Evenings with Leith ForrestINTERVIEW: Eric Bauza on 'The Day The Earth Blew Up - A Looney Tunes Movie'
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So Porky Pig and Daffy Duck, two of the greatest comedic duos in history, are making their return to the big screen in the sci fi comedy adventure Looney Tunes The Day the Earth Blew Up. I'm delighted to be able to speak to veteran Looney Tuns voice actor two time Emmy winner Eric Bowser, who does the voices. Eric, lovely to meet you. Thanks for coming on the show.
Well, you see, the pleasure really is all mine. Daffy Duck, you know he's the real real star of this. Hey, I'm in the CEA me A movie too. Check out this camera hog over here, guys, I can take it over. Thanks, Sorry about that.
You know, Eric, you are like the Marie Condo of voices. You just bring joy as soon as you burst into any line. You just you're so excited to hear it.
Well, I appreciate you saying that, And I owed on to the great mel Blank of course, who invented not just the sound of the characters, but the whole person. You know that we talk about these these guys like we know our oldest relatives now entering their ninetieth year, and again it just goes to show what a lot of hard work and dedicated performances he left behind.
You know, sometimes I'll watch Mel Blank speaking to David Letterman or Johnny Cass and one of those old YouTube clips, and you just, man, what a genius.
Well, you know, they showed me an image of the rabbit and he said, you know, he's a tough little stinker from Brooklyn or the Bronx.
So I mixed it two.
It end together, and that's how I came up with bunks.
Buddy Duck.
You know that I watch I study all of those clips, and it's amazing. We don't, as I say, we don't change the kernels, eleven herbs and spices. We keep the original recipe and if anything, the world around them changes, and we still try not to make that apparent. We make them timeless in their own way. I think, what was funny then, you know, chances are it might still be funny.
Now.
You know, we're very lucky. We're doing this interview today by zoom, so I get to see you do it, not just here, you do it, and it's interesting because it's it's you're like a game of table tennis. You're going back and forth off and wonder do you do all the voices of Daffy and then you put in Porky afterwards, But you don't, you just bounce in between the two.
Yeah, I say he did mention eleven herbs and spices like the Colonel's kfs. I say, I resemble that remark and the lights are on, but nobody's home. That's a joke, son, Yeah, yeah, it's it's just that easy. Because again, mel blank, he's the blueprint.
It's remarkable. It must be exhausting for you though, too. Like any performer, you're you're up and.
Well, hey, as long as you keep laughing, that's all I care about. The laughter from yourself families that have seen this film already.
It's more fuel for the fire.
And I could be on my last you know, the running on empty with this tank of gas.
But as soon as I see the smile and the lap, I'm like, I'm back, you know, like I'm recharged.
Well done. Let's talk about your story, because you've taken an unusual route to becoming the voice of these iconic characters of animation, and subsequently the voice of so many kids' childhoods, which is something for you to hang your head on forever Ontario, Canada? Are you a kid sitting in front of the TV? Are you just doing impressions? Just your poor parents? I mean, how did that all happen?
Well, yeah, they're the ones who called the priest with the holy water. They thought I might have been possessed. But also mayor remind you that I you know, Scarborough, Ontario, Canada specifically, is the suburb of Toronto, which happens to be the same city that Jim Carrey grew up in.
Mike Myers, you know.
Of course, we can't talk about Toronto and not say Eugene Levy.
Wow, you know from that shoe Shit's Creek.
I mean, those eyebrows, you know, you know all those Canadian icons. Martin Short, there must be something in the water.
Well yeah, politicians need to look at where we're thankful whatever it is that's in the water.
What talent? Can I have some ice with my schizophrenia? Yeah?
It's crazy, but hey, we managed to, as you said, functuate into a career.
I never thought I could say, WA's up. Dog can get a paycheck for it, which is great because I know my kid's gonna need braces.
Have you done the ten thousand. You must have been watching cartoons, repeating voices until you get it down patent. Your parents must have thought, you know what, this is a cute hobby. Surely this can't become a job exactly.
You know, I'm Filipino in descent, so they already had the Filipino male nurse scrubs ready. They thought I was going to be working in a hospital. But instead I packed my bags and went to Hollywood and you know, just swung for the fences.
And you know, in most conversations I have.
About my career, you just have to also think ninety nine percent of my career is based off of the the trust and generosity of strangers that I you know, people that I now call best friends. But you have to understand, I was here in nineteen ninety nine, finishing my third year of college. I did an internship out here at an animation studio, and all the people that I made friends with later on like nineteen ninety nine, so I went back to Canada to graduate, and then I started getting calls years later from the friends that I made and going are you coming back? Like are you gonna finish the job that you started? And I was like, wait, wait, what you know easy for you to say.
You know, these these Canadians, they come over the border. They take all the classic American cartoon characters. You know, we're gonna bring them back. We're gonna put tariffs on Canadian woods. Okay, we're gonna make them pay. We're gonna make them You're gonna be so sick of being rich. Yeah.
They really gave me the opportunity to work at places like Nickelodeon and Disney and Warner Brothers. And you know it's something that I will I'll never forget and I'll always be thankful for.
Well, no wonder they rang you. You'd be fun to hang around. You're just you're jumping in and out of looney tunes to Trump, to Eugene Levy. I mean, that is extraordinary. So when you get into the field, I imagine there's one guy, there's sort of one guy doing all of it, and you've kind of got to wait your turn, or you need to out porky someone or you out daffy someone. How do you get your chance?
Eric?
I mean, congratulations to you, And I wonder if there's now other voice actors who are thinking right, Eric, Bowser is the top. Let's get to there.
Well, you know, to be perfectly honest, again, I'm the sixth person in ninety years to do bugs Bunny. I think someone just threw the number number eleven for Porky in ninety years. I remember, you know, I was ten years old when Mel Blank passed away, and I remember watching one of the very first animated shorts without Mel who was voiced by one of the greats who still, you know I work with often is Jeff Bergman, and he was there in eighty nine relatively probably my age now doing the same thing and there and there's still others, Billy West, Bob Bergen, and uh yeah.
It's like winning the lotto.
And at the end of the day, when it comes to even something like this, the day the Earth blew up and even space Jammin New legacy, it really does depend on who is telling the story, because they're the ultimately who decides who voices which character, who's gonna who's gonna carry the story that they want to, you know, have told. And in this instance it's me. And I know I'm not the only person who grew up watching these characters. And I'm always very welcome to.
You know, I always see you know, there's more than enough carriats for everyone, Doug.
Do people treat you like a jukebox? Are they pressing every button to get a different sound from you?
Eric?
Well, at US Customs, when I go through the airport, that's usually where it comes in handy.
I could be smuggling anything.
And all I have to say is and then they step the passport and I get to go.
Come on back, sir. Is it more exciting, more thrilling for you to see it on a big screen? I mean, you've done so much TV, but when you see it, you know, because we're all kids at heart, you know, when you can see the Looney Tunes, when you can see those iconic characters on a big screen in a big room with lots of people, not just on your own couch, that's got to be a.
Thrill, exactly.
You nailed it on ahead with lots of people. Because animation and just like entertainment in general. You know, I always say, we kind of work with our with the horse blinders on, and we don't.
We don't. Really.
By the time we get to the finish line on most of these projects, you're already kind of like, okay, I don't even remember saying half of the things that have been said in this movie. And then you hear someone laugh behind you that didn't work on the movie.
Like I took my son to see it.
Finally that that wasn't a work related event or screening. We just saw it, you know, at the at the cinema down the road, and uh, lots of families there Sunday at six o'clock, and uh it was getting like sitcom laughs, like I was at a taping of Married with Children or you know, uh full House or something or Three's Company. It just sounded like there was a studio audience. And I was very, very relieved.
That's all your kids must thank you the coolest dad, eva or maybe and I you work with Lebrono, we'll talk about that, but maybe it's just well that's my dad. That's that's what he does.
Well.
I always tell people this story where you know, we're at the playground and you know, I'm a responsible dad on my phone, not watching my kid. But I'm on my phone and I hear my son go, hey, Dad, come over here with his group of friends. And he goes just say the say the thing and I go, what's up, Duck, and he goes, okay, go away now, thanks, like you know, that's that's it.
You know, I owe him ten percent and he eats all the cereal in the house. That's how it works.
How grint is it when you get the opportunity as you mentioned with Spice Jam, this movie's extraordinary, but when you get to hang out too with icons of other fields of entertainment.
I mean we're talking about you know, World Champion basketball player Lebron James, you know, and again, I grew up in the nineties, so you know, you're talking to.
A kid who grew up with a different champ.
And you know, arguably my answer for who the greatest will always be Kobe Bryant.
To get out of that work situation because I've worked with them both, I can't. That's the trick. Quick you want to get me fired, I see.
But yeah, it's quite remarkable when you're sitting next to this guy who not only could could have he's the only one that could have brought the Looney Tunes back the way that he did. But World Champion also has a family, beautiful kids, does a lot of charity work, and then still has enough time to make this great film that you know, in the midst of a pandemic too, which was tough. That I think that was the hardest thing about that film was released during the one week in la where it was safe to go out and be without a mask, and then you know, immediately after that weekend was done, it was just everyone was locked down again, so it really didn't have a chance. But I know people people did eventually see it in when it was streaming or when it was available on Blu Ray DVD.
So and they loved it and that will always love it, just like the original to The one full thing about Porky and Daffy and all of these characters is they've been around forever. You're continuing that legacy so amazingly well. They are beloved by all ages. And when people go and see Looney Tunes the day the earth blew up, that's what I love, Eric, is that kids will be there enjoying it, their parents will be enjoying it, their grandparents will have been enjoying it. So that's incredible work by you, and thank you for doing that.
And thank you. And we can only end this one way, and that is by saying that's.
All, folks, you're a star. Eric Bowser Porky Pig and Daffy Duck Looney Tunes The Day the Earth blew up. It is an excellent film for the whole family. It's just extraordinary talents, is it not. Thank you for sharing that it's in cinemas now. Eric Bowser, my guest
