The Voice of Diedrich Bader

Diedrich Bader is an actor and comedian who is best known in the voice actor world for characters in The Zeta Project, Surf's Up and of course as the voice of Bruce Wayne / Batman in multiple animated films and television series.

He joins Will and Christy as they discuss the inner workings of the voice-over world and the battle of artists v. A-list.  Is it fair? Can the two co-exist? Or will there be a shift? 

Plus, find out what experience at a very young age changed Diedrich’s life forever. 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, Christy, Hey Will, how are you. I'm doing pretty good.
We have a great guest today. Yeah, I'm really really excited.
This is a man I've known for many, many years,
and he is truly one of the best in the business,
not just voice over, but on camera as well and
human being. Yeah, he's a great guy. Talk about inspiration.
Will wait to hear this one, everybody. He is an

(00:21):
amazing person, an incredible actor, and just so inspirational. We
can't wait to hear from him. Who's joining us today, Christy.
Guys is Dietrich mad Hi, how are you? I'm okay. Yeah,
I'm okay. Hey Christy, okay, I'm okay. Hello. Thank you
for coming. Oh yeah, pleasure. We are going to be

(00:44):
I don't know if you know anything about our podcast,
but we just talked about different ice cream flavors for
an hour. I'm glad you came on too. Oh, Dietrich bad,
thank you so much for joining us on. I hear
voice is. Apparently you guys are very good friends. I
did not know that everything do any research. I just

(01:07):
said anything for Will. Now I realized I'm going to
talk about ice cream for an hour. This is this
is this is not the thing to do a little
bit of a little bit of research, A tiny bit
of research. Wait, so how do you guys know each other?
I'm seriously, I didn't know. I was trying to think
about that. Teacher. Can you remember the first show we

(01:27):
did together, because I actually remember the exact episode. Um,
it was the Zeta Project if I remember, well it
was it was it was the Batman Beyond episode that
pect that's set up, but it was like a backdoor
pilot for the Zata Project. And uh and Will was
this is that was the last season of the of

(01:48):
your show? Right? Yeah? What is a backdoor pilot for
people that may not know? Oh yeah, um sure, that's uh.
That's when you introduced characters that are going to be
in a series that has already been picked up. So
they basically they already know that it's going They just
want to do an establish show like Will show and say, well,

(02:10):
here's this other character. Wow, wouldn't that be amazing if
he had his own show? And then they're like, wait
a minute, he does. What are the chances of that's incredible? Now?
How obviously people and we're going to get into this
because that's the other thing you probably should have done
some research about it's an eleven hour show. UM. So

(02:32):
uh yeah, so we're here all day, We're in for
the long haul. You got that, you got the whole
the thing about bringing water and so every we're gonna
get into your on camera stuff, which again is nice,
is obviously extensive. But by that episode where I met you,
had you been doing a lot of v O by
that point. Uh No, I was pretty new to the world.

(02:54):
I started with just a guest star spot. Jamie Thomason
brought me in for um, uh Gargoyles, and I had
done some things. Yeah, he's great. He really started my career. Um,
but I had done some things, and um, I didn't.
I did some guest star spots for Andrea Romano, who

(03:16):
did both series of the series that Will was just
talking about in Zata Project and um, and then she
brought me into audition for the Data Project and that
was That was the first time I was a regular
on anything, and I was the lead and it was
very very different from me, and um, you know it was.
It was really fascinating being a regular on an animated show.

(03:39):
I mean because it's like, um, first of all, the
way Andrea records like a radio play. Was like a
dream because it was Zike Freed shut up. Oh my god,
it's amazing. Is Roy there to calm him down. He's

(04:01):
actually named after the Get Smart character by um So anyway,
so yeah, that was that was really a fascinating process
and and uh and something I really truly loved. UM.

(04:23):
I would record it on Wednesday mornings. We did the
Drew Carey Show. I was then on a show called
The Drew Carey Show that we shot on Tuesday nights,
and then uh, and then I would come in Wednesday
morning and and uh and do this show. And then
I would go to um the read through of The
Drew Carey Show. So it was like it was like
a dream. Although I will say I don't think I

(04:44):
did a single Zeta project without a hangover why so
needless to say, we won't be talking about specific episodes.
That's all kind of it. That's I mean, that's yeah,
that's the way it was. It was because when we
did Batman Beyond, we did it Thursday morning, and I

(05:04):
would go right from from recording that episode too, then
we recorded our show we did we taped point me
to all Thursday night, so it was. Yeah. Yeah, So
the story I always tell, which is absolutely true, which
is one of the worst one of the worst days
of my career was the last episode of Batman Beyond
recorded Thursday morning, and then I drove to the last
taping appointment to all that Thursday night. They ended on
the same day. So yeah, it was that was that

(05:27):
was That was a tough Thursday. That was one of
the tougher Thursdays. Did you see Dietrick that day? He did.
He slapped me in the way that nice career jerk,
and then he just walked away after backhanding me. So
from an acting standpoint, yeah, exactly. It well one of

(05:48):
them every day being friends with Dietrich since has been
a time. Um. So from an acting standpoint, do you
approach a voiceover character any differently than you'd approach and
on camera character. Um, that's a great question. So, um,
I don't think you necessarily approach the character a different way,
but you approach um the way that you do it

(06:12):
in a different way. There's just different levels of volume
depending on what format you're in. So if you're on stage,
it's pretty big because you've got an audience that can't
really make out the micro signals that you send, so
you you you kind of have to build everything bigger.
Then there's then there's like a television um where the

(06:33):
camera's pretty close but it's still not movie screen, Like
you're enormous on the screen and you really should do
very little. Um. But voiceover is like you've got to
turn things up to eleven. You've got to be much
bigger than you think. You can't just think the proper thoughts, um,
you have to really like project UM. There's an old

(06:57):
acting term like indicate, which is basically just indicating what
what you're thinking, and usually that's for Boden, but um,
in voiceover, you kind of have to indicate a little
bit otherwise, like I've worked with so many and you
have too, well, but work with so many. They bring
in on camera actors a lot into the voiceover world,
kind of for the novelty of it for one thing,

(07:19):
I think, And the other reason is because they've got
like some heat at that moment or whatever, or maybe
the casting director is just interested in meeting them. I
don't know, but anyway, UM, they tend to be super
flat UM because they're used to camera sticking in their face,
so they're thinking all the right thoughts, they're just not
using their voice as the primary and instrument um. And

(07:44):
they often I'm sure you've noticed this too. Well, they'll like,
when you do a scene together, they'll look at you,
so they'll go they'll go off my Yeah, so I
did that at the start. I did that when I
started my career, was like, hey, Kevin Conrad, it's not right,
that's not right, let's do it's not exactly. Yeah, got

(08:08):
into the microphone and Kevin Kevin. Kevin had a background
in Shakespeare. We interviewed him on one of our first episodes,
and it's funny how you say about the preceni um
and just sort of the medium of which whether you
know it's something like sitcom with your carry and and
how you're projecting for that type of comedy or whatnot.
And then wow, it really is a wonderful point that

(08:30):
you make. Their d n was the first graduate from Juilliard.
You know he went to He was in the first year,
which is cool. Yeah, I don't know if that's if
that's real. I don't know. More more time I spend
with Kevin, the more I think he's just making the

(08:52):
I'm not sure he was even Batman. If I'm if
I'm honest, I'm not sure he was even Batman. Um.
But that's so that Okay, So you you you're in
that So the first time you ever star in a series,
you and I have very similar origin stories, which we
want to get to your origin story eventually. But where
the first series you're doing, you're thrown in and you

(09:12):
are instantly working with Andrea Romano and some of the
best in the business. Um, did you know that going
in kind of the team you were being thrown into
or no? Uh no, I don't think I did. And
I also because I was new to the world, UM,
I didn't understand just how incredibly talented. Um people in

(09:37):
the voice over world are. Um because on camera actors, UM,
I'm just gonna be completely honest, some of them are
not entirely please. Yeah, sometimes some of them you're not
entirely sure why they're there. Um. You know, you you
work with them, and you're like, Okay, that's apparently how

(09:57):
you're going to do that. UM, So I guess we're
gonna have to interesting interesting choice. Let's work around that
is where we're gonna This is what you got, all right,
so when it comes to my coverage, I'm gonna pretend
that you're amazing exactly, Yeah, because you have to have
to cover your own. But you can't like pretend that

(10:18):
a scene. You can't. You can't say like nobody talks
that way, or you can't, you can't. You just have
to create. You just you're given what you're given and
you have to just go. Um. But in the voice
over world, to watch somebody like you know, our good
friend John DiMaggio make three different voices in right in

(10:41):
front of you is like, you know, somebody doing a
sleight of hand where they just go frough like that
and they do it, and you like you've watched it happen.
It happened right in front of you, but you still
don't know how it happened. You're like, that's a totally
different person, and that just happened right in front of me,
Like working with de Bradley Baker, Frank Welker or somebody
that can create, like somebody like that. Yeah, right, those

(11:03):
those three particularly that can make sounds that humans shouldn't
be able to make, and uh, and we just we
accept them because you know, like uh, Frank for example,
Jurassic Park, like we just assumed, oh, that's how dinosaurs sound.
It's like, we don't know how dinosaurs sound. Everybody, you know.

(11:24):
The irony is if you walk around sixty million years ago,
they just sound like Frank Welker, he's talking normally. Yeah, money,
It's like, yeah, hey has everybody telling everybody has everybody?
So you're that's that's the fun part about it. Um Well,
the thing that I the magician um analogy is very

(11:44):
interesting to me because when you when you talk to
a magician about hey, how did you do that? They
can walk you through the mechanics. Some of the voice
over actors can't. Where it's like, how do you do that?
I don't know. I'm just Eric Bowser and you're not.
Um is kind of the answer, and it's like it's
it's just a talent that comes from nowhere. But it's
also why are you know it? It's growing, thankfully, but

(12:06):
why our pool is so small? Like you walk into
the room and you're gonna know everyone in the room
because I do too. I do too. But I'm glad
that it's getting to be Obviously you and I've talked
about this and that it's getting to be more diversified
and more more people represent it. That's all really good,
but what is not being sacrificed at all is the

(12:29):
quality of the talent. Know that all we can do
is benefit from a widening talent pool. That's absolutely for sure.
And one thing that I'm really happy about is that uh,
white people are no longer doing people of color UM,
which I always had a problem with. I remember on
one UM show I did UH. I was a regular

(12:51):
on the show, but they wanted me to do another
voice and it was of an Inuit. Now it's like
they're they're probably aren't deeminy Inuit actors, but there are
a lot of Asian actors that could have been to
do that. And I I was like, uh, I'm uncomfortable

(13:11):
with this and they were like, can you can you
just do it this one time? Maybe it's just a
scratch track, and I'm like, that's not going to happen.
This scratch track doesn't I'm going to record this and
then you're gonna use that is what's going to happen.
When they were like please, and I was like, and
I gave in, I'll be honest with you. Idea, we
all do we all, we all did, we all did?
You know it? And it's one of those things where
a lot of people don't know that when you walk

(13:32):
into a booth um, what they'll do is they'll hire
you sometimes to do three voices, and you don't necessarily
know what those voices are going to be when you
get in there, and they want you to sound different.
So it's like, all right, now you're the mayor, do
it with an Indian accent, and you go okay, and
you throw on some horrible Indian accent and then you
walk out going, well, I did my three voices. And
and it's not until recently when when we've been going,

(13:52):
wait that that wasn't okay, that's that, that's not all right,
you're no, and it's it's you know, we always talk
about you know, we we always talk about how and
it's one of the things, one of several things we
try to we're trying to do with this show where
we'd like to eventually get the word out there that
these big, huge on camera actors that you're talking about
that are brought in to do some of these voiceovers,

(14:14):
and they're brought in to do huge projects. These big
pis are big Disney Big and Crowd. They should absolutely
do them because there are a ton of fun Every
actor should should be able to experience them. They're wonderful,
but they should go in saying fifty percent of the
cast needs to be regular voice over actors. I'm taking
I want to make sure that fifty of the cast
are hard working journey people voice over actors. So hopefully

(14:36):
we're trying to get that word out. But Dietrich, how
how actually like possible? Is that? Like? How many A
listeners are actually gonna say, oh, I'm not going to
be you know Pixar's new Massive Well yeah, I mean
they're going to be the massive fish or whatever it is, like,
but like, how many of them would actually stand up?
Do you think, like, how do you make that normalized?

(14:59):
I I think it's a great idea. Well I I
totally appreciate it, But I don't see anybody doing that.
I mean, you know, having known um, having known um
A list actors, Um, they are um. They they live
in a rarefied world. You know, it's like they I

(15:19):
always compare fame to um Ah Oh my god. Okay,
so Othello takes place on an island, right, and it
only works because there's there's nobody is coming and going.
Nobody has nobody says to othello, hey dude, you know
this amount is awesome. Nothing's happening there because because there's

(15:42):
nobody coming in. So FAM is like that, you know,
they they're on this island. And UM, as as good
a person as they may be, they have been completely
isolated for many, many years. They simply don't know how
the rest of this the thing works. And UM, we
were just talking about how Andrea Romano reads everything like

(16:02):
a UM radio play. Well, the opposite happens in movies.
You go in by yourself, and UM, you don't know anybody,
and you don't know who else. Wasn't the rest of
the cast? Um, you know, you just go in. I
mean I remember doing surfs Up and like I think
we had been recording and gone into like maybe the
fifth session, which was probably the sixth month of recording,

(16:26):
before I knew that Jeff Bridges was the star. I'd
seen it twice before I realized, and I was saying, yeah,
I love Jeff Bridges, and I was like smelling the studio.
I get that Jeff Bridges. Yeah. Yeah. When we were

(16:46):
doing with Lisa Shaffer when we were doing Kimpossible. It
was towards the end of the I'm Christie. I'm not
sure I ever even told you. This was towards the
end of our recording series. And I walked outside and
there was Brad Pitt standing out, Yes you have, and
I was like, I'm gonna talk to Brad Pitt, so
I will you know. Well, first of all, he at

(17:06):
the time, I don't know if it's different, but he's
razor thin, which people don't. It's like you see somebody
on screen and they look like they're jacked. He looked
like he was a twenty pounds so can wet and
he's like six four, so he looked like a string bean.
Um And I asked him and like, what are you
doing here? And he was doing the Pirate Treasurer movie
whatever was he was recording for the UM Yeah, yeah,
whatever it was. And I said how long are you recording?

(17:28):
He's like, I don't know, five six days, and you
could tell it was just him in a booth. That
was it. He was recording his parts. He was coming
in when he needs to come in, and he was
taking off. So's there's almost a disconnection from doing voiceover
that you don't get when you're on film. It's like,
here are the yeah, here are the lines, just read it.
So I guess I would Taylor Christie's question then to ask,
how do we stop that disconnect so that the A

(17:53):
list actors realize that it's there are other actors involved
in the project you're doing, and those actors to also
be kind of heralded. Yeah. No, I I honestly don't know.
I thought about this a lot because you know, it's
like his ex wife, Angelina Jolie, for example. I mean
this is not to pick on her, but um, you

(18:13):
know she's in Kung Foop Handa and they paid her
a tremendous amount of money and then Cary did her
voice in the series. Matched Angelina Jolie for Kung Foop Handa?
What did video games? Oh no kidding for the video game?
And then and then as up Car in this series,
and it's like, so hell if I could tell the
difference right exactly? You know, you know who can Bank

(18:38):
of America No exactly five million? And again this is
not to pick on her, her agent or the most
money that they could. This is how the business, what's
their job. But but the kid that watches the movie,
the series and the video game, Christie, has absolutely no idea,
no idea, no interest in seeing an Angelina Jolie movie.

(18:59):
It doesn't they I mean, like my five year old
son wasn't like, Oh, Angelina Jolie movies in that good
in that I'm gonna have to watch that. You know.
It's not that doesn't happen, um, because because like you
have an on camera actor, and um, do you want
to see them on camera? Angelina Jolie looks like Angela
Nina Jolie. That's part of the reason that I want
to see here. Um. I will say though, that there

(19:20):
are some stars that I mean like Jack Black, for example,
in Kung Fu Pandem. I mean, that's an incredible, incredible performance. Now,
Nick Mike Nick did a great job with the series.
That's absolutely true. But the template that was created was
really great. Jack was great in that. Um. Yeah, So

(19:41):
I have no problem with using movie stars if they're like,
for example, let's say Chris rock in um, what's his face?
The one in Madagascar? Um, that's great casting. He's great
in it. Um, he's really really funny and vulnerable. Uh,
you know it totally works. But that doesn't mean that
the rest of the Okay. I mean, you know, like

(20:03):
Sasha Baron Cohen, did he do a better job than
Danny Jacobs. No, Yeah, now I know I do that.
I will do that too because we know so many
talented people. I will watch a movie and be like
Johnamago would have been funnier there that you felt that
wayte al right, to see the problem, But I will

(20:24):
tell you this guy's Let me just chime in. I
feel like celebrity, especially in the day and age of
social media, as there are many negative things that come
with social media. I think that fame and the classic
Hollywood icon and all that goes with that is diminishing
as we've seen like Tom Cruise is one of the
last you know, big male, you know what I'm saying.

(20:47):
So I think that there's a there's a proliferation of
opportunity that is animated motion capture. I feel like there's
such a wide array of opportunities. That's why I think
I hear Voices is presenting this as an opportunity for
people to get involved invested because they already have the
talent and they just happen to live in the middle

(21:08):
of nowhere. And that's a great segue because I think
Dietrich might not know about this, but we we are.
We are brushing upon it very quickly, just while we
get our ducks in a row. But you know, Dietrich,
we are with I heart now and we are have
officially announced, uh, this super awesome contest to become the
next big voice actor. Um. And so what it is is, uh,

(21:29):
some some amateur actor is going to get an opportunity,
uh to sign with a major voiceover agent for a
year and they are going to be flown out to
l A to meet their agent and do all that
kind of stuff. So we're gonna make careers come true. Contest.
It's gonna be a great it's gonna be a ton
of fun. We'd love to have you involved further and
we will get more into that. Uh, we're we are

(21:51):
hoping it's going to be around the Halloween area where
were Halloween time where we will be launching. But it's
a it's a fun contest, and somebody's going to get
the opportunity to have the door cracked open just that
much and then you're gonna have to kick it down
the rest of the way yourself. Absolutely. To get back

(22:16):
to what you were talking about, I have I have,
I have a question because I haven't been able to
pinpoint it. But you're a thousand percent right. When I
was growing up watching animation, which was my true love
growing up as a kid, I never once grew up
going oh, I wonder who that voice is? Who is that? Oh? Wow?
Did it? And so it didn't matter that it was

(22:37):
Will Smith in something. It didn't matter that they got
Robert to new organism. When do you think that changed?
Because I I have kind of an idea in my
head where it went a different route. But when do
you think it became about the celebrity coming in as
opposed to just the voice over actor. It's a good point.
I think I think you can pinpoint it pretty easily.

(22:58):
By Jeffrey katsonburg Um he Um. He has a thought
that that stars aren't just stars because of lucky. There
are stars because of talent and um, and that he
is casting talent um and that they are worth the
price because you're getting somebody really truly exceptional, and that

(23:20):
they stand out for a reason. Um. I disagree. Um.
I think that a lot of it is like just
sheer luck. And um, people people just get cast. I mean,
you know, we're all cast in the same role. Then
then maybe, yeah, would you would be able to stand
out and then you know you're amazing. But sometimes you know,

(23:42):
you just fall in because like, um, let's say, for example,
Grand Budapest Hotel. Up until two weeks before shooting, Johnny
Depp was supposed to be the Maitre d no, no,
the concierge. Um, and uh, that would have been an
entirely different movie. I don't know if I would have

(24:02):
liked it, frankly. Um. And so Ray Finds dropped in
two weeks. That's a lot of lines to learn in
two weeks, ladies and gentlemen. That's like you have to
put a whole character together in a pretty short amount
of time. Um. But but it would have been a
very different movie. So, uh, these things just happened. So

(24:26):
you know, one thing, and then you know, let's say
you're cast in a movie and you're great in it,
but then the movie doesn't make any money. Um, then
what happens then people don't care in the business. You
get like people that really love the movie. Um. And
so that's really super cool. I mean that's great, It
really is great, but it infar as your career is concerned,

(24:48):
it means nothing. Um. And that's the hard cold truth
of it. Um. You know, it just doesn't matter. People
are going, oh, you're so good in that, but it bombed.
So the success only breathe success and um, because a
motion picture is such a large thing. It's so much

(25:09):
bigger than any I mean, the actor, come on, the
script has been there for sometimes they were developed for
fifteen years, so it could have been it didn't happen overnight.
And then they pre production, then they get the director,
then they get the studio, then they get the rest
of the cast, then the DP, then the rest of
the crew. Then they then you're there for this incredibly
short period of time, sometimes just days, and then and

(25:32):
then they edit it, and then they marketed, and then
it has to be released at a time that isn't
too competitive with something else that's on the same strap.
You know, you can't release two kids movies on the
same weekend, dudes, because it's not gonna work, right, So
you want to make sure that. So they have to
book like sometimes nine a year in advance, like figuring

(25:52):
out where what weekend will work for that now. Of
course the businesses has really radically changed since the pandemic.
But all of these things factor into your personal success.
Even though you've worked on the project ten days, right
in ten days, um, so it's uh, that's it, and

(26:16):
then your your other made or you're not made, and
those ten days are the biggest days of your life
or they're not. Yeah, that's I mean, that's kind of
the difference between your career and my career is that
I've never been in a good movie. No, I take
that back, let me take let me take back. I've
never been in a in a successful movie. I guess

(26:39):
my date with a TV movie. But like so that
most of my movies are movies that nobody but maybe
my mom and not even that all the time has seen.
So you have a very unique perspective because you've been
in some blockbusters, I mean some true I mean Napoleon
dynam I mean some some big movies. Um. And so

(27:01):
you've kind of gotten to see both sides of of
that argument, which is which is very interesting that it's
it's amazing that you said, Katzenberg, because to me, I
can kind of pinpoint the shift to the first toy
story because you know, you've got not only time, and
it's not just because of Tom Hanks and Tim Allen,
who were great, who were absolutely great, but it's because

(27:23):
people for the first time got to sit in the
theater and go, oh, oh the pig, that's John Ratzenburg.
Oh he's from Cheers, And all of a sudden it
was then like, okay, yeah, who can we get? Now,
who's a name that you know? So then it's all
of a sudden you're sitting there going, oh, even the

(27:44):
person who only had thirty lines or twenty lines and
the entire thing. Now we've got to get this person
who's got you know, people know they're a name. We're
getting Dave fully, we're getting this kind of thing. And
then the person who would have done that, who was
an awesome voiceover actor who it didn't matter what their
name was. Person that's like you, Now you're not even
gonna get a shot anymore. Now we need to go
get somebody with a name to even do the smaller roles. Yeah,

(28:06):
they even have that. Most of the time. They look
for name talent when they do certain auditions looking for
a name. Yeah, yeah, totally, and they put it right there.
People don't really Yeah, it's right on that. Well, because
that's the other thing that that people don't or we
haven't really talked about a whole lot on on our
show is the fact that not a yeah, we're going

(28:27):
in new we're taking it real today on I hear
voices people, um where. The other thing that we talked
about is the fact that it doesn't matter usually how
big a voiceover actor you are, you're still auditioning for everything.
I mean occasionally somebody will come and make you an offer.
Hey come in and do a couple of lines of
my thing, or hey, we got but you're still reading

(28:48):
all the time, so you know, Yeah, you become a
big on camera actor, and it's offer, offer, offer, offer,
offer voiceover, it's still I've got twenty auditions I gotta
do today. It doesn't matter that I'm Batman. Yeah, I
mean I don't. Yeah. That's the one thing that people
don't recognize is that I audition. I audition way more
than I work. Um I I auditioned almost constantly. I've

(29:10):
got three I have to do today. Um well, that's
one of the reasons I'm happy I set up this microphone.
I will not be outside when I do it. But
but I could just see you, like and Gotham the
people you have to Freedum. But yeah, no, it's like
I audition all the time, and um, you just keep

(29:33):
you just keep going at it. And uh yeah, I
mean it's yeah, it's it's a it's a strange world,
but I love it. I love the voice over world
so much. It's like crazy. I I so enjoy being
around the talent. I think one of the things that
I really miss about the before times is the studio sessions. Um,

(29:58):
where I got to because you didn't do this largely.
You go in by yourself, but Warner Brothers I think
because of Andrea And I don't know if that's entirely true,
but um, you know you did everything together, and um,
I I really really loved it. I mean like it
brought out the little kid in me because I was
playing and um, you know you it was like playing.

(30:20):
I don't know how else to put it. It's like
it's like you've got your friends together and all of
a sudden you're with your g I Joe's and you're
moving them around and it's like, you know, and you're
totally committed to to the the action that's happening with
your and um, it's really fun and it's genuinely fun
and um, yeah, I don't know how else to describe it.

(30:41):
It's it's like, yeah, well, it's true. It's like I've
I've met so many actors that have never done voice
over before, that have been on television, that have been
in film, and you can tell that, you know, the
on camera side of the business can beat you down,
even even even if you're successful, it can kind of
beat you down. And they come in and after one
session they look at you and the like you do

(31:03):
this every week, like this is it's just fun, pure
acting again with you and a microphone and you get
to just have a great time. But you're right there.
So one of the questions we ask everybody, and we
don't even need to ask you, is do you prefer
recording a loan or with a group of people? A
group of people? But but I will say too, I
also prefer doing voiceovers to being on camera if it
paid the same. Next question because exactly exactly if if

(31:28):
you compare like um, miss Congeniality to which I was
very happy to be cast in, and everybody and it
was greatly, thank you. Fun to work with. Um, but
you know we would do a scene, you know, sixty
seventy times, um, you know, and so I mean you
would do your coverage and you you did at least

(31:50):
like fifteen twenty takes, So sixties that's that's that's really
you could do it hundreds of times. Um and um
you know it's Look, my dad sent me to work
on a farm when I was a kid, so so
that I knew what real work was like. So I
know that it's not real work. Don't get me wrong.
I haven't completely completely lost respector I just told you

(32:18):
I love so much. By the way, ladies and gentlemen,
there is no dog Frank Welker microphone, oh cone to
Oh no, he's been acting. Now I would too, And

(32:42):
now I have to ask. I have to ask because
every voice over actor, if I've spoken to every voice
over actor i've spoken to that has a pet, does
zig Freed have a voice? Yeah? Yeah, come on, give
me the every everybody does. Give me the zig Free
voice interrupted. But things, he's just a vague jourman that

(33:02):
he talks like these things. I'd love to earn it
out of doors. Does anyone like to do that. I do.
Every voice over actor's pet has their own voice. Our
first docks and waster Arthur serious, what's what's going on?

(33:25):
Oh my god, I never will laugh like this before.
It's so funny. Oh man, that's really this is lithium six.
He talks everyone. I also luck to urinate out of tools.
It looks like that. Yes, I do very much. He's

(33:49):
a proper English Chapanee. Sometimes I love to bark when
I pope as I'm poping, I'm barking. He does that
when we go to walk just it's barking. I'm like, dude,
I got your back. Nothing's going to happen that you're good.
Oh my alright, So voice over wise, I have a

(34:10):
question for you because we went right from what we
did you did say to project and then we got
to do another. One of my favorite projects actually from
my career. Uh that doesn't get enough credit is never
isn't talked about enough, And frankly, one of the reasons
is because of your performance, um the Secret Saturdays. Oh

(34:32):
do you remember how fun recording Secret Saturdays was? Now
for people who don't know Dietrich did a character and
Secret Saturdays that never really spoke an actual line of dialect.
We did one episode where you got to speak, but
for the most part he just did these I've tried
to mimic them many times and I just can't. Can
you tell us how you came up with the character

(34:54):
of Fiskerton on Secret. That's really interesting that you were
bring up because it actually called um. It brings up
your idea that you said earlier, where there people make
it intellectual choices and then other times things just appear
to you wholesale. Um. Fiskeerton came to me entirely um

(35:18):
like uh. They said it was like a giant cat gorilla,
and I was like, where was that, you know? And
then I was like I just did it, And I
was like, I haven't heard that in years. I have
not heard that in years. The occasional words, yeah, a

(35:46):
little bit in there. Yeah. The only one where I
got caught and they told me not to do it
was I was like, I didn't say a word. Well.
The thing that was amazing it was because I remember
the sessions and they were so great and it was
you know, Phil Morris and Nicole Sullivan as the parents.

(36:07):
Sam Lerner, who played u Um oh jeez, I remember
zach uh and then uh you and and Fred has
next to each other and your he did two characters,
and you did a character, and there was you would
have full conversations and there was no dialogue, and it
was not the weirdest thing. No, it was just you

(36:29):
did and then and you'd make the entire room. This
is the thing I remember is whenever Fiskeerston got sad,
you did, and the whole room would go oh like
it would like it hits you in the gut. It
was like, oh no, not Fiske. Yeah, I love playing.
That was a thank you for bringing that up. That
was a genuinely fun job. Like that was just like um,

(36:51):
you know, like we were alluded to earlier. Yeah, and
that was like yeah, because I had no lines, I
just was supposed to react to various things and they
just kept my microphone open and the so it's just
like it was completely improvised character, which is rare. And uh,
I really that was really fun. That was a really
great great I wonder where Dietrich wasn't on Kim possible

(37:12):
he would have been an amazing Yeah. I don't get
that either. Lame. Yeah, that was a great show, by
the way, great show. Oh thank you, Chris. Christie and
I still get together on Zoom every night and just
pretend to be Kim and Ron for a half hour.
It just it just makes us feel like, let's pretending.
We figure it's healthy past. Yes, I'm in on it too.

(37:38):
Now I'm in on it too. Did we go back
to how Dietrich actually started at all? I guess we should.
We should get into it. Well again, show got tons
of time, but yeah, Christie, can you can you maybe

(38:01):
set us up for the origin story part? I did? Well.
You had said that you guys have similar origin stories,
so is that true? In the voice over world we
have similar origin story well in terms of how you
started with like Andrea and with Andrea and with that,
Oh I'm glad. Oh yeah, and then we're bat brothers,
which we'll talk about later. But um, how did you

(38:23):
how did you find let's just just acting in general,
how did you how did you knew you want to
know you wanted to become an actor? Um? I actually
have an origin story? Um? Okay, so, uh, when I
was very little, about to turn three, we moved to Paris.
It's a capital of France. And um, uh got it,

(38:45):
nailed it? Um. And also a town in Oklahoma, isn't
it Just for the record, So I was really like
I just learned English basically, and then I was thrown
into another language and rather than thriving, UM, I closed
in on myself and became very quiet, very very quiet.
And my parents were worried that I was like disturbed

(39:06):
or something like something's wrong with me because I was
so quiet, and um, they wanted to bring me on
my shell and uh, so they would pay for my
siblings to take me to the movies. And I fell
in love with silent actors Harpo, Marx, Buster Keaton, but

(39:28):
particularly Charlie Chaplin, and I became a little obsessed with him,
and so I would go to Charlie Chaplin movies all
the time. And um, the one day, when I was
about five, we were still there, and um, I want
to go see a Charlie Chaplin movie. And my favorite
movie theater. By this point I had worked on a

(39:49):
Charlie Chaplin act in my room. Um, and uh it
was my favorite theater because there was live musical accompaniment.
There was so often when you see a silent movie
in a theater they'll they'll play like a soundtrack that
was prerecorded, or sometimes just an organ player that had recorded,
you know, something for it. But the live move musical
accompaniment is one of the greatest experiences if you can

(40:10):
possibly do it. To watch a silent movie that it's
it's great because they improvise, and um, Fats Waller this
is the offshoot. But Fats Waller particularly was supposed to
be really particularly good at it. Um. Anyway, we went
to go see I can't remember what I was five.
Um and uh, the the film burned, got caught burned,

(40:34):
and everybody booed, and the lights came up, and I
thought to myself, nobody boozed Charlie Chaplin and I ran
in between the screen and the audience and I did
my Charlie Chaplain act and um the organ player played.
Uh the musical company meant for my little dance, which

(40:55):
I was very happy about. And uh um I did
a role at the end and daff my panamiam hat
and I got a standing ovation and uh that is
the reason I'm an actor. Wow, that that why it's like, oh, oh,

(41:16):
you know, I went on a field trip and got
bitten by a spider and got boring compared to that. Yeah,
and what's crazy, This is what's a little weird about it.
I forgot. I forgot that that happened. Um And then
I went to go see Chaplin Um with Robert Downey Jr.

(41:37):
And when he is five years old, his mother is
a vaudeville performer and has a nervous breakdown on stage
and the audience starts booing her, and he thinks to himself,
nobody boozs my mother. And he jumps up and does
a panamam act. And that was the first time he
did a panamiam act. And um, my memory came back

(42:02):
and I was sitting in the theater and oh my god. Yeah,
like it was really and so you were you were Proust,
Prust just took a bite the mat everything and I
was like, yeah, it was wow, that's so cool. So now,
how do you go from being a mime to being

(42:24):
a voice box? Well, you gotta walk against you. I
think that. Um, I just wanted to do whatever it took.
My attitude has always been just that I want to work.
I just want to work. I never wanted to be
a star. I never wanted to be anything other than
a working actor. So to me, UM, it's just as

(42:45):
exciting for me to get a voice over part than
it is to get a movie or on a TV show. UM.
I just love it. I love it. I've never loved
anything as much. UM. It literally is the greatest thing
you can do standing up. Um It's it's really really
fun and UM I recommend it to everyone. Express yourself,

(43:09):
go for it. I love what you're doing and reaching
out and trying to find other people to do it.
I wish everybody was an artist. Would be great. We'd
probably eat a lot less because there wouldn't be much,
but I just wish everybody could. There be a lot
of waiters. So I know it's a tough career and
I but I think it's a beautiful thing. Create art

(43:32):
and to uh to express yourself and and just realize
what you have. I mean, not to to trigger your
uncontest like creating a Fisker tune in that way and
discover something about yourself that you do. You like, where
did that come from? I don't know. I mean, I
don't know where that. I just like came out and
I was like, oh, look at that. Greg tells a

(43:53):
story about beast boy, that was his first audition, and um,
the voice just came out as it was, and as
it's he's played for how many years now, it's like
twenty years. He just walked in. He was like, dude,
I was just yeah, I was gonna be yeah and
so yeah, yeah he discovered that was a perfect impression,

(44:14):
by the way. Um and he just discovered he just
discovered that, and um, it just happened. It's like you
you find something within yourself, like an island that you
didn't know it was there, and you you go get
on look at that bringing it all back. Great. No,
he didn't say anything. No, it's okay. So we do

(44:35):
we do have to get in a little bit of
this because we do. We we we we have both
worn the cowl. What so, what was it like to
get cast as Batman and braving the bold, which is uh,
you know, it got some of the acclaim it deserved
when it was on the air and die hard fans
were are still die hard fans, but it's now getting
more acclaimed because people are seeing it for what it was,

(44:56):
which was brilliant. So what was like to get because
I don't know if you remember, but you and I
both found out we were on that show, like on
basically on the same day, and it was a day
we were recording secret Saturdays. Um. So we looked at
each other and I was like, I was excited about something,
and you're excited about something but you're not allowed to
tell anybody what it is yet. And then we start talking.

(45:17):
It's like we're excited about the same thing. So yeah,
were you how how you know? Again? What was it like?
Auditioning and then finding out that you were going to
be the next Batman? So auditioning, that's when I met
James Tucker for the first time. Andrea and I had
already done a show together. Um, and auditioning, Uh, you know,
I just came in with a bad impression of Kevin,

(45:40):
like a really bad impression. So good though, and uh,
and I was like, this is how we do Batman
because I sound like Kevin. And when I heard myself back,
I was like, don't sound like Kevin and all because
I got my own things, but I thought I was
doing Kevin. But anyway, Um, so I didn't quite get
the tone of the show immediately, and I didn't know
why they wanted somebody that largely does comedy like yourself,

(46:03):
Um to do Batman because Batman is like, you know,
how much revenge are we talking about? A lot a
lot of events. That's the entire premise of the show.
He's literally never going to get over it exactly. Um.
But yeah, so I didn't know. I didn't know if

(46:23):
it was going to I was like mystified that why
I was cast. But but I was ecstatic because it is,
without exaggeration, the best part. It's just the best part.
You know. One of the things that is great about
acting is when you start to think like somebody else, um,
where you actually become someone else and it's a My

(46:47):
acting teacher, that was my mentor. Um, he said, it's
a breaking through. He said it like this, He would go,
it's breaking through once you realize it's no longer you,
it is someone else in your head. I was like, yeah,
that's he wasn't Russian, by the way, he was just
like a guy. But this is how he spoke where

(47:07):
he was problem. It was weird. Um but anyway, uh
he uh, he's the Batman is the greatest in that
way because that backstory, the revenge that I was making
fun of is is him recovering from a traumatic incident
over and over and over again, which is what most
people that have really gone through trauma have to do. Um.

(47:29):
Is it's a beautiful story. And um I'll still never
forget the day when we were recording in the Chill
over Night when a batman met Joe Chill, who killed
his parents, and uh, you know, we're recording it in
that semi circle and uh and I'm talking to the

(47:52):
killer of my parents and I just started crying and
I realized, oh my god, I broken through. I'm now
Bruce Wayne, Bruce Wayne. I've done it this. I feel this.
I really feel this. And umaire so bonus exactly. Yeah,

(48:13):
and uh and I can make like all kinds of things.
But anyway, uh no, it's it. The acting world is
just a fascinating thing because it's like to to tap
into that kind of trauma just for a brief period
of time. I mean, this is why not to bring
up politics for for too long. But I saw an
interesting question on Twitter where they asked why so many

(48:33):
people in show business are your Democrats? And I think
it's because of empathy. I think it's because we can
look at somebody else's story and go, oh, I see
where you're coming from. And uh, that's the only politics
I'm gonna bring up in the whole thing. But I
think that's what it is because you have to in

(48:53):
order to tell somebody's character's story, well, you have to
figure out why they're doing what they're doing. I'm you
can't just play a bad guy, and you can't just
do a funny voice of you know that guy, I'm evil.
You have to why is this guy doing it? You know,
as they say, everybody's the hero in their own story.
Uh you know. Um my son Sebastian when we were

(49:16):
watching teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, which which one? Which version?
Which one? Original animated version? So he goes, um, dad
a shredder and I go, yes, uh, Shredder is the
bad guy and he goes, no, dada, Shredder is the
other sense, And I was like, whoa, that's that's whoa? Whoa? Yeah,

(49:47):
Shredder wants what he wants and he also is something.
He is an example for everyone to learn from. What
can you learn from Shredder? As if you're a mutant
ninja turtle, he's the other he's your other sinset and
it's like, Uh, that's that's like the way to think
about it. Every time subsequently that I've played a bad guy,

(50:08):
I've always tried to think, like, what does this guy
really want? I'm I think I can say it now. Yes,
I can't say it out. Um, I'm the new Transformers
bad guy and no great part. And it's very straight,
like there's no jokes anywhere in it, like even remote
Welcome to the world that Transformers. Yet again, it's really cool.

(50:30):
I'm totally excited about it. I really can you say
the character name yet? Or no, I'm not allowed animated
it's animated or screen. We won't say the name yet,
but that is you know, it's really cool. There's gonna
be an action figure, which of course I totally love.
But anyway, um, it's like what does this guy want
and why does he want it? And um, you know

(50:51):
when is like and you know, talking to the writers
about it and really like, let's get into it. Let's
let's talk about it. Why why is doing this? And
I just I love it. It's it's beautiful. Yeah, well there.
It's so it's so interesting that you said that because
I was watching something the other day. I think it
was actually inside the NFL UM or something along those

(51:12):
lines where they were they were interviewing one of the
UM football players whose brother has been in prison for
most of his life, and they said, what do you
think of your brother? And he said, he's my role
model And they said, how can your role model be
somebody's been in prison your whole life? And he said,
a role model can still teach you what not to be.
And it was that really interesting thing about he's taught
me the life I need to have, because he's taught

(51:34):
me the life I shouldn't. And it's that same kind
of thing you're talking about where with the Shredder, where
it's like you do it's the two halves of the point.
Oh my god, we can get philosophical about the whole
this is. This has been a great episode of I
hear voices. I'm sorry that we have to wrap it
up to at least for part one of the eleven
part series that we're doing UM and now Rocky Road

(51:58):
versus Cookies. And that's right. I know when I get
to the meat. No, so before we wrap up here.
Uh So, other than Transformers, is there anything else you
have coming out that you want to talk about and
also social wise work. Can people find you? Um My Twitter?
I think I can't remember what it is, but I'm

(52:22):
on the Twitter. It's not first then I'm also on
uh the Insta. But you know, um my Insta. You're
gonna have to like accept the fact that it's just flowers.
It's just flowers in my car. But that's amazing. Ye.
I'm not very cute, so I don't I don't post
pictures on myself. So it's it's flowers, and I just
hope that it's Yeah, um, I think it brings you

(52:46):
can meditate on the flower for a long period time. Um.
But anyway, Oh, you're by the way, you are at
just for the record, you're at Vader Underscore Dietrick on
Twitter underscore. What is the underscore? There's also a John.
There's like a line, there's like your name and then
a line and then your last name. Yeah. I think
I was just randomly assigned that thing, and I didn't know, um,

(53:08):
like what I was supposed to do. Like I didn't
know you could do like the numbers or whatever. But
I mean, you know, I don't know how many people,
how many diebrick baters there are that would be weird.
But anyway, UM, so yeah, no please, Um, but I
don't know what else I can plug because I I yeah,
there's there's stuff coming in, but they like to as
you know, they like to roll it out on their

(53:30):
own time frame. And then they're like, why aren't you publicizing?
And I'm like, dude, you told me not. I literally
don't know my Twitter hands. What do you want? Don
give me a green light? That's all you need. Um.
But so, um but yeah, I know I got other
things going on, but you know, um, I've been I'm

(53:50):
just getting back into doing on camera stuff next month
because my son left for college. And uh, I was
totally like Cats in the Cradle and the Silver Spoon, dude,
and and realized that American Housewife got canceled at just
the right moment for my family because I was able

(54:12):
to spend time with my kid in a real and
sustained way, and um, it was really beautiful and a
great opportunity for me. And then when on camera stuff
came up, they were like, um, do you want to
do a show in London? And I was like, no,
I don't. I don't want to do that. I have

(54:32):
been very very blessed that I don't have to. And um,
as long as I keep my hours up as far
as SAG is concerned, and we can get our insurance,
which is part of it. Let's face it, we have
to because residuals don't count towards residuals anymore. I'm sorry,
towards our insurance anymore. So I have to keep working.

(54:53):
But I'm like streaming count Oh, come on, as you know,
it's like it doesn't you have to put in those
that time, So you have to keep working. But but
I'm yeah, I'm very happily just doing the voiceover stuff
for a while because I can pop out and pop
back in and then, you know, and still be with
my kids. Um. But yeah, he's his first day, official

(55:13):
day of colleges today, and wow, he's gonna do great. Yeah.
So anyway, I was in his bedroom smelling his pillow
earlier today. So I'm like, not doing great, creepy at all.
That's not creepy at all. That's not I'm not doing
great about it. You're okay, You're doing great. You raised
him right now, he's going to the next chapter of

(55:35):
his life. You did it exactly right. You're going to
be depressed as hell, but he's going to have a blast.
So yeah, that's that's a five and a three year old. Yeah, yeah,
it's it doesn't it's it's interesting because it's like how
much joy does it bring you as opposed to how

(55:56):
much pain? But it it just it is. It's like, yeah,
it is. It's so worthy. Journey, journey, Nothing worthwhile is easy.
And will you say you don't yes, please please. It's
the biggest cliche in the world. But really, carpet dium, Um,
it does go by faster than you think, and um,

(56:17):
everybody says that, and it's incredibly true. Like I mean,
you know, the same day that my son started, uh college,
I had to drop my daughter off at her last
year of high school and uh, you know, she looked
over it. I was like, she just held my hand.

(56:38):
She was very sweet. She's a girl, so she was
very sweet about it. You also have two of of
the nicest, most talented kids around, so you know they're
going to be fine. I think, I think, will I
think you need to like go take d trick out
for ice cream later a little bit. There's nothing like
sitting at a nice ice cream shop as he's weeping

(57:00):
horribly into his Sunday. Just look at you're out going.
He's okay, don't worry. Please gonna sul It's gonna be alright.
It's alright, si frea um sorry. Thank you so much
for this was so much fun with a great idea
of co a show and I really enjoyed it. Well,

(57:22):
hopefully will you come back U and mentor maybe one
of our young actors who is going to going to
try to win this contest back and you know, do
a couple of sessions where they can learn from the
best and figure out out what they want in their life.
And that would be really really I would love to
do that is awesome. Thank you so much. And then

(57:44):
just just to make sure you're qualified to do it,
can you can you say super awesome contest to become
the next big voice actor for us? Wait say one
more time, then super awesome contest to become the next
big voice actor. Super awesome contest to become the next
voice over act. I almost slipped into Batman today. You
did almost a little like skirting Batman. You also added

(58:07):
voice over where it's just voice actors. You're not going
to get the role. I told you I haven't been.
I don't have to memorize anything in a while. Dietrich,
thank you so much for joining us. I don't Yes,
you're gonna be fine. Pictures and some flowers and you're

(58:27):
going to be good, my friend. I promise to be
so proud of your kids. They are remarkable human beings
that are going to do amazing things on this that far.
But thank you guys, thanks for including me. Thank you
to hide your family, and let's talk soon. Bye bye
bye dich Wow, Oh, everybody, that is the kind of

(58:52):
thing you need to I'm gonna be totally honest with you.
I wake up some days with this business that is
changing that I don't know what I want to do,
that I'm not sure that I have the same love
for it that I do. And then you talk to
somebody like Dietrich who just finds the joy and everything
and it turns your whole day around. He's that's the
kind of guy he is, and that's that kind of
conversation that you want to have. And if you are

(59:12):
feeling down about yourself, you're not going to make it
in this business. You're not gonna make it in life.
You're not gonna man listen to somebody like that, because
he does kind of make the sunshine on a cloudy day,
doesn't He's not incredible? I was, I was really, um,
my mind was blown several times during this episode. I
think he is a joy and I think he's very inspirational.

(59:32):
And you don't think like, oh voice actor, you know perspective,
they just do funny voices. But everyone that we've interviewed
has had such an amazing like origin story and you know,
love of their craft and just sheer camaraderie with us
that you know they may know you will sometimes like Sean, Yeah,

(59:54):
it's like a shared love that we all have um
for the same thing. And and all of you listening
at home, like, we love you too, and we're excited
to continue to engage with you as a community of
I hear voices, uh fans and um, you know, we
hope you enjoyed today. Thanks so much. Yeah, thank you
so much. And uh, as we're leaving, you know, we've

(01:00:14):
been we've been publicizing it quite a bit that we
are going to be doing the super awesome contest to
become the next big voice actor. We're obviously getting all
of our ducks in a row, but we're thinking it's
going to be sometime October November. But hit us up
if you want to know more about the contest and
uh everywhere you know, all the questions that you have,
our questions that hopefully we're going to be able to
answer very very soon. So Christie, where can everybody reach us?

(01:00:35):
So we're on TikTok and Instagram. Um TikTok is I
Hear Voices podcast and we're really trying to grow that
and we we do lots of fun little cutdowns and
and things there. Um, So so go ahead and and
go find us and start to uh make us a
part of your scrolling habit. Yeah, and let us know
if you like what you're hearing, if you want to
change what you're hearing, if there's certain things that we're

(01:00:56):
not addressing that you think we should be, and also
what you're looking for or two in the Christy, why
don't you say the name of the contest? Oh no,
why are you making me do this again? We did
this last week? Come on, roll it out, let's finish.
Let's let's finish it up for amazing contest to become
the world's next voiceover. No not super awesome, super the

(01:01:22):
super awesome contest to become the world's next voiceover. No,
I know it. It's the super awesome contest to become
the next big voiceover actor. Yes, yes, we just have
voice actor. But that's close enough. You were close by

(01:01:42):
the end by for the record and for everybody out
there listening. I literally have it written next to me
and I have to look down at it every single
and I kind of just like winging it. To be honest,
I love it too. That's my favorite thing ever. Thank
you so much for joining us. And if you think
you got what it takes to stand behind the microphone,
then come and put your voices where your mouth is.
Thanks every buddy. I Hear Voices as hosted by Wilfred

(01:02:02):
l and Christy Carlson Romano. Executive produced by Wilfredell, Brendan Rooney,
Amy Sugarman and Vicky Ernst Chang. Our executive in charge
of production is Danielle Romo. Our producer is Lorraine Vera
Weez and our editor slash engineer is Brian Burton. And
that was my announcer voice. Some side effects of listening
to I Hear Voices are sore abs from hilarity, falling
down the Coco Melon rabbit hole, sneezing due to mass nostalgia,

(01:02:23):
and hugs. Follow I Hear Voices wherever you listen to
podcasts so you don't miss any of the amazing voices.
Be sure to follow us on Instagram and TikTok at
I Hear Voices podcast. To see the video stream, subscribe
to my YouTube channel. You can also check us out
on my space omeigal Vine, Lime Wire. Hey I'm a napster. Okay,
well let's teach you about the Internet, the who