I don’t think that people realize though
the extent of the voiceover work that you’ve done
and the diverse voice work that you’ve done.

I mean like
you have been in almost every single animated Disney movie since like 2012, right?

Yeah.

Yeah.

How did your voice work sort of
sort of just naturally come along in the industry as you were going,
or is this something you pursued?

No, it was something.
This was—this was, uh, fake it till you make it.

I could do King Candy, you know.
I did King Candy.

Who’s Ed Wynn?

And I used to love Ed Wynn.
I used to go—I loved comedy when I was at Juilliard.

I would go to the new, um,
the Museum of Radio and Television
and watch old Show of Shows
and watch old TV,
because the internet didn’t exist
and you couldn’t just bring it up.

And Ed Wynn had a show.
He was one of the first people—
he had a show that was a, um, a cautionary tale,
because he had basically come up with all this material throughout his life
doing the vaudeville circuit,
and got on TV
and did all of his material in the first year.

And he’s like, “I’m done.”
And they’re like, “Well, we got another season.”
He’s like, “Well, I have nothing.”
And there were no other writers but him, so he was done.

But so Ed Wynn—he was always in, like,
he was in, um, I remember him from Mary Poppins,
“I Love to Laugh,”
when he was the Mad Hatter.
It was, “Two cups of this, and this, and this.”
He had that funny lisp.

He was so great in The Mad Hatter.

But you’re right—
that was his thing.

Yeah.

And so they had said, “Hey, can you do that voice?”
And actually my agent told them I could do that voice.

And she called me like, “Please tell me you can do this voice.
I told them you can.”

And I flew up to Pixar
with Sarah Silverman and Jane Lynch.
And we all went up and I did the role.

And John C. Reilly wasn’t there.
It was another guy—who will remain nameless.

But he turned to me and went,
“Are you going to do it like that?”

John C. Reilly did?

No, John Reilly wasn’t attached yet.
They had this other actor—he’s in a lot of stuff now—
that they were testing him out for the role of Wreck-It Ralph.

And I did it for the first few lines.
He’s like, “Are you going to do it like that?”
I was like, “Uh, yeah. I think they wanted me to.
They seem to be laughing.
I’m going to just do it my way.”

He did not make it in the movie.

So I went up there, I did that,
and then John Lasseter said,
“Hey man, it’s great to meet you.”

And he said it in a way that I was like,
“Hm. That’s good. I feel like that’s a good thing.”

And then when they were doing Frozen,
and Jen Lee was directing that—
and she had worked on Wreck-It Ralph
because they all sort of work on projects together—
Jen Lee, who now is in John Lasseter’s job
and runs Disney Animation,
she said, “Come do this role.”

And then I did the Duke of Weselton,
who’s an old man.

And I’d started out in a different role,
but then they cut that role and were like,
“Well, how about this old man role?”

He’s the funniest character.
My daughter loves to hate him.
Like loves to hate him.

“Sorcery!”

Yeah. He’s such a dummy.
Especially when he’s doing the peacock thing.

Oh yes.

And that’s—that’s improv stuff.
They let you just play.

Yeah.

They let you—at Disney—they really let you play.
And I think that’s what—like,
I’m not the best voiceover actor.

Like people are great at voices.
There are people that I’ve met
that you’re just like, “Oh, you have—”

There’s a guy, Nolan North.
I don’t know if you’ve met him.
He was in Con Man.

And he can do things with his voice—
like the size of it
and how he can twist it around—
he can do things I absolutely can’t even touch.

And then he can also rip—
what he does with his voice would end my voice for a day or two.
He can continually do it again and again and again.
He just has an instrument that’s like a pro athlete.

But I think my acting and my improv
have made the difference for my career—
because of things like that.

When they give me room to play,
I come up with things that they end up using
and that people like.

But yeah, I have done a lot of voiceover now.
It’s really cool.
It’s a great job.

It’s one I did not try to do—
it’s one that I lucked into.

And once Disney gave me this—
bestowed upon me all these roles—
it signaled a lot of other people, like,
“Hey, he’s good.”

Yeah.

Like they trusted me
because Disney had trusted me.

Well, so how do you then take characters—
because I don’t think people realize,
like you play characters like Heihei and Tuk Tuk,
and, you know, like these characters that you play—
like the toucan—
you play characters that don’t speak.

But how do you then actually—
like, I can tell you what Heihei is thinking at all times,
which is weird ’cause he’s so stupid,
but like, you know what I mean—
you are so good at that.

Where does that come from?

’Cause that is, in my mind—
they’d send me that audition
and I would be like,
“So, you want me to make noises?”

Where do they come from?

Uh, they really put you on the spot.
Disney does.
They’ll call you in
and they won’t tell you anything about the role.

Oh, fun.

You just get there
and they show you a picture—
an illustration—
and then they’re like, “All right, find it.”

And they’re sitting in the booth
and you go, “Oh my god, that’s intimidating.”

The Wish—the one Wish with the goat—
I was like, “God, could you give me something? Like—it’s a goat.”

I’m like, “Okay, so that means—does he sound like a goat,
or does he talk?”

And they’re like, “He talks.”

I’m like, “Okay.”

And his name’s Valentino.
They let me know that he was a goat
and his name was Valentino.

And so I was thinking,
“They should go to, you know, Valentino—he’s Italian.”

And they’re like, “We don’t do that anymore, Alan.
I think that’s, uh, racist.”

And I was like, “Oh yes, you’re right.
That is probably.
I don’t have any olive in my skin.
There’s no fooling anybody.
I’m very pale.”

And so there’s this cute little animatic
where this wish—the star—
kind of goes on his nose.

He’s really cute.
He’s wearing pajamas.
And then he flies away.

They’re like, “What do you got?”

And so we’re trying these little voices,
and these cute voices,
and these other things.

And then finally I was like,
“What if he just sounds like this?”

His voice comes out
and he’s very deep.

And they’re like, “Oh, let’s do it.”

So we did the lines—
we did the lines—
and they’re like, “I think that’s it.”

And I said, “Who knew my voice would be so low?”

And then they put that in the movie.

And that whole thing was just all improvised.

It wasn’t the best-received movie,
but gosh, I love the message of that movie.

We love Wish.

The music from Wish is extraordinary.
It is some of the best music to come out of Disney in—
I mean, I would put it in their top—
one of their top movies.

It’s just wonderful.

Well, that’s great to hear.