How you doing out there? It's me Tigger. I am Duc Wayne Duck.
It's me Bunkers Deep Bobcat. All right, y'all, did it great?
Your favorite firefly you desire hold the old knock guy. My name is
Jim Cummings and welcome to Tuned In. Welcome back, everybody to another episode
of Tuned In with Jim Cummings. As always, we're joined by producer Brendan.
How are you doing today, sir, I'm fantastic. Thanks for having
me. Our guest today is Kathleen Hurles. Nice of you to join us.
Hi, thanks for having me in the crowd One World, and of
course, as usual, the man of the hour, Jim Commings. How
are you doing today? Jim? Oh, it's another day at paradise.
But I hope everybody will forgive me. I've got a little bit of a
head cold. But the good news is you probably can't even catch up a
germ of it, so I think you're all pretty safe. There's one of
the risks of you take when you go to the conventions, though, right
when you're dealing with all those people on the road again. Yeah, we're
really on the road this time for a good long time. So I'm glad
to be back, and I'm glad you're here, Kathleen, let's hear it.
Yes, yes, I think I'm actually going to meet you in person
at Smoky Mountain Fest in August. I think I saw your name. Good
good. Well, you know I have one thing to say to you.
Yes, actually, Winnie the Pooh does do say come meel? I love
it. If you guys don't know, meel means honey, I should probably
say it in Dora's voice. In English, we say honey. In Spanish,
we say miil, can you s meel? Yes I can. And
I hope I said you're a sweetest honey. Yes you did? Yes,
Okay, okay, now I'm okay now wondering the voice of door Explora.
Yes, yeah, just a little indicator there, and what fun I mean,
my gosh. Yeah, it's been crazy, crazy journey, an adventure
I started when I was so young too. I don't know how much you
guys know, but I was cast when I was seven years old and I'm
thirty three years old now, so I feel like it's been like a lifetime
ago since I, you know, brought Dora to life. But yeah,
it's been a wild Ride for sure. That is so funny. That is
wonderful. Congratulations. By the way, of now being Dora's mother on the
new Rape Base, Yes, yep. So there's a Dora reboot exclusively right
now on Paramount Plus and they brought me back as Dora's mom. So it's
like a full circle moment. Oh my gosh. It's really really exciting too.
And the show is great. It's awesome. Yeah, okay, well
everybody tune in. You have your marching order Rama Plus. Yes, let's
do it. I love that. That's wonderful. So you're in New York
now. Now. I do a lot of stuff from home. Is that
the case with you? Yes, for sure. Yeah. There is a
studio though that we record in Manhattan, which is not too far from me.
So sometimes it's just easier just to go in and just record in the
studio. Yeah. Well, you know, I like that too because I
have like a blue collar attitude toward a no collar career. You know,
I feel like, I'm okay, I'm going to work, yes, and
then I go and talk to myself and act crazy. No. I love
it's good and you know exactly what's going on with that, don't you,
Yeah, I do. I have to take the train to go into the
city, so I just make a day of it, kind of like I
go into Manhattan and I just go get a sweet treat after I record at
like some cute cafe and then good for you. Yeah, I would imagine,
Now, seriously, do people go up to you and go, excuse
me? Do you, by any chance know Dora the Explorer? So okay,
So it's really interesting because growing up, we didn't have social media,
and it's just saying that is kind of weird because our lives are, you
know, surrounding by social media. So I had no way of telling people
or people really knowing like who I was. And I don't think people in
school really understood what voice acting was even to begin with. So when I
would say, oh, I'm going to record, They're like what, Like
what are you doing? So it was just really different. But now last
year was my first year experiencing like the concircuit, so before I started attending
them, my manager at the time was like, you know, you really
need to create like a social media presence, like people need to know who
you are, where you're going to be. Because I never posted about my
life as Dora and all of that beforehand, so I was like, I
don't know, like I don't know if people really can care about Dora anymore
or me in fact, you know, So I started posting and the response
that I got was incredible. I was blown away overwhelmed, and I was
like, wow, like people still love her and still know her. It
was just really really overwhelming, but in a great way. So now I
feel like I've had more interactions with people like outside and they're like, wait,
I think I've seen you, like on TikTok, like are you Dora?
And I'm like, yeah, that's me. Yeah, I said,
are you famous or you just kind of remind me of my uncle? And
I said I'm probably. So there's a funny story. When I was posting
a lot very frequently. I don't know how the algorithm works, but I
feel like it it like pushes out to like locally, to where you are.
I think at first, okay, yeah, And I got a delivery
from like my ups driver, who like, after a while you get to
know, like you know, you get to know them personally. And but
before that, we just moved to a new place and he was like,
oh, you know, I was at you know, the local restaurant,
and people were telling me like who you were and stuff like that, and
I was like, oh, you mean you know Dora the Explorer and he's
like yeah. People were saying like that you live here, and I was
like, oh, cool, I really, but why not? There's a
lot to explore. Yeah, exactly, so it makes sense. But yeah,
I don't know. It's just it's cool to have like kind of people
recognize you here and mm hmmm. Yeah. Now do you have on camera
aspirations as well? Because you're such are you're a doll? Oh? Thank
you? I as of right now, I don't. Growing up, I
did. I think after I was recast, I was like, you know,
I think I just want to do on camera. I kind of wanted
to figure out who I was outside of Dora, just because when I was
voicing Dora was really all that I could do. I mean with school and
being a kid and for Dora, we did so many things, toys,
games like it just took up a lot of my time. And I did
a few, like on camera things too as a kid. But I think
when I was eighteen, I was like, okay, I want to be
like, you know, a TV actor and a movie actor and figure all
that out. And I tried to do that for a few years, also
going to college here in New York, and it didn't really work out for
me too much, so I kind of like lost the passion. I didn't
want to move to LA really yet at the time. And then after a
while, I was like, you know, you know, I need to
pay my bills. I was like twenty five, and I was like,
I need something steady. I want to you know, build a stable life
for a little bit. And so I did that for a few years,
and then COVID happened and I lost my job in interior design and I was
like, okay, maybe now that I can audition at home now, I
was like, maybe let me start doing that and try to just see if
I can, you know, book something. And when I started doing that,
I started to realize like how much I missed voice acting and being in
the booth and recording and doing all of those things. And that's when I
was kind of like, maybe I want to do this again, maybe on
camera and TV isn't really like my place, like I always loved and felt
comfortable in a booth and doing voices, so was it daunting getting back into
the world of via, Yes, because it's a different world now. It's
a different industry than when I was a kid. I mean talk about the
technical aspects of it. Now you know you're alone. You don't have someone
in the booth or a director or a booth director to tell you like,
this is what you're auditioning for, this is what they're looking for. It's
kind of like, Okay, here's a script. Yeah, they just and
you have to be so you have to be a director, you have to
be an engineer, you have to write figure everything out. And I feel
like at the time, because I had this iconic role I people like would
just assume like, oh, you know what you're doing, or you should
know what you're doing. I don't have to tell you. But then at
the same time, I'm like, no, but like I need to learn,
Like there's so much that I don't know and so many things, and
I just felt like I didn't have the tools, Like I lost my foundation.
And that's kind of like what it's good to get that backpack and the
feed to get the feedback, you know, like you know, like you
can ease I misunderstood lines, my whole career and they go, oh,
in other words, he wasn't being sarcastic. He was because you know,
that's that's like a natural tendency for me, because you could take any different
any number of lines, thirteen different ways, you know for sure. So
I yeah, it's really difficult. Well, now you're an accomplished director and
producer and recording engineer and actress. Ye, my own fas and just hang
them. Yeah that's great. Straight, Yeah, I know. Stop,
that'd be so crazy. I'd love that listen. Auditioning for Sesame Street as
a kid was like you won the lottery, like once they picked you,
because it was so hard to get into and my mom was like just always
trying to get me to audition again and again. She's like, they're gonna
pick you, They're gonna pick you. And then like obviously, once they
pick you to be one of the kids, then they just bring you back
constantly. But it's really funny watching myself on those episodes because I start off
so young and then I'm like twelve. Like also as a kid, I'm
like okay, I think it's just like I was like, okay, that
should be the last episode. I was like I'm getting too old for Sesame
Street. But it's getting too old yay. I felt like at the time,
well, is it true what they say about Big Bird, He's just
a huge prima donna. No, not at all. I think I was
just too scared from seeing all the people rolling around under the puppet. I
made that up anyway, so I thought i'd throw that out there if I
would have been died, you know what, It's so true. I could
not stand that with the feathers all over. Oh do you imagine we started
like this huge rumor about people interesting with Sesame Straight for the kids, right,
because when you're a kid, you're watching Sesame Straight and these characters they're
brought to life, they're they're people in your eyes. So when you went
to Sesame Straight as a child, what were your first thoughts when you saw
these people doing the puppets? Was it, oh, yeah, horrified?
I remember I was like, why are they on these little They're rolling around
everywhere? I was like, why is this happening? And then they kind
of explain it to you, like what's going on? But like it's hard
as a kid. I remember like trying to act normal because you just see
you're trying to understand how it's all working, like seeing them rolling around in
their hands and the thing. Then they have a little microphone and then all
these things are happening, and it was. It was a really crazy experience.
It was really cool. Though. That's quite a discipline, isn't it.
You can't just walk off the street and take up that gig. There's
there's my acrobatics and all sorts of things involved, and you're doing the character.
Yeah, because because they're essentially their own puppeteers, they're animating themselves live,
which is wow, that's not bad. I mean, if you stop
to think about it, that's that's a hell of a gig. Yeah,
man, or you got you got the sweet end of that. Yeah,
I got to watch it. Watch it a Oh sorry, I just tripped
over Kermit. Sorry down there. I did fall in one of the episodes.
You could see it. Yeah, I just like disappear and I fall
and then I just get back up. Really funny. What was some of
the difficulties of voicing such an iconic character at such a young age. I
think, looking back on it, I think it you know, when I
was seven years old, that was just my voice I wasn't really putting on
a character, you know, it was just me, and I think as
I got older, it was easy for me to like go back into it
because my voice is just at a higher pitch, So it was just easy
for me to you know, do it. That wasn't difficult, but I
think trying to figure out who I was like because the voice was me,
right, I'm not making another character. So I think I just had difficulty
too with especially within like voice acting, like creating other voices and figuring out
like who else can I be? Who else can I sound like? Or
what would this character sound like? Just because I was always so connected to
Dora and people just always associated me with her that I think it was just
hard for me to kind of disconnect myself from her, especially how she talked
too, because she doesn't talk you know, like conversationally. She talks like
a very sing songy way. Mm hm. So I'm for doing that for
so long, it was just kind of hard to get out of that.
Yeah, that's interesting. Yeah, well I avoided that by being you know,
having multiple voices in my head, I guess, you know, so
that's okay, But that's that's a wonderful thing. That's what a great calling
card because it's a I mean, it's it's gonna last forever. Yeah,
in a way I would think, right, I would think so, yeah,
and I didn't think that for a long time, and you know,
with posting and all the comic cons last year and then the reboot also,
yeah, it's crazy to see the response and how many people are so connected
to her and the show. Oh yeah, you know. And it's global
too, like Dora is dubbed in so many different countries and she's known all
over the world, so it's just it's amazing. Well, it was the
first nicode and show to have a Latina in the late animated role ever.
Yeah, yeah, deal. I think that in most places around the world
with the dubbed versions, she's teaching English. Is that true. Yes,
it's really funny because I've definitely YouTube Dora in France and she, you know,
looking the way that she looks, she looks Latina and she's speaking French
and teaching English, and it's just so cute, like because you would never
think, you know, but I don't know, I love it. I
think it's awesome. That's cute. Oh, that must be adorable. Yeah,
so Dora's voicy version of one was just your voice as a child.
So now coming back as mommy, did you just think maybe I'll just do
my voice now? Yeah, I thought that would be something. You know,
in my mind, I'm kind of still Dora and now I'm just in
my mind, I'm just Dora grown up in a sense. Sure, so
I know, you know, you try to make it a little more maternal
and a little deeper and more in my chest and take a lot of breath,
but essentially it's just me. But I think it that was like a
nod to my character and to the original voice of Dora. Oh of course.
Yeah. Well I think that's comforting for people too. People like that
continuation. They like, yeah, you know, like, well, I'll
go to a convention or whatever. People will say, well, you know,
I remember when I was six years old or ten years old, who
was this, that and the other thing, And then now they've got a
six year old or a ten year old and kind of passed that love down
and it's very nice. It's comforting. It's nice to know, so I
know the feeling and that you must feel great about that. Yeah, I
think meeting the fans as an adult has really made me appreciate what I did
and the show and the impacts so much more. I don't think I really
understood anything really when I was a kid, Like I knew how important it
was. We did so many different events with the Latino communities, with schools,
but I didn't understand how impactful and how much she meant until probably last
year, when people would come up to me and be like, you know,
Dora was the only person that looked like me on TV and she's an
animated character, you know, So like that, like you know, made
me sad but also happy, like wow, like this is a lot bigger
than I ever thought. So it really puts it in a different perspective.
Well, everybody in the world knows Dora they Explorer. I mean everybody.
I remember she was. There was a joke about her in a movie.
It was one of those teen age brat movies and who do you think you
are? Dora the Explorer something like that. I can't remember the circumstance.
But when you make it to that level of just you're out there in the
Zeitgeister in the air, you know you've arrived. Yeah, you know,
I know here. There's so many different I don't know how much you guys
have seen, but there's so many different like parodies of Dora, some really
extreme and probably not kid appropriate, I can't be recommended. And then it
goes the other extreme, right, like horror, like scary like Dora video
games or like an iteration, it's not she's not called Dora, but like
you know, it's it's like she's like in a horror house or whatever.
So like she's been like it's pretty crazy. Oh my gosh, Yeah it
doesn't sound like at all. Yeah, yeah, a little experience with that
myself. It won't be talking about that. We will have another question for
you. In doing these conventions, obviously you get to interact with the fans
and everything, but is there has there any been any celebrities that like you've
looked up to, that you've met or have been starstruck by and doing the
convention circuit. Oh my goodness, like everyone I feel like, well,
first of all, like imposter syndrome with me, like going into the green
room in the back, like forget it. I'm like, I don't even
know why or how I'm here right now, but like you know, I
was, I grew up in New York. We recorded in New York,
and after I like the first season, I recorded alone, Like I didn't
record with like my cast members anymore. And I didn't ever meet like other
voice actors. Yeah, I never got a chance to, especially like Nickelodeon.
You know, the main studio was in la and if I went there
every few years, it just so happened that no one was working that day.
Never got to meet That's fair. You'd think they'd hook you up at
the gang. I know, like I would meet, you know, the
animators, which was always so fun, But other voice actors, I never
got a chance to meet them or like be mentored by them or really kind
of understand the ins and outs of like you know, the industry within voice
acting. So that's one of like also the biggest blessings I feel like I've
earned doing the cons is being connected and talking to other voice actors, asking
questions and kind of learning things that I never knew before. As a kid,
I did everything with my mom. She's an immigrant from Peru. She
was in her late twenties when I got castes Dora, and everything was new
for her and she kind of kind of just went with the flow and kind
of did what we were told. We were never taught. You know,
this is what we do, this is how you know, how things work.
So everything kind of felt new to me. So I've made friends with
you know, Tara Strong and Richard Horwitz, and they're they've been so amazing
to kind of like guide me and help me and kind of rebuild my you
know, foundation in this career. And I've been so fortunate. But yeah,
everyone I meet, I'm just like fangirling inside and I just try to
keep calm because I have vomit of the mouth sometimes and I just say weird,
So I try not to say anything. I know that one I've got
that. Do you? Oh yeah, I think we all do. So
I should have said that Nevis Gen wants to speak to you, Kathleen.
It's crazy. Oh no, oh no, please, Well I think we'll
make it. I like when you guys reached out to me, I was
I screamed and I ran to my husband. I was like, you would
never guess who wants to Yay. Well, we're honored. It's it's it's
a pleasure, it's a joy. I'm glad you had. I'm glad you
had time. Yeah, of course I have all the time. I don't
work a corporate job anymore, full time figuring out you know, my career
and vo so this is I don't work in steel mills anymore either, So
I understand that. I get it. I get the joy of that.
Yeah. The goal is to not go back, right, That's what the
goal is, to not go back. Great job, union mem with great
hospitalization, but a little tough. Even if I did, I'd be retired,
so I guess i'd be okay. But anyway, it's nice to be
here. Yes, and now I get to hang out with you. Yeah,
it's awesome, even coast to coast, Yes, which is amazing.
It's amazing. And you know what's amazing too. And when I first started
doing these, I would be uh, not not not the podcast, but
oftentimes I would be recording, oh, I don't know, a jiffy loube
commercial. And they were based in New York, so they'd say, all
right, Jim, do you have your lines? And I'm going, oh
my god, come you know, and the delay was painful. You're sitting
I'm not something that's happening right now. I was like what, Yeah,
yeah, and it's just you're sitting there like, yes, all right,
we'll do it, and you know, and so I appreciate that. I
really do come a long way for sure. Yes we have, Yes we
have. If you're a fan of everything we do here at tuned In with
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ahead and join the tuned In Family today for as little as two dollars per
month at patreon dot com. Slash Gymcommings podcast. Fun fact, I've been
trying to be all over right all over the internet, and I started streaming
like me playing video games, and I have like a love for Disney and
Final Fantasy m which is like really strange. So I was trying to figure
out which game to play, if I was going to do Final Fantasy first,
or like a Kingdom Hearts game or a Disney game, and then Eventually
it came into doing Kingdom Hearts Like all people were like, oh, play
Kingdom Hearts game. So I just finished Kingdom Hearts one like right before you
guys reached out to me and I was like, this is this is just
like perfect? It was perfect. I watched you a video, did you
yes? You see I wasn't lying. I really did play the game a
yeah. It I don't know, Jim, if you've ever played this game,
it actually might be fun to watch you play this game. But it
is so hard. It is not easy to follow. They say not to
play. I mean the first one, like the story is pretty difficult to
kind of like figure out gameplay wise. So it was pretty difficult, but
it was really fun. Paid good money to watch Jim get frustrated playing these
old video games. Yeah, I would definitely pay. I would pay.
Yeah, I get frustrated playing with an etcha sketch, So so this would
be deadly. This would be I'm not bad at darts, right, Crys
will tell you, Yeah, Jim wanted darts. Hey that's pretty good.
There you got pinball pinball. I've seen Jim got pin ball machines for hours.
Oh that's true. That's true, Yes, so please a mean pinball.
So you imagine dark Wing Duck though raging at playing the old Dark Wing
Duck Super Nintendo game. I think it'd be hilarious to watch. That could
be. Yeah, and I've got a pretty good dark Wing Duck costume.
Yeah, that better you dress? No no, no, no, no,
he's yeah. Yeah. When there's trouble you called d w let's get
dangerous. Forgive my ignorance, Kathleen. But the other voice actors on the
original series when it first started, were they kids as well? Yeah,
all of them were kids, except for the voice of Swiper, who also
did the voice of the Map. Okay, so I can't imagine what it
must have been like for the director because you said the first season you will
recorded together. What was that atmosphere like of just a bunch of kid Yes,
it was crazy. I remember we recorded in a booth downtown by Christopher
Street, and we were all just running around, and I mean, luckily
we all got along really well, and we would just play and they would
always be like a million snacks and we would just be eating and sugar rush
and like all of that. Oh boy, you guys were animated. That's
for sure, yes, definitely, And I think we recorded a lot of
songs probably that day, if my memory is correct. But after that,
I think they were just like, no, we're not doing that again.
And then it kind of the groups got smaller, and then it was just
me and Boots for a long time, and and it was just me Boots.
Well, I can remember stealing a French fry off of one of my
kids plates they go swipe or no swiping, because I swiped a fry.
Yeah, it was guilty. So I was caught on did your kids watch
Store? I assume, so yeah, absolutely, it couldn't carry less.
Yeah, well I'm not on that show, you little weasel. I know.
I don't know what I should have been on there. I agree,
it's one of opportunity. I know. I was looking through your IMDb to
see if maybe you were on the show at some point, and I was
like, damn, well there's a reboot, isn't that Yeah, there's a
reboot. Well maybe if only I knew someone on the show, you know
what, that they could put in a word for me. Wait, hold
on, wait, Cathleys did Now this is going to work out. This
is going to be great. If I have one thing to do this year
is to get you on the reboot. That's priority number one for me right
now. I could boot. I can reboot, reboot the boot. I'm
there. There is there a character that's a boot. Maybe he can just
play the boot. That was just I was just thinking that he can play,
Like what if boots his boots started talking. Yes, that could be.
We've just signed exploring. Make it happen. That's it and he only
speaks in the pig Latin. How do you feel about the new animation style
of the show. It'd be educational. The new animation style I it took
Initially it's different, so I think it was just hard to kind of see
Dora in a different style. But as I watched the show and see it
come to life, I really enjoy it. I mean, obviously everything is
growing. Animation is different. I mean I love it. I think the
colors are more more vibrant and it I guess for kids, it feels like
they're more immersed into the world of Dora the way like the CG and kind
of animation style is. I do have a love and appreciation for you know,
how animation was before. I've always loved to see how kind of that
of how that was brought to life. In college, I did a paper
on kind of like the evolution of you know, animation within Disney and Walt
Disney and kind of see how they create depth or how they did create depth,
like the world of snowe I think, Yeah, that was so cool.
I was like, this is like masterpiece like work, and a lot
of people don't know how that was made. So I do appreciate the work
and stuff and how animation. Yeah, it's really fascinating. I've been over
there, like you know, a hundred times, but a thousand times,
and they have the original I think it was snow White too. They that
triplane camera and the way that they did it. The camera was on here,
there was a plate of leaves of forest here about a foot away,
then two feet away there was a babbling brook. Then back in the distance
was the far away mountains. Yeah, and they wouldn't move, and they
would move accordingly, and then they would just animate the characters walking through it.
And it was just magic, you know what was a genius. Yeah,
he came up with that. He came up with that. It wasn't
limited animation, and it was so well I guess that's why he was Walt
Disney and the rest of us are just fans, because I sure was one.
But yeah, I'm glad to hear you appreciate that because I do too.
That's so cool that you saw that in person. I only saw it
in like a video, and I was just like, well, that's so
cool. But it's just sitting out in the hallway. Wow, this priceless
object. Plus there's one hundred yards around it. I'm sure you know you're
not getting out of the you're not getting out of the hallway with it,
but little bulky anyway. But yeah, that's good stuff. Come a long
way, right. Yeah. And then there's South Park and they don't have
that. They have they have a cardboard cutouts and it bait it to me.
But I love that too, Like even yeah, for sure. Do
you know the game paper Mario? Okay, Jim, you have to watch
like the cut scenes because or even just watch someone play it because it is
hilarious. I watch my husband play it and it's just like they're obviously their
paper. So the way that they move is just like they're just always like
shifting and they're saying like really funny things whoever writes a script for that game
is awesome because it's just so funny. But yeah, I highly recommend.
Okay, it's really fun. I guess it depends who your audience is,
right, I feel like for kids that kind of you know, that new
animation, the CG animation, I don't know what the proper term is,
but you know, I think that G C G I that's more appealing for
them. You know, it's catching the colors and the bubbly kind of features,
and I feel like, you know, maybe adults can appreciate a two
D or different type of you know, old school a kind of animation.
What's what we grew up with, wasn't it. I think kids now just
expect that kind of CGI because I put when I was a kid, I
was a big Muppets fan, and I just love the show at the Muppet
Babies an animated show, right, But my kids love the new version of
Babies. I said, oh, this is the one I used to watch
when I was a kid, and I put it on and they go five
minutes, they go, this doesn't look any good. Put the other one
on back, and I thought, uh, okay, then it's just kids
have expectations. Now it's like the Simpsons. I put the old Simpsons on,
not interested new Simpsons, which many say aren't that good anymore, but
they just love the visual of it. Yeah, that's bratera catching. So
you've retired from Dora at the age of eighteen. I think it was was
eighteen, Yeah, eighteen, I got recast? Was that so? So,
did you retire or did you get recasted? Was that your decision?
Now? I got recast there, Okay, it always says she retired,
and I think, what would you retire? You can still do the voice.
Well, I saw something online where it had to do and this may
just be a rumor, so correct me if I'm wrong. Did it have
anything to do with your speech and a retainer? No, but I've read
that also. Yeah, isn't that weird? Yeah? People just make up
a story and well you know why. It's because he had that that long
transfer with a bab boom, so he had to take time off, right
like I did. Wait what and then they try and tell you a convention
that you're wrong right? Yeah? Oh yeah, yeah, that's actually happened
to me a couple of yeah. Yeah, And it was oddly enough,
it was just I mean, it was only like a year ago. And
the other day it was for the Lion King. And a guy was telling
me that no, no, no, you didn't sing, be prepared.
You didn't sing in that Ed didn't say anything. I said, well,
I know, Ed didn't say anything. I didn't say I was playing Ed.
Ed was there eating his foot in the background while Jeremy was done.
And then and I didn't sing the whole song. I didn't sing or speak
sing. All the speaking was Germany. But I came in uh new bit
hard. Anyway, I finished the song you know, be very bad and
you do the villain laugh and then it just kids. No, it didn't
have anything to say. I know. I wasn't. Next question, you're
right, I didn't. That wasn't me. Do I have to give back
the gold record? I hope not, you know, the platinum whatever?
When? Yeah? Anyway, yeah, Well conventions are fun, aren't they.
Yeah, they're really fun. We do like them. Now, do
you have any pet peeves or ridiculous questions that you just get too many of?
Like I do? Yes, so many. It's kind of hard to
like, uh figure out. But they then they'll come, they'll come in
your mind, like randomly you're like, oh, I remember when they asked
you that question. You're like, what, well, I love doing them.
By the way, everybody out there, I love you. Keep coming
cut, don't take this the right way anyway, wrong way, anyway.
No, of course, it's all in love love, you know, And
it's just fun because you get stories and you remember all of these people by
that, by all of their questions, the stories that they come to you
with, and that stings with you forever. Yeah, well you must have
been a great comfort. I mean, I can only imagine these little Latina
girls coming up and going to you. Are it for me? Because there
wasn't you were it? Literally were it? You were someone representing them.
Yeah, it has to be rewarding, so rewarding, overwhelming. Sometimes I
feel like I feel so blessed because it could have been anyone, right and
for it to be me and to have that impact. I really sometimes I'm
already an emotional person as it is, but like, if I think about
it too much then I'll just start crying because it's just it's so special.
You know, what we do, how we touch people. I'm sure at
cons people come to you and cry and tell you their stories and sometimes it's
really heavy. Yeah, I agree. Yeah, but that also puts it
in perspective too, like what we do means something. Our voice means something
in whatever character that is, and even just our own voices. Sure nobody
agrees with daring about mine. But yeah, thanks thanks for reminding me.
No, but I agree. I agree. It's a beautiful thing. You
know, we're sitting I've said it before, we're sitting in these little booths
and we're all alone usually I mean people. I remember Terry McGovern who played
Launchpad on Dark Wing Duck. We did one show together out of one hundred
and twenty five shows, one show when we were both in the same room,
and that was it. And people hear that and they just can't believe
it, and I can't believe it either, kind of h but it's He
lived in San Francisco, and of course I'm in southern California, so I
understand. It's so nice and for a whole generation plus of little girls to
come up, they must just go crazy for you. What a great thing
for you. Yeah, it's funny. I when I do the voice,
well, when I was younger and I would do the voice. I would
ask people to close their eyes, and I think some people yeah, But
mostly I did it because I was just so shy as a kid that I
didn't want them looking at me like while I was doing the voice. So
I would just be like, oh, well, just close your eyes and
they'd be like why. I'd be like, oh, just just picture door
in your mind and you know, just do it that way. So that's
kind of how it started. But then I started to realize it was more
helpful for them because if I didn't ask them to and they were sometimes they
would just start crying because they couldn't understand, kind of like, wait,
this is Dora standing in front of me, but she doesn't look like Dora,
but she sounds like Dora. And then it kind of just like,
you know, they get so confused and then they don't know what to do.
So I kind of ye keep doing that as I get older, but
it's kind of fun to see people's reactions with their eyes closed, like as
you're talking to them. Yes, yeah, yeah, I do that.
Sometimes I'm gonna have to remember that that's a good tip because sometimes you know,
dads will come up and they'll have a little four year old girl and
can you give her some Winnie the Pooh or something. Well, you're just
the sweetest honey. And then she goes you see the trimmer? Yeah,
why is this guy? Why is he sounded? Where's winning the What have
you done with him? Bring him back? Let him go? No,
it's okay, it's okay. Yeah, you ain't got to watch, you
know, I know, but it's nice to nice to be noticed, I
guess, right for sure, Yeah, in one way or the other.
Mm hmm. Yeah, and I bring I usually travel with like a life
sized door, a doll mmmm its door in real life. Okay, if
you google it, it says she's five too. I don't know how.
I don't know if who wrote that, but she's not someone who never met
her. Yeah, I don't know, but she definitely must be like three
feet right, she's seven. I'm still bad. I don't have kids yet,
so three feet seven year old? Seven? Yeah, sure, whatever
you say. My son five and a half, and he's about a little
bit bigger than that, so he probably a bit bigger. Yeah. Yeah.
The thing is, you said you only recently started doing the convention circuit,
right, so for all this time, fans of the show who grew
up watching it had no idea maybe a who you were, who the voice
actually was, or be how to meet you. So it must have just
come as a big surprise and be so exciting. Oh my god, I
actually finally now meet Dora. Yeah. I feel like people would come up
to my table and if there were other women at the table, they didn't
you know, they didn't know. They were like, oh is she here?
She not here? Or like, is one of you who's Dora?
Like they did they didn't know what I look like, big goggle eyes either,
you know those big brown Yeah, I need a aircut. Is she
here? Oh? Then she is? God, she's cute. Wow,
Oh that's amazing. Where did you get that from? So this one?
I usually when I did the voice for dolls, they would send me one
whenever, you know, it was going to the stores. And that one
my mom had in her attic for years. I completely forgot about it.
And when I yeah, and when I started doing the cons my mom's like,
Okay, take all your door stuff from the attic. You can keep
it at your house and maybe you can use it. And I got this
huge box. I was like, what is this? I'm pulling it apart,
and she was in her box, original box, everything like untouched,
and I unboxed her and I was like, wow, I wonder if she
still works, And then my voice started playing and it's still really now she
does at work. I think she's been on the plane too many times.
But yeah, oh my gosh, that's say so you can just do it
for her, yes, exactly, Yeah, that's right. I was thinking
one way or another, you'll be able to hear her, right exactly.
I can't believe they made one that big. They can speak, Yeah,
that's size. Yeah, that was pretty cool. I mean did they sell
those because I want one? Yeah. There's so there's a girl that I
follow online. She collects like a bunch of dolls, Dora and I think
powerpuff Girls, but she has I think twenty three of this doll. Oh
my gosh. Yeah, that they have their own apartment. They must have.
Yeah, And I'm like so tempted to like reach out to her and
be like, can I buy maybe one or two from you? Because mine
is kind of like going down but winding down. Yeah, and it's you
have to replace batteries obviously, and yeah, but her head's kind of gym.
She's magic. Yeah, yeah, okay from the kid's gonna scream,
oh god, yeah, hopefully I'm not there for that. I did singing
telegrams for a day once and uh and this is like the first six months
of my career. And it was Easter and I was at the Easter Bunny
and I went to I went to this house and your kid, you know
this, goofy boy said, and I realized I was dressing breathing the same
hair over over again, and I had they had to pass out. So
I had to pull off my head and go who sorry, I had to
get that kid goes, you know, the Easter Bunny just pulled off his
head and there's some guy in there, and uh, I just hope nobody
in fact, make sure this isn't on the podcast. We can edit that
out right, We don't have to. You never know. Maybe you'll find
the person that's aw yeah yeah, the kids. He's like thirty five,
and he goes, yeah, I remember that. I hated that guy.
So there he is, so there he that's what he's doing now. Oh
man, I'm sending him a letter. So yeah, we'll edit that out
right. Yeah, okay, good Kathleen, was Dora U parut of your
life the last fifteen years? Not really. I feel like when I got
recast, I was graduating from high school, and you know, I was
trying to find out who I was, like who I wanted to be.
You know, at that age, it's such like a transitional period and you
know you're going to college and you have all of these different things changing.
It kind of was like a good thing, I feel like for me looking
back on it, being recast and kind of figure out figuring out, Okay,
like what do I want to do? Who am I outside of Dora?
And I feel like I kind of left Dora in the past at that
point, and I was like, I'm going to just kind of not focus
too much on that part of my life and try to build something new.
I think that's kind of what my mentality was at the time. So I
didn't really you know, talk about her that much or wasn't really too involved
with kind of what the show was doing. I wasn't watching the new episodes.
I always you know, I always loved seeing her everywhere and kind of
but I never kind of associated myself with the show until now. Until the
reboot was there any feeling of resentment that what I was thinking. No,
yeah, no, I mean so for the show. I always knew,
you know, the shows on Nickelodeon that time. I think after Dora there
was like Ni How Kai Lan and the Backyardigans, and they all had kid
casts also because that was kind of like what they wanted to do. They
wanted that authentic child's voice. So I knew all of us kind of knew
we were getting older. We were seventeen, you know, and we're like,
okay, like we knew we weren't going to do this forever, and
we knew there was a potential recast. And Boots was a boy, and
he got recast a lot sooner just because you know, with boys you want
to get their voices change. So we knew it was coming, and I
think at that point I kind of was ready to to go also do no
no resentment, And even now, like you do, like I love her
so much, She's so cute and I just love seeing her kind of take
on the legacy and keep going. Well, it's kind of like seeing one
of your kids succeed, you know, they because they wouldn't be doing it
without you, And that's it That's that's it. That's the bottom line.
That Dora would not be moving on or doing moving one inch forward were it
not for you. That'll never change. Yeah, so good for you,
Thank you. That's something that's definitely a feather for the hat, right,
yeah, one a big bird's feathers, Yes, hopefully that guy. I
think I have one of his feathers. Actually, someone gave me one at
a con. Oh oh wow, I think I have it somewhere. What
a strange present to give somebody. I have one of big birds feathers here?
You take this? Yeah? Well it was was it? I think
it was Kermit? He's killing me now, I'll figure it out. We're
gonna have to cut this part out because I'm not so sure. Yeah right,
Jim Henson, you mean was it Jim Henson? No? No,
no, no, no no. Do you mean do you mean the new
voice of Kerman or the one that that changed over about four or five years
ago? I think the one that changed four or five years ago. Okay,
he was Stave somebody I believe Steve something. Yes, Steve, yes,
the person that he was with. He gave me one, and I
can't remember. I think Steve was also on Sesame Street. At some point,
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at patreon dot com. Slash Gymcommings podcast. What was so the set of
Sesame Street? As a kid, you think it's a real place. Was
it a big set Sesame Street? What did it look like? No,
it was. It wasn't that big at all. It was kind of just
that main street and kind of like the stairs. From what I remember,
it was kind of like three different sections. It was the trash can,
Yeah, there was a trash can. Then it was like that hallway where
a big bird usually comes out and kind of and snuffle off. I guess
I think partly because it was like a big space and then the the porch
or like the steps in front of the house, and then across from that
was the grocery store or the store. I forget. I've read that you
want to be you want to voice a Disney princess at some point. But
what are some of the Disney princesses that you, if any, gravitated towards
when you were growing up? You read a lot about me. I'm getting
nervous. Yeah, like I said, I have, I mean, like
so many you know, kids and people all over. Like if you love
Disney, you kind of just like love it hard. And you grew up
on like all of the movies and all of the characters, and the Little
Mermaid was my favorite. I would rewind that VHS tape every time it ended.
I'd be like rewinded and just play it back. Yeah, And I
always wanted to be a Disney princess, but I always I never saw one
that looked like me, and I kind of felt like it was not possible.
And I sang. I always sang growing up. My mom put me
in pageants and all that stuff, So I was always singing or doing something.
Yeah, And so I would always sing the songs and do all that
stuff, and I was like, oh, maybe one day I can you
know, voice want or who knows? But I everyone at Nickelodeon like knew
that, or the people that I worked with. And the last episode that
I I don't know if it was the last episode that I recorded, but
it's the last episode of season four, which was my final season that I
recorded. And funny enough, I have the doll right here. Oh wow.
It was Dora's fairy Tale Adventure and Dora becomes a princess, so it
was Yeah, it was kind of special to me and that I got to
become a princess before I kind of left the show and kind of fulfill my
princess dreams. But then they brought me back to voice Cinderella in another episode,
so that was cool too. That's not bad. Well, she's definitely
a way up there in the pantheon of princesses. And my gosh, did
you get to keep the slippers quite for Disney to buy a Nickelodeon, then
we all happen to Yeah, then alone everything. Give us a tip whenever
that happens, let us know and we'll buy more stock. You mentioned earlier
interior design. Is that something that you want to pursue still now or is
it back to you No. So, man, I've had I've had so
many jobs outside of voice acting and through college, I've worked at so many
restaurants. I've sold life insurance, I've worked retail and so many different stores.
But I kind of fell into interior design. I went to college for
communications and I mine almost minored in Latin American studies. But after when I
was still trying to be an actor working at restaurants, I was also working
at Equinox at the time, the gym, so I could have a free
membership and have that. Yeah, it's cool. It has a lot of
cool amenities and things. But I, you know, got connected with a
few people and I ended up getting a chance to be like the corporate receptionist,
which was like in flat Iron at the time, so you know,
I was like, Okay, I'll take it. And I had like a
steady job and I did that for like a year, and then they were
building hotels, so they were building out that team, and I was just
friendly with the senior vice president of design just from her coming in and out.
And her assistant had left and she needed a new assistant so she asked
me if I wanted to apply, and I was like, yeah, sure.
Then I got the job, and I kind of just learned from being
her assistant kind of design and how things worked. And then eventually, I
don't even know how it happened, but then I became like a design manager
and kind of helped build Wow, the things within the room. They call
it OS and E operating supplies and equipment, so it's like the bedding,
picking out the mattress, the snacks that go on the drawer, like all
of those types of things. And I did that and then COVID hit and
I got furloughed from that job, and then I moved to a private firm
in New York and I did project management up until last year. And I
loved it. I loved it. I feel like I'm good at it.
But yeah, yeah, I have a love for it. But I like
where I am now. Yes, we want to I like it too.
Yeah, I'm just trying to envision the people taking your resume. Oh says
he worked for Nick letting you the voice of Dora the Explorer. That's just
yeah, that's you applied for a giget a restaurant, but you went the
voice of the most iconic argue with my iconic female animated character of the twenty
fifth century. Yeah, it was definitely at the top of my resume.
Oh yeah, yeah, well I've got talking about deckhand and steel worker on
mine too, So I feel your pain or joy as it exactly. It
depends how you look at it. Yes, yeah, and I sold call
your encyclopedias for a week, did you. Yes, that was me.
Yeah, your parents are going get out of here, And that was probably
me. I was the guy that they told them. You know what,
I think we my parents bought one, bought the whole set. Well,
then that definitely wasn't me. That would have been a successful stuff. No,
I really do different books. Oh sure, sure yeah, wow,
wow, yet another thing we have in common. Yeah, you see so
what I feel really good now. I'm going to call her after this and
ask her about them. See if she still has them, please please and
tell her thanks for the tip. And you got it. And I think
you were sleeping at the time. And she told me that I'll buy them
if you leave, so I did and she did. Yeah. Oh man,
I was such a sucker for like the QBC things. Oh I would
get in trouble so many times because I'm just such an easy sell. I
would just be like, oh, I need that, and then you just
buy it. Yeah. It's an amazing vibel Feltzer, which was Mad Magazine's
gizmo that nobody knew what it was, and so there you go. Yeah,
I still meet it. I need that. Actually, time I see
you, I'll bring one along. And it's fifty bucks by the way,
Yeah that's all, but it's a vibel Feltzer. So you got that gun
for me or something. Dad. I'm so glad you were here today.
Thank you. But we don't want to tie it up yet, guys,
right, because don't we have one more order of business? Chris, Well,
we have a we have a game we played, don't we, Chris,
we do. I want you to explain it this time, because I
want to hear how somebody else explains it. I always there's pressure take it
away, Yeah, okay, pressures. So, Kathleen, what we do
is we get you to say a voice as Dora, one of her most
iconic quotes, and then Jim will say that same quote as one of his
iconic characters, and then he'll say one to say, for example, Winnie
the Pooh, He'll say it Winnie the Pooh quote. Then you have to
then quote that same quote in Dora's voice. Okay, you go first,
you say one of Dora's most iconic quotes, and then Jim you you say
this as Winnie. I was wondering too if maybe we could do it in
because I've got I got my cheat sheet here and I've got some will you
pass the honey, and I've got it in Spanish and have you ever been
to the hundred acre wood? Got it in Spanish? Friend of mine?
Help me? And thank you Dora for being here today. I've got that
for you to So maybe I'll start that. I'll throw that last one in
and then we could do the regular one, because because I wanted, I
want you to critique me and be evil and tear just tear me apart because
I'm not going to do it well. But this is Winnie the Pooh speaking
in Spanish, saying thank you Dora for being here today. I hope okay,
you got this glacious, but I started, Oh, that was perfect.
I'm sorry, that's the word I was looking for. Afect. Then
okay, I've used up all. Do they dub the shell because you should
just do it. I'm sure they do. Yeah. In fact, one
of the craziest things I've ever seen. And it wasn't me, but they
did Colors of the Wind from Poker Honess and all these singers, and it
was in like eighteen different languages. Wow. And the song was seamless,
sound like the same person singing it. Really, I mean they had went
into galag in, French and German, Ukrainian, Wow, all around the
world. It was really cool. It's not me, not yet me those
language not yet see see. Okay, So now go ahead take it away.
We said it before, so I have to do swiper, no swiping,
I mean, just okay, okay, but I'll say it three times
as we do okay, okay, sweeper, no sweeping sweeper, no sweeping
sweeper, no sweeping. Okay, I'm not going to be able to do
it that high. And how about should we have Tigger do this. Let's
let's let's do it. Let's do it as Doculan, Let's do it as
Winny. All three okay, all right, swipeer, no swiping, no
swiping the swiper, no swiping. They're a little dark wing on there.
I love it's so good. That was that was frightening. Why don't you
be Dora in the reboot as all of those characters. Oh, yeah,
let's do that. I'd love to hear Dora say the quote Jim, the
big one, the braver than you've seen that, the iconic one. Oh
but that's like a paragraph. Oh, it's lines. You'd be fine.
You could write you could write it in the chat for me. Okay,
well, then that's on you, Brendan. You brought it up. Go
ahead read it in the chat. Wise guy, I'll find it. Jim,
you're braver than your beans. No, you're braver than you believe,
smarter than you think. And bounce heard and some kid did what be I'll
find the actual question. Yeah. I also thought it would be funny to
do what dark Wing Duck says as Dora's voice, like, I'm what do
you say? I'm in the Terror, the Terror laps in the night and
the winged scourge to pecks at your nightmares. I am duk way Duck.
We'll do it on the voice Jim, but shoube I'm gonna forget the rest.
Yeah, that voice gets to say it as dock Wing and then we'll
get it as Dora. Here we go. I am the terror the flaps
in the night. I am the winged scourge that pecks such a neckmares I
duck we duck. I am the terror that flaps in the night. In
English, we say night. In Spanish we say nutchie. Can you say
nautchie nochi no job? Apparently not, but now you have to say,
all right, duck, way duck. I am dark we duck. Very
good. Thank God. If cute was a weapon, we'd be dead.
That's like the best compliment I think I've ever gotten. Love that, Kathleen.
We want to boost your social media up, so let's put all your
social media, he asked, because you know you're extreamly happening. TikTok.
Let's let's plug it. All. Everything is at my name, Kathleen Herless,
except for YouTube. It's the Kathleen Herless. Because Kathleen Harless was taken.
I don't know by who, but not by me. So I had
that too. Yeah I didn't. I don't know if I even found who
the other one is, but I do have a quick little I guess we
can call it a game. You don't have to include it, but I
think it's funny because I bought. Okay, let's i'll explain the story after.
Okay, but Jim, this doll that I'm going to hold up is
a character that you played, but you have to guess who it is.
I'm going to show you only the back of the dogs. Oh oh great,
Oh jeez, Oh, it may not be what it seems. I'll
just say that. M m, it's it's it's not a bear. Is
it a snowman? It looks like, yeah, are those bunny ears?
Is it gim in the Easter bunny costume? Oh? No? Butout knowing
that story, this is so much fun here. It's just crazy enough to
work. And uh and but you're sure it's some character of mine? Yeah,
do you give up? I give up? Okay, here we go.
So you are cheating. You are cheating. It's like, I love
it so much. I had to show you. But now with your story,
I mean this is you need this now? Yes? I do.
I might have one. I was actually looking around. I've got I've got
a few memorable billy is here, yeah, a few thousand, But I
don't have that one. So fine, picked wan, I say something new
that's we need to pull a guy should buy that for gym. Yeah he's
got it or he probably has it. Yeah, yeah something like that.
He's already got it. Yeah yeah, I actually found this and Tokyo Disney
last year. Nice. Yeah, Jim Chris, you basically went to Tekyo,
didn't you? With the Tekya you went to it was it. I
went to Tokyo, but I didn't make it to Tokyo Disney, okay,
and you didn't really go. I know, I think we're going. We're
going again. So yeah, No, it's beautiful. Yeah, it's like
the top Disney park. I feel we didn't just go to Disney Paris.
Disney Paris as well. Yeah, it was not horrible. I swear the
rides. The rides are awesome. Yeah, the rides there cool. Yeah,
they know how to do that for at the House of the Mouse.
Yeah, they're getting good at it, aren't. They smoke cigarettes in Paris
in Disneyland. It's insane the way they can still smoke. They can smoke
cigarettes in Disneyland. Parents. That shocked me so much seeing people walking around
the park smoking cigarettes. It was so French. Just then, did you
feel like you needed to also have a cigarette did you feel like left out?
I actually did, Yeah, you do want to be left out?
No, I could honestly say, I've got every cigarette I've ever smoked in
my hand, every single one. Yeah. I never smoked cigarette. You
know. My dad, God rest is Soul, he smoked constantly. And
oh, I with my little five year old self, I just thought,
Okay, that's stink. So I'm not going to do that. I'm just
not a stunk. I'm not a health nut. But yeah, no,
never mind. Yeah, but yeah, there you have it. Yeah,
it's important for you for your voice acting anyway, to not smoke, right,
Ye, well yeah I would think. Yeah, yeah, I have
one more suggestion. Tell me, if you guys are game, do you
think we could do like a little improv conversation between Dora and Winnie the Pooh.
Sure you don't have to, I'm just throwing it out there. What's
the conversation gonna be about? It has to be about honey, do it?
Or about swiping? Yeah, Dora teaches Poo how to speak Spanish?
Okay? Ohah, oh, Dora? What's your name? My name is
Winnie the Pool and it's lovely to meet you. Hi, Renie. It's
lovely to meet you too. What do you like to eat? Well,
let me shrink, shrink, shrink, shrink. I usually enjoy a little
honey on my honey, and then for this hurt, I get some money.
That sounds benny, see us, sir? Can I try some?
Yes, but not too much? Just kidding glass, Yes, thank you?
Oh oh, I think I hear sweeper here may try to sweep your
honey. If we see him, we have to say sweeper, not sweeping
three times. Can you say it with me? Of course? I can
anything for me. Okay, here we go sweepers sweep, swiping, sweeper,
sweep. Sweet, good job he didn't swipe your honey. I don't
know what I would do without yo, Dora. Oh, I just have
to keep on. That's wonderful, Thank you, hooray. That was awesome.
I think we've just found our new podcast game. Yes we do.
Yeah, just reinaccines. I love. That is awesome. That's the cross
livere we never knew we needed. Right there, Yes, we should do
it. We'll do it in person in August. Let's do it now.
I was going to say my final question, I would like, is there
anything we should know about anything at all that we should be thinking about to
referencing your your next moves or wherever it may be, or however, Yeah,
I'm just follow me on all of my social media. I try to
like of course post and keep everyone updated on what I'm doing and all on
there, and yeah, just send just send me positive vibes my way and
that you know I find do that my next adventure. Okay, all Kathleen
social media and website would be viable. In the description of this video slash
podcast, fantastic. Thank you very very much, Kathleen. Who's going to
take us home? My Chris I opened up you take us on? Okay,
Well, thank you so much guys for checking out this episode here I've
tuned in with Jim Cummings John by Kathleen Hurlss aka Dora the Explorer. Don't
forget to rate reviews on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, where you do find this
show. Hit the subscribe button on YouTube, and be sure to follow Kathleen
on all of the social media's and check you out at any upcoming convention she
is appearing at. Thank you' again Kathleen for your time and all the best.
Thank you bye, guys, Thank you it was nice meeting you.
Nice to meet you,