You might not consider the SpongeBob SquarePants movies high-brow entertainment, but that doesn't mean someone like Star Wars actor Mark Hamill can't bring a little “gravitas” to his role.
Speaking to ClutchPoints about the new SpongeBob movie, Search for SquarePants, Hamill, who voices the Flying Dutchman, talked about his process when voicing a character like this. He's an experienced voiceover actor, lending his voice to characters like the Joker, but he's also one of the most well-known actors for his role as Luke Skywalker.
The process is different for a character like the Flying Dutchman compared to Luke Skywalker. Hamill said there's “no” crossover between his processes for those characters.
Mark Hamill compares processes for the Flying Dutchman and Luke Skywalker
“You have to know exactly what's required of you to make the script work as best as it can,” he explained. “It was very clear, reading the SpongeBob movie [script], what was required of me. You know, he's basically a straight man.”
Being designated as the “straight man” can be a death sentence for some. However, someone as selfless as Hamill sees it as an opportunity to prop up the likes of Tom Kenny and Bill Fagerbakke, who voice SpongeBob and Patrick, respectively.
Kenny weighed in, praising anyone who takes on the role of the “straight man,” calling it “one of the hardest jobs in comedy,” specifically pointing at Bud Abbott of Abbott and Costello.
Hamill concurred about Abbott's performance.
“He was the most sought-after straight man in show business because his delivery was so strong,” Hamill raved. “He made any comic he appeared with funnier, and so there was a bidding war, and Lou Costello won.”
Nowadays, Kenny watches them for Abbott, not Costello: “Now I'm focusing on him going, Wow, what he's doing is not easy, and he's flipping great at it.”
As the “straight man” to SpongeBob and Patrick, Hamill had a tall task, and Kenny knew this.
“Mark had that task of being the guy who's driven crazy by the [SpongeBob laugh] silly dilly main characters,” Kenny said as he slipped into his character's voice.
Despite all of the craziness, or “zaniness,” as he put it, Hamill “maintained the gravitas.” However, it was done while “the vein in your head is always [popping out],” Kenny added.
How Tom Kenny found “nuances” as SpongeBob SquarePants
At this point, Kenny and Fagerbakke have been voicing SpongeBob and Patrick for over two decades. Yours truly wasn't even born yet when the series originally premiered in 1999.
So, they have had over 20 years to develop these characters. Luckily for Kenny, he and SpongeBob are one and the same. The change between personas isn't as drastic as it may be with other roles.
“When you've been sharing a brain with this other person for 25 years, you can toggle back and forth pretty easily, especially since we do share a lot of the same characteristics. [With] SpongeBob, it's not like I'm going from Tom Kenny to Hannibal Lecter,” Kenny conceded, making Hamill laugh with his Silence of the Lambs reference. “I'm going [from] a nice, positive, sunny, high-energy guy to being a nice, positive, sunny, high-energy sponge.”
As for the nuances of the role, “you've just gotta lock into it,” Kenny said. “You've just got to go there,” he emphasized. “You've just gotta go to Bikini Bottom and just inhabit that character.”
Luckily, it's still “fun” for Kenny, even after over 25 years. And it's not too strenuous on him as an actor.
“It doesn't take a whole lot of tortured method actor, Succession stuff,” he concluded.
Patrick Star actor doesn't leave any stones “unturned”
Fagerbakke is known for some of his live-action roles, such as ones in Coach and How I Met Your Mother, in addition to voicing Patrick Star in SpongeBob SquarePants.
“This just reaffirmed what I had learned from stage and on-camera work in terms of when you're lucky enough to be in the world of comedy, comedy's very demanding, because you have to have a very specific result,” Fagerbakke explained. “You want to really plumb the depths of the comedic potential of everything that's in front of you.
“And when you're surrounded by so many talented people, including obviously the writers, having this long to play such a wonderful character, I've learned not to leave any stone unturned,” he said, prompting Kenny to point at himself and Hamill as the “talented people.”
Perhaps using “not to leave any stone unturned” was a setup for Kenny. He finished the alley-oop by pointing out, “And you live under a stone!”
Fagerbakke appeared to use that expression without intending for that response. He recovered nicely, though, to his co-star of over 25 years, saying, “Exactly. So I'm comfortable with that idea.”
The SpongeBob Movie: Search for SquarePants will be released on Dec. 19.
