You know his face, and you REALLY know his voice! From spinach puffs to spoons to Quahog hijinks, we all know and love Patrick Warburton!
Amongst dozens and dozens of other roles, he’s starred in shows, films and games including The Emperor’s New Groove, The Tick, Family Guy, Seinfeld, Kim Possible, Get Smart, Men in Black II, Rules of Engagement, Open Season, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Archer, Ted and Ted 2, Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events, and many, many more!
As he arrives into Melbourne for Metro Comic Con (taking place this coming weekend, July 13th and 14th, at the Melbourne Showgrounds), where he’ll take place in such events as guest panels and VIP fan functions, Patrick took time out to chat with our own Peter Gray about the projects he’s most proud of, how he views his live-action and animated work, and working with Disney after an unfortunate incident involving Disney Jail.
With Metro Comic Con and these types of conventions, I feel like Family Guy and The Tick are probably two of the most prominent projects of yours that garner interest. Given the longevity of your career and how varied your roles have been, do you find there’s ever conversations being had with fans around projects that you’re surprised to hear mentioned?
One of the most specific projects would be, maybe, The Woman Chaser, which was a film I did right around the same time as The Dish. It was 2000 and it was based on a Charles Willeford pulp fiction novel of the same titles. It was shot in these muted colours, really film noir style. It was a really cool, funky movie, but it wasn’t far reaching, you know? It was released in all the art houses in the States back in the day. So there’s a fan base for The Woman Chaser, and whenever that appeals to somebody I always enjoy talking about that.
That, or The Civilization of Maxwell Bright, which is real ugly, gritty…shot on PAL, so it doesn’t look great, but I’m so proud of that performance. I don’t get a lot of opportunities to dig deep like that, but that was one of those films where I got a Best Actor (award) in Tribeca, and at the Beverly Hills Film Festival. It’s a movie nobody’s seen. It’s pretty stark. It opens with full frontal nudity (laughs), but it was challenging and an opportunity to do something very different at the time. When people bring those up it’s always intriguing to me that it appeals to them.
Personally, I’d be repping Steve Stone from Scream 3.
(Laughs) Steve Stone? Oh, Scream, yeah.
You mentioned The Dish. Given that you’re in Australia, do you find a subsect of fans who bring that film up? Even internationally is it something you speak about?
Internationally they do. What’s really frustrating is I bought The Dish on Amazon, where you pay $20 and you have it in your library, but I haven’t been able to see it in about four or five years. I don’t know how it works, but how do you buy a movie and not have access to it for four years? I don’t know what the situation is in the States being able to watch The Dish. I don’t have any contacts for Working Dog (Productions) anymore, so I have to send literal Twitter messages asking “Why can’t I watch The Dish in the United States?” Everybody who has seen that film just loves it. It’s such a charming film. The whole story is fascinating.
It’s always such a treat for Australians when a film crosses over like that and becomes more than just something we see locally.
Even with a less than lacklustre effort from Warner Bros., I believe they had it in the States. There was no promo and it was so limited, but everybody who saw it, loved it. They really could have made a better platform for The Dish in the States. Nevertheless, there’s a huge contingency and following of it here. They love it.
I was reading up on you, and you studied marine biology before dropping out to pursue modelling and acting. Was there anything specific that spurred on that choice for you? I feel like I can’t see you as anything other than an actor, but everyone has their “other career.”
(Laughs) I’m a bit of a fraud in that realm. I was fascinated by marine science. I don’t know if I would have gotten anywhere. I mean, I managed to fail myself out of junior college and, you know, I was rowing crew, so I was running the eight-man boats in the morning. I hadn’t discovered coffee yet, and I fell asleep in my auditorium class I had. Also, I wasn’t very interested. I had known early on that I wanted to pursue acting anyway, so I just sort of slowly stopped going to school. I got to the point where I was like, “What do I do about this?” I was failing out of everything because I wasn’t even going to class. My “aha” moment was just walking away. So that’s what I did.
The funny thing was, last year, they made me Alumni of the Year and the commencement speaker at the graduating class of Orange Coast College, the school that I did not finish and failed out of. When the nice lady from the college called, I said “You know I didn’t finish, right?” She was aware of that (laughs). I thought their alumni pool must not be that deep. It was great because I spoke at the graduation, and it was one of those talks where the kids loved it, and all the elder academics just shook their heads behind me the whole time.
Not going to college seemed to work out pretty well for you. And of all the things that turned out well, you have a character like Puddy from Seinfeld. He took on a life all of his own. Did you have any idea of the type of impact he was going to make?
I really didn’t. I was aware of the show’s impact because I watched it religiously with my wife every Thursday night. But Puddy didn’t make an appearance until the sixth season, so the show was already fully established. Anytime I got invited back I just felt very fortunate to be there on that hallowed ground, which is Stage 9 at CBS Radford. It was all shot in Los Angeles. There’s even a New York Street on the lot, so even the exteriors were shot in Los Angeles.
It was a great opportunity, and you always have hope that whatever you do has an impact. But to be with that group of people, and to be working with Julia (Louis-Dreyfus) and Jerry (Seinfeld) and, of course, Jason (Alexander) and Michael (Richards) was just such a great opportunity.
Looking at all the characters you have played, you have very much inserted yourself in pop culture zeitgeist. I look at something like The Tick, which just felt so ahead of its time during its original run. Do you feel, in any way, that had that show come out a few years after the comic book movie boom that it would’ve been treated differently?
There were those over at the network that just didn’t get it. Nobody was doing single camera half-hour comedies at the time. This was new, and they didn’t know how people were going to know it’s funny if there wasn’t a laugh track. That’s where their heads were at. I remember some of the higher-ups at Fox at the time, who I will not name, but because of the show’s budget they were posing questions like, “Do you always have to be in costume?” It was a superhero show! It was satirical, it was smart, it was funny, and when you look at it it holds up.
We did nine episodes, and if there wasn’t a cult following there’d be no following, you know? It still holds up after 24 years because of that cleverness and that humour. There were no special effects, it was all about character development and interaction. That’s how it survived.
Were you quite vocal in getting the Amazon Prime reboot series to fruition? I know you were a producer on that…
Originally I wated to do it, but that was just pushing a boulder uphill for a little bit. Amazon wanted to do it, and they were going to go in an entirely different direction with Ben (Edlund, creator). Obviously I talked with Ben, and my management team asked if there’s anything I’d like to do. I knew that The Tick just never got a fair shake, and I wanted to do it again. And, unlike Superman and a lot of those other superheroes, he didn’t need to be a young guy. I thought I could do it again.
They wanted to recast the whole show, and I totally got that when you take an ingenious character you’re always going to have different people come in and step into those shoes. I think many actors will step into that over time. The Tick is so wonderful and satirical, and that’s the genius of Ben Edlund. They kept me on as an Executive Producer, pretty much to keep my mouth shut and stay on the sides.
With your work in animation, where do you sit with the comfort of performing? I’ve spoken with many actors who have worked in the medium and some love it because it’s just their voice, and others find it daunting because they have nothing else to hide behind.
I love it. Animation is a lot of fun. Everything is unique. There are live action projects that I can’t believe I’m a part of, like The Dish or, say, A Series of Unfortunate Events. These sets are beautiful, they spend so much money, and, you know, to be there and work with an amazing creator like Barry Sonnenfeld…it’s a lot of work, but it’s rewarding. After so many years in this business the opportunities like that don’t always present themselves.
Getting to work on a Disney project is a blast. It doesn’t take long. You go in, you do some voice work, and then at the end of the day you get to see the culmination of so many artists and animators putting it together. Really making those characters come to life. So, that’s great. They’re so unique in themselves and entirely different experiences. I can never say I choose one over the other.
When it comes to the structure of your work input on something like Family Guy, is it very much an in and out type of thing? Do you have much of a say with that character?
I just go and do it and leave. That’s what you do. They’re such a well-oiled machine. The characters write themselves. I don’t want to take anything away from the writers, but the writers know the voices of these characters. They’re so spot on. I don’t think I’ve ever been in there and said, “Joe would say that.” But we’ll go in and do multiple episodes at once. It’s pretty quick. Sometimes we’ll go in and do pick-up lines, but when you’re doing a character, and you were talking about actors being intimidated by voicing characters, I find it easy. There’s no right or wrong. You throw a lot of stuff against the wall. You see if it sticks and you have fun. You experiment. Usually you’ll find the voice of a character, and it’s just a joy.
The most intimidating voice-over experience I ever had was just having to narrate with my own voice. I have no problem doing that. I obviously did a lot of that in A Series of Unfortunate Events. But Roy Disney, when he was in his early 90s and, you know, he was the last living Disney, his great passion was the Transpac sail. It’s a sailing race from California to Hawaii. His passion project was a documentary about his sailing, and he requested me to be the narrator.
I found myself in a room with him. His hands on his chin, sitting about three feet away from me, listening to every word I said, and it was so intimidating. I thought, “I’m going to have to break the ice here”, so I went to lighten the mood and I told him about the time I got kicked out of Disney and went to Disney Jail. This is a great irony, because I actually do the safety speed talk on the Soarin’ Over California ride. It’s probably been at Disneyland for 20 years now. I’m giving the safety speech on this ride when I got kicked out of Disney with a buddy of mine when I was about 20-years-old. My buddy and I decided to get off the PeopleMover while it was in operation. That place shut down! The ride shut down. It was like Logan’s Run (laughs). Lights are turning on, sirens, we’re running, and we’re not going anywhere. You can’t pull off something like that. Anyways, Roy just laughed, and that was it. We got through it and it turned out really nice.
Well at least going to Disney Jail didn’t deter your career, so that’s a good thing. It’s been such a pleasure talking to you, and I’m sure all the fans at Metro Con this weekend will enjoy your time, so thank you so much.
Thank you, Peter, I appreciate your time.
For more information on Patrick Warburton’s Metro Comic Con availability head to his official appearance page here. For ticketing and general information about Metro Comic Con, taking place at the Melbourne Showgrounds across July 13th and 14th, 2024, visit the official website here.
