Our sound guy used to play this clip once in a while when I was on ZIM. It’s as hard to listen to now as it was then because, man that’s some wicked spite. I don’t recommend voice actors who aren’t William Shatner to try this.

PRICELESS!

hahah! Derailed the revision train.

Great find!

Ohhhhh Man—Maurice LaMarche turned me onto an Orson Welles bit from a commercial session, and he questions every word in the script and where the Shatner V/O seems tame by comparison. Stars are unpredictable–
Sherman Hemsley was great to work with–Alan Thicke was a pill( but wound up being cool)– Waylon Jennings was –heck–just Waylon Jennings-a buddy you’d want in a bar fight.

Hah! I heard this when Stern first played it a little while back. Its almost hard to listen to because he lashes into the guy so bad. But who knows how many times he’s had to put up with these types. Shatner’s a seasoned actor (like him or not), and he knows how to do his job. I think its hilarious.

Thank goodness no one turned off the mike. Someone should animate that.

The Orson Welles session was recorded at FilmFair London. One of my first jobs at FilmFair in LA was running hundreds of dubs of that tape to send out with the company’s Christmas cards.

“um, are you making fun of me?”

that was so funny, it almost sounds like that poor producer is crying!

I heard that Orson Welles clip years ago on a local morning radio show. Welles really rips the ad-men a new one and didn’t even pretend to be funny at all. I think Shatner’s tirade is amusing because he tries to mask his anger with some humor. Classic!

During the Screenwriting Expo’s PIXAR day last year, Brad Bird shared an anecdote about directing Samuel L. Jackson and how intimidating he can be. Jackson would supposedly look intensely at Brad and question his direction: “Oh is that how you really want me to read that?”… Brad would stand his ground and of course, Brad REALLY knew what he wanted and was directing accordingly. He responds firmly: “Yes”. Sam Jackson replied:” “Good, I just wanted to be sure.”

Bottom line is that artists want to know if the person directing them is someone who they can respect based on their reputation and skill as well as their vision. Not some hack or stooge.

I love how Shatner screwed with this dim-wit.

I’d say “never say never” as regards the rule “never give an actor a line reading”. It all depends on the situation, the scene, and the moment. There are times when the actor gives a totally unexpected reading and it is so obviously right that you’ll happily tear up and redraw the boards to use it. Then there are those boards that are absolutely solid and need the dialogue to reflect the drawn acting. There are also(I believe)differences depending on what sort of thing you’re doing–say, a commercial, a short or a feature film.

I have no doubt that Mel Blanc was often very closely directed by Clampett, Jones et al-but he was also an absolute genius who gave 200%. Getting line readings was essential to a 7 minute cartoon, but Blanc was a skilled comedian as well as a voice artist–a genius of inflection and timing.

Anyway, it’s all a continual exploration, negotiation, and discovery process between the actor and the director(okay, all buzzwords but all also true)

If you think Shatner is funny, you really ought to track down Jack Palance’s utter booth rage. Seriously. Once heard, never forgotten.

If I recall correctly from his autobio: Mel Blanc said his least favorite directors were Jones and Clampett. His favorite? Mckimson; the one we all regard his later ones to be too talky. In reading about Mckimson this’d make sense as he was the easy going compliant all-’round-nice -guy director, probably not as demanding as the former.

Shatner was right in this case. It sounded like a producer, not even director, just gratuitously changing direction to feel useful; something we’ve all encountered.

….And sometimes these folks need a bit of perspective….It’s a commercial, not Richard III.

I thought the point of this being posted was not whether Shatner or the producer was unprofessional, but that it’s a parallel to how the bean-counters and other non-animation folk tell animators how to do their job.

Zee made an interesting point about being an animation peon. What if ALL the animation artists out there didn’t do gratuitous revisions and edits, but insisted that the producers have a clue about what they want and edit accordingly before wasting the artists’ time with drawing entire scenes and segments that will definitely be cut because the product is running too damn long to begin with?

However funny this recording, I have to agree with Jay and Ian. I’m a voice actor and on average we are asked to do three takes on every line, because that’s our job. I don’t know how many takes Shatner was on before before he became entertaining in this instance, but if any actor who didn’t have on-camera presence tried this, he would never find work in animation again and probably even get dropped by his agent. Shatner can only get away with this because he is a live action actor. Is the guy getting chewed out really the producer? It’s just Howard Stern who calls him a producer. If he’s the casting director, then it’s his job to do exactly what he did. The best situation an actor can be in is with a director or show creator who really knows what they want, who really has a vision and trusts your talent as well, and in those cases a line reading can be really exciting because you end up with the kind of energy that excites the storyboard artist later.

“I’m going to do it the way you want me to do it…”
That’s what Shatner is being paid to do, and that’s what the producer is “suppose” to do.
Funny stuff!

Jay’s comment, “When a narration script is written, the creators have a certain tone in mind. There is absolutely nothing unreasonable or unprofessional about asking the voiceover artist to go for that tone. There are as many ways to read a voiceover as there are variants of emotion, and any talent, no matter how much a big shot, should walk into that booth prepared to deliver any of them upon request.” This is absolutely true, but that is far different from giving an actor a word-for-word line reading. What I suggested is essentially what you said, “Discuss what you want and need, involve them in understanding what you’re trying to do, and encourage their participation.” And Rikki, you should know–this person didn’t ask for a few takes, which would have really been the way to roll things along, but kept popping on the booth mike with “Uhhhhhhh…” which is REALLY what got things going. Every actor is different, but each one needs to be in a situation of comfort and respect in order to meet expectations, or exceed them. I think the point of this whole tale was to show how, more and more often these days, people with no real aptitude for things creative are constantly being stuck in positions where some erudition, experience, and skills would be minimally expected. “That was fine. On the next take, could you do it better?”

I see what you mean, Jeff. Maybe I’m wrong. Shatner’s so relentless in this I think I just focus past the “Uhhhhhhh….” and listen wide-eyed and stunned at his bravado. But still, regardless, no one but someone like him, with legendary status, can get away with this without repercussions. On Invader ZIM, the creator, Jhonen Vasquez never allowed the producers into the sound record with us. They tried to get the casting director in there with us in the beginning but even she was politely chased out. We were cancelled half way through the second season, and it wasn’t because the show wasn’t any good. Producers just really hate to give up control, but despite our show’s short life I’m glad Jhonen stood his ground, because I really love what we were able to squeeze out of our short time. It seems the only way to make something good these days is to engage in some kind of guerrilla warfare.

I love outtakes like that! Does anyone have any stories of working with him on Osmosis Jones?

Obviously the producer was in over his head, but would it have cost Shatner anything to draw on his years of experience to come up with an alternate reading of the line? Some talents forget they are part of a production not the whole.

One of my college film teachers told of how he was directing a documentary and the producers had gotten their friend (Oscar-winner) Mercedes McCambridge to do the VO narrations “for free”. He found he could only get one take out of her. If he asked her to do another take in a different manner she always sabotaged it in some way, like a cough or a page turn, to make it unusable. (This was long before digital editing.)

That was hilarious. Obviously, Shatner proved the guy was a bonehead and, while icily polite, made a fool of him. I’m sure that when Brad Bird was reading Frozone lines to Sam Jackson he was doing a hella nice job (his scratch audio for Edna was so good that it was retained for the film, remember). The producer of this commercial was incompetent, offering that Robert Townsend Hollywood Shuffle-style of direction (“Can you be more black?”). The Orson Welles piece was about the script… he thought that it was poorly written and had a tantrum.
Shatner is an icon, remember, and is known by all for his wooden and stuffy delivery. Watch the Star Trek where he recites the preamble to the Constitution for a reminder of that. As a voice actor, though, he’s dreamy: rich, booming and commanding.
By the by, was this something for the Discovery Channel? Was Patrick Stewart unavailable?

The producer/engineer guy had good intentions, poorly executed. Shatner’s first take was lame and flat…especially when you consider this is Captain Kirk we’re talking about here. Shatner was probably walking out of the session with a six-figure paycheck and was still so damn bored he felt the need to ream some schmuck earning grocery money.

I know this is an old post, but I just stumbled on it… Man, Shat is always awesome… I would love to work with him just so he could give me what for when my head gets big, hahaha