Interviews – David Sobolov

This is David Sobolov, voice of DepthCharge in

Beast Wars, and you're listening to the Beast

Unleashed Podcast. and welcome to the All Things

Transformers The Beast Unleashed interview pre

-show. Joining me in this awesome interview is

TFG1 Mike and Michael Wilson. Hey guys. Hey,

how's it going? It's going. How's it going? Mr.

Catchphrase. Anyways, today in the latest in

the interviews, actually the second one of the

week, we have David Soboloff. Yes. Yes. So, basically

we'll be asking a crap ton of questions. I made

a special intro for the episode, which I think

is kind of cool. It's kind of a cross between

Beast Wars and all things Transformers. Obviously

not every question is going to be tailored towards

Depth Charge, but it'll be basically all kinds

of random. Yeah, it's very, very random. This

is what happens when you write it at 2 in the

morning. It's kind of like you turned into Blitzwing

from Animated, his random side, and it's like,

ooh, let's all dance around the maypole. Or something

equivalent. I'm not sure what a maypole is. I

have no idea what he's talking about. That's

why I said that. Is that like a stripper pole?

No, no, no. To wear g -strings? There was a line

in one of the episodes. What did you say, Steve?

Look, even on an interview, we get it dragged

down the rat hole. Oh, whatever. Mike's the one

talking about stripper poles. I don't know. Anyways,

no, no, no, no. There was a scene in Animated

where Blitzwing... Because Blitzwing in Animated

has three different personalities. And his crazy

personality said it... Transform the crazy personality.

He said, ooh, let's all dance around the maypole.

I don't know. Whatever. Maybe Blitzwing had a

G -string. And it was purple. Decepticon purple.

And it changed colors every time his personality

changed. That would be awesome. Okay, can we

get to the interview now, please? Because this

is really... Yes. And so basically we're minutes

away from calling David. So, yes. I guess we

will cut this off so we don't get any more wildness.

We'll save that for TBU. And right after this

commercial, you will be hearing the interview

with David Soboloff. Welcome back to the Beast

Unleashed and All Things Transformers interview

with David Soboloff. First, we'd like to welcome

you to the show, David. Hello. Hello. Hello,

hello. Hello. So, what's been going on with you

lately? What has been going on with me lately?

Well, the really exciting stuff is that I am

going to go on, and I never go to conventions.

This is only like the second convention I've

gone to, and it's Slagacon in October in Indiana

with Chad Williams. Do you know about it? I myself

am not familiar with it, no. I think I've heard

of it. I've heard the name. Well, I had a lot

of fun at Icon 1, which was only one year. I

don't think it happened after that, but it's

been about four years since I went to something

like this, and it should be fun to meet all the

fans. Yes. I'm doing other things. I'm doing

Guild Wars 2 video game, and I've been doing

a lot of things outside of video games and outside

of animation lately. I've been doing some commercials

and some trailers and stuff, and just getting

into different things. Awesome. I remember you

at IACON. I think you were there with Scott McNeil.

Scott is everywhere. Everywhere you go, you will

find Scott. And yet we haven't gotten an interview

with him yet. Darn it. You haven't? No. We haven't

been able to get contact with him. We've gotten

David Kaye, Gary Chalk, and James Carlette. Well,

try him on his Facebook page. You never know.

We have. I actually caught up with him at this

year's BotCon and asked him about that, and he

said, you know, it's really hard to keep up with

all the stuff going on on the Facebook page.

And yet you didn't ask him for an actual interview

when you met the guy in person. I asked. It was

a good three -minute recording with him, so I

think that's pretty good considering. But life

is all about opportunity and grabbing that opportunity

when you can. You know that. Yeah. Well, we're

going to start into some basic background questions

to start it off. Starting with, where did you

grow up? I grew up in a place called Windsor,

Ontario, Canada, which is physically south of

Detroit. It's a very strange little anomaly of

geography. But yeah, right there near Detroit.

And that's where I was. until I graduated high

school, and then I started on my journey after

that. Awesome. Very cool. How did you break into

voice acting? Was it something that you decided

to go after? Is there some story of you as a

kid, you always could do voices, or how did you

get into voice acting? Well, I was doing stage

work. I had gone to the Neighborhood Playhouse

Acting School in New York. and I was doing theater

work and musical theater work too. And some agents

heard my voice in Vancouver and approached me

and asked me if I would start doing animation,

and I just kept doing it after that. You eventually

in this business gravitate toward where they

will pay you, and it seemed to be the most economically

viable area for me, so that's where I ended up.

How did you transition into video game voice

acting? Well, when I moved to Los Angeles in

2000, the industry was changing. There was still

a fair bit of animation, but it seemed that there

were more and more video games that needed voice.

And there seems to be an insatiable need for

them. There's always something going on with

video games. So I just started doing more and

more of them, and at this point I've done almost

50 of them. Wow. Wow. How did you land your first

voice acting job? It was... You know what? I

am going to look. I don't know why I can't remember

this guy's name because he's quite well known.

Someone who works... I think he had something

to do with Reboot. Remember that show called

Reboot? Oh, yeah. I'm looking it up. His name

is Michael. He gave me my first voice acting

gig after this agent had signed me up. This would

be... would be about 1993 or 4. Not Michael Donovan.

Well, I can't remember his name right now. But

anyway, the fellow gave me my first chance with

that, and I actually pretty quickly ended up

in a series. I did a series in 1996, and it was

called Vortec. I don't know if anybody remembers

it. It was on Fox. That was the first series

role I had. It was all up in Vancouver, just

before Beast Wars. Around that time, I did other

series. I did the animated series that's now

being repeated on CBS on Saturday mornings. And

I did Spider -Man Unlimited. Oh, yeah, I remember

you in that. I think that was the first role

I actually noticed you were in before Beast Wars

that I'd actually seen. And around the time I

did Beast Wars, I also did RoboCop, which should

have been big, I think. weird thing going on

at the time. They aired it at 2 .30 in the afternoon

and the kids weren't home from school. So I don't

think anybody saw it. But it's on Hulu now if

anybody wants to look it up. It's kind of amusing.

Is it the animated series or the television series?

No, animated series. Cool. Is most of your work

local to LA or have you traveled back to Vancouver

for voice work or anything like that? I haven't.

You know, it's technically possible to do it

from everywhere, and I've certainly had directors

all over the world directing me in Los Angeles.

Since I left Vancouver, there's this human nature

thing. People want to physically see you there

sometimes, and I know that there was talk of

some series work after I left Vancouver. Because

I wasn't physically there, they like to know

that they can call you up and say, get down here

in an hour, and they don't want to have to pay

for the remote studio stuff, so a lot of times...

you need to be in the same city where work is

quite often, especially for animation. Would

you say it's more lucrative to stay in L .A.

rather than Vancouver then? Well, lucrative because

of the volume of work. It takes a lot of auditioning

to book anything, so it's so much competition.

And everybody's doing electronic submissions.

Sometimes you might have hundreds of people trying

for each job, so the more opportunities you can

get. The law of averages kicks in. But in Vancouver,

you might only have four or five auditions a

month. But here, I might have three a day. So

it kind of makes more economic sense. Although

I do miss Vancouver, I do miss Canada, definitely.

But I've enjoyed my time here, too. What was

one of your favorite shows, or let's extend that

out a little bit and just say one of your favorite

gigs, including video games and stuff, that you've

been on in the past? Well, and not saying this

just because of the program that I'm on, but

really the Beast Wars gig. I only did seven episodes

of Depth Charge, but people never forgot it.

It's amazing. I get a letter or something every

month, and people interview me still. I mean,

you called me up, and it's been, what, 12 years

since I did that show? It's pretty amazing that

it has life like that, and I think that's everybody's

goal. I mean, aside from making a living, if

you're doing it because you love it, you want

to have an impact, and it's great when people

like what you're doing. I just thought of a story.

It might be a little bit of a tangent, but this

might be interesting. I was doing Robocop, and

there was this... Part of the series where they

talk a lot about in this series, you know, his

history and the fact that he was human and he

had a family. Every time they do a RoboCop series,

it always comes up that his family's in trouble.

They have to go save his family, even though

they don't really know that it's him. But he

remembers it's him anyway. Excuse me. I wanted

to do a really good homage to the whole franchise.

You know, I want to make sure that I was true

to that and I was spending a little time. And

one of the other actors... looked at me. I wasn't

spending a ton of time, but just a little extra

care that day just to make sure that everything

was right. And he said, David, it's only an effing

cartoon. And I said, Jim, it's got my effing

name on it. It's always nice when you remember

that this is something I feel very passionate

about. You guys love this stuff. We're doing

it as living. but we love performing it. You

guys love watching it and love experiencing it.

I have to be there for you. I have to know that

I'm doing my best so that you're going to have

fun. And if I'm phoning it in from Toledo, you're

going to know. One of the funny things, really

quick, just to digress before we move on, one

of the funny things is you said that Beast Wars

is probably one of your favorites. Honestly,

There have been other podcasts that have covered

Beast Machines or Beast Wars just overall. We

are the only podcast that is doing an in -depth

review of all three seasons of Beast Wars and

two seasons of Beast Machines. Wow. Cool. What

show or gig did you miss the most and wish you

could have gone on longer with? I know you partially

explained it with Beast Wars, but... I don't

want to keep coming back to Beast Wars, so I

won't mention my sadness at the death of my character.

But a lot of them. Anyway, moving on. Which question

are we on, Steve? It would be yours on the video

game. Okay. What video game posed the biggest

challenge that you have been a part of? I don't

even have to hesitate with that. It was Call

of Duty 4, and I was a lead role in that, Lieutenant

Vasquez, and that was a scream -o -fest to end

all scream -o -fests because he was constantly

in battle, and we had special lozenges that numbed

the throat if you got through the session. Wow.

The video game screaming is different than animation

screaming. You might have some isolated moments

where there's some intensity going on, even in

battle in an animated series. But for video games,

there's something that's happened with the people

that are gamers, where they just expect more

and more action, more and more action, to the

point where it's almost impossible for the human

body to create that much excitement. Wow. It

really is hard. So that was the height of screaming

that I've ever done. I've retired from screaming.

I will still do video games, but I will not scream

like that ever again. I was a horse for six months.

Wow. And I was happy that I even got my voice

back. Yeah, I want you to after that. Yeah. I

mean, I enjoyed it. It was a great thing. I even

got a fan letter from a lieutenant in the Army

saying he wished he could command his troops

like that. So, you know, what an honor. It's

like, wow, I had that much impact. But I got

to be able to do this. I picked this career because

I wanted to do it until I was 90. And if my only

choice of voice is something like this, it's

not going to work. Yeah. Beast Wars, what interested

you about that series? I mean, what got you involved?

Well, the initial interest, of course, is a job.

But the actual character was really compelling.

Ace Fipke was one of the producers, and him and

Elizabeth Carol Savinkoff were the ones casting.

And they brought me in, and we had a really interesting

audition process because they did this thing

called layering where they just would talk about

one aspect of his personality and this other

aspect of his personality, and we just keep layering

it and layering it. And we threw in the Clint

Eastwood stuff. So it got to the point where

the voice was the way they wanted it, and I got

cast. And I remember the first day, they took

me aside and brought me into a room and showed

me a drawing of the character, and no one else

had seen it in the outside world. And they wouldn't

let any of the other cast members see it. It

was just me. I couldn't keep it, and I had to

go and do the show. That was kind of interesting.

But yeah, I got into it much like I get into

any other show. the whole audition process. I

never know what might have happened in history,

but when they were casting Beast Wars the first

year's season, I was on vacation in Australia.

So I missed it. I was called to go in and audition

for it, and I don't know if I would have gotten

a part. I don't know. But I missed out the first

time, and I was glad that I was able to squeeze

in on the last season. If you had gotten in on

the first season, which character would you have

liked to play? Oh, Megatron. Nice. Aim high.

No, I'm not going to reveal where, but somewhere

in the Transformers universe, in the past, I

was... Well, actually, I have been cast as Megatron

and actually recorded as Megatron once for something

that never aired. I was cast in something else

as Megatron. and I actually had to turn the part

down for very complicated reasons. So I've come

so close, but I've never got to play the big

M. Did you ever pull Gary's finger? No. Since

you asked me that, I'm going to retaliate, even

though Gary didn't do that. I'm going to tell

you a Gary Chalk story. Okay. Now, I noticed

in this, you guys sent me a recording today that

was very interesting. Oh, yeah, that was me.

You're probably going to mention this later in

the broadcast, but it was as if Depth Charge

was SpongeBob SquarePants, and it was very entertaining.

But if you listen to it very carefully, you will

notice something. The word Depth Charge is very

difficult to say clearly. Oh, yeah, it is. People

say Depth Charge. But Gary would say deaf charge

like, you know, the guy couldn't hear anything.

And if you listen, I don't know which episode

it is, but this is a super geeky thing, I think,

to bring up. If you're a hardcore geek, you will

find the episode, one or two episodes, where

Gary addresses deaf charge as deaf charge. You

know, you just sent us on a mission for this.

Yeah. I can almost hear it in my head right now,

too. And when you're in the studio, the actors

don't direct the other actors. Sue Blue, one

of the absolute top, tippy -top directors in

the business, was directing us. You don't say

anything. She's the director. You don't talk

to the other actors about their acting. I could

hear it. No disrespect to Sue at all. It was

fantastic. But that slid by, that deaf charge

thing. And she probably didn't care. because

it was exciting action going on and no one's

really listening to the minutia. But for some

reason, maybe I was more sensitive because that

was the name of my character. But I never had

to worry about that problem because I never talked

to myself. I didn't get that crazy. Well, I kind

of did talk to myself, didn't I? Depth of Charge

did have monologues where he had an internal

thing going on, but he never addressed himself

by name. Yeah. The recording was done by Steve

as Beast Wars Megatron. He can pretty much pull

off David Kaye's voice as an impression. The

original idea came from Michael Wilson, though.

He posted it on our website in one of our episode

comments. And I'm like, oh, wow. That's nuts.

And it progressed from there. Constantly amazed

at what the fans come up with. I had a 14 -year

-old girl write me once talking about the fan

fiction she wrote about Depth Charge. And without

getting into it, I could never answer her email

because of the nature of the email. But she got

grounded for a week for writing the fan fiction.

Ouch. Yeah. That's the best kind of fan fiction.

It's like, and I'm the main character. It's like

you wrote yourself into the fan fiction, did

you? That's kind of creepy. Well, she wrote it.

She wrote this fan fiction, and it was something

her mother didn't want her to be writing about,

apparently. Nice. So, what were some of your

favorite characters you've played in cartoons

and video games? Outside of Depth Charge. Outside

of Depth Charge, of course. Let's see. You know,

the... What was the name of this character that

I played? This is so embarrassing because I often,

when I'm doing an interview, I have my website

up so I can remember all this stuff. And, of

course, as soon as I click on it, I remember

it. Where is this cartoon that I did a few years

ago? Hello, Warner Brothers. Legion of Superheroes.

The Persuader. Yeah, I was going to call him

The Punisher. The Persuader was great. That was

a lot of fun. I don't know if anyone remembers

that, but that was in Season 2 of Legion of Superheroes.

He was a lot of fun. Yeah, I remember that. And

the deliciously evil guys, especially. There

was a video game that I did, where is it, early

on, called Spawn. And I was Malbolgia, and the

delicious evil deepness was really fun. You got

to play Satan. I've done that a number of times

in my career. Huh. Yes, and in D .C. There's

a fair bit of evil in my voice, apparently. Yes.

I think it's that you can hit that nice dark

tone. Yeah, that's what it is. I often giggle

through the sessions because it's really not...

You know, I'll do some really big, huge thing

like I did in Halo Wars, the video game. I was

the Arbiter. And you just do this gigantically

huge, deep thing and then just laugh because

it's so far away from who I am. That's why it's

called acting. Exactly. Would you say that Depth

Charge is the role that you're most identified

for for animation? It's the one that's most remembered,

that's for sure. Okay. What about for video games?

For video games, there's a few. The Arbiter from

Halo Wars, for sure. The Call of Duty role that

I told you about. Lieutenant Vasquez was quite

a popular one. And what else would have been

really popular? Probably what I did for Enemy

Territory, Quake Wars. That was pretty well known,

too. He called Sprog Infiltrator, but he had

a very distinctive, weird voice. So people remember

that one. I don't know how popular that video

game was, but Darkseid, that was a pretty memorable

role, too. Yeah. Did not play that one. Speaking

of video games you were in, what can you tell

us about your role in the upcoming Diablo 3 game,

if anything? You know, it's a mystery to me because

I went in there for this one section that was

a cutscene. And it was a really involved whole

scenario that was going on. obviously super confidential.

And I'm amazed they haven't released this thing

yet. I recorded that two and a half years ago.

Wow. It hasn't come out yet, has it? No. As far

as I know, Blizzard likes to wait until the last

minute until they're 100 % sure it's going to

come out at a certain date before they release

it. I think the press for that has basically

said, you know, everybody's bugging us. When

are we coming out? And they wrote, when we're

ready. Yeah. I think it's all for years to say.

Yeah, in software, it used to say when it's done.

It'll come out when it's done. Well, here's the

thing. Video games cost a huge amount of money

to produce. And, you know, just the years and

years of work it takes to produce, they do not

want to release something that isn't great these

days, especially because it's just not worth

the investment if it bombs. Because the lifespan

of a video game, really, commercially, financially,

is really only about a month. You get a month

to three months, actually. A month to three months

to sell the thing and sell most of your copies,

unless it's a massively multiplayer game and

it lives on and on. But you've got to hit the

ground running. It has to be a huge hit or you're

done. So they're not going to release it until

it's amazing. I loved working on Brutal Legend,

too. That was a lot of fun. I don't know if you

ever played that. No, I've never played that,

but I have played the Transformer movie game

and the Unreal Tournament 3. Yes, where I played

Brawl. And then Crawl and Unreal Tournament.

Yeah. I remember that. Alrighty. How did you

get the role of depth charge in Beast Wars? Well,

I think we kind of carried that. We talked about

just the normal audition process, and then they

just narrowed down and decided to go with me.

It wasn't like a phone call like, David, we need

you. I had to compete for it. You don't have

like a red phone in your office that rings? Yeah,

like the bat phone. The bat phone. I actually

do. It's all about call display these days, so

if I see my agent calling, I know that it's a

good call. That's the bat phone. The bat phone

calls when it says Atlas Talent there on my cell

phone. Were you a fan of the original Transformers

before you got into the role of Depth Charge

for Beast Wars? I really wasn't that familiar

with it. It wasn't something that was really

my experience. I mean, that was like mid-'80s,

right? Yeah, it was the late 80s. I was already

20 years old at that point. So not that adults

aren't watching that, but I was just finishing

Neighborhood Playhouse and I don't even think

I had a TV. I was just concentrating on doing

the acting thing and living in New York City

at that time. Getting back to depth charge. See,

now we're all trying very hard to pronounce this

properly. Well, that's the key. You don't try

too hard. Depth charge. Just say it and forget

it. I'm just going to call him DC. Try too hard,

you'll never get it. What did you say? I just

spelled him DC. So, DC. Yeah, that guy. How did

you come up with his distinctive voice? I mean,

it's very, like we say, Clint Eastwood -y. What

was the process there? Well, there was that layering

thing we talked about in the audition process,

but it was a full -body experience. You have

to stand up to do it. You have to put all of

the energy in your voice, and then I clenched

my jaw a little bit to get it to work. And there

was a lot of tension in the voice, yet a relaxed,

mellow sound at the same time. It was just a

combination of things going on. And I would usually

leave a session. with a bit of a headache because

of trying to put all that energy into a small

space. You know, he was never really yelling

except when he said, you know, maximize. Right.

You know, for the most part, he was pretty low

-key, but really intense. And I think that was

the key to the character, the intensity. Even

when he blew up. The mellow intensity. Yes. He

probably would have smoked marijuana, but they

never showed that on camera. That's because he

hadn't grown in underwater yet. Well, he surfaced

occasionally. There was the time that he was

a boat for an episode and he smacked Rattrap

with his tail. Well, pretty much everybody did.

He had a big chip on his shoulder. I liked the

death scene. The death scene was fun. That was

one of the best scenes I've ever done in my career.

It's still on my demo to this day. And it was

an epic death scene at that. It was epic, and

I guess when you know you're being, the series

is, you're leaving the series, too. You want

to leave with a bang. And I didn't. I thought

there might have been another year of the show,

but it turns out there wasn't. I know originally

there was supposed to be. Continuation to another

show, I guess. Hmm? I know originally there was

supposed to be another year of it, because I

know they wanted to drag more of the Generation

1 Transformers into the mold. But it never, I

think they just, Hasbro decided to change direction

at the time. I seem to remember at the end of

the third season that there was pretty much an

understanding that there would be a next season,

and it just never happened. I like the toy, too.

The toy's fantastic. I would have to say that's

one of the better ones out of the Beast Wars

line. Had it on top of my TV set for years, but

you can't put anything on top of a TV set anymore

because they're thin. Unless you have them hanging

from wire in the air. I guess. I have one still.

I used to have one open and transformed into

the way I wanted it, but I have one sealed with

the cast all signing it. Oh, that's awesome.

It was out by the time I'd finished, and on the

last day I had everybody sign it. Everybody was

there. And Sue, the director. Nice. I'll will

that to some lucky person. I've got a Minton

box one packed up in the closet. But I have to

say, I like the universe repaint, too. Well,

I will leave that to you to discuss, because

I... Just don't know anything about it. We're

getting a little too geeky for David. I'm sorry.

I love geeks, but I have to just sit back and

smile and nod. We've kind of talked about Dep

Charger already, and you've kind of talked about

him as far as his character, but overall, do

you think that there was any character growth

between the time he premiered and up to the time

of the death scene? I think for the most part

he was spending the entire series looking for

his adversary, and he was singular in that, and

he had various interactions with different characters,

and he wanted to be part of the gang and be a

good guy, but the most important thing for him

was making that kill and confronting that guy.

So that was really all that he cared about. So

I really felt that that was his driving force.

And there wasn't a lot of growth, per se. There

was just movement toward a goal. Yeah, I would

tend to agree, but I laughed so hard when he

first premiered and the computer was telling

him something about the High Council. He's like,

slag the High Council. Yeah, well, he didn't

care. He didn't care about the High Council.

He just wanted to, again, do what he wanted.

And he was brought in to try to help. He only

kind of half -heartedly did it. He was a good

guy, but barely. I played a lot of characters

in my career that were sort of half good and

half evil. It's interesting. The Spider -Man

Unlimited, if anyone remembers it, there was

this part I played called Lord Tiger, and he

was the not -quite -evil -enough evil guy. Yeah,

I remember that. I love that show. He ends up,

you know, it never aired, I don't think, because...

There were other shows that were really popular

that year, and I think they pulled the show before

it ran, but if you get the DVD, the last episode,

he let Spider -Man out of jail. He let him go,

and he's supposed to be one of the bad guys.

I thought that was kind of cool. Yeah. Had Beast

Wars gone on for another season, and granted,

if... Death Charge hadn't died, what would you

have liked to have seen happen with that character?

Well, it really depends if he had been able to

get Rampage. The only way he could have competed

was if he never had that fight with Rampage.

Otherwise, the whole reason for him being there

was that. Right. That was a conflict. You know,

there has to be conflict. You don't just sort

of amble along. You have to actually have a goal.

Right. So without Rampage there, he wouldn't

have a point in being there? Not really. I don't

think he would have stayed in health. He would

have just taken off and been a loner. He would

have never came there if it weren't for the fact

Rampage was there. Yeah. Right. Pretty drunk

character, really, in the end. I think that's

what made him interesting. He was very much kind

of like a James Dean kind of type. A brooding,

kind of a little bit sexy, a little bit angry

bad boy. Now, do you feel he... I mean, this

is aside from the other questions. Do you feel

he kind of filled the void of what Dinobot had

the previous two seasons? I think... I think

he was good in the mix of that season. Because

there's a lot of wacky comedic things going on

and super serious things going on. And he was

kind of almost a realist in the middle of all

that, I thought. He was kind of the least cartoony

of, and I'm not talking about performances per

se, but I'm just talking about the characters,

the way they were written and the way they were

constructed. He just seemed to be keeping it

real, at least in my mind. That makes sense.

It's almost like the whole thing's a painting,

and he's just an important color in there, just

like everybody else is. Huge cast, obviously.

They always kept it moving. And he would be thrown

in, and things would slow down. His speech was

slower, and his... consideration of things was

a little more... He was annoyed, but he didn't

act quickly, per se. He'd speak slowly and carry

a big stick. Yeah. Do you remember any secrets

from your days of playing Depth of Charge and

Beast Wars? Well, the secret... I guess to me

was that no one will ever know out in the public

what it's like to actually hear all those characters

come out of everybody's mouths in person in the

same room when you're recording this thing. We

had a very tight -knit group. Some episodes had

10 people in there really close together, side

by side, and I always stood beside Scott. And

to hear that crazy stuff come out of his voice,

come out of his mouth, you're thinking, this

isn't... even human. How does he do this? That

was kind of the biggest fun for me was sitting

next to Scott or standing next to Scott. Especially

with him doing four characters. Yeah, and he

could instantly change. He's so talented. I kind

of have a different approach in a sense because

I don't know what his process is per se, but

he can just come up with character after character

after character. come up with a character, but

it takes a little bit of time for me to sort

of develop it and to perform it. And I'm not

the guy they hire to do six characters, although

I did that once. With one video game, I did seven

characters in one day, but that's kind of unusual

for me. I'm usually the guy they will hire for

a lead villain or hero that's this very focused

thing going on. So I really appreciate the type

of talent that Scott brings to the table because

it's nothing that I could do. He's a good guy.

He's really good at what he does. He's a good

guy. He's always been nice to me. Never heard

a bad word said about him. Good guy. Were there

any, have there been any inside gags or anything

while you've been in various animation voiceover

sessions or video game jobs? Well, inside gags.

each other in the studio. Yeah. I kind of like

the pull my finger thing with Gary, but you know,

from, from anything and not, not just beast wars,

but I mean, is there any other stuff that you've

done? Like, were there any like gags during the

Spider -Man records or anything like that? I

gotta be honest, you know, for the most part,

there isn't a lot. I mean, there's fooling around

in the session in terms of the performance because

they got to keep it light so people could have,

feel comfortable and, give amazing performances,

but these people have a lot of money invested

in this stuff, and we're all being paid really

well to show up. There's not a lot of time to

fool around. They don't want it. There's a little

bit for a while, but then it's like crack the

whip and keep going because they have to get

the session done in a certain amount of time.

There's a lot of people there. You've got a lot

to get done. You're working. You're having fun

while you're working. Yeah, and it seems like

just from the way that you describe the jobs

that you do, it sounds like there's a high amount

of integrity. Well, I don't know if you're referring

to me or just the whole process, but you've got

to show up ready to work. There's so much competition.

So many people would love to be doing what I've

done. I'm so lucky. You know, I appreciate my

life. I appreciate being able to show up and

do this for a living. I am so blessed. And I

want to have a good work ethic and show up and

do my best. And that involves focus. You know,

you want to have fun, but it's not playtime.

It's a serious business, but a serious business

that happens to be fun. But when it runs long

and you've had a 12 -hour day and everyone's

getting a little loopy... There's no 12 -hour

day in voiceover, ever. No? Not anymore. Not

since... Go ahead, David. Not in the professional

world. The union contracts allow for eight hours

on the first episode. And just to make sure that

the character's worked out and all that, it's

never, ever, ever used. Usually you can get an

animated episode, a 22 -minute animated episode

done in two hours. That includes a rehearsal

and four hours max. If you go more than four

hours, you're going to lose voices. Any professional

setting does not book a voice actor for anything

more than four hours, period, end of story. And,

Michael, you know this. You've met Peter Cullen

in the Wally Burr sessions and all that. I mean,

you know that that happened back then and that

doesn't happen anymore. Well, I knew that it

happened back then, but I wasn't. didn't actually

realize that it didn't happen today. The last

long session I did was for the very first video

game I ever did in 2000 called Homeworld. And

I think we worked about six hours. And I got

overtime and all that, and they poured me into

the cab. I've never... If you are coming with

your game face on and you're ready to go, and

you're giving it your all, and you're not goofing

around, it's exhausting. It's a lot of work.

We hopefully make it sound like these guys are

alive and they're really existing. But to make

it sound like that, it takes a lot of work. It

takes a lot of physical, at least for me, physical

and emotional energy, especially for Depth Charge.

After that death scene, I was white for the rest

of the day because I just gave it as much as

I could. But yeah, that night after Homeworld,

I remember going to bed at about 7 o 'clock,

and I didn't wake up the next day until 9 in

the morning. I always slept like 14 hours. I

woke up a little bit, but it was as if I had

been drugged or something. It was just too much.

So this is kind of why they don't do more than

four -hour sessions, especially with the intensity

that they're asking in video. There's no way.

Yeah, yeah. Wow. And again, I'm just really impressed

with your work ethic. Well, thanks. You know,

I can't be the only one. So, moving along. Who

were your role models that influenced you for

voice acting? Well, James Earl Jones, the archetypal

deep voice, which I was usually... Early on,

when I would go into the studio... I don't know

if anybody remembers this, but he used to do

the, this is CNN. And they would make me do that.

Oh. They didn't say, do Darth Vader. As soon

as you walk in the door, they don't say, do Darth

Vader? No, they don't say, do Darth Vader. Well,

if somebody asks me to do characters that aren't

contracted, you know, if it's like out in the

world or whatever, I'll do this. I've got to

put the phone down to do it, okay? And tell me

if you think you know what I'm doing, physically.

One sec. You know what that is? No. It's a performing

seal in a circus. I'm not a performing seal.

I get this all the time, though. I get this at

parties. I get this at gatherings. I get this

in grocery stores. It's like, oh, do a voice.

Like, no. Here's my website. I don't want to

be a prima donna, but it's like if you were a

plumber, would you fix my pipes in the grocery

store? No. Probably not. So you're going to have

to bring your pipes with you. It doesn't mean

I don't want to be pleasant and talk to people.

It's just my thing. I mean, I'm sure some people

would just do everything all day long, and that's

what they do. But, you know, it's just not what

I do. Occasionally, if I'm feeling like it. Well,

I mean, to digress, you had mentioned that a

lot of interviews that you have with job interviews

revolve around, oh, hey, we like that you have

a deep voice like James Earl Jones. Yeah, well,

usually I'm making up a specific character, but

a lot of times in what they call the specs, you

know, the specifications or whatever where they

talk about what they want, they'll mention a

movie or they'll mention an actor. And hopefully

you'll get it the day before or a couple days

before and you can look it up and reference it.

And that kind of gives you an idea of the flavor

they're looking for. Interesting. Yeah. It's

kind of changed over the years. You know, they

don't really direct the way they used to in auditions.

It used to be very much about, you know, in the

moment, just... create this, which is still sometimes

how it happens, but a lot of times there's that

reference. They kind of have an idea in their

head of what they want it to sound like. And

if you can give it to them, yee -haw. Or the

opposite happens where they don't have any idea.

And they'll bring everybody in, and somebody

that wows them. Yeah. I know there was a part...

I mentioned earlier, it's on CBS on Saturday

mornings. It's Sabrina the Animated Series. I

played this character called Spooky Jar. And

they wanted an Indian -sounding genie. And I

don't do that accent. It's not in my wheelhouse.

But they had gone through everybody in town,

apparently, and they thought, oh, yeah, David

Sobolov. They just thought of me at the last

minute, the day before they were going to record

this thing because they couldn't find anybody.

And I did the audition, and the guy that was

directing it was jumping up and down. On the

other side of the glass. Like, yay, we found

our guy. But I didn't do an Indian accent. I

just said to him, I don't do an Indian accent,

but I'll give you what I think would be good.

And it was based on Agnes Moorhead in Bewitched.

That's awesome. The grandmother. Yeah, that's

awesome. Nice. And the spell she used to perform.

Yeah. Because he only speaks in rhymes. Oh, yeah.

Really? No. No, Steve. Well, I'll even do that

character for you. It isn't too vocally. Something

like... Here's the thing with the voiceover acting.

Unless I have the script in front of me, I've

got to think of words, too. I don't normally

have to think of words. I have to think of the

character. The words are sitting in front of

me. Thou must answer questions three. Thou must

answer questions three. You know, it was sort

of low and lyrical and like a spell. Yeah. It

just sort of made sense that I would do it like

her. Nice. Very cool. Steve. Yeah, Steve. Oh,

yeah. Who have you worked with in the industry

that has been really cool to work with? Well,

I have to go back to animation days because video

games are almost all done in isolation. Almost

every single video game except Halo Wars is all

by myself pretending other people are talking

to me. But let's see. I'm going to go back on

my own resume here and bring something to mind.

Let's see. You know, there was a guy, and he's

still my Facebook friend, named Jay Brezzo. And

he was on Sabrina the Animated Series. And he's

got a long history of voice work and of on -camera

work, especially in Canada. And just, again,

I think it's worth it. Just the nicest guy in

the world showing up ready to go. And just, the

people I love working with the most are the people

that are pleasant and the people that are down

to earth. You know, it isn't, I mean, sure, I

can be in awe of people's talent, but there's

so many people that I'm in awe of. You know,

just. Every time I go to the studio to do a group

project, they're so picky now about who they

cast. Everybody's amazing. So if they're amazing

and they're nice to me, I'll love them forever.

We've kind of talked about this a little bit,

but how was it working with Sue Blue and what

did you think of her voice direction? I'm really

not blowing smoke, as they say in Hollywood,

but she is my favorite, favorite, favorite of

all time. Not that the others aren't amazing.

She is just so, so fantastic to work with. She

engages with a huge amount of energy and gets

the performers hyped up to just give everything

you can to her, and she's got this wonderful

positive energy. She loves what she does. She

throws herself into it. She's not phoning in

from Toledo. I've said it before. She is as engaged,

she is more engaged than we are. She's like,

and she'll get us into a scene. She'll make up

some words just to get us into it or just talk

about what's going on with the same excitement

that you're supposed to have when you jump into

it. She doesn't work as much as she used to.

She still does on occasion. I haven't worked

with her as much as I'd like lately. I have some,

but I've done... I did Vortec with her. I did

Beast Wars with her. And a couple of other guest

shots. I did the Warner Brothers show that I

mentioned earlier. The Legion of Superheroes

with her. And Labor to Death. She's the best.

Yeah, that would be an interview I would love

to do. Oh, yeah, she's hard to track down. But

if you can track her down, yeah, she'd have a

million and one stories for you. She's been doing

this since I was a little kid, I think. Any way

you can get her contact, pass on her contact

information to her? You know, I don't even have

her contact information. Oh, man, where's Gary

Chalk's number when I really need it? Well, and

to be honest, it's always best, the way you want

to ask for that is, can you ask them to call

me? Right. Because it's not fair to give out

people's phone numbers. You know that. Right.

No, no. Well, that's what I was asking. Is there

any way you can talk to her for us or pass on

our information? That's what I meant. Hey, if

I happen to run into her, I will definitely pass

on your info. I can do that for you. Awesome.

Okay. I want to say, you did mention that you

still keep in contact with some of the people

that you've worked with in the past, but what

voice actors from Beast Wars or other voice projects

do you still keep in close contact with? Well,

so many are on Facebook now. It seems to be like

voice actors that I worked with in the past.

It's going to be on Facebook. But I still know

Elizabeth Carol Savinkoff that was the computer

voice in Beast Wars. We still are in touch. And

Jay Brezzo, as I mentioned. I'm on. It's funny.

I don't really know if... Well, I do know that

Scott... I'm in touch with even though he's got

a million fans on Facebook because he asked a

friend me. So I know that that was an active

thing on his part. Nice. Or somebody that works

for him. But I haven't talked to him in a long

time. Not since that con. That was a ways back.

That was a smallish con, actually. It was small,

but mighty. I sat there. getting signatures,

and I brought my Beast Wars Season 3 DVD, and

when somebody asked me for an autograph, I asked

them to autograph my DVD. Oh, nice. So I have

a DVD full of fan signatures. That is awesome.

Very cool. Because I know when I watch that DVD

that it's all the people that signed it really

loved me. Because they asked for my autograph.

I'm surprised that you haven't done like a botcon.

All anyone has to do is ask. I would be happy

to do it, but I'm only going to go if I am asked

to go. I get asked to send messages or to sign

things sometimes, but I have not had the pleasure.

I know one of the organizers for TFCon up in

Toronto. Maybe I'll pass that along to him as

far as something. But, hey, I got asked to go

to this con this fall, and I'm going in Slagacon

2010. Look it up on the Internet in Indiana.

That's actually down by Muncie. I want to say,

actually, Mike, that's down by Nightmax's mom.

Ah, cool. Chesterfield, Indiana, near Indianapolis.

I might have to make the trek down there for

that one. It's going to be fun. I'm going to

be doing a voice acting class. Oh, nice. Oh,

awesome. That should be fun. And there's going

to be dinner with Depth Charge. They're trying

to work on that now. And if my flight is late,

it'll be donuts with Depth Charge. And if my

flight is really late, it'll be drinks with depth

charge. See, now Steve wants to go. No, I'll

get there on time. Actually, I'm up by Chicago.

It's probably about a two -and -a -half, three

-hour drive for me. And that was kind of keeping

me from really wanting to go down there. But

you're making it sound very enticing. It's going

to be fun. I'm guaranteeing that I will have

a smile on my face, and I will be ready to have

fun. It should be, because from what I understand,

that's, again, like Icon 1. That's going to be

a smaller one. It's going to be more about quality

rather than quantity. And Greg, who played Grimlock,

is going to be there, too. Oh, really? Now you've

got to go, Michael. He's a good guy. I've met

him before. He is great. I work with him on Halo

Wars. And I run into them around town all the

time. And if you go to Really Fast, before they

change it, there's a 14 -year -old picture of

me on there. Back when you had hair? No, just

after I shaved it off. Soon to be replaced by

one with me in my lab, Gunner. Oh. Actually,

is that... I was going to say, is that the one

from your website? The one from my website. I've

been doing voiceover for so long. I stopped pursuing

on -camera stuff many years ago, so I haven't

had a headshot. I haven't really done a professional

headshot, so I need to do one. People keep asking

for it, and I end up sending this 14 -year -old

picture. Nice. We've got just a couple of random

questions then we can wrap this up. Have you

been asked to do any newer Transformers related

cartoon work? Would you be open to the idea?

I'm very open to it. I've auditioned but I've

not been called in. We may have covered this

but what are some of your favorite types of voice

acting work? I love the I love the delicious

villain characters. They are fun. I like doing

some commercial stuff. You know, I was the voice

of Liquid Plumber for a couple of years. And

it's fun. And you might have two or three lines,

especially if it's something slightly character

-y. And you go in there and they have you do

it 20 different ways. And you never know what's

going to end up in the commercial. It's always

a lot of fun to watch the commercial and see

which take they used. And, you know, I like characters

that are complex. There was this one video game,

and I'll go back to my website again. It was

an anime thing from Japan that they translated

into English. Rogue Galaxy was a Sony thing,

and the character was so complex. He was a soldier,

but he had quit because he was an alcoholic,

and he had all sorts of... Just personal issues.

And he was in love with the woman who ran the

bar that he would go visit. And in a video game,

it's just so cool to have something that's that

complex. I think the more human the character,

the more fun I have with it. The more that it

sort of deals with human emotions and interactions.

And finally, our last question. Do you have any

advice for people who aspire to get into voice

acting? Well, the traditional advice is, you

know, I'll just tell you what the traditional

advice is, but it's not necessarily my advice

because I don't want to be negative ever. But,

well, A, well, here's the positive thing. Don't

ever let anyone squish your dreams. If you want

to do it, you should do it. It's very hard to

make a living doing voice acting. Traditionally,

your parents, what I was going to say to begin

with, traditionally your parents or even people

in the business will say, if you can do anything

else with your life, do it. Around New Year's,

a lot of people call Screen Actors Guild and

they call Actors' Equity unions, Actors' Unions,

wanting to be an actor and asking that same question.

And almost always the response they will get

is, if you can do anything else, do it. But if

you love it and it's your dream, you want to

take acting classes. You want to do improv especially

so that you can be ready to do anything they

throw at you. In your town, wherever you are,

if you're a teenager, do community theater. If

there's an improv troupe, work with them, but

community theater is great. And know that eventually,

if you want to do this with your life, you're

going to have to, in the States, live in New

York or Los Angeles, especially Los Angeles,

because there just isn't enough work to sustain

you anywhere else. And in Canada, it would be

Vancouver or Toronto. And just have fun with

it. Don't do it to make money. Do it because

you love it, and the money will come. All right.

We would like to thank you once again for taking

time out of your busy schedule to hang out with

us this evening. You are most welcome. Thank

you for thinking of me. And I will throw in a

plug one more time for Sligacon. Everybody get

to Indiana and say hi. As far as people being

able to interact with you on the Internet, how

can they go about doing that? Do you want to

give out your website or your Facebook or anything

like that? I think my website is best. I'm probably

going to start very soon a fan site on Facebook.

I'm going to have two separate accounts. I'll

have one for people that I know in person that

are in my personal life and then another one

for fans. I've noticed lately a lot of people

are starting to want to say hi to me and I would

rather kind of separate that and then I can talk

to them like fans, you know, just answer their

questions and stuff. Look for a fan page on Facebook

fairly soon, but for now, my website's a great

way to reach me. All right. And I'm happy to

get, if people have questions or they want to

say hi to me, I'm more than happy to answer email

via my website. It says, you know, if you want

to book me, you know, press the button here,

and it actually goes to me first. So that's the

big secret of my website. I screen for my agent.

So I'm happy to talk to people. All right. So

if you'll just hang on the line one second, we

are going to go to the outro. Who lives in a

colony under the sea? Depth Charge Fish Pants.

Who wants to kill Rampage for you and for me?

Depth Charge Fish Pants. Whose material goodness

is misunderstood? Depth Charge Fish Pants. Who

sounds like Batman and Clint Eastwood? Depth

Charge Fish Pants. Ready? Depth Charge Fish Pants.

Depth Charge Fish Pants. Depth Charge Fish Pants.

Excellent. Yes.