- On the show, we have to actually talk to ourselves.
Rod, Todd, this is God.
What are you doing on our radio?
I invented the universe, stupid kid.
I've got a job for thee.
Bring forth all the cookies.
But those are our parents cookies.
Do you a happy god or a vengeful god?
Happy god, happy god.
- Ay, caramba.
- I'm learneding.
- My house, my house.
- Ha ha.
- Hi, I'm Nancy Cartwright and you may recognize my voice.
Hi, I'm Bart Simpson.
Who the hell are you?
Ralph Wiggum.
I'm Idaho.
Nelson Muntz.
Ha ha.
Todd Flanders.
I get to anoint their feet.
Chuckie from "The Rugrats."
Oh no, it's clowns.
I don't like clowns.
[wails]
[laughs]
And one more, doesn't talk much,
Rufus the naked mole rat from "Kim Possible."
[mimics rat]
Did you get all that?
I'm here today with "Vanity Fair"
and I'm gonna listen to some up and coming artists
do some impressions of the characters that I do.
Let's check it out.
- Why, where's he working?
- The Kwik-E-Mart.
[Bart laughs]
- Maggie.
[laughs]
I don't mean to be bad.
I don't know why I do the things that I do.
[laughs]
- That's pretty good.
You know, the challenging thing about
doing a voice is that there has to be a consistency.
She touches on it just a little bit
and she's got the ability to do...
To do that sound.
But you have to be able to maintain a consistency
in a certain sound.
Even--
[laughs]
when you're laughing.
I've never really thought about the placement of my voice
when I do Bart Simpson.
He's really easy to just slip into
and I think it's kind of in the back of my throat.
It's not nasal.
If it was nasal, it would be like that.
She had an open
but again, it's just that finding the exact, right placement
for it so she can maintain that sound
throughout the show.
You go all the way back to the beginning of "The Simpsons,"
we had no idea we were still gonna be on the air
after all these years.
And some of my characters have evolved.
And Dan doing Homer, same thing.
When you're on as long as we've been on,
it becomes an evolution.
Bart at the beginning was one note.
He's like,
"Lisa, come on, man--"
and he was angry
he was a rascal.
But as it developed into a half hour show,
there was more opportunity for him
to become a fleshed out character.
So I had more range and freedom in
like the sound of it.
So instead of being like, down here
and being like that all the time,
there was like,
"Mom, aww."
♪ Happy birthday Lisa ♪
And you know, and you got to see a softer side
of Bart Simpson, which was great.
So Mom, what's our plan?
- What are you doing up there?
- Looking through peoples' luggage.
I'm the mascot of an evil corporation.
- So Mom, what's our plan?
- What are you doing up there?
- Looking through peoples' luggage.
I'm the mascot of an evil corporation.
[laughs]
- Oh wow.
You could tell immediately that she loves
what she's doing.
She is having so much fun.
Various characters here.
She's doing Bart, she's doing Marge.
Even putting the nose on to help her out.
The first thing she did, it sounded a little--
it did sound a little bit like Bart.
Her Marge, I think, was the best
of the ones that she did.
Her enthusiasm and her passion
to be able to have the opportunity to entertain people
on YouTube, you gotta admire that.
Practice, practice, practice.
The more that you do, the better that you will get.
I believe that there's innate talent
and there's also talent that you can develop.
You don't necessarily have to have innate talent
in order to succeed in what it is that you're doing.
You know, it's interesting, people have asked me
this question before about the difference between
doing voiceover work and doing on camera work.
In terms of development of a character,
I don't see a whole lot of difference.
The biggest difference is that in voiceovers,
you don't have to do makeup unless you're doing
a photo shoot or a video shoot for "Vanity Fair,"
and then you have to like, doll yourself up.
But when you go to do a regular job,
there's no makeup, there's no hair,
you don't have to hit your mark for the camera.
In that regard, it's a lot less pressure.
But in terms of development of the characters,
honestly, I don't really see a whole lot of difference.
You have to commit 100% to what it is
that you're doing, the decision that you made.
So for you, again,
consistency and commitment to that particular sound.
[dramatic music]
- Did you replace me with this tinker toy?
- Replace is such an ugly word.
We upgraded.
- Bart, we can be friends.
- Eat my shorts.
- Here we go.
Ay, caramba eat my shorts.
Oh.
- Oh my gosh, are you kidding?
She is such a fan.
She's got a lot of enthusiasm,
she's got a lot of passion in what she's doing,
she's cute as a button.
I think she's got the makings of doing
a Bart Simpson impression.
Bart Simpson, his normal voice is like this.
I'm gonna make him go down to two years old.
So this is Bart Simpson age 10 years old.
What's happening, man?
Now this is Bart Simpson at eight years old.
Hi, hi.
As we get a little bit younger,
you can hear my voice it's getting,
it's getting a little bit like a helium balloon
so when I get to be like two years old,
this is Bart Simpson.
Mommy.
Bart at 40.
Okay, we bring it way down into a low register.
You can get a bass.
And if I'm doing Bart Simpson and I decide
to do another character like that.
Hey Ma,
ma, what's going on?
Where's the grits?
I'm hungry.
That would be Bart Simpson, you know, from Tennessee.
It's all the same voice.
In order to build a house,
you have to have a good foundation.
And right now, I don't quite see the foundation.
So I think by listening more
and listening to me do it over and over again
with a good ear, she can start to develop that even more.
You know, today, with modern technology,
gosh with YouTube, anybody can just take it
and repeat, and repeat, and drill, and drill, and drill
and that's the main thing.
But I don't want to discourage,
I think she's got a lot of passion
and that's the main thing that you have to start with.
You really, really have to want it.
And with training, she can get there.
- Come on, Chuck, how long does it take
to copy your butt?
- I wasn't sure if I was letter or legal size.
- Well, I just sat here in the car,
listening to my dad blab on and on
about some tach-savvy lenders business.
Blah blah blah.
Recording himself with a stinkin' video camera.
- That's pretty good.
She's got a good attitude for Chuckie.
I'd say she's about three fourths of the way there.
She's almost got it.
She needs to tighten, again, it's almost like
you got something caught in your throat.
I'm pinching the side of my vocal cords right now.
It's almost like getting the idea
of holding like a cherry
in the back of your throat.
If you can do that, I think you can do Chuckie.
Sometimes when you're doing a show,
you can come up...
It can just be blurted out as some sort of an ad lib.
And you'll see behind the booth
where the producers and the engineers are,
they're totally cracking up.
And a smart director will say,
"Bam, that's it!
"Do that again!
"Say that again!"
Here's the difference between a professional
and an amateur.
A professional can come up with a voice,
even it's just a little voice like this,
it's just a little six year-old girl
that I was inspired by Mrs. Doubtfire,
this actress that played this part, Mara Wilson,
and she had a little split in her tooth
and so I took that and I sort of created a char--
this character has never been cast.
I've never done this voice professionally.
So I still have this like, in my cadre
of characters that have been undiscovered yet.
By having improvisational skills and just letting yourself
be able to just say whatever you wanna say,
keeping who that character is in mind,
you can help to really establish a recognizable,
someday maybe icon.
[laughs]
- Chuckie, at my house we do stuff like this all the time.
- My house, my house, my house.
Let me tell you something, Tommy,
this isn't my house.
It's my house.
- My house, my house, my house.
Well let me tell you something, Tommy,
this isn't my house.
It's my house.
[Nancy laughs]
- Oh my gosh, super cute.
I think she's got the basis.
It's my house, it's my house.
She's open, her voice is too open
to be distinguished as Chuckie.
He's got some sort of an adenoidal problem.
Chuckie's got a sore throat all the time
and a stuffed nose.
It's sort of stuck right back here
and you just wish that...
[coughs]
if he could just cough it out, he would sound much clearer.
But the more adenoidal, the more he's Chuck-ified.
Christine Cavanaugh was the original voice of Chuckie.
She did Chuckie for about eight years,
eight or nine years.
One of the most, if not, the most challenging jobs
I ever had was to take what Christina had done
and duplicate that.
There's some things that I have found in doing it
that is unique to me.
When I do my Chuckie, there's some certain words
that I do like Phil, Lil,
there's a little aye, there's a diphthong there.
He's got a little, a hint of a little southern something
that has been kind of gradually being incorporated
into who my Chuckie is.
- I'm telling you, Tommy, that Santa's a bad guy.
He's always watching ya, keeping track
of everything you do.
- I'm telling you, Tommy.
He's always watching you, keeping track
of everything you do.
And then, in the middle of the night,
he breaks into your house and with a big bag full
of who knows what.
I hate clowns.
Wha!
- It's pretty good.
She's almost there.
I think she's just this much off.
It's again, she's got the attitude
of who Chuckie is but again,
it's that tightness.
She needs to tighten it up just a little bit more.
She's right there.
She's invested in what she's doing
but it just needs to be tweaked just a little bit.
When I was 16 years old, I got on the speech team
and I competed telling children's stories.
And the judges started saying things to me,
"You've got an interesting voice,
"you should do cartoons for a living."
And it never occurred to me that I could
do something like that.
As I grew into my adulthood, I found
I had this niche for doing children's voices.
I have done adults.
But on "The Simpsons," they're extraneous characters.
I might be a secretary.
She doesn't even have a name.
It doesn't tend to be my niche
and I have found, especially doing boys,
I've found this area that I excel in.
But if you go to Universal Studios
and you go to "The Simpsons"
virtual reality, as you're standing in line,
there is a voice that you hear that
gives you instructions about safety.
It's very important that you keep your hands
inside the rails.
Do not--
and I...
In order to do it, I feel like I have to stand up
but I put my voice in a very low register when I did it
and I was super, super serious.
So that's how I can be an adult
and do adult voices.
[laughs]
It's a challenge for me
and I'm a grandma!
[laughs]
- That's where I saw the leprechaun.
- Right, a leprechaun.
- He told me to burn things.
- Miss Hoover, there's a duck in the vent.
Hi, Bart.
I know you from school.
That's where I met the leprechaun.
He told me to burn things.
Hi, Lisa.
Hi, Super Nintendo Chalmers.
I'm learneding.
- Wow.
I've never heard a dude do Ralph Wiggum.
That's amazing.
It's actually pretty good.
He can go up into this falsetto.
And that's pretty good.
I can just take my voice and throw it up there.
I don't know if you would call that a falsetto or not.
I don't think that sounds like I'm doing a falsetto.
He has to go up into a whole different range.
I can tell that it's a guy.
I think Ralph needs to come from a woman.
You can call that sexist if you want, I don't think it is,
I think it has to do with anatomy.
- Hi, Lisa.
Hi, Super Nintendo Chalmers.
[cat meows]
I'm learneding.
- Hi, Lisa.
Hi, Super Nintendo Chalmers.
I'm learneding.
[Nancy laughs]
- Hi Super Nintendo Chalmers.
I'm learneding.
It's pretty good.
Again, it's the guy-girl thing.
But it's pretty close.
Commit maybe a little bit more to that character.
When you do voiceovers, it's not like
you're just talking to someone.
If I was just doing Ralph
like when I was just talking to you, it's a little bit flat.
But when I'm really doing it on the show,
I have to pop it up a little bit.
You gotta smile and even,
you saw my eyebrows go up?
That helps when I do that 'cause he's a happy guy.
[laughs]
So physically, I mean, I can change and that helps me.
That helps support my choices.
If he could just have a little bit more energy
behind it, I think he would've popped it up.
- We take proper names and rearrange the letters
to form a description of that person.
- My cat's breath smells like cat food.
[Nancy laughs]
- Okay, this guy's pretty good.
But you can tell that it's a dude
and he's got boy parts.
You can sort of hear a little bit of a bass
or a baritone in his voice.
With Ralph Wiggum, he's gotta be popped right up there.
And if he could keep it up in the higher range,
it would be better.
Ralph's high pitch, I think it makes him innocent.
I think it just adds a quality to him
that he is just a little kid and the high pitch
also makes him sound a little
not quite there.
I'm not gonna say stupid,
but maybe.
- Once again, if I'm not mistaken,
this can contained tomato paste.
- And once again, if I'm not mistaken,
this can once contained tomato paste.
- It's pretty good but it's not so much Nelson
as it is Kearney.
Nelson's got the grind.
He's got this going on, you know,,
it's like this is a
throat ripper, if you will.
Kearney is a little bit softer
and he was kinda doing a little bit more of a Kearney there.
It's pretty good, but it wasn't quite me.
Nelson Mandela Muntz, I'm just saying.
The key to a good voiceover actor or actress is versatility.
If you can get one actor to do 10 voices
rather than get 10 actors to do one voice each,
you're saving a lot of money.
As a producer, that's kind of what
they're interested in, versatility.
There was one show that I did,
I think it was a "Bible Story" episode
and it was Bart, it was Ralph,
and it was Nelson.
I'm doing all these voices for like 10 pages
or something like that.
I kept, you know, switching voice
and just talking to myself and doing all this
and then at the end of that, Julie Kavner's like,
"Woohoo!
"Way to go, Nanc.
"That was really good."
[Nancy laughs]
- Ha ha.
Hey,
that hurts.
No wonder no one came to my birthday party.
- Ha ha.
Hey, that hurts.
No wonder no one came to my birthday party.
- That sounds like a young Nelson Muntz.
Ha ha.
You gotta take that sound.
She's kinda up like that.
But you gotta bring it down into that.
Make it more gravely.
Just go to the beach, grab, you know, some shells,
throw 'em in the back of your throat, chew 'em up,
swallow 'em, have some coffee, smoke some cigarettes,
you'll get it down overnight.
I promise.
It's interesting.
Very early on, there was no audition.
I was just assigned these characters.
Talk about pressure.
Oh my gosh, it was just the word, "he's a bully,"
and from just that description,
I came up with this.
And the rest is history.
So, some advice.
If you show up early, you're on time.
If you show up on time, you're late.
If you're late, you're fired or you don't get hired.
So make sure you be a professional.
Stay late too, by the way.
Find out if the producer's got everything that they want.
At the same time, make sure you do everything
that you worked on for an audition.
Tell 'em,
"I've got another idea, here's another one."
'Cause their idea of what a 10 year-old boy sounds like
is probably different than what your idea is.
Another little piece of advice,
do not wear jewelry.
You wear something like this,
see this little microphone up here?
Yeah, it's gonna pick it up and it's gonna ruin
everything that you did.
So no dangly stuff.
People have asked me like, what I drink.
You know, do I warm up my throat
and what I drink?
My beverage of choice is hibiscus tea,
no caffeine, and some fresh squeezed lemonade.
And the lemons kind of help my throat I suppose.
I just happen to like the taste of it.
I'm Nancy Cartwright and that was my review
on some impressions of my characters.
Hope you enjoyed it.