Tom Kenny - The Spongebob Squarepants Movie

IS TOM KENNY SPONGEWORTHY?

Tom Kenny/The Spongebob Squarepants Movie Interview by Paul Fischer in LosAngeles.

He may be, as the ditty goes, absorbent, yellow and porous, but voice actorTom Kenny, aka Spongebob Squarepants, is at a loss as to why this quaintlycomic animated TV series has emerged as one of the biggest televisionphenomena in years. "You have to remember we're just performers, that weseldom have any kind of grasp on real life," Kenny says, laughingly. It'snot easy to describe this 41-year old who originally hails from New York'sSyracuse. Initially unassuming, wearer of black glasses, he sits crouched ona chair as if ready to pounce. With his high range voice the perfect toolfor a character such as the child-like Spongebob, one of many animatedcharacters, Kenny has inhabited throughout his long and lucrative career.Effortlessly hiding behind the animated façade of an odd little sponge that"lives in a pineapple under the sea", Kenny adds that "when we were makingthe pilot and Steve was making the show from the Gecko, there was no inklingthat this would ever be any more than hopefully a very good children's showon a children's network, then it just cast such a wider net that everybodywas taken aback." Spongebob has indeed emerged as a show that has crossedover from the annals of children's television to adults in theirmid-thirties and beyond. Kenny says that it was important from the outset,"not to be like other shows and with the movie not to make it like otheranimated movies, to have some unexpected non-formulaic, weird, tricky stuffin it that might even surprise people who are very familiar with the show."

The movie version does in fact spring off the success of its televisioncounterpart and take Spongebob on a kind of Hope and Crosby road journeyoutside of his underwater domain in Bikini Bottom to the world above. InOrder to search for King Neptune's missing crown. But the film does continueto explore the childlike innocence and purity of Spongebob, who firstappeared on the small screen in 1999. Kenny says that it was easy to developthe character from the outset, "Steve [Hillenburg, creator and director ofthe movie] had very good templates for all these characters. He had me overto his house before he even pitched the show and showed me paintings he hadof all the characters, houses and little bible descriptions of everycharacter and sketches and he had it very well mapped out, almost like amuch sillier Tolkien or something. He knew where everything was and then hejust sat down with me and tried, said this is the character. He's not achild but he's childlike, he's not a grown up, he's not a kid, maybe hesounds like an elf on helium, we'll play with it. Then gradually we dialledit in," recalls Kenny.

While most animated shows and films require each voice actor to voice his orher session alone and separately, Kenny has no doubt as to why he has beenable to keep the Spongebob Squarepants TV series as fresh today as it was 5years ago. "You're doing a scene with Mr Crabs, and Mr Crabs is reallythere. You're not reading with the monotone voice of the casting directorwho's reading in Mr Crabs' lines." The same philosophy applied to the movie,but what about newcomers to this set, such as actors Scarlett Johansson andJeffrey Tambor, who are relative newcomers to this cartoon game? "I thinkthey both actually remarked to us that how much fun they were having and howdifferent it was for them, a much more free-wheeling sort of fun experience.There are not a million people around like on a TV or a movie set. It'spretty much the engineer, Steven and maybe one or two people taking notesfor Steve and that's it. It's a very short line from the creator of theshow to what's being recorded. Plus there's no attitude on our part becauseon a showbiz ladder, cartoon voice actors are just below the guy with noteeth and Harley shirt that sets up the Tilt awhirl at the carnival."

Yet for Kenny, the sense of anonymity that goes with his job as one of thebusiest voice actors in town is also what remains so appealing about it. "Ilike being invisible. For me it's the perfect job for someone who'ssimultaneously shy and an irritating show off. Some people might find itgalling, but for me this is what I always wanted to do." Tom Kenny grew upin East Syracuse, New York. When Tom was young he was into comic books,drawing funny pictures and collecting records, before turning to stand-upcomedy in Boston and San Francisco. This led to appearances on every cableshow spawned by the stand-up epidemic of the 80's and 90's as well as stintson "The Dennis Miller Show", "Pat Sajak", "Conan O'Brien" and "Late NightWith David Letterman". Tom was a regular on Fox TV's "The Edge" and spent ayear as the host of TVs "Friday Night Videos". His mainstream televisionappearances include "Brotherly Love" and David Alan Grier's "The PrestonEpisodes". Tom supplies the voice for "Heffer" the cow on Nickelodeon's"Rocko's Modern Life" and Hanna Barbera's "Top Cat", as well as regularperformances on The Cartoon Network's "Dexter's Laboratory", "JusticeFriends", "Powerpuff girls", and "Johnny Bravo", Tom joined the cast of "Mr.Show" where he met his future wife Jill Talley. Together they've teamed upon Comedy Central's "Comedy Product", the stage show "The Show With TwoHeads", HBO's "Not Necessarily The Elections", the Smashing Pumpkins'"Tonight, Tonight" video and Travis "Sing" video, and has become firmlyentrenched as that loveable sponge. As funny and spontaneous Kenny appearsin person, the actor says that comedy did not come as easy to him in thebeginning as one might think. "People are always saying that I must havebeen the class clown, with all these voices. No, I was way too shy to bethe class clown; I was a class clown's writer. I sort of wanted to be theclass clown but I didn't have the balls so I would try this part during Mathclass."

His transition to performer eventually emerged, he recalls, "when in highschool, a very good friend of mine who turned out to be a professionalcomedian/actor has said to me, you know what, you're funny and you need toget out there, you're funny, you write funny and you're funny and get yourass out to some of these open mikes." Kenny was still in high school inSyracuse at the time. And the kid, who pushed him back in first grade, hasremained his closest friend to date. "He's the guy who kicked me intooverdrive."

Kenny has a lot to be grateful for, and says that he has no intention toreturn to stand up comedy. After all, he has a little sponge withsquarepants to be thankful for. "I had fun with it but it's like an old dayjob I used to have fun with. It's, the same way that I wouldn't want to goback to bagging groceries."

The Spongebob Squarepants Movie opens January 5