Alan Tudyk

0:04Hello hello, this is Alan to the calling hey Alan. I just tried calling you. Oh great. Yeah, I am Yeah, anyway, it's better for me to call from this number it's Vincent confusion with numbers this morning just because of I was in my car and it was I just it's all good man How are you? Is it cheaper if I call you back does that work? No, I don't think it matters. Okay. Oh my damn Dog pee them for that's what I came home. He's got to know that something was wrong because she's hiding from me That's how I know she did something wrong how old your dog she Too old to be peeing on the rug

0:50See I haven't had that problem with mine. He jumps on people, but he isn't pee on things No, you think you even considered jumping on people's problem. I'm like that is so far Yeah, she's 10 11 10 11 months. She should be over that. Oh, yeah, I would think so well She's just she's just They're weird creatures. She acts up when I I don't know She didn't want to see me go or something, but well hello So what do you have a break from some burgatory today you guys off today? Yes. Yeah, we took we have our week off this week Great, nice. So so how long so maybe we'll start was I was gonna start with record Ralph. Maybe we'll start with some burgatory

1:39How long how long do you shoot for then is it is it? 26 week schedule and then a couple weeks off here and there how does that work? Yeah, I think that's that's about right. We We last season we didn't take any time off at all. It was just straight through and it was not it was just the It's a week off for the holidays and it was two weeks, but it was it was killer on the writers this one we do about Three or four weeks on and then a week off It's been like four four weeks four episodes and then take a week off for episodes and take me off So we'll be done one for a while Did you try and fit little acting gigs in during those weeks off or those like vacation weeks for you? Those no absolutely vacation weeks or we're catching up with your life

2:31Yeah It's it's a pretty easy schedule because since we have a such a large cast There are certainly episodes where I'm I'm in just like one or two scenes and so those are That's pretty great. It's a pretty great schedule, but this lately I've been in every scene. It seems like so which is fun But I'm starting to learn what it's like to really be on a TV show Well, you've had that in the past I I Yeah, yeah, definitely but now I did fire. I mean I haven't been on too many TV shows I have fire fly back into that's how I'm thinking of yeah, I had one episode where I was tortured with the captain and I that was the first time I ever went wow

3:21Nathan Fillion your schedule is so hard because I've been all every scene he was in and I just remember being like this is you do this every episode Because I even it's you know, that was another big cast you would have days off here and there We'll talk about big castle. Let's talk about some Suburgatory here a little bit just cuz I mean there's a lot of there's a lot of improv people a lot of SNL people I mean even your wife on the show is a mad TV alumni. So yeah, she's improv. She's she's got some stuff coming up. I I Kind of don't care like as far as spoilers or anything. I'm gonna leave her my We are marriage it's rocks again. We hit the rock splat season, but now it's gonna end

4:12cuz I fall in love with my nanny and or not even my nanny it's I Dallas Roberts takes her back Carmen and It's going through all of that her character is in it a lot more I'm a little worried that when I left her's like oh no our character's gonna go away, but it's got a new twist Everyone gets a new twist when that kind of thing happens. Yeah Do you want to do you want to tease some of the episodes coming up to I guess next week's is when we're gonna run this so Blow talks and burlap is the episode I can blow talks and burlap I can give you a little rundown of it Tessa brings

4:58Ryan to an art house movie on Valentine's Day a visit from Sheila's mother creates friction when Dallas that when I'm not in okay That is the one episode I'm not in this you then we will run this the following week with T ball and sympathy and that works out Well cuz it'll be Oscars week and rec at Ralph's there so that'll actually work out a little great Do you remember the team ball? Yes Good God, I don't know the names of these things I'm gonna get my house coach a T ball team is what it says. Oh, yes Okay, yes, that is it's a very important. It's a big episode for me and That's a fun one I get to I

5:46It sort of mentioned this season here and there that I'm stealing Dallas's Staff because she took Carmen from me So I've stolen her Her dog Walker, which was in the last episode is just mentioned that I stole the shanty even though I don't have a dog I'm just taking her staff because I'm acting out and our feud comes to a head in in that episode and we compete against one another with little league people teams and It gets out of control It gets we use we use the children at our pawns I have a bleach blonde

6:35Blowout I have my hair is this crazy Because I stole her hairdresser and every time she wanted to go the hairdresser I would go to the hairdresser and take up his whole day so my hair gets too bleached because I keep going again and again and again It's pretty ridiculous Now my hair my hair goes back to normal after T ball You're good. Yeah Did you take did you take any anything away from 42 to bring to bring to bring to that episode? and sort of I'm a you know I'm the coach of the T ball team and I was the you know I was the manager Affili's it wasn't too far

7:27except I wasn't quite a racist I would think a historically racist as I was in 42 then Ben Chapman He was actually he was a he was the manager player of the Philadelphia Phillies He would fill in and think he did something he was a pitcher at one time He was a good ball player back in the day. He played with DiMaggio and Babe Ruth he was on the Yankees, but he had a they traded him whenever his batting average went down They got rid of him because he was such a handful sort of legacy. He left for himself was that Jackie Robinson

8:18Played a series and Brooklyn to step out of the dugout and yell Every racial slur at him and bait him to try to get him to to fluster and just to throw in his head And he said all this stuff with with reporters right there and they were just to write it down And he was in Brooklyn. He went to Brooklyn to do it whether like he was in his own backyard he went there and and They wrote it all down and I think the reporter Was had a campaign to get rid of him to get him get him out of baseball and he ended up having to Apologize not really apologize. He had to take picture with him. Oh, yeah

9:06Yeah, the famous they have this there's a picture of the two of them together To show that he's okay with him and touches skin And so they're just holding a big picture and we kind of go through that little section in the movie That must have been interesting for you to play and kind of maybe I don't know but uncomfortable at the same time I mean obviously that's not you right so wildly uncomfortable man. It's like a day a Couple of days in a row of just standing out. I've never seen like when I first read the script. I'm like I don't think

9:57Let me go rewatch Mississippi burning if he'd even go this far they don't because he It was just kind of that was that was what he was about just one after another after another after another and You know, I'm sitting in a stadium where there's a bunch of African Americans in the African American section the black section of the So I made an announcement before we started Because I had it once on their sitting behind me I'm like y'all just know that this is I'm gonna say a lot of things that are very effective Apologize beforehand that this is historic in nature and And they all I mean they were they this was shocked people but you know

10:52But they're also people coming up to me Well, you know what you should say. Here's my favorite racial wasn't too foreign. Oh, that's a good one. I got one too Did you did the writers I guess the script supervisor allow you to to chuck that in there? Yeah, um Brian Helgle and wrote and And Directed it he and I worked together on a night's tale, which he also wrote and directed. Oh and And this is our first time working together again, which is fantastic We've we've always we've always stayed friends over all these years and when we did it great time and Prague for almost five months and

11:43He kind of kept everybody Whenever he was around and we would always go out and stuff so he kept us all together as a group and now he He's doing it. He's directing again. It's like he wanted me to play this role specifically because it's he could be such a villain and one of the things about Ben Chapman when you read Interviews about people who knew him they never the people who are his friends. He was a nice guy But I liked him a lot of people liked him He was funny And that's what he wanted somebody who was the girl boy the girl boy who? Had this narrow view of Ray. I certainly

12:31Have have you hear that? That's emails coming to my phone. I'm sorry. Okay He had a narrow view of Ray and so he didn't want him to be you know don't don't don't know that this he's right I'm gonna take him down that he's somebody's out there having a good time you know he's he's these are these are good and He had asked me especially during upper place Jack the Robinson and does Have you seen it? No, I haven't he doesn't excellent job. I can't I can't I'm very impressed by it. I saw it and

13:17he's new and It's huge role the movie is hung on his shoulders and it's he looks like him and we're going in thinking Well, that's good You can act you know that that is neat But he does it boy. He does a good job. I'm really I think I Think it's a really good movie and and and in a huge part He wanted me to try and have one wanted me to add Things to my lines add slurs that Chadwick knows aren't in the script. Oh to feel to feel his

14:08Yeah, you seem to take like this is this is obviously a different role for you But you seem to do a lot of like I don't notice that random is not the right word But interesting characters that that you know you go all over the map from something like from from even Ben Chapman to Steve the pirate Or a robot and I robot or you know a pedophile on CSI. What do you look for in a role? Is it just like things you haven't done before interesting characters? I Usually you know, I don't really have anything I look for I just I've been really fortunate in the role that I've I've been given to do I've definitely auditioned for a lot that I'm glad I didn't get Like there've been times like who hope I get this and then when I didn't and I see it come out go

14:57I would have not been a great thing I I think people Just because of what I've done in the past approach me with interesting roles when they don't know what they're You know, we don't know what to do with this. Oh, who's that guy? They did that thing We need to we need the that guy. I was just approach with a role it's a character who Is death and mute. It doesn't have a tongue That's a comedy and this guy's throughout the whole thing and he doesn't have any words. I want somebody to make it really funny How do you make that funny without being? Fensive I guess that would have been mature. I didn't do it. I

15:47Would have been the trick, but I feel like people go Oh, you know who might be able to And it's that if that is the case that's that's flattering absolutely But Yeah, I said no to that I would I'm very I'm very happy to get that you know the chance to go all over the place. It is it is great now. I feel like There was a time when I wished I could have just done one thing but But I was younger I think you just do the same thing to get in again and again so people can recognize Me because I keep changing The young man's complaint. I'm 42 now dammit

16:33And still getting a voice cartoon characters as the best thing. Yeah, man. I'm having a blast that was so much fun It yeah that record Ralph as As a is one of my favorite movies I've ever been in just as it as an overall piece like a of entertainment. I'm I've always liked Pixar and Disney, but I'm just so impressed the way that it was a two-year process from the original script To the end how they and they don't miss a beat like right at the end where they lift up record route They're gonna all the you know everything's good and they're gonna throw them up the building you're like Oh, this is great He's in my favorite part is when they they lift me up and I get to see her and the other thing

17:19It's just I mean there's every moment they really get you they just there. It's just so so well done So it was a really well-crafted movie. Where did your voice come from? Like that it sounds like an old Jewish New Yorker with a list but yet you're right That the main it's the foundation is built on the voice of Edwin who was a vaudville from he's actually from Philadelphia, but he was he was that vaudville character and He did voices for Disney and they had said I Got the job from a reading of the script the first time that they read it for the Pixar honchos

18:05Whoever was supposed to read my role couldn't do it and he fell out just a few days before and My agent convinced them to let me give it a shot and Just like all this like I think you should do this thing. Can you do it at win voice? Can you do something like this? I don't know who that is but I'll work on it and Went up there and did the read through and it was with John Lass it was in front of John Lasseter and everybody at Pixar so it was a really great audience to have and It went really well and we built on that it as the role evolved he became more evil He had more of a backstory the the he he the role got bigger and More complex and so Edwin is always there

18:54But there was also Ruth Gordon just sort of a delivery that she had and Charles Nelson Riley was a little bit of Just think it and Jerry Lewis has some moments it's It's just all of those that kind of and it is that sort of Eastern all in one guy little pieces from all the things that I loved growing up and and also when I was in my 20s I and Going to school in New York. I just fell in love with vaudeville and would go to the Museum of Radio and television and watch old YouTube wasn't around yet and so I would go watch the show of shows and Jack Benny and

19:48A lot of different like all of those old guys I There's the Billy Colgate hour the Colgate hour and you can do all these different like young dick fan dyke of a dancer Like what it was so cool from all of that. It's just the character at least on screen is very animated And I'm sure I don't know if you were able to do that in the booth Jack big Brier came up here to Toronto like on the junket for the film and he was saying that That you one you were able to collaborate with other actors in the booth Which isn't typical for voice roles and that there was enough space for him not to explore the space But enough for him to to still move around and not be confined to just the mic and the booth

20:33Right now does that I obviously it helps when you're trying to voice a character, but did did did I don't know where my question is going here But do you want to talk do you want to talk about that experience a little bit maybe I? Definitely working with I the only person I read with was John C. Riley and It was invaluable it was so It was so great. I learned a lot just I'm a fan of his to begin with but the way he approached the role was like an actor approaching a role for any film he was You know he He would say you know I'm saying my character wants this in the last scene and then we come here. I sort of loses steam

21:21What if we had what if that want continued all the way through and then instead we moved this piece over to here like he the vision for the character was he you know he was being staying true to the character and not just catering to each scene each scene Finding funny things which I could that would be a trap that I could fall into it's like you got a funny voice I can find a lot of funny things to do and Will skill is to Maintain a character that may have a funny voice and does funny things, but it's true too and

22:09and Working with him was amazing and we did there was a there's a scene where look listen. I was you know You're helping She's a glitch and she's gonna get hurt and that's I'm trying to protect her I know she doesn't like me, but you know and it it's this it becomes a sort of touching scene between the two men lying at you know Actually, but right that scene we worked on and worked on and that I really like how it all came out as far as moving around I move around I didn't I didn't know I

22:55Mean obviously I think you're gonna start getting some calls if you haven't already for more voice work because because of the success of this film Are you just working on voices now almost when you buy yourself in the car is consistently? I mean I do it from time to time, so I'm wondering if someone actually gets me to do it does it too I'm yes, no, I don't know I I Have enough to work on this actual it's great that's fantastic that I have either it's an audition or I have some I've got some vocal stuff that I'm going to be doing that I can't yet talk about sure Unfortunately, but I'm learning Swedish accent right now that I'm working on so I was actually just in my car working on the Swedish accent and

23:47another English accent as well so And then yeah, there's another I wanted there's an a movie like it's gonna get made and it would put me in the sort of In this accent that's that sort oh, yeah, oh, no some you know fucking treacle That fucking that accent which I love so that's good. I'm trying to that sounded like someone I'm trying to think of who a little a little ray windstone. Oh, yeah, maybe you can I Guess the place to be for because you just constantly your car you that's so much time to work on those books. That's great

24:34Yeah, you know Yes, and it's you know, you got to be careful because you get I'm sure you've done this peak where you're in the grocery store or someplace You're in the in the mile you go. Oh, yeah, but I had to do that tomorrow. Yeah, and that comes out You feel free and then there's someone right there. It's like oh I I was last night eating and I grabbed a bite to eat at this place as a counter So I was sitting alone eating and I was thinking about this role that I had been working on this voice over role and I was going through it and I didn't realize I was sort of acting it Sitting there and turned and looked and I Mean I noticed it when I saw the look on the guy's face. They're gonna get me like the hell is wrong with that guy

25:24It was Like I kind of got caught up I always wanted to do that when I was when I was serving tables Just go up to a different table with an accent just just to see what it would be like And then you know just to go with it anyway Before I let you go here, we do something called five questions five quick questions one word answers Hitchcock or Kubrick Cupric Leonard McCartney Your biggest influence as an actor because that's one word Well, I mean Wilder Jean Wild. Yeah, roll. You're most proud of say Simon and

26:12In one word, I don't know where I want to go with this. Let's go with it since We'll go one word Wreck it Ralph. Oh, I could just go to it's a dream truly a dream I just won an Annie award the other night and I haven't I don't win awards I have a word any an Annie award an animation the animation awards that were just out for It's like the the Oscars of animation. Yeah, and I was up for a Lee Best Boyce and motion picture for him. I read how did I not realize that my research? That's crazy

27:02I don't know it just happened like the other night and I can't and it was something that when they I was nominated for it I was like, oh, that's great and Looked at all the people that I was up against from some very great actors and there's so many great animals There's so many movies that are out and I didn't take it at all seriously Because I didn't like right to thank you if I won I didn't because I didn't want to invest in it You know, it's just I have some honor And this is really cool and I'm looking forward to just seeing people and seeing what the Annie's are about and meeting people And then they gave it to me and I'm just so in like every day that goes by I'm a little bit like wait I really did since I didn't since I sort of avoided thinking about it in the run up now I'm so Wreck-It Ralph is a dream because I can't even believe

27:51from the beginnings from the first read through two years ago and Spending a day at Pixar because you fly up there on Southwest Airlines. They don't send a jet you think they send a jet they send their jet You go with Sarah Silverman and Jane Lynch and Jack McBrayer and John C. Rodd was not yet attached to it So they hadn't cast his role or my role. I was just I was distilling in Reading that day there was a different ending there was a different, you know, there's a whole different arc to it We read it went well and you have to hang out all day at Pixar to catch your next plane

28:37Which is later in the day and they take you and show you all these amazing things and show you short films that people haven't seen yet And they take you into all the offices Can't give you scotch. There's like a bar behind the wall of some guy's office He he has a Shakespeare head in his office. She's like the old Batman and puts a switch and a wall of Go fit in there You know they like go into the go into the shop where all the Merchandise is take whatever you want that's in there just grab what you want. It's all yours. Oh free You know probably cost him like a dollar to make it all you're like I get it all for free and it was just a fun fun fun day and Then they send us all big buckets of But I guess they sent me I don't know what everybody else got

29:26But I got big bucket of candy and I met John Lasseter and he put his arm around me and after we did the read through and It is very good to meet you and I was like I think I may have gotten this job And So from then and then just getting to play with it do it like we're gonna He's gonna we're gonna add some more of him and it took shape and it Into the final thing that that they added right at the end where? He gets so dark We care to get so dark. I saw the animation when I saw some early parts of the animation where I was beating You know something pimps do they do that to the they beat people with car antennas

30:19This is not what you expect to see in a Disney movie anyway getting to Just follow it all the way through and then be a part of something that has been nominated for all these different things And then actually getting a nomination at the Annie's and winning really neat So where's it now? Where's the trophy? Where's the award? Well, they don't they take it away from you the minute they give it to you if you could they take it and they're like we're gonna Write your name on it and all of that. So I'm gonna make So it is coming in the mail, right? So the last award I won was in 1997 I won the Clarence Derwent board for Best New York debut in theater. They give that they give out a one

31:04To a man and one to a woman every year they give two awards out and it was a big deal and I Really it was a really great award. This cash that comes with it. It was very cool. What show was that for? Bunny bunny Off Broadway, okay about Gilda Radner and it was my first job ever in New York and Alice and Janney won a female her and I were the recipient that year and although Technically she'd been around a little longer, but she was so unbelievable in this And present laughter on Broadway like stole the show and as yeah, she's just and So I won that award. So now I have this other award many, you know 15 years later

31:55I'm gonna now build a trophy case now that I have two That's a trophy case one is a shelf, right? It's somewhere maybe the back of the toilet I don't know but this is gonna be a trophy case and now I have to and I'm gonna fill out the rest of it of The case with just trophies. I'd buy I'm going for karate. I think I Was looking at trophies the other day really am they have I Was thinking with and softball, but that's They how would they have figure skating trophy? I think that'd be a good one because it's got a good man on the Talk with the skating. Yeah, this was a nice pose Yeah, nice pose and definitely skating. There's a gymnast and

32:40There's oh, I want to do like an MMA belt. I just hold on also did that. Yeah, I did that for a while So I'm gonna have fun filling it out and then they'll just be two awards in that that actually I won right so That's gonna be a fun addition to my Maybe that's where the dog peed every minute. Maybe it's jealous of all these awards