, who she loves very much,
and she really doesn't like this guy, Bill,
that keeps flirting with her.
She might actually shoot Bill in the face with her arrow.
That might be fun.
She might not be British, she could be though,
she could be Irish, she's wearing green.
That might be fun.
She's just ready to kick some butt.
Let's go then.
[Kara laughs]
[air whooshing]
[tiredly sighs]
This lady looks like she needs some sleep.
I've been there.
You know, she's tired,
she's retired, she's just bored with life in general.
She hates her husband, he smells and farts a lot.
She's just ready for the day, maybe life, to be over.
She's very anti-germs
of somebody delivering something [sneezes].
She'd probably [sneezes] get even more sick,
and then she'd be really cranky [sneezes].
She doesn't let anybody in during COVID [sneezes].
Yeah so, this is like a groovy little alien dude,
maybe he's the DJ at some alien club.
Yo dudes, we're ready to mix some tunes.
Come on in, get your groove on, yeah!
Oh, here comes the bad guys.
His table tune thing turns into some really cool guns
and he gets the bad guys, yeah.
If he was more of a momma's boy, he'd sound like,
Yeah, I guess I could play some tunes for you,
Mom!
Did you pack my lunch?
[air whooshing]
She's somebody that goes through life a little bit slower.
She definitely needs some sleep
and maybe some nighttime tea.
But sometimes when she counts sheep,
they bother her, then she dreams about them.
She hates that.
She's not a happy-go-lucky kinda girl,
I mean, it we could've caught her at a bad moment.
I mean, we could give her a break.
Tomorrow morning, after her coffee, we could revisit her.
[air whooshing]
This is pretty straightforward,
if you're gonna see this in an animated audition,
she's gonna sound just like this.
And that's her voice.
It's just very sweet, and very authentic,
and she's probably gonna get quiet in certain moments,
and be excited for her birthday in other moments,
and maybe she'll get to sing,
but she always has to be authentic,
and bright-eyed, and hopeful.
If they specified that she can act
like she's the good girl,
but really she's the mean girl,
[maniacally giggles] it might come out secretly off
to the side with her little mean giggles.
[maniacally giggles] I'm gonna mess that girl up.
[air whooshing]
He's just ready to go,
he's ready to go where there's roller blades.
Maybe he's got a little bit of a lisp,
he's not quite as polished as the other kids,
but he tries really hard.
He's like I'm ready to go [nervously exclaims].
Whoa I'm ready to go [nervously exclaims].
[imitates crashing sound]
[sadly sighs] Ow.
[air whooshing]
Improv is so important in animation.
I tell every hopeful to take improv class.
Because it really helps with your confidence
to know how to create characters,
to trust your gut, to trust your instincts.
Often times you'll be working on a show
as a regular, established character,
and they'll say, now we need her to be a little bit younger,
now we need her to be a little bit chubbier,
now we need her to have braces,
now we need her to be from England,
now we need her to be a boy.
And you have to be ready to do all of the above.
And if you've taken improv classes,
you're gonna have a lot more confidence
to slide into a bunch of different roles.
[air whooshing]
I'm Tara Strong, and that was my take
on some new character voices that came without descriptions.
Please, put good descriptions in all your auditions.
Thanks.