Justin Roiland Breaks Down His Most Iconic Characters | GQ

what the hell is this this Morty is my archive of all the experiences you begged me to remove from your life lest you go insane I have so much fun making it I was like those characters are really fun to do the voices of I'm talking back and forth like that it just felt good I was like this this feels really really fun it was the RIC voice for the grandpa it was the Morty voice for the young kid it was sort of eventually gonna happen that those two voices were gonna end up in something because they were really strong I called him Morty's mind blowers and we'll be doing this instead of interdimensional cable lemongrab was I had a podcast that I did with Brian Ridley and Jackie Bruce Kirino called grandma's virginity podcast and pen Ward was like a fan of it and pen created Adventure Time we had him on an episode and I I remember after that he wanted to he asked me to do a voice I didn't know what it was but I was like yeah of course I'd love to do a voice on a bench of time because I loved the show they sent me the boards the storyboards for the episode and I looked through it and I didn't really know what to do so I went in and I just started screaming and he's like that's the things like that's it great I learned the limits of my voice with that character for sure I blew my voice out really bad then Tom Kenny told me to go to this this really good ENT and I had to get a cortisone shot and not talk for like two weeks literally not talk ideas of app called talk bot and I would talk to people using the app text-to-speech and it then the app started really depressing so every time I would text something people would be like are you okay because it'd be like I want sandwiches just be really everything I would say which sounds sad and that voice is actually the voice we ended up using for the butter robot and Rick and Morty that exact app because we in the Edit Bay that was around the time in the Edit Bay where I was using that app all the time I couldn't do Morty's voice for a while after that adventure time the the third episode of Lemongrab it was really crazy also I'm not just weirdly petting my lap I have a I have my best friend here one of my best friends I've got to but this is one of them isn't that right little pup pup yes gravity falls Hersh wanted me to do a voice and he wasn't quite sure what character so I kind of came in a couple times and took a crack at a few different characters and it didn't stick and then the blendin voice was sort of the one that felt like it worked just sound like Morty like oh man come on geez you know like it but it sounded deeper like more like my voice it was like I'm blendin blandin I'm you know it was more like that and Morty's like huh come on Rick you're gonna suffocate me here you're suffocating me I don't want to do this you know like a lot of my voices just sound like that it's pretty sad I don't have a lot of range I more I'm more just played into the kind of nervousness and anxiousness that he was sort of dealing with because he had a lot of running shoulders so it's just leaned into that there wasn't really anybody in my life that I drew for but I don't really do that ever there's no real there's no real deep you know like I'm not sitting there meditating and like creating image boards and I'm just I just going into it you know like I don't know physics so there's a really interesting story with that I was at Disney working with Alex Hirsch on that show we were developing it together we had cast someone else as the voice of Oscar I don't even I wasn't even a part of this I just remember I was there late and Eric Coleman grabbed me who's the head of TV animation and he's like hey can you go in and just record this character from top to bottom I don't know they had some sort of emergency with the with with the audio that they had from the person that they had cast and so I was like okay and so I went and I just did the voice for the little pilot presentation and then that went out the next morning - I'm blanking on his name but he's right below Bob Iger and I can't remember his name but he was like oh yeah but this is great the voices are all great this is awesome and so I was sort of like does that mean does that mean I'm doing the voice of this character or what like what's going on they didn't really tell me but I sort of assumed I think I'm doing the voice of this character and then of course time went on and I I took a job writing on the show mainly just because I didn't want to get recast I was like if I'm around they won't recast me I just I was waiting for the other shoe to drop on that and it didn't happen so yeah I ended up doing that character it wow I guess one could say that you and I make sweet music together Oscar was more just more innocent you know like I mean it's a Disney cartoon so obviously that's the innocence is sort of built in he was gentler I think very moral Oscar was just like a limp and limp noodle nerd you know really easy to push around and like bottom-feeder kind of character and I learned that crocheting is a fun leisure activity for a fish of any gender I made you both sweater vest Oscar is kind of OCD if I recall correctly like he's very like neurotic I think Oscar was a bit more like he had more neuroses going on oh that's a throwback here yeah I did a bunch of cartoons oh she dumped the mic I did a bunch of cartoons for Sarah across the seasons and like I mean that was my job for a while it's just I was on location at the studio with my friends and we were just writing and animating cartoons there and I was grabbing the cast of the show to come to voices like in between scenes and stuff it was really really cool I was a really fun time I did a cartoon called cookie party for Sarah and we did a few episodes of it and God it was really funny man it was like I it was the concept was this guy named Michael who makes cookies so good that they come alive they want him to eat him really bad all the cookies want to be eaten by him but they but he he's kind of overweight he's trying to he's really trying to like watch himself so he doesn't want it he just can't eat them I love that all the delicious cookies I baked come alive and play with me but sometimes I really wish I could share you with other people no we won't let other people eat us we only want you to eat us we love you Michael and then there's this bad guy who's who wants to know how he make makes cookies oh so good that they come alive and he's coming around and he builds a robot cookie named Proteus it's bonkers but it but we I think we did two or three episodes of that and I was like I love that I was I was like I would do I would do a lot more episodes of this if if the opportunity had presented itself I would have been like let's roll with this you know but those are deep cuts if you can dig them up I don't know where they are Gary on small foot that was weird I don't even know how that happened it was just like hey do you want to do this voice for this movie okay yeah that's that sounds good and I went and I was there for like an hour or less than an hour I just like I'm a the guys sprinkled throughout the movie but he's got like you know that if you take all the lines and squish them together it's like you could say I'm in under three minutes you know what I mean so we just kind of jumped to the scenes and I 80-yard it was really cool I was like in a giant mixing room with like a huge movie theater screen doing that doing that stuff that was really cool that was similar to when I did for Michael Dougherty in Krampus I did one of the little cookies but that was the same experience it was a giant like soundstage with a I guess when they do movies they just like hey let's mix it in a in extravagant massive cube room with a movie theater screen cuz like we don't do Rick and Morty that way we did the pilot that way but and I was like this is unnecessary but alright and then we stopped doing that I started mixing it like you know normal people would do with Gary they just said they wanted him to just be kind of nervous and panicked it was really just working with them to find the voice like that's the boring answer but it's true it was like okay like this like yeah no no a little bit more like freaked out you know whatever and then I got it kind of okay that's okay then that's it they like that okay I'll just I'll just keep doing that people need to start casting me on these big-budget animated movies right I mean like listen to my process it's it's like oh what do you guys want you want okay like this and then BOOM all right we got it let's roll let's do this thing and I'm real friendly and nice and stuff I mean I don't know what's going on no I'm kidding I'm not I'm not auditioning for anything that's why I should be I'm too busy but but if somebody comes to me hey yeah I'll be in the next sharks movie come on Katzenberg is he still no no what stream works is that Katzenberg he's got kwibi now what is he still got a foot and DreamWorks what does DreamWorks anyways whatever Disney no Disney's I'm not - I did Disney but I don't know if they would put me back on Disney up - I'm too edgy am I am I too edgy I don't know I'm too edgy maybe but come on Disney put me in the next princess movie as like to care it you know I'm the carrot I'm the carrot in this movie you know let's sing a song ba doo dee doo I'm a carrot in this Disney movie make a toy out of me you know anyway Krampus I'm friends with Michael Dougherty he's he's one of the best people I've ever met in my life he's incredible and he like I has a deep love for horror and and I think his style and in the way he approaches horror is fantastic and but anyways yeah he just texted me and he's like hey come and do this voice cuz it was just a fun little monster gremlin guy just screaming and then it got pitched way up I remember thinking I don't think anyone's gonna know that to me yeah it's like you cannot tell I mean which is fine I was like a at the point of it was just like oh this is cool like to put you in here it'll be fun but um that was probably the least like okay let's we got to really sit down and talk about this character who they are you know it wasn't that none of that like it was pitched up and you know and Seth Green did one of them who I'm friends with as well that's how I met Michael was through Seth but uh sorry it sounds like I'm named her I'm like oh let me pick up these names I keep dropping Jesus Christ man hump up up it's a problem on it's a problem right now chubby Weber's that was my voice my friend Brian Wisel I really wanted him to have a show I was like you gotta have a show because I just want more of your weird stuff so I helped him get this show on Adult Swim and called hot streets it's funny I feel like I did the voice for him at one point cuz we're pretty good friends we hang out a lot and I think it was just like do that same thing like do that for the show you know anything for this dog the funny thing about that character is that there would be screwed in the script I would get a script and there would be like scripted dialogue for this dog like if the line was like okay you guys I'm gonna go get the keys for the car and then I would be like you know what I mean like that kind of like the Scooby Doo kind of but whiney and mumbled and stuff I will say that the scripts in some cases they definitely motivated like the energy like oh he needs to be really sad or he needs to be pissed or or panicked or whatever so but it was just funny that they took the time to write these these these lines of dialogue that no one would ever hear Rick and Morty I'm just checking him for flea as well we do this but uh Rick and Morty I mean they were inspired by Back to the Future I did a cartoon that's really disgusting on purpose called the real animated adventures of doc and Marty I think is what it was called I was gonna call it the real animated Back to the Future I was gonna try to get really like let's get a cease and desist kind of energy on it because I had done house of Cosby's and Bill Cosby came after me and I thought I just thought that was so weird that Bill Cosby's lawyers would be busy concerned about a little cartoon I was so weird so I thought I'm gonna try doing that again I'm gonna make a really shocking offensive like animated cartoon and and I've been doing those voices so I'll just do I'll just do those voices for it it's the only way to fix our time travel your saliva needs to be warm and fresh and it must be administered by your tongue Marty it was also for channel 101 and I wanted part of me was thinking I want to hear a audience of people screaming like and covering seeing them cover their eyes and just go oh god so that was sort of the motivation behind it was like it was intentionally disgusting I'm confused Marty trust me like that was the point I was like it wasn't like oh yeah this is my art man like this is what I do this is Who I am it wasn't that at all it was like it was like we knew what we were making it was like this is horrible it's so horrible I have so much fun making it and I was like those characters are really fun to do the voices of talking back and forth like that it just felt good I was like this this feels really really fun and so I started figuring out other ways I could incorporate those characters into things I mean I put him in everything I liked those voices anyways I was doing Rick and Morty voices and all the Fox pilots like in just different characters and I done a bunch more doc and Marty stuff for channel 101 that's also really horrible on purpose I knew that they were really strong and interesting so I just kind of kept going in that direction and I was building all kinds of projects around those voices then Dan Harmon called me one day and he's like okay these characters are amazing and all the crazy sheep you want to do is great but let's build a sturdy frame around it let's put put a family let's make them related so it says grant its mortise grandpa that really made the show way more broad way more grounded and just I believe it's why this show has gotten as big as it is you know solar opposites was originally an idea I had for channel 101 or acceptable TV actually acceptable TV was a sketch show that me and Dan and a bunch of the channel 101 people had on vh1 for a brief moment during the era of like flava flava Flav's love castle and you know new york's Love Machine house or whatever but anyway so it's during that era and I pitched this thing that was just to aliens it was live-action and it was to aliens on earth and they were here for some kind of mission they had like a supreme leader that they talked to at the beginning and end like a briefing and a debriefing of whatever their mission was for that episode it was gonna be live-action with these weird paper mache heads and we were gonna put like in post in after-effects like the 3d mouth and eyes on them and the idea was they are like the odd couple of aliens so his solar opposites brilliant and so gonna be the odd couple it was very underdeveloped back then it was just like an idea and I pitched it and it didn't get any traction and then I just kind of forgot about it I had a deal at Fox xx and so I had kind of gone through three other show ideas with them are two other show ideas sorry and I was on like the last one and it was sort of like okay if they don't like this then I'm out I'm out of the I'm out of the contract and so I got my buddy Mike McMahan who who I've known forever and who worked on it was working on Rick and Morty at the time cuz I was like I can't I've tried two pitches on my own and I don't want to do this by myself anymore like it was just like it's not it's too much so I was like let's do this together if you want to and let's come up with something so we just started brainstorming ideas in between seasons two and three of Rick and Morty is when this happened and then I was like well okay well I do have a thing from a long time ago that's pretty much a blank canvas called solar opposites that could be pretty fun and it's just aliens on earth and we reworked it because originally it was going to be the same as the old idea which is there on earth observing humans and reporting back to the to the homeworld but then we realized I think it's a lot better if their homeworlds completely destroyed and they're stranded on earth it's a bit more of like a Gilligan's Island but the primary objective was like let's come up with something that we can just have a lot of fun and do a bunch of crazy sheep let's just build some characters that will be really fun to write and voice so we we leaned into the idea of you know the opposite the opposite side eeeh obviously like Corvo who's the button down like serious don't around you know kind of character I play that I play him we may be trapped on this world on the brink of mass extinction plagued by a species that destroys the environment but at least we have each other and then Thomas Middleditch plays Terry who is the he's just so obsessed with Earth culture human culture like everything anime Pokemon football video games movies Gossip Girl I mean just anything the Kardashians and then Corvo sort of sees humanity as like a virus on the planet which it's true polluting the planet destroying it creating a texas-sized trash island in the middle of the ocean that's a real thing I think I don't know maybe it's not real maybe we're being lied to about everything maybe we're living in a simulation but anyways Corvo is just like humans are horrible the air is polluted all the stupid makeup is dumb and we're in a waste of time like our art our video games our movies then as the show progresses he there are things that he can get kind of sucked into I probably oversold the idea that he doesn't like Earth culture because he just doesn't he doesn't like humans and he's more crotchety and more he's got his guard up he doesn't want to like anything but then sometimes he does and it's like for grudgingly he'll end up getting really into some like magic we have an episode where he gets way into magic there's a motive for him to do it like he's got an ulterior motive for getting into magic but at first he's gonna hates it he hates magic and then he kind of starts to it's like this big grudging like oh I mean at it's at its core the show is you know a family of aliens that are living amongst humans and then you just get to see them they're almost like immigrants it's like an immigrant story where they're they're just trying to understand humanity and they're very confused about certain things that we take for granted and understand and there's a lot of humor to be had there but then there's also they have access to this like their ship is filled with all kinds of crazy futuristic sci-fi so they're they're kind of they're getting into a lot of trouble they're solving a lot of their problems with technology that we've never heard of as humans that caused a lot of problems on the show and there's a lot of fun there oh don't throw that out I can sell it it has an unstable grey hole inside you weren't unstable claims and then we just kind of follow you know those characters doing doing their little odds and ends it's really exciting a really exciting show all right GQ I guess that's enough rambling for me I'm in my trash bunker safe for now from the coronavirus so hopefully you guys stay safe too and you know watch out for the economy collapse it's coming up by a Bitcoin and crypto I don't know maybe don't do that all right bye

Channel: GQ

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Rating: 4.953352 out of 5

Keywords: celebrity, iconic characters, iconic, justin roiland, justin roiland gq, justin roiland 2020, justin roiland interview, justin roiland characters, justin roiland iconic characters, justin roiland character, justin roiland iconic, justin roiland rick and morty, justin roiland adventure time, justin roiland gravity falls, justin roiland solar opposites, rick and morty, adventure time, gravity falls, solar opposites, justin roiland fish hooks, roiland, gq, gq magazine

Id: pJxFKGfoHPw

Length: 20min 50sec (1250 seconds)

Published: Thu Jun 04 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/NaFamWeGood]

i was so happy when he mentiond jacky and ryan 😱❤

[u/Spastic_colon]

Time stamp?