Interview with Tara Strong on Powerpuff Girls and Voice

When the girls and I are not saving the world,

we listen to all the GeekCast Radio Network podcasts.

Sugar. Spice. And everything nice. These were

the ingredients chosen to create the perfect

little girl. But Professor Utonium accidentally

added an extra ingredient to the concoction.

Chemical egg. Thus the Powerpuff Girls were born!

Using their ultra super powers. Blossom, Bubbles,

and Buttercup have dedicated their lives to fighting

crime and the portion Hello and welcome to the

special tune cast and all things transformers

interview of Tara strong I'm your host TFG on

Mike and joining me is Jenny see who I know mostly

from Earth to net the show. Hello, Jenny How

are you? Pretty good. What have you been up to

lately? University related reporting. That's

about it. How about you? Just keeping busy with

this podcasting thing. This will actually be

the, I believe, the fourth or fifth interview

I've done. A while ago, I sent out a bunch of

my buddy Steve who runs the podcasting network

that we have with me. I try, like if there's

somebody I know that people like, and say a special,

like say Christmas or a birthday is coming up,

if I can get an interview with that person, I

will do it. Or I will try to. And Steve's birthday

last year was in June. I wasn't able to get David

Kay interviewed until December. At least it still

happened. And then I had sent... Ms. Strong,

you know, Tara Strong a message asking for an

interview, and I'm thinking, okay, well, because

I was doing Powerpuff Girls research for our

upcoming episode of Tooncast, Powerpuff Girls,

when we reminisce on that, and I never knew that

she was the voice of Bubbles. Never. And when

I first started listening to Earth2 .net, and

I first heard you on the show, I'm like, wow,

she sounds just like Bubbles. You're the first

person to ever say that, but I suppose I can

see the connection. And so I sent Ms. Strong

a message asking her for an interview. And after

I did the research, I was like, oh, well, it'd

be kind of cool if I did this with Jenny, since

she is a fan of bubbles and fan of Powerpuff

Girls in general. Yeah, yeah, totally. Yes, so

that will be the interview that you will hear

next. Hello everyone, this is Michael Blanchard

and I am joined with my friend and fellow podcaster,

Jenny C. Hello Jenny. Today we have a super awesome

privilege to interview Tara Strong. Yes, that's

right, Bubbles from the Powerpuff Girls is on

the line with us. Hello Tara. Hi. How are you?

I'm good, how are you? Pretty good. Uh, one of

the reasons why I wanted to do this interview

was coming up on Tooncast, is one of our podcasts

that we do here on the Geekcast Radio Network.

We are going to be reminiscing on the Powerpuff

Girls. And I, well, pulling research for that

show, I realized, I looked at the cast list,

I'm like, wait, Tara Strong was the voice of

Bubbles? Dang, I never knew that! So that's one

of the reasons why that you're here with us.

Also, it's been a couple of months, but Jenny

just had a birthday and I wanted this to be a

late birthday, it was supposed to be an early

Christmas present at the time. For her, she is

a huge Bubbles fan. Aren't you, Jenny? Nice.

Yes, I am a big part of a girls' fan in general,

but Bubbles in particular. Well, happy birthday,

Jenny! That was awesome. So can you tell us a

little bit about your current projects? Is there

anything that you can tell us that you're currently

working on that we might look forward to seeing

from you in the future? I think everybody will

be real excited about a new show that's happening

at Cartoon Network. It's a creation of Gambit

Tartakovsky, who you know was a creative powerpuff

girl in front of them, or one of the executives

at least. And this is all from his brain, and

it's called Symbionic Titan. And it's just a

really, really cool show, and the artwork's really

beautiful, and I'm not sure when that's slated

to start. Maybe if we do a little Google on the

Cartoon Networks and Bionic Titan, we'll see

it. But that one's very exciting. I'm actually

going to be heading up to Vancouver to start

the new My Little Pony series tomorrow. And we're

still doing Chowder a little bit, and we're still

doing Fairly Odd Parents, some pickups and some

movies a week stuff on that. I'm trying to think

of other exciting things right now. That's about

it right now. I'm doing some, you know, a fair

bit of commercial work too. I'm the voice of

Payless and the Bad Girls Club. And I seem to

have stuff every single day, but it's been good.

Yeah, you stay very, very busy. Yeah. Oh, I know

what else. The Superhero Squad Show. That's ongoing

and people seem to be really liking that show.

What are you playing, that? There's Scarlet Witch,

and then honestly like three other recurring

characters on that. There's like an invisible

woman character, and then there's this little

robot that the Scarlet Witch hangs out with.

Herbie. I can't remember which other ones I'm

doing. I mean that show, it's like so much fun.

We end up doing like three, four voices in each

show. Right, right. For those of our listeners

who may not know that much about you, where did

you grow up? I grew up in Toronto, where I started

actually doing all kinds of acting as well as

animation. My first show was Hello Kitty, which

I did with Cree Summer. I was Hello Kitty and

she was Catnip, which was the bad kitty. So that

was there. I mean, we work together all the time

now, so it's kind of fun. Yeah. Okay, well, you

just kind of answered my next question. what

got your voice acting career started, which was

that show, would you say, or was there something

before then that you, like, kind of tell us,

like, how you fell into the whole voice acting

thing. Was it something you always wanted to

do, or was it something that you just kind of

fell into? Yeah, no, I think I, I never really

knew that I wanted to do cartoons. In fact, the

only one in our business that really knew that

I think is Tom Kenny, you know, SpongeBob. Other

than that, we all, were actors and singers and

most voiceover people are singers because they

need to have a good ear and I was performing

since I was pretty young and I always did silly

voices but I didn't know necessarily that I was

going to make a career out of doing voiceover

until I did Hello Kitty and then after that had

a pretty steady booking ratio before I moved

here so I kind of fell into it but you know not

completely off. It was sort of the natural progression

when you're doing acting and singing and improv

and stuff like that. A lot of people think, oh,

you just get into the room and speak, but you

have to know your acting beats and you have to

be able to play and be silly and try out different

characters and different sounds and be creative.

Going back to what I did read on, I believe it

was IMDb that you did start in the theater. Did

that experience at all help you transition to

voice acting or was it just completely, totally

separate? Well, I think any performing that you

do helps you with, you know, other areas of performing

and certainly keeps your chops sharp and the

theater that I was doing was musical theater,

so it was, you know, singing and using my ear.

But I would say that voiceover as an entity is

a totally different animal and a lot of times,

you know, we'll have some on -camera people come

in and really freak out because they think it'll

be easy and they think they know what to do based

on other acting experiences and it really is

something completely different. Right, yeah.

Which do you prefer, voice acting or on camera

work? That is a good question. I'd say that I

really love doing both for different reasons.

Like my kids are all excited because I have a

part on Big Time Rush and they've been really

advertising that a lot. I play like the hot teacher.

in one episode and they're like, oh man, I wish

you were on more of that. So it's kind of fun,

you know, for me now and for the kids to see

me and that part's fun. But they love, you know,

the Fairly Oddparents and Ben 10 and they love

my shows too. I mean, I really do love everything.

I feel pretty blessed that I get to do a lot

of different things. Very cool. Jenny, why don't

you ask her the next question? Sure. I'm going

to be focusing on mostly Powerpuff graduate.

Right. And there's lots of years of recording.

Can you reveal any particular behind the scenes

moments that were especially memorable? Oh my

gosh, we really had so much fun doing that show.

And myself and E .G. who played Better Cup, we

would tease each other relentlessly. I mean,

if they ever decided to sell the tapes of what

went on in between takes, it would be pretty

crazy. I mean, really funny moments for me. You

know, Bubbles can talk to squirrels, and for

whatever reason, that meant that I would be putting

my hands up to my cheeks and making these cute

little squirrel faces, and Tom Kenny is like,

is that how you talk to squirrels? And it's just

kind of funny when voice actors do something

physical with their bodies, because obviously

it doesn't matter what your faces are doing,

so that was kind of fun. He's like, does that

help you do the... I guess so. I guess I need

to put my hands up to my face and look like a

squirrel to face. We really laughed so, so, so

much and Tom was always improvising and he always

had a false start. Like every single time he

said the city of Townsville he'd get like, you

know, half a line into the sentence and then

he'd have to start again. It was like there was

all these sort of things that just happened every

single time and Meany G were always, you know,

being very silly and Catherine who played Blossom

was always very well behaved which is funny because

that's so her character. Yeah. Yeah, the sense

of fun definitely came through in the final product,

for sure. Yeah, I always tell people if it's

fun, then you're going to get a better show.

Yeah. What's your favorite memory, overall, from

Powerpuff Girls? Hmm. My favorite Powerpuff Girl

memory. Good question. Well, you know, my husband

and I actually wrote a couple episodes, and one

of them they ended up doing. So that was kind

of fun for me, to see an idea that we had. sort

of come to life, and I loved the musical episodes

that we would do, and we always, whenever we'd

go back in, we'd sing, la, la, la, la, la, la.

Yeah, so anytime we got to sing and do some fun

stuff, that was cool. And I think when Bubbles

thought she was Mojo Jojo, that was pretty fun

for me. My nanny came in and she was crying so

hard. She was laughing. She was crying so hard.

She was like, Tara, yesterday on the Powerpuff

Girls and Bubbles said she was losing it. She

was just like losing it. She was laughing. It

was so fun. What do you miss the most? I'd say

I miss the camaraderie I like. It was a really

great, solid, fun cast. I miss that show a lot.

I wish they could have done more. I get more

fan mail for that and for more Teen Titans than

anything else. I think they both had a lot more

years in them. My kids watch it now on Boomerang

and there's no toys anywhere. I think they're

missing the boat on a whole new generation of

people that would be buying stuff and liking

it. If you look at something like Hello Kitty

that's sustained over years and years, there's

certainly no reason why we couldn't do more Powerpuff

Girls and more Titans. I think the fans really

want it and we had so much fun. It was just a

tremendous amount of fun. I got letters all day

on Facebook. I have probably mostly fans and

they're like, why can't we have more? It's so

good, it's so good. I mean the numbers were really

high for people watching the special and then

had a whole new resurgence of people liking the

show. People often say to me, can't you do more?

And I'm like, I'd love to do more. It's not in

my hands, but I certainly would love to do more.

Was there anything about that show that was particularly

challenging as far as work goes? I'd say no.

I mean, the only thing that they'd sometimes

have to direct me is that I was too high. Because

sometimes Bubbles, when she gets excited, she

talks in such a high register that the director

would be like, um, Tara, the dogs in the neighborhood

are coming by. And you have to pick them down

a little bit. But it wasn't really so demanding

or challenging. It was just fun. And then one

more question. At the time the pop -up girls

were on the air, which voice actor in the industry

did you admire the most? You know, I always have

such a soft spot in my heart for Frank Walker.

I think he sustained such a long career and he

really is just such a nice, nice guy. And I would

say if I had to pick someone that deserves a

star on the Walk of Fame for doing voiceover

with him, there's a lot of people that can't

necessarily sustain over the years. And I think

it's because you have to be aware of what's going

on around you and the different trends in the

industry. And I think he's just one of those

people that transcends everything. And I just,

on top of it, is just the nicest guy in the world.

So I think he's someone I always really adore.

How are you informed that powerpuff girls was

coming to an end and did you think the show?

Could have do you think it did everything it

could have at the time or did you I mean? You've

said that you wanted it to go on but at the time

was there a definitive ending to the show because

It's been a while since I've seen it You know,

I they just sort of tell us that one of the sessions

or we know a seasons wrapping up and then we're

not sure if there's gonna be a pickup and I would

say they I'd say they could still be doing it.

I don't see... I mean, I would say if they were

smart and wanted to make money on toys and purses

and backpacks, they could still be going. I'm

not sure why they would have pulled the plug

when they did, but it seemed to me that we could,

like I said, still be doing that show. Jenny,

I think the next two are yours. You had another

one. Over the course of the show, did you ever

watch the cartoon back to hear what you sounded

like? Oh yeah, I love Powerpuff Girls. I always

watch that show. I mean, I really love that show.

I watch it all the time. That's cool. And how

easy or hard was it to keep track of which voice

went with which character? Do you have a tweak

for that? You know, that's not really ever a

problem unless... It's the audition stage still,

because a lot of times for the auditions we'll

do several different choices and then we don't

remember which one they liked or which one they

picked when you get to the session. But by the

time a character already has an existence and

a life, I don't know why, we just don't mix them

up. It's kind of like, you know, I remember one

time I was doing the, where I was asked and this

guy drew a really funny drawing of Baby Dill

doing some crazy stuff and he gave it to me and

I'm like, and he did it! so quickly. And I said,

how do you do that? And he said, how do you do

what you do? And I just went, OK. I get it. It's

just like, those of us that work that much, it's

just sort of by nature that we can sort of keep

them in check. And I've been on auditions where

they're like, can you do Timmy on this one from

The Fairly Oddparents? And I'm like, no, Timmy

is alive on The Fairly Oddparents. So we can

tweak it a little bit. But each character, they're

their own entity in my brain once I've created

them. We have sort of compartmentalized each

one, sort of. I'm going to skip down one question

because I think we've already asked that. Which

voice actors that you have worked with do you

still keep in contact with? I see them every

day. It's pretty much the same, you know, people

that you see all the time that work consistently.

friends and we all get excited when someone looks

at jobs because we know we'll see each other.

I see most of my friends in the business at least

once a week. Just at different jobs or different

studios. Right. You recently were the voice of

Sari Sundak from Transformers Animated. Did you

have to recreate that? Did you have to create

that voice or did you adapt it from other little

girls' voices that you've done in the past? She's

probably someone pretty new. Even if you're doing

a slight variation, I play several different

10 -year -old boys. So I try to keep Ben 10 older

than Kimmy. And then I'll do parents on Foster's

Home really mean and even gruffer than some of

the other characters. So even though it's still

me, there's just a tweak in it enough that. The

fans won't go, oh my gosh, she's doing the same

voice on that. I don't like to do the same things

on each show. So sorry is someone I say that

I haven't really done. You know, like, obviously

Raven has a very different sound, and even that

girl is kind of lower. She's a little more nasally.

She's a little younger. I don't think she really

exists on any show. Yeah. Yeah, it's, you know,

it's funny when the, oh boy, I just lost my train

of thought. The Ben 10 thing you mentioned. It's

funny, when I was doing the research for this

interview, I'm like, she's the voice of Ben 10?

Wow. And during the research, I found a line

that said, I guess it's your tagline or something,

you're mainly known for doing young boys' voices.

Well, I mean, because, you know, if you're going

to hire a real 10 -year -old boy, or a 12 -year

-old boy, which would be really risky, you know

that stuff's going to change pretty soon. And

when you're bringing in real kids on a show,

you have to deal with school and stuff. So they

actually really like to deal with adults. And

I think for the most part, women can sound more

like little boys and men. Because quite often,

if you hear a little boy talking, and they kind

of sound like little girls, a lot of them are

sort of interchangeable. And yeah, it just ends

up happening a lot. That's really interesting.

Oh yeah, that's very interesting. Tell us your

thoughts and experience in attending BotCon.

Because I'm a big Transformers geek and I've

never been. So what is your opinion of BotCon?

I think it's nice for the Transformers fans because

they're such amazing strong fans of that show

that they have their own convention. and they

really know everything about the show and I have

to say I was overwhelmed by how welcoming they

were because I know initially and in fact some

of the fans told me that they weren't crazy about

the idea that there was a human on the show and

then a couple of them kind of guessed that it

was going to turn out that Sari was not entirely

human and they said, you know, you just played

her so well and so real that we end up welcoming

her even though the idea of it wasn't something

they originally liked. So the fans for me is

what makes it all. worth it. They're extremely

welcoming and complimentary. In general, I prefer

it not being Cincinnati. It was a little far

for me to go without the kids and I was kind

of over the sightseeing thing immediately. No

offense, Cincinnatians, but maybe next time we

can go somewhere a little more fun or a little

closer to the home if they ever invite me back.

You didn't just attend the one in California

last year? No. I mean, I don't always get invited

because I'm not really a transformer. Sorry,

I was only on that particular run. But yeah,

I wasn't invited. If I had been invited, I'd

probably show up. I like meeting the fans. I

mean, the fans are why we have shows. Do you

have a strangest fan experience, whether it be

at BotCon or Comic -Con or anything like that?

There was. a convention I think anime primarily

but they did have some cartoon people and a girl

asked me to sign her butt that's gonna go up

there with one of those changes I mean she had

a lovely butt it was kinda strange did you sign

it? I did sign it yeah there's a nice butt that's

awesome okay and the last question is yours Jenny

sure What's your favorite role out of all of

the e -boy tagging roles that you've done? That's

a tough one. I really do have a soft spot for

bubbles. I love doing Kimmy from Fairly Odd Parents.

I love Raven because she was so different. I

really loved when I booked the Little Mermaid

sequel because I got to sing with the original

Little Mermaid. That was really exciting for

me. I've had so many that it's really hard. I'm

so blessed that I've had so many good ones that

it's hard to pick. And plus, if I do make a choice,

then the producer's going to get mad that I didn't

choose his show, so I can't do that. Yeah, that

was one of the things that I'd written the research,

was that when you met Jodie Benson, you almost

cried in person or something. Oh yeah, I burst

into tears. She's like, are you OK? I was like,

I just loved you for so long. I mean, I don't

know what little girl didn't want to be there

or made, but it was pretty fun for me. Alright,

so you want to, before we close this out, you

want to remind everyone about your upcoming projects

and we would like to thank you for joining us.

Thank you so much. So like I said, we would like

to thank Tara Strong for taking the time to chat

with us in this special Tooncast All Things Transformers

interview. You can catch her on Cartoon Network.

What is the name of that new show that's coming

out? Symbionic Titans. Bionic Titan, okay, so

thank you very much Tara hang on the line We're

gonna get some clips from you, and we will talk

to you later We are back, and we just interviewed

Tara strong wow that was amazing Yes, she was

very cool even though. It's only like a 20 -minute

interview And I asked her beforehand before we

were able to bring you on the line I asked her

how much time she had, and she just, well, obviously,

you know, people can't see a shrug in the audio,

but, you know, she just kind of like, eh, you

know, let's just, you know, do, you know, let's

just do whatever we can do. Um, so that, you

know, that was pretty cool of her. Uh, we actually

- Yeah, it was really great of her. Uh, she wished

you a happy birthday, but in Bubbles' voice,

even though you're - I know, that was awesome.

I wasn't expecting that at all. Yeah, even though

Bubbles, uh, or not, even though your birthday

was a couple months ago. Um... You know, it's

just, I'm glad I'm doing this podcasting thing

because it's so great to be able to talk to voice

actors. I never thought. My wildest dreams, if

you told me when I was five, you know, five,

six years old back in the eighties, you know,

saying that 20 years from now you're going to

interview the voice of Lionel, which I did previously

on this, on Tunecast, I was like, yeah, right,

you know. You know, shrug your shoulders at someone

like, yeah, OK, sure I am. Uh -huh. You know.

And then you did. So there you go. It's just

great. I actually will go ahead and spoil this

now, because I already pretty much spoiled. I

haven't spoiled who the interview is with. But

when I was thinking up promos for Because I asked

her if she would do some, you know, promos for

some of our shows, and she said, yeah, sure,

fine. So I wrote out some promos, and I'm thinking,

okay, well, you know, I love World's Finest Podcast.

And this, you know, so I figure, okay, well,

I didn't realize she was the voice of Batgirl.

So I did the research, so I had her do a couple

of clips in Batgirl's voice for Mike and James.

Sent them to Mike the other night. By the time

this airs, it'll be a few nights ago. He sent

me an email back, he's like, ah, that's just

awesome. Thank you so much. I'm like, yeah, no

problem. But yeah, that was just... Usually when

I do interviews, I'm trying to get all my geekiness

out. That's why we do these intro outros. So

we just speak out on the person as we're doing

it. You know, and usually after, you know, when

I do the outro, I'm like, just basically speak

just like, wow, that was so awesome. It was!

It was, because when she was doing the promos

beforehand, because I had already sent her, she

just printed it out, I guess, the stuff I sent

to her through Facebook, and, you know, she didn't

even stop to take a breath on the promos. She

just switched from Bubbles to SorrySomdak, from

Transformers Animated to Batgirl to... It was

like, wow, how do you do that? She's been doing

it for a long time, so she's a pro. Would you

like to tell everybody about your recent addition

to the family? Oh, yeah. I adopted a two -and

-a -half -year -old cat about two months ago,

actually right before my birthday. So I guess

you could say he's sort of a birthday gift to

myself. And he's an all -black, long -haired

cat, and his name is Weevil. which comes from

a character from around Kamaris, which I'm a

big fan of. So yeah, he's here and he's kind

of standoffish, so he hides a lot, but he's starting

to get used to me and come out and he loves eating

tuna, I've learned. So that's been my trick to

get more contact with him. Yes, he is the Ninja

Kitty. He is very elusive. I can't hear him stalking

around at all. He had a collar with a bell when

I first brought him home that they put on him

at the shelter. Somehow, I'm still not sure exactly

how he got it off, but he managed to flip it

off. So now he can flank around undetected in

true ninja fashion. Now, he's an inside cat,

so did you have him declawed? Oh, no. No, he

has all declawed. I have a scratching post that

I got for him that he makes good use of, and

he's not one to really attack the furniture.

And frankly, my furniture is from IKEA and not

that expensive, so if he were to go to town on

it, it wouldn't be a big deal. But he was already

neutered by the time I had gotten him. He had

been adopted once before by another family. And

actually, the particular shelter that I dealt

with has cats. better, you know, let me take

them in, they automatically neuter them. So,

he's had that taken care of, but he gets to keep

the cloth. Well, I would like to thank you for

joining me here on this, this little journey

of ours, and it's just been a blast. Just a little

quick administrative stuff, you can find this

interview on geekcastradio .com. You can find

me on Twitter, it's TFG1Mike. The show, Tooncast,

does have a Twitter as well. It's GCRNTooncast.

I don't know if you use Twitter that much, do

you? I have an account. I use that primarily

for making wrestling -related comments. So my

handle on there is rassle, R -A -S -N -L -E,

writer. But yeah, I'm not on there super frequently.

But you can find me on there if anyone's interested.

We also do have a... I did create a fan page

for Geekcast Radio. I'm not exactly sure what

the link is. You can call our voicemail number,

which is 502 -526 -5821. Be sure to say what

show you're leaving the message for and your

name. Coming up next on Tooncast, we're going

to be talking about... I believe it's the GoBots

episode. GoBots. Transformers knockoffs. Anyway...

Again, thank you Jenny, and... Thank you, thanks

for having me. And we will see you next time

on Tooncast.