Tony Todd is an iconic voice actor, and this month he’s bringing his voice to the new Masters of the Universe: Revelation. For some of us, the series is like a nostalgia blanket to wrap ourselves in. Others might just be discovering the property for the first time. Most fans of animation will recognize Mr. Todd, or at least his voice. We had a chance to participate in a roundtable interview with him to discuss Scare Glow – the coolest action figure of the bunch, if you ask me, what it’s like to do his job as a fanboy, and why he’s excited for everyone to check out this new version of a classic.
Here are five things we learned from our discussion:
Tony Todd always dreamed of being a voice actor, and find the truth and reality in the characters he voices.
“All I wanted to do was be a voice actor,” Todd shared with us. And despite the fact that the general impression is that voice acting is, somehow, much easier, the truth is that it can be a pretty cutthroat business too. “It’s been a wild journey. (Only) in the last five years I’ve been working more and more.”
As someone who has voiced a lot of creepy characters, Todd feels like you have to go deeper to not become a stereotype. “I think to find the truth and reality in these people, I know they’re fantasy, but you gotta play it like that otherwise it becomes a creep fest.”
He’s a fanboy too
Todd had worked with Kevin Smith before, so this was an easy yes for him. “He called, asked me, and I said absolutely.” Reading the scripts proved what a good choice that was, because he kept thinking “wow, this is a great character.” Plus, there’s the fact that “every child, we lived for Saturday morning, so as a voice over artist, to be able to fill that vacuum people have, it’s a beautiful thing. I pinch myself constantly.”
He agrees with us that Scare Glow makes for a pretty cool toy
“Scare Glow was never in the original, but he was a toy,” Todd remembered, and to be honest, so do we. Scare Glow was always the best toy. “Mattel was smart (to bring him in) and now they might not be able to get rid of him.”
He thinks Masters of the Universe: Revelation is the perfect show for right now
The world we live in is a very different world from the one that existed at the beginning of last year. And Todd is very cognizant of the fact that “the pandemic has had an influence,” in not just the world at large, but on the kind of entertainment we want to consume.
“Everybody’s looking for a return to normalcy, and also a continuation of fantasy” at the same time. If you pair that with nostalgia, you got Masters of the Universe: Revelation.
He wants to voice a character that is an “enabler to a little girl who goes on a journey
Finally, to the question of what next, what type of character would he like to voice, Todd had a very specific answer. “In honor of my daughter,” he told us. “I want a character that is the enabler to a little girl that goes into a journey. Whether he’s a buffalo or a unicorn, he’s gotta have her back
Are you excited for Masters of the Universe: Revelation? Share with us in the comments below!
The first five episodes of Masters of the Universe: Revelation will be available on Netflix July 23rd.