As you recall, I had the amazing opportunity to lend my voice to a scene from Disney’s Planes: Fire and Rescue, which hits theaters July 18! I had the chance to play Dipper, and while I think I did amazing, it was Julie Bowen who really made Dipper the character you’ll see in the movie! You might all know her from Modern Family, so you can imagine just how fun the interview was. The interview was full of laughs, and all-around awesome.
Is this your first time playing an animated character?
For a movie, yes. I did like a couple little quickie things, like Scooby-Doo. Because they don’t watch Modern Family. Kids the world is about them, you know. They don’t want to see me on a screen, but they like the voice thing. So when I got an opportunity to do this, I saw how much mileage I got off Scooby-Doo. They were like worshipping me. So this, I’m excited to show off to my children.
Because her show, Modern Family is such a big part of her life, I wanted to know what it was like doing Planes: Fire and Rescue versus Modern Family?
Oh, it’s so different I am not a trained voice actor. It’s just your voice, and if you aren’t getting across clearly, the humor, the message, the real sentiment, you can’t deny it. It’s not something physical you can fix (hair messed up, etc). I was keenly aware of it. Luckily they are perfectionists and they are so pro that they very quickly figured out that the best way to work with me was just let me go. Of course, then some poor editor had to sit somewhere going, “Oh My gosh”. I mean I was leaping around, swearing. The original Dipper had quite a mouth on her. But to get to the like sassiness of the way that she thinks, I kind of needed to spout some garbage.
Do you watch the film first and then voice it?
They draw it, there’s a rough sketch copy. Like pencil drawing, sometimes it’s more than that. It’s the pencil drawing against the backdrop. But what I see is just mostly some loose drawings in the very beginning. Then I come back like six months later and they’re drawn more. The cool thing is, when I come back, they’ve taken all that spouting that I did in the booth, the running around and sweating, and they incorporate it into the character. Now they’ve started to draw her movement, her mouth, everything to fit that. That was very cool to see. Somebody had to work very hard.
Are you ever with other actors in the booth or always by yourself?
No. I was always by myself. Like when I did Scooby-Doo it was in a room with a bunch of people. For this, I was completely alone. But luckily, Dane Cook, was done. So I could hear him, I could hear Ed Harris, I could hear everybody else.
At the end of the day did you walk away feeling different?
You know, I think when I actually get to see the whole movie it’s gonna be really exciting. I’m not very good at watching myself, but I’m okay at listening to myself. Like I’m very excited about this. It also feels so collaborative, it doesn’t feel like I’m raising the ‘I am awesome’ flag, which always makes me cringe a little. I can look at this and go, “Wow! I was part of something that was so awesome”, so it’s easy when you’re done to embrace the whole thing.
She truly did an amazing job as Dipper in Planes: Fire and Rescue. I definitely think she was perfectly cast for the role and you will see exactly what I mean when you head to theaters July 18 to see Planes: Fire and Rescue!
Toni Patton
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