Welcome to the episode 2 of The Fourth Wall – an interview podcast where I attempt to break down the fourth wall of the film industry, getting a behind the scenes look through my conversations with filmmakers, actors/actresses, and other industry professionals. My guest today is legendary voice actor Tom Kenny,who’s lent his voice to some of the most iconic animated characters of all time such as SpongeBob SquarePants, Heffer Wolfe in “Rocko’s Modern Life,” the Ice King in “Adventure Time,” the Narrator and Mayor in “The Power Puff Girls,” Spyro the Dragon and countless others. Tom’s natural energy and charisma helped to cement SpongeBob as one of the all-time great animated characters and a cultural phenomenon. His work has impacted the lives of those who grew up with the show and continues to entertain the next generation.
Nickelodeon‘s hit show is celebrating its 20th Anniversary and, fittingly, was just renewed for a thirteenth season – something unprecedented for the network – and will be seeing a third theatrical film hit theaters next May in “The SpongeBob Movie: It’s A Wonderful Sponge.” Tom is forever grateful for everything creator Stephen Hillenburg and the show has given him as he reflects on his time with the show dating all the way back to 1997.
“SpongeBob has been nonstop for me since 1997, it’s never really stopped and he’s always been a part of my life,” said Kenny. “It’s just kind of this crazy road trip where new and amazing experiences just keep presenting themselves. Because of SpongeBob, I’ve gotten to be around so much craziness and fun stuff and do stuff that I never thought I would ever do like wave the checkered flag at a NASCAR race that had a SpongeBob race car and a Patrick race car or write a song for a broadway musical. Steve Hillenburg gave me this crazy choose your adventure book when he cast me as SpongeBob. There are so many times over the years where we’ve looked at each other [Tom and Bill Fagerbakke who voices Patrick] and gone wow, look what SpongeBob gave us in terms of experience.”
During my conversation with Tom, we discussed how his time doing stand up and raunchy sketch comedy like “Mr. Show” led to the role of the iconic character, how he always wanted to be a character actor, he breaks down the recording process and comedy of SpongeBob and much more.
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