Interview With Steve Blum

The One and Only Space Cowboy

Played a video game recently? Watched some old school anime? If you did then chances are you heard the unmistakable voice of one of the most beloved and successful voice actors in the industry!

Where do we even begin? He voiced Toonami’s mascot TOM, has been a part of Bioware’s most successful franchises, joined the likes of the Decepticons, portrayed both the Avatar’s nemesis and the Prince of Darkness, not to mention a whole slew of unforgettable anime characters. Oh, and he’s also Spike Spiegel.

Could he be more awesome? Well as it happens he’s also a swell guy, as he agreed to a quick interview where we went into detail about his more memorable roles and the impact of the voice-acting industry as a whole.

First of all, thank you for taking time out of your hectic schedule to allow us to bludgeon you with questions!

“Thank you for your patience and for choosing me for this wondrous beating!  Honored!!”

Starting off with your work in video games, you portrayed two of the most popular characters to ever come out of Bioware. Tell us, how did you physically and mentally prepare yourself to play the whirlpool of emotion that is Grunt?

“Prepare?  That’s not a realistic question for most of voiceover!  Like almost everything else in my game career – every session was a cold read.  I was given character specs and a stack of paper  – and as I recall, one drawing of him – then relied solely on the genius direction of Ginny McSwain (and the writing/production team) for context and intent.   Once we established Grunt’s mannerisms and character, we could develop him together. The preparation occurs in decades of experience and hard work prior to walking into that booth.”

Dragon Age’s Oghren is considered by many to be their favourite dwarf, ever. How much did you have to drink to get into character?

“Ha!  Urrrrpppppp. They actually asked if I wanted to drink for Oghren!  He was probably the sloppiest, most magnificent, completely sober, yet perpetually pissed character in my resume’.  I can’t work intoxicated.  That was the one time I wish I could’ve.  I started playing D&D recently (yes at my age!), and loosely based my character on Oghren.  My favorite nug humper.  Still fart my kids lullabies.”

You’ve played many unconventional badasses in video games over the years, but which of these lesser known machomen is your favourite and why? Jack Cayman from Madworld, Lt Col. Burns from Vanquish or Grayson Hunt from Bulletstorm?

“Probably Grayson.  We got to create new dirty words together!  One of my fav memories is creating the online ads for the game and shaming the player into buying it. Telling them to get their lazy asses off their mom’s couch, earn or swipe some money and make the purchase. All in good fun, of course, but brutal.  Special mention to Garcia F. Hotspur in the game Shadows of the Damned.  High speed recording of that game.  Equally messed up.  Writers were twisted.  I love that.”

Personally, I’m a huge fan of your portrayal of Lucifer in the Dante’s Inferno Animated Movie. What was it like to portray such a deliciously evil entity?

“Wow!  You’re one of maybe a dozen people that actually watched that!  I LOVED playing the ultimate bad boy!  Fascinating to see so many different interpretations from the various animators. Performance-wise, I tried to keep him consistent, but mindful that every layer of Hell would almost feel like a different universe.  Evil is always liberating to play.  I tend to be less dangerous in my real life when I have that outlet.”

Which of these misunderstood monsters would you say would make for the better date? Amon from Legend of Korra, Shishio Makoto from Rurouni Kenshin or Darcia from Wolf’s Rain?

“Ha ha ha – man, that’s messed up.  I like you.  Never saw Wolf’s Rain or Kenshin, but all I remember is emotional anguish and screaming in fiery pain from those sessions in that order.  Amon was the most interesting for me personally.  Such a well developed, multi-layered character, that I could understand his perspective, even in his most heinous moments.”

As a society, what lessons can we learn from Starscream?

“That being greedy, sadistic and megalomaniacal is not a healthy way to go through life.  That said, he was a beautiful dancer and rocks those heels like no other Decepticon.”

To a whole generation, you are the voice of Wolverine. Do you think you’ll still be voicing everyone’s favourite adamantium-clawed death machine a decade from now?

“If they’ll let me, Bub!  As I understand it, Fox controls the rights and until they allow Marvel to produce more animated product with old cranky claws, I’ll be patiently, hopefully waiting in the wings with seething anticipation.  One of my favorite characters ever.  I miss him terribly.”

Of course, for every fighter you’ve portrayed, there’s a lover to go right alongside them. Did the likes of Mugen from Samurai Champloo or Orochimaru from Naruto help to develop your natural swagger?

“Develop?  Why thank you <he says with smooth vibration>.  Not sure if I have any in real life, but I’m trying. And Orochimaru swagger would most like get me arrested.”

One of your most unique performances was that of Guilmon from Digimon Tamers, an adorable creature whose interactions with Takato resonated with a lot of kids growing up. What was that experience like for you?

“Absolute joy.  It was the first time I was given the opportunity to help develop such an innocent, kind, loving character (who could also brutally kill you if necessary).  Up to that point, I specialized in mostly bad guys or creatures, so it was refreshing to play someone I could show to my kids.  I was an ADR writer for that show too, so I had a fair amount of input in how he was portrayed in our version.  The aftermath of that show was the most amazing part.  Years later at a convention, a man told me his non-verbal autistic son began speaking for the first time because of his connection with Guilmon.  That moment made me sob like a baby in public and changed my life – and entire philosophy regarding my purpose in the industry!”

Well, we couldn’t escape talking about him forever. Spike Spiegel. The man, the myth, the amazing hairstyle. What do you miss most about voicing him?

“The giant paychecks.  Kidding.  I made crap money on that show, but I learned how to act doing it.  Arguably the most influential role of my career.  We certainly didn’t know it at the time, but the fact that we’re still talking about it 20+ years later is a testament to the quality of that show.  It was beautiful before we even touched it.  We simply tried not to screw it up.”

If you could go back to when you were recording some of Spike’s earliest lines, what advice would you have given to your younger self about how your career was going to turn out? And how do you think the strapping young Blum would have reacted?

“This cracks my shit up on so many levels.  I’m actually glad that I had no idea what I was doing.  Sure, some of my acting was really rough (sometimes it still is), but it was honest.  Having no idea if people would even get to see the show, simply allowed us to make the best show we could at the time – for us – because we loved the material and wanted it to be good.  The advice I’d give me or anyone else – and still do – is to do this work because you love it and even if your character has a three second lifespan, put everything you’ve got (or are allowed) into that three seconds.  Because you never know how it will affect the viewer.  I didn’t know at the time that voiceover could even BE a career!  I did it for fun and because I loved the medium and the people involved.  As far as the “strapping young Blum?”  Not certain that ever existed, but hopefully he would have agreed and not been a douche to the old man handing out free sagacious life-changing nuggets.”

Steve, thank you so much for you time! Your continued work in the industry is a testament to the art and we can’t wait to see what crazy characters you bring to life next!

“Thank you so much for caring!  I’m humbled to have a career or even to be alive and employed after age 50, so everything to me is gravy.  Delicious, delicious clumpy gravy”

Just before we conclude, if your fans want to follow your various escapades and be the first to know about future projects, where can they find you? And is there anything you have in the works you can share?

“Ton of new stuff comin’ and of course I’m not allowed to talk about most of it yet, but you can always hear about the new stuff on my social media or my website Steveblumvoices.com.  Generally you guys know more about my career than I do anyway.  Please do check out Toonami  – still going every Saturday night on Adult Swim and new shows Niko and the Sword of Light on Amazon and Dorothy and the Wizard of Oz on Boomerang.  Lots more on the way!”

And finally, as an honorary member of WatchMojo, if you could choose a subject for a top ten list, what would it be?

“Wow, really?  Ok – how about Top 10 cartoons that ended way too soon?”