Speaker 1: Hey everybody, Jim Cummings here. Welcome to my podcast, tuned
Speaker 1: In with Jim Cummings. We have a great guest for
Speaker 1: you today, but before we get to that, make sure
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Speaker 2: Do it now?
Speaker 3: How you doing out there?
Speaker 2: It's me Tiggert.
Speaker 4: I am DC Wayne Duck.
Speaker 5: It's me Bunkers Deep Bobcat.
Speaker 4: All right, y'all?
Speaker 2: Is it great?
Speaker 5: Your favorite firefly you desire?
Speaker 2: Hold the old knock guy.
Speaker 1: My name is Jim Cummings and welcome to tuned In.
Speaker 6: Welcome back, everybody to another episode of Tuned In with
Speaker 6: Jim Cummings. I am producer Chris, joined as always by
Speaker 6: the legend himself, mister Jim Cummings. How are you doing today, sir?
Speaker 1: It's another day in paradise, especially on account of because.
Speaker 6: We have Irene Better joining us today. Thank you so
Speaker 6: much for being here.
Speaker 4: I'm so glad to be here.
Speaker 3: Thank you, Thank you, Jim.
Speaker 1: It is so nice to see you, and because oftentimes
Speaker 1: I'll see you and there's a line of people in
Speaker 1: front of you and I can't barely see you because
Speaker 1: you're signing autographs and having too much fun.
Speaker 2: And thanks for being here. Thank you very much for
Speaker 2: maybe a little.
Speaker 4: But you can't stop me.
Speaker 6: Do you want to just tell the audience a little
Speaker 6: bit about yourself? Of course you're the voice of Pocahontas,
Speaker 6: but do you want to elaborate a little bit for
Speaker 6: anybody who may not.
Speaker 4: Know sure, I'm Irene. She was the goddess of peace Pocahontas.
Speaker 4: We talk about the Pocahontas of peace as well. And
Speaker 4: my Nupiac name is good Dirk, which means one who dropped.
Speaker 4: So when I was growing up, I didn't know. I
Speaker 4: thought that I was going to be clumsy or something,
Speaker 4: but really it was one who fell from the sky.
Speaker 3: Oh wow, yeah, well that's not bad.
Speaker 4: Yeah. And then my Crea name is iron Woman. So
Speaker 4: I'm a Nupiac and Upick and may Ti Cree and
Speaker 4: I'm very proud to say that i am indigenous to
Speaker 4: this nation, but I'm part of the human nation, and
Speaker 4: i am an actor that has been had the honor
Speaker 4: and to be able to tell hundreds of stories of
Speaker 4: indigenous women.
Speaker 2: So oh that's great. Oh wow, I feel like clapping.
Speaker 6: That was very profound.
Speaker 2: That was that was wonderful.
Speaker 6: I wish my name meant something that important.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, min.
Speaker 1: My middle name is Joe. Joe, I mean, okay, let's
Speaker 1: ready to sleep.
Speaker 4: Irene Bedard is my was my given name growing up.
Speaker 4: But we're given our names in the New back way
Speaker 4: before we're born, and it's a form of reincarnation in
Speaker 4: a way that we're given our names from our grandparents,
Speaker 4: and our grandparents are the one who usually get it
Speaker 4: from their grandparents, and so when they're you're given that name,
Speaker 4: it's like you're given the the air, the breath, the heartbeat,
Speaker 4: and the responsibilities of the person who carried that name
Speaker 4: before you. And so to me, it's it's uh, just
Speaker 4: a beautiful way to understand how interconnected we all are
Speaker 4: and that we're all also part of this deep time,
Speaker 4: that we're the love of a thousand ancestors. And so
Speaker 4: when I get the chance to play different characters that
Speaker 4: come from our history, in a way, I feel like
Speaker 4: I'm given the opportunity to bring their spirit back to life.
Speaker 1: Wow, that's beautiful. Well, I'm named after my grandpa. He
Speaker 1: was James Joseph too. I mean, the most common names
Speaker 1: in the world.
Speaker 2: But you win.
Speaker 1: I mean, gosh, that's beautiful. That's a beautiful tradition. It's
Speaker 1: great to be a part of that, isn't it. You know,
Speaker 1: it's something that you bring with you throughout your life.
Speaker 4: And I think that's in a lot of ways, what
Speaker 4: like this prevailing society is searching for missing wanting that
Speaker 4: connection to deep time. That connection elders and our connection
Speaker 4: to the earth and all the creatures that live upon it.
Speaker 4: That's what I mean. We're all indigenous. We all had drums, songs, stories,
Speaker 4: relationships to the earth, relationship to our elders and the
Speaker 4: coming generations, and songs and stories that related to where
Speaker 4: we came from and who we are as a community
Speaker 4: of people. That's what a culture and a tribe is,
Speaker 4: and we all came from that. It's just that the
Speaker 4: prevailing society has paved over.
Speaker 1: It, paved over it. Boy, that's well said. Gosh, that's
Speaker 1: that's very poetic. Goodness.
Speaker 4: Well, I'm an actor. I'm a storyteller, though.
Speaker 2: That's it.
Speaker 6: Well, I was just about to say storytelling seems to
Speaker 6: be very very important to you.
Speaker 4: Yes, yeah, I think that's you know, I made a
Speaker 4: mission and vision statement for myself at my halfway to
Speaker 4: hundred party then, and that was to heal through the
Speaker 4: power and art of storytelling.
Speaker 1: Yeah, good for you, And and here you are continue.
Speaker 2: Well, thank you. That's got any more.
Speaker 3: I feel like, well, you can I call you at night?
Speaker 3: I mean, would you read me one of.
Speaker 2: Those that's beautiful I find?
Speaker 6: Oh sorry, I was just gonna chime in and say,
Speaker 6: I find it interesting. You know, the almost one hundred
Speaker 6: people that we've talked to on this podcast so far,
Speaker 6: you know, everybody from you know, actors to voice actors,
Speaker 6: to artists to historians. It's really interesting. The one through
Speaker 6: line that seems to connect most, not all, people in
Speaker 6: this industry is storytelling, you know, and that's I think
Speaker 6: that's I mean me as an you know, I'm an
Speaker 6: actor as well, I'm a performer as well. That's always
Speaker 6: been the one thing that's drawn me to, you know, performing,
Speaker 6: is storytelling. I mean I used to be the annoying
Speaker 6: little kid in the car and my dad would be like,
Speaker 6: stop making up stories.
Speaker 4: It happens next Now it happens exactly.
Speaker 6: And I think that's something that's kind of over shadowed
Speaker 6: in today's society, is storytelling. I mean, it's one of
Speaker 6: the things that makes us, you know, unique from other animals.
Speaker 6: You know, we've been telling stories since we were cavemen,
Speaker 6: you know, drawing paintings on walls, and that's how we've
Speaker 6: passed along knowledge through so many generations. And I feel
Speaker 6: like it's, i don't know, kind.
Speaker 2: Of slightly a lost art.
Speaker 6: It's not viewed as so valuable in this society. I
Speaker 6: don't know, what do you guys think?
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, that's a good point. Well, everything's hurry up,
Speaker 1: let's get it over. But come on, hey, come on,
Speaker 1: let's go, you know, and you can't. You got to
Speaker 1: slow down and let that wash over you.
Speaker 4: I think, yeah, And I think our attention span is
Speaker 4: definitely shorter. You know, it's get that thirty second video,
Speaker 4: scroll on to the next right. But I think ultimately
Speaker 4: we are in a way made of story. It's you know,
Speaker 4: it's like, you know, here's the story of the Declaration
Speaker 4: of the Independence in the Constitution of the United States
Speaker 4: of America. You know, we write words down to relate
Speaker 4: to each other, or we speak words and we tell stories.
Speaker 4: We just now instead of a flickering fire, we do
Speaker 4: it around a television or in front of a big screen.
Speaker 4: And so, you know, words that we are, we have
Speaker 4: been translated as the storytellers. It's why you know, you've
Speaker 4: spark so much joy, Jim, you spark a lot of joy.
Speaker 2: Bless you.
Speaker 4: I see it when we you know, just so much
Speaker 4: love goes through direction and it's so beautiful.
Speaker 1: One tries. And that's also it lends to our own
Speaker 1: It speaks to our immortal soul, doesn't it.
Speaker 2: It does because could it's a continuation.
Speaker 4: And you know, and and it goes through to be Oh,
Speaker 4: you saved me when Pokemonas came out, you know, they
Speaker 4: sent me on a big tour around America to sign autographs,
Speaker 4: tell stories and sign autographs. And people would wait in
Speaker 4: line forever with you know, and and so often they
Speaker 4: finally get to the front of the line and either
Speaker 4: the kid is was was you know, sometimes the kid
Speaker 4: would be would be upset because they've been waiting for
Speaker 4: so long they didn't know what they were waiting, or
Speaker 4: they got scared when they finally got to the front
Speaker 4: of the line, something like that. But I had a
Speaker 4: stuffed Winnie the Pooh, and Winnie would just come out
Speaker 4: and just change the whole scenario. The tears would go away,
Speaker 4: and laughter and love would come. And that's weenie.
Speaker 3: Oh that's a lovely story.
Speaker 2: Thank you so much.
Speaker 3: She's a sweetest.
Speaker 2: That's beautiful. What a nice thing to say.
Speaker 1: What a great here that Thank you. Now I can
Speaker 1: go back to being a dipstick and.
Speaker 3: Even out. Oh that's great, Thank you for that. Thank
Speaker 3: you for that.
Speaker 1: Well you you do a lot of conventions too, don't you,
Speaker 1: or do you?
Speaker 4: You know I speaking of Yeah, when when we it
Speaker 4: was COVID and and then I was filming American Primeval
Speaker 4: and realized, you know, we were going on we were
Speaker 4: on strike already, We're on the writers strike, and then
Speaker 4: we were going on strike strike, and so I saw
Speaker 4: the writing on the wall and decided, you know, and
Speaker 4: I wanted, you know, I'm keeping my boat afloat by
Speaker 4: by doing this. And it is so fun. I mean,
Speaker 4: I enjoy it so much. It really when I first
Speaker 4: started out, I was a theater major and I had,
Speaker 4: uh my big dream was to study with Jersey Krotowski
Speaker 4: and poland you know, and I moved from Philly to
Speaker 4: New York to with the American Indian Community House members
Speaker 4: and we started a Native American theater ensemble, and I
Speaker 4: was going to write plays and do plays, and you know,
Speaker 4: it just wasn't even in my wheelhouse of thought that
Speaker 4: I would be doing film and television. And so, you know,
Speaker 4: to me, this this transition to being being a voice,
Speaker 4: you know, has been a strange and difficult one because
Speaker 4: I'm just a girl from Alaska and the idea of
Speaker 4: having to at that time to speak on behalf of
Speaker 4: all Native Americans was was difficult.
Speaker 2: You know, well that's quite a responsibility.
Speaker 4: Yeah yeah.
Speaker 2: It was one of my favorite lines from that one movie.
Speaker 3: It's a great day to be indigenous.
Speaker 2: So I hope this is a great day to be
Speaker 2: indigenous for you.
Speaker 4: From Smoke Signals, right, Yeah, you know. I mean yesterday
Speaker 4: we had the you know, the birthright citizenship in front
Speaker 4: of the Supreme Court and they argued about whether Indigenous
Speaker 4: people have birthright citizenship, and of all people, I just
Speaker 4: thought that that wouldn't even be that.
Speaker 6: Yeah, something out of Southwark, you.
Speaker 4: Know, living in South Park a little bit.
Speaker 6: Aren't we. It's actually funny if you watch the history
Speaker 6: of the evolution I should say of south Park, and
Speaker 6: it actually has become more grounded in reality since its inception.
Speaker 6: I mean there used to be like aliens in every
Speaker 6: episode and everything, and now it's like mostly focused on politics.
Speaker 6: But it's still this wild freak show. It's pretty crazy.
Speaker 6: But we have to address the elephant in the room,
Speaker 6: which is somehow Disney has not recognized either of you
Speaker 6: as Disney legends. Oh what is what is going on? Well?
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, see I would have. I would have thought
Speaker 2: you were.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, because.
Speaker 1: Isn't it isn't that kind of like the law if
Speaker 1: you're a princess or a star. I mean, let's see,
Speaker 1: what was the name of the movie again?
Speaker 4: Yeah? And tigger that?
Speaker 5: Yeah?
Speaker 3: Well, I thank you for noticing.
Speaker 6: Is it like the Is it like the Academy Awards?
Speaker 6: Like do you have to do like some what's the
Speaker 6: word I'm looking for donations?
Speaker 2: Yeah? Who knows? It's academic? All right?
Speaker 1: I yeah, tough tough or Disney legend Disney. I mean,
Speaker 1: I I don't know what to say. Obviously.
Speaker 3: People come up to me all the time, and I'm
Speaker 3: sure you get introduced.
Speaker 2: This way too.
Speaker 1: Here she is a Disney legend, ladies and gentlemen. But
Speaker 1: people don't get that that's an actual title.
Speaker 3: That's a thing, that's a yeah.
Speaker 1: You know, I know, I know why they would say it,
Speaker 1: and I am yeah to myself as well, But but
Speaker 1: I ended up correcting them and I go, well, actually,
Speaker 1: thank you, first of all, but second of all, I'm not.
Speaker 1: And they then then everybody's weird, and uh, but what
Speaker 1: are you gonna do?
Speaker 2: You know you can't can't fight city?
Speaker 3: All right?
Speaker 4: Well, I do know that. You know, a lot of
Speaker 4: people ask me too about whether they're going to do
Speaker 4: the live action, and I'm you know, I don't know.
Speaker 4: I'm not part of that, you know, conversation, but h
Speaker 4: but I think it would be very interesting for them
Speaker 4: to do that. I think they should do it all
Speaker 4: the way up until she sees the ship. That might
Speaker 4: that might work for them, you know what I mean?
Speaker 4: And I really do I I I think I understand
Speaker 4: some of the reasoning for Pocahontas their reasoning, but I don't.
Speaker 2: But I necessarily subscribe to it.
Speaker 4: Right, Yeah, I mean it. I know that it's through
Speaker 4: every measure of the of the word that we were
Speaker 4: as a group of people, as as artists, working on
Speaker 4: everything to make this the most beautiful picture. And it
Speaker 4: did incredibly well, and it still does incredibly well, you know,
Speaker 4: And I think that though it has the issues of
Speaker 4: the time, right and that also, you know, being the
Speaker 4: biggest one is the historical inaccuracies, and it's dealing with
Speaker 4: the ideas of prejudice and racism, but you know, and
Speaker 4: how we can build bridges to one another. And I
Speaker 4: think that's really what is you know, why it continues
Speaker 4: and sticks to that belief system that I was telling
Speaker 4: you about. I mean, she has a relationship to her elders,
Speaker 4: her father or grandmother, willow and nature, you know, the
Speaker 4: creatures around her. She understands that we're all part of
Speaker 4: this medicine wheel here. So this is the four Directions
Speaker 4: and the four seasons, and the four peoples of the planet,
Speaker 4: and it's the four ages. And it just means we're
Speaker 4: all connected, we're all part of the same and we
Speaker 4: can now prove that through physics. You know, the butterfly effect.
Speaker 4: You know, the fact or even just the fact that
Speaker 4: and this is a horrifying example of it. But it
Speaker 4: really goes to the point of that when we dropped
Speaker 4: the Nagasaki in Hiroshima bombs, every single living creature, every
Speaker 4: blade of grass now has cessium one thirty eight in us.
Speaker 4: So that is how interconnected we are. One thing happens
Speaker 4: on the planet and for now millennia we all have.
Speaker 6: Yes, I'm curious, I just want to go back to that,
Speaker 6: what are the four peoples of the Earth. I've never
Speaker 6: heard that before.
Speaker 4: Well, you know, I think this is a much later
Speaker 4: interpretation of it, but you know, it's the the white,
Speaker 4: yellow red black. You know that it's the four that is.
Speaker 4: But these these colors also represent the times of the
Speaker 4: of the the times of life, you know, so from
Speaker 4: birth to to young youthhood and to then adulthood, to
Speaker 4: then our later age and then as we go back
Speaker 4: and return.
Speaker 6: Wow. So yeah, and it just I love symbolic.
Speaker 4: Things like that, right, it's and so I when I
Speaker 4: sign my autograph, I always sign it with the medicine wheel.
Speaker 1: And oh is that what that is? Well, that's good
Speaker 1: to know. Yeah, yeah, well you signed a lot of autographs,
Speaker 1: that's for sure. That's a beautiful thing.
Speaker 2: Wow.
Speaker 1: I'm learning something new all the time here, fantastic.
Speaker 4: I think that's the point of this is life is
Speaker 4: a gift given to us to learn, you know, and
Speaker 4: so every single day, I don't I think of it
Speaker 4: as you know, when I'm can learn today? You know
Speaker 4: what else is there new? When I take on a
Speaker 4: new role, it's such an opportunity for me to learn
Speaker 4: a whole new set of things, you know, whether it's
Speaker 4: a language. You know, when I was at the University
Speaker 4: of the Arts, we had four years of speech and
Speaker 4: that included dialects you know, from all around the world.
Speaker 4: That we had to learn and I just was going
Speaker 4: through especially like Scottish Irish cock me you know all
Speaker 4: these you know, no one is ever going to ask
Speaker 4: me to do these, but it has been so well.
Speaker 2: I would like to hear some cockne it has.
Speaker 4: Been so I got to do it with when when
Speaker 4: our son was little reading Harry Pottery voices, you know,
Speaker 4: I did a production of Our Town where I sort
Speaker 4: of channeled Catherine Hepburn and Audrey Hepburn and it was
Speaker 4: an Alaska need a version of it. But we started
Speaker 4: in Alaska and then it go to Alaskanatid Alaska Native Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 4: like alascinated. Yeah, we were alascinated for.
Speaker 2: You.
Speaker 4: Okay, but yeah, I mean so I got to do
Speaker 4: you know, I got to park the car and had
Speaker 4: yard for that.
Speaker 1: Oh wow, that's funny.
Speaker 4: But you know, I mean for the most of what
Speaker 4: I do, even voiceover wise, whether it's you know, Scooby
Speaker 4: Doo to whatever, they are looking for me to produce
Speaker 4: the indigenous tones. You know, So.
Speaker 6: Does that ever get frustrating? Does do you feel boxed in?
Speaker 4: Or is that some I mean, you know, sometimes I
Speaker 4: have such a great imagination though that you know. I
Speaker 4: mean when I do get the chance. I was asked
Speaker 4: to do a murderous grandmother her and I think that
Speaker 4: they thought I was going to be like, where's my gun?
Speaker 5: Like that.
Speaker 4: I had worked on a film and the first a
Speaker 4: d had this little, tiny voice and she talked like this,
Speaker 4: and at first you're like, how is she going to
Speaker 4: do this? And then after a while it became very
Speaker 4: very scary because you thought she was going to break.
Speaker 4: I did that similar right in. The director would just
Speaker 4: thought it was great because well, that's pretty scary. Where's
Speaker 4: my gun?
Speaker 2: Yes, Oh my gosh, what was that movie? There was
Speaker 2: one of those.
Speaker 1: Uh oh tonight you've been long to me, you know,
Speaker 1: And it was just the scariest song because it was
Speaker 1: it was in a movie about it. I can't think yeah,
Speaker 1: and it was it was set against this young girl
Speaker 1: who turned out to be a hatchet murderer and it
Speaker 1: was the scariest damn song in the world because of
Speaker 1: what it was depicting.
Speaker 3: Yeah, oh yeah, yeah, boy, context is everything, isn't it.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 1: If you're a fan of everything we do here at
Speaker 1: tuned in with Jim Cummings, you could support the show
Speaker 1: on Patreon for bonus exclusive podcasts, as well as early
Speaker 1: in ad free access to the show itself, prize drawings,
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Speaker 1: slash Jim Cummings podcast Do It Now.
Speaker 4: But you know, I mean all of that speech has
Speaker 4: of course helped me in doing adr when I have
Speaker 4: to go and reproduce what I've done on film, you know,
Speaker 4: doing any kind of animation and work. That's been a
Speaker 4: lot of you know, because you know, is it, how
Speaker 4: close is she? How far is she? You having to
Speaker 4: work on the micro all that. But one of the
Speaker 4: things that having all that speech definitely helped with was
Speaker 4: I speak languages I don't speak, you know. I people say,
Speaker 4: I've been asked by a director, Okay, let's hear some
Speaker 4: Native American. I'm like, well, that's kind of like me
Speaker 4: asking you can we hear some European, German, Italian? Which
Speaker 4: one I've spoken la Quota several times, Dine Sashawani Mick Mack.
Speaker 4: I mean, just languages that I have to learn by
Speaker 4: ear by wrote, you know, and and so yeah, it
Speaker 4: really was helpful to go through all of those voice
Speaker 4: did you go to did you go to voice acting school?
Speaker 2: Kind of?
Speaker 1: Well, I took a course once a long time ago,
Speaker 1: but I you know, I was, I was in speech
Speaker 1: as a kid, you know, I was really annoying as yeah. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but but I I did that and I just had
Speaker 1: an ear for it, I guess, you know.
Speaker 2: But yeah, I took a workshop.
Speaker 1: I took Andrea Romano's workshop, and uh, I think Genmy
Speaker 1: McSwain was in there a.
Speaker 2: Few times and that was it, you know.
Speaker 1: Then then I just you know, I I as far
Speaker 1: as any education, I just used to do impressions of
Speaker 1: my aunts and uncles. And you know I've said it before, Well,
Speaker 1: Leatherhead from Teenage Muntant Ninja Turtles is uh. I was
Speaker 1: a deckhand on the riverboat in New Orleans for a
Speaker 1: long time.
Speaker 2: And he was he was the Leon LeBlanc.
Speaker 1: He was from down Dan Napo Joe, Louisiana, and he
Speaker 1: was he was Leatherhead, the villain on the Teenage Muntant
Speaker 1: Ninja Turtles. So that's that was like my education, just
Speaker 1: imitating people and being annoying, right, you.
Speaker 4: Know, And that's something too like I I can only
Speaker 4: do impressions of people that I know, Hm, hmm, like
Speaker 4: I have this friend who talks like this, you know,
Speaker 4: but it's and then and then it happened. I was
Speaker 4: like I was saying or doing a quote and apparently
Speaker 4: I could do Trump. And then I was like, okay,
Speaker 4: enough never I never did it again.
Speaker 6: That really good Trump impression. Frank Frank kell Yando does
Speaker 6: a hilarious one. Who was that, Jim Maskum does you
Speaker 6: can't give us a little one?
Speaker 2: Oh my gosh, you got to give us a little Trump.
Speaker 4: I'd have to like find a quote and then I
Speaker 4: could do it. But then you have to hear what
Speaker 4: he was saying.
Speaker 1: Okay, call us up right now and quick get on
Speaker 1: the phone. There's a strange man in the corner signaling something.
Speaker 1: I don't know what he saying.
Speaker 6: But do you ever use those impressions of your friends
Speaker 6: and family and your work?
Speaker 4: Uh?
Speaker 5: Yes?
Speaker 4: I mean well, just just like I had mentioned how
Speaker 4: I took the ad and turn it into a murderous grandmother.
Speaker 5: You we do a lot.
Speaker 4: I think we do a lot of that, don't know. Yeah,
Speaker 4: it's like, okay, well I'm kind of hearing this person
Speaker 4: that I know in this set of words. And then
Speaker 4: and and you just kind of place it there, you know.
Speaker 1: So yeah, and then you know acting is reacting Yeah,
Speaker 1: and you know if you hear something, you react to it.
Speaker 1: You go back and forth. Did you always always know
Speaker 1: you would end up here doing this?
Speaker 4: No, I was. I was very shy, very studious. I
Speaker 4: studied physics and philosophy first wow and then but my
Speaker 4: whole entire family a lot of a lot of indigenous
Speaker 4: peoples of America. We have the highest capita that joined
Speaker 4: the military. So my whole entire family a military right.
Speaker 4: My grandfather on my father's side served World War One.
Speaker 4: My grandfather on my dad's side was one of the
Speaker 4: Alaska Natives that they plucked from the village. When the
Speaker 4: Japanese invaded US. In World War Two, they spent sent
Speaker 4: more than more troops in the beaches of Normandy there,
Speaker 4: and then my father was Korea and Vietnam, and my
Speaker 4: brothers where Iraq. My sister massa sergeant in the Air Force.
Speaker 4: But I realized that I.
Speaker 2: Was thank you there for their service.
Speaker 3: God bless again.
Speaker 4: My name means peace. She's the Goddess of peace. So
Speaker 4: I realized that the majority of jobs that at that
Speaker 4: time in the eighties, uh I was a female.
Speaker 2: For one, ah, yes, I see where you go.
Speaker 4: And then for two, the majority of those jobs were
Speaker 4: going to be in defense contracting. And that's not really
Speaker 4: why I wanted. Why I was putting physics and philosophy together.
Speaker 4: I was really searching for that interconnectedness that which you know,
Speaker 4: now we've learned all of these new things, and so
Speaker 4: I still keep up on the physics. But no, I
Speaker 4: was the oldest child and the oldest grandchild, and in
Speaker 4: order to keep everyone together, I started writing plays when
Speaker 4: I was ten years old, and just like so I
Speaker 4: knew everybody was like your entrance is from here, here's
Speaker 4: your mine. You know. I just kept everybody in order.
Speaker 4: But and then always did it. In junior high, in
Speaker 4: high school, I was in the Anchorage Civic Opera and this,
Speaker 4: you know, my high school swing choir. We went to
Speaker 4: Europe and traveled everywhere. So you're a singer, Yeah, I did.
Speaker 4: I do sing, and you know it, it was something
Speaker 4: it's something that I love doing. But I you know,
Speaker 4: at this point, I'm focusing on on doing the producing,
Speaker 4: in the in the storytelling in that way.
Speaker 2: So oh yehow well that's great.
Speaker 1: So you're on both sides of the camera and both
Speaker 1: sides of the microphone.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and that's why you know, I uh started the
Speaker 4: production company was being able to herald a story from
Speaker 4: from you know, the seed and to to and the
Speaker 4: thought to to then putting it out into the world
Speaker 4: and letting it go. And I really enjoy putting people
Speaker 4: together that you know that I, you know, worked on
Speaker 4: hundreds of projects and so I have so many different
Speaker 4: people that I've worked with that you know, I can't
Speaker 4: wait for this person to work with this person, you know,
Speaker 4: or and to put put everyone together is something that your.
Speaker 1: Love of storytelling just carries you through so much of this. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it sounds like that's that's a beautiful tradition. Yeah, that's nice.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 6: I learned something interesting about you in my research that
Speaker 6: you were in a music video for Beyonce and jay Z.
Speaker 6: What were they like? Are you allowed to say?
Speaker 2: Yes?
Speaker 4: Interestingly enough, I actually didn't film with them. Oh no,
Speaker 4: I filmed in the same day that they were filming
Speaker 4: in that same church, but I didn't My my scenes
Speaker 4: weren't with them. I play Ava du Verney. I guess
Speaker 4: had become a fan and then but especially of what
Speaker 4: I was finally, you know, saying on Twitter and or
Speaker 4: social media, and it's decided that she wanted me to
Speaker 4: be the president of the United States four hundred and
Speaker 4: forty four years from now. And I was actually out
Speaker 4: at the anniversary of celebration or ceremony for Standing Rock
Speaker 4: for the events that happened out at Standing Rock years ago.
Speaker 6: Sorry for the for the ignorant like me, what is that?
Speaker 4: So in twenty sixteen, the the Lakota people, the Standing
Speaker 4: Rock Suit people, stopped a pipeline from going through.
Speaker 6: Yeah, oh okay, I remember that.
Speaker 4: Yeah, okay, yeah, and they sent in troops and it
Speaker 4: was it was a many many days standoff anyway. So
Speaker 4: I was there and out of the blue, I get
Speaker 4: this call saying, hey, can you get to New York
Speaker 4: by Monday. I'm like, yeah, okay for Ava Duvarney. And
Speaker 4: I didn't know what it was. And when I showed.
Speaker 6: Up, you kneho she was.
Speaker 4: Though I knew I knew who Ava was, I didn't
Speaker 4: know what it was for. It was the untitled Ava
Speaker 4: DuVernay project. And when I got there that's when I
Speaker 4: learned that it was Jay Z and Beyonce.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 6: Wow, that's cool. But you didn't get to meet them.
Speaker 4: No, did not get to meet them.
Speaker 3: Well, they didn't get to meet you.
Speaker 2: Let's put it. Let's get perspective.
Speaker 6: I wanted some dirt. I wanted some dirt on the illuminati.
Speaker 2: You can make something up.
Speaker 6: I'm joking. I'm joking. Don't sue me.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, Oh my gosh, that's amazing. Well, you've had
Speaker 1: quite a interesting career, that, aren't you amazing?
Speaker 4: You know, if you ever hear me say I'm bored,
Speaker 4: then I have gone insane.
Speaker 6: Sure do you have like a dream role or character
Speaker 6: or story you want to tell?
Speaker 4: Well, there are several that I have in the in
Speaker 4: the bucket for the production company that are you know,
Speaker 4: in line for telling these stories. One that I am
Speaker 4: still continuing to harold and potentially working with the French
Speaker 4: production company is the story of Molly Spotted Elk, who
Speaker 4: was the first Native American indigenous silent movie star. And
Speaker 4: she was a dancer on vaudeville and realized when she
Speaker 4: was there that she wasn't going to be able to
Speaker 4: perform her traditional dances and be an artist as an
Speaker 4: indigenous woman, and had spent a lot of time with
Speaker 4: jazz musicians and artists in New York and they all said,
Speaker 4: go to Paris, and so she went to Paris and
Speaker 4: became amused for sculptors and married a French journalist, Archambau
Speaker 4: was his name. And then the Germans invaded and she
Speaker 4: had to escape over the Pyrenees mountains with her child.
Speaker 4: And so just this epic story, right, and she became
Speaker 4: the holder of the punop Scot peoples like culture and
Speaker 4: knowledge and dance and tradition and just beautiful story and
Speaker 4: kind of an epic story. So that's one that I've
Speaker 4: been holding on to that I want, I'm really looking
Speaker 4: forward to getting made one day.
Speaker 2: Yeah, right on, yeah, right on, cheers.
Speaker 1: You know, I cannot think of his name, but he
Speaker 1: another Native American actor. He was He played Tonto in
Speaker 1: The Lone Ranger.
Speaker 3: Who oh, j Silver Heels no the movie.
Speaker 1: I'm sorry, oh oh, And I cannot think of his name.
Speaker 3: But oh god, somebody here call up right now and
Speaker 3: tell us.
Speaker 2: But he made this movie.
Speaker 1: It was The Lone Ranger, I think Clinton Spillsbury or whatever.
Speaker 1: It was the last one, like maybe twenty years ago.
Speaker 1: And he told the story that you know, the director said, well,
Speaker 1: you know, a Lone Ranger has been hurt. He's really bad,
Speaker 1: and perhaps you can if you know some some healing
Speaker 1: songs or you know this or that that that hid
Speaker 1: from his Native American heritage.
Speaker 2: And he goes, well, I'm not going to say these.
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna you know, just it would be sacrilege
Speaker 1: to do it with this goofy guy here.
Speaker 2: He's some some guy with a mask. And I'm faithful
Speaker 2: in you, companion. If you call me that, I'll kill you.
Speaker 1: And and he said, uh, I'll tell you what, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'll sing some stuff for you. And there were other
Speaker 1: Native American guys on the set and he started singing
Speaker 1: these songs and they bust up laughing, and he and
Speaker 1: he goes, what the hell?
Speaker 2: What the director stopped? Cut, cut, cut, what's the matter?
Speaker 3: And he goes, he goes, do you know what he
Speaker 3: just said?
Speaker 2: And he said no.
Speaker 1: He goes, please don't let this honky die before he
Speaker 1: signs my pay check.
Speaker 4: Not bad, that's really good. Yeah, fun facts to.
Speaker 2: Know and tell. Oh my gosh, anyway, that's yes.
Speaker 6: I was thinking about this on the drive in this morning.
Speaker 6: The question for both of you, who is one person
Speaker 6: that you've worked with that really inspired you or you've
Speaker 6: learned a lot from m boy.
Speaker 2: Hmm.
Speaker 4: I mean in a way that's like for me that
Speaker 4: the question of like what's your favorite project movie you've
Speaker 4: ever done? And it's like this, like ask my favorite
Speaker 4: child is because every single one I I go in
Speaker 4: with so much like what can I what can I
Speaker 4: learn from this? You know?
Speaker 3: So my favorite is the next one, you.
Speaker 1: Know, honestly, I mean because you know, I kind of
Speaker 1: knew that I would always do this and hoped. But
Speaker 1: that's all you can do is hope and then try
Speaker 1: and then act on that hope and then knock on
Speaker 1: lots of wood and say your prayers and do your research,
Speaker 1: and so yeah, my favorite is the next one.
Speaker 4: Yeah, Well, and then I have a whole like for
Speaker 4: me beginning in the nineties, you know, I had such
Speaker 4: a small group of people who had been through I
Speaker 4: guess the till that I was going through, right, So Buffy,
Speaker 4: Saint Marie and Tantu Cardinal and you know others that
Speaker 4: could sort of give me that some some you know,
Speaker 4: mentorship in a way with you know what, with everything,
Speaker 4: and and I I think we went through such a
Speaker 4: tremendous time. Jane Fonda really pushing a lot of that
Speaker 4: that was Lakota Woman's Siege at Wounded ne which I
Speaker 4: was not named for the Golden Globe for she heralded
Speaker 4: a slew of native films that were brought brought onto
Speaker 4: TN T and and and then of course, you know,
Speaker 4: we have as we've moved forward, we've come through spaces
Speaker 4: and time where where now we have reservation dogs. We
Speaker 4: have other stories that where we finally have gotten into,
Speaker 4: you know, seeing some of the comedy. There's one called
Speaker 4: North of North and it's set in Alaska, in this
Speaker 4: north Northern village, and and all of the characters are
Speaker 4: are Alaska Native. And it's just I just love seeing
Speaker 4: where we've gone to from this sort of where I
Speaker 4: come from, a sort of the manifest destiny characters, to
Speaker 4: now where we can have these full, three dimensional characters
Speaker 4: that are flawed and funny, you know.
Speaker 1: Yes, yes, you know, yeah, it doesn't have to be
Speaker 1: so serious. Yeah, yeah, we can lighten up now we've
Speaker 1: made it. Yeah, gotcha, Yeah.
Speaker 2: That makes sense, that makes sense.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Well from all that pain, you know, comes a lot
Speaker 1: of beauty, doesn't it.
Speaker 4: It does.
Speaker 1: I mean, it just seems to be that way. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, I know the Irish first came over here,
Speaker 1: and they were they were used to build dams and
Speaker 1: railroads and everything, you know, and I'm I'm glad some
Speaker 1: of my relatives made it through all that.
Speaker 3: And they they were they were used as kind of
Speaker 3: like the.
Speaker 4: Irish was the low, considered the low of the low.
Speaker 2: Yeah, they were. Yeah, they were. Damn can you believe that?
Speaker 4: Yeah? I know when I first So when I first
Speaker 4: came from Alaska to Philadelphia and my I was like, okay, well,
Speaker 4: there aren't any indigenous people here one of the oldest
Speaker 4: cities in America, right, But I found you know, Seamus
Speaker 4: and Fergie and they and they had their Gaelic words
Speaker 4: and their funny jokes and there, and I was like,
Speaker 4: that's when I first it first hit me that wait
Speaker 4: a minute, we all come from tribes.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, oh that's for sure. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Well they were very expendable because you always get
Speaker 1: a free irishman.
Speaker 2: They were.
Speaker 1: They were getting off the boat air come on over Sean, here,
Speaker 1: dig this hole, you know, and if you and if
Speaker 1: something happens to him and he gets washed away, shame us.
Speaker 3: You're not You're up, come on, you know.
Speaker 1: So, yeah, I think we've all taken a turn at
Speaker 1: the at the in the pits.
Speaker 2: You know, it just seems to be the way, right.
Speaker 4: No, I think that's life. Yeah, I think, you know,
Speaker 4: how are we to learn anything unless we fail a
Speaker 4: bunch of times? And then life is is not fair,
Speaker 4: It is difficult.
Speaker 1: You might be onto something there, I'm gonna write that down,
Speaker 1: or you're not kidding, you are not kidding.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Did you ever have like the worst experience in the business.
Speaker 1: I mean, because everybody's got their greatest hits and here
Speaker 1: and there, but and once, every now and then, something
Speaker 1: will happen and you go, oh, man, what the hell?
Speaker 4: Well, I think in a way, my my very first
Speaker 4: film was a Trial by Fire, and you know, the
Speaker 4: producer on that was we were way over scheduled, and
Speaker 4: and I think he, you know, he apparently used every epic,
Speaker 4: you know, every bomb you could think of to keep
Speaker 4: to get things to go. And so after that, everything
Speaker 4: just felt like a cake walk in comparison, especially doing animation,
Speaker 4: you know, I mean, and and also an animation. You know,
Speaker 4: I'm out in the woods, in the rain and the
Speaker 4: elements and on the ocean, you know, and and I
Speaker 4: can be a female, you know, general, fighting alien bugs
Speaker 4: in the future. I can be you know, I can
Speaker 4: be an archaeologist and you know, and for the Anes
Speaker 4: Sauzy and Scooby Doo, you know what I mean, Like
Speaker 4: it was, it was a little more imaginative. It is
Speaker 4: a little bit more imaginative.
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Speaker 6: Do it now you have a preference of on camera
Speaker 6: or voice acting.
Speaker 4: I mean, at the end of the day, yeah, it
Speaker 4: is a little bit more comfortable going to his studio
Speaker 4: and you know, and getting through a whole episode of
Speaker 4: something in a day. Yeah, it's those two ten days
Speaker 4: or fourteen days.
Speaker 2: There's something to be said for that. Yeah.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 4: So I do love especially an episodic where you've done
Speaker 4: episodic where we actually get together in a room instead
Speaker 4: of just being alone. I know, because when you're alone
Speaker 4: it is all about your imagination, with the help of
Speaker 4: course the directors and and and the script. But when when,
Speaker 4: when we're all in a studio together, we just start
Speaker 4: riffing off each other and it just becomes so much more.
Speaker 2: It's so much better.
Speaker 1: Yeah really, yeah, yeah, I missed that. And of course
Speaker 1: COVID knocked us all up.
Speaker 4: Yeah that that's not happening anymore, and that.
Speaker 2: Still hasn't really bounced back.
Speaker 1: The only thing I'm doing on a steady basis Mickey
Speaker 1: Mouse Clubhouse or out house.
Speaker 2: Whichever one.
Speaker 1: We're on a lot of a lot of mouse and
Speaker 1: mice out there, but and we're always alone. Everybody flies solo.
Speaker 1: I mean, you might see somebody coming in as you're leaving.
Speaker 1: But I don't know. I think COVID scared us all
Speaker 1: I'm not doesn't bother me. I had it, didn't even
Speaker 1: know it.
Speaker 4: So yeah, I'm working on Nickelodeon something I can't talk
Speaker 4: about yet. But but that was my first experience of
Speaker 4: doing an episodic alone. I was like, oh.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, yeah, no fair.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Well, you know it all comes out in the wash,
Speaker 1: doesn't it.
Speaker 6: Yeah, I feel like it just it's gonna take some
Speaker 6: smash hit show where they decide, you know what, we're
Speaker 6: all going to record in a room together and everybody's
Speaker 6: gonna love it, and then Hollywood be like, oh, maybe
Speaker 6: maybe we should start doing this again. Yeah yeah, yeah yeah,
Speaker 6: Or or somebody has to go up to them and
Speaker 6: be like, hey, you can save a whole bunch of
Speaker 6: money if you do this, and they'll be like, okay,
Speaker 6: let's do that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that'll do it.
Speaker 4: I got to direct Autry Museum does the radio plays
Speaker 4: of original you know, original works, and so I got
Speaker 4: to direct one of them years years ago. But I
Speaker 4: to work with the fully artist and oh, everyone up
Speaker 4: on stage reading, you know, doing this the stage reading,
Speaker 4: you know, being recorded, and just such so much fun,
Speaker 4: so much fun.
Speaker 2: Fully artists.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, they have fun, don't they.
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, I'm sure you've seen them do it and
Speaker 1: everything and they're they're trubbing trucking through sand and here's
Speaker 1: the gravel pit, and here's the swamp, which is you know,
Speaker 1: like a basin, and they're chomping around in mud and everything,
Speaker 1: and it's it's so cool and what.
Speaker 2: A cool gig.
Speaker 6: I've always found their work so fascinating and imaginative. I
Speaker 6: just saw this clip on social media the other day
Speaker 6: and it was the fully artist for Dune, the Dune movies,
Speaker 6: Oh gosh, And they made this busy you know, the
Speaker 6: for the sound of the propellers of one of the
Speaker 6: ships like taking off. It was like a mix of
Speaker 6: like a dragonfly and a hummingbird. And they literally like
Speaker 6: designed this instrument where when they waved it through the air,
Speaker 6: it would like vibrate but kind of sound like a bug.
Speaker 6: It also sound mechanical, and I was like, how cool
Speaker 6: is that? You know, Like it was like, no, it
Speaker 6: was like a device that they you know, they probably
Speaker 6: derived it from something like that, but it was like
Speaker 6: something that they made just so it could produce this
Speaker 6: unique sound.
Speaker 3: Yeah wow.
Speaker 6: Or like you know, on like Mortal Kombat, they're like
Speaker 6: smashing water melons to make it sound like skulls. You
Speaker 6: think of, like, oh, what's going to sound like a
Speaker 6: skull smashing?
Speaker 2: Yeah? Ouch?
Speaker 4: Yeah, that's the art of fully yes yeah.
Speaker 6: Or the Folly Show at Universal Studios. That's like one
Speaker 6: of my favorite shows to go to. They like bring
Speaker 6: somebody up on stage and they play a clip of
Speaker 6: a movie and they have like drums and bongos and
Speaker 6: stuff and they're like, okay, try and make this sound.
Speaker 6: And then there's always the I don't know if that
Speaker 6: show is still there or not, but at the very
Speaker 6: end there's like a scene where somebody throws a pot
Speaker 6: at somebody and then they have to hit the pan.
Speaker 6: But during the show when they bring the audience member up,
Speaker 6: they never changed like the timing of it. So usually
Speaker 6: it's like way off. And when they play the clip back,
Speaker 6: it's like so comedic because like the panel hit and
Speaker 6: then you hear the.
Speaker 1: Dong yeah, yeah, yeah, that's always good to see when
Speaker 1: when it's like, oops.
Speaker 2: Screwed that up.
Speaker 1: I remember Barnabas called there was a soap operas used
Speaker 1: to be Are they live now still souper?
Speaker 2: I mean, I don't think so.
Speaker 1: But there was one back of Dark Shadows, that's what
Speaker 1: it was, and it was it was a live show.
Speaker 1: I don't I have no idea why, and they were
Speaker 1: trying to shoot. There was a vampire getting ready to
Speaker 1: shot and he went like this, and he shot the
Speaker 1: bullet and and smoke came out and then bang. Any
Speaker 1: guy's going, uh yeah, okay, yeah, take.
Speaker 2: That the show, you know, keep on going.
Speaker 3: Well, that's one good thing about voiceover, you can just.
Speaker 2: Fix it.
Speaker 4: Yeah, have so have you ever thought about this? I
Speaker 4: did this book on tape, and it was four days,
Speaker 4: I think, you know, eight hour days of reading and
Speaker 4: it was set in the near dystopian future with like
Speaker 4: an African American soldier and this group that was like
Speaker 4: kind of very folk that you know, had built a
Speaker 4: try I mean, just all these different characters. And I
Speaker 4: think after day two, day three, maybe I was driving
Speaker 4: back and I couldn't I had an existential crisis. I
Speaker 4: couldn't find my own voice. I was like, and then
Speaker 4: I was like, but why what is this my voice? Why?
Speaker 4: Why is this my voice?
Speaker 1: Like?
Speaker 4: Why did I choose this to be my voice when
Speaker 4: I can do all these other voices? Why did I
Speaker 4: settle on this one?
Speaker 6: Oh that's interesting?
Speaker 2: Wow? Great? Thanks?
Speaker 4: But you know, probably has to do with you know,
Speaker 4: where you read your resting voice, you know where?
Speaker 2: Yeah? Probably whatever.
Speaker 4: I believe this is my voice.
Speaker 1: You sound a lot like you. Thank you, you really do.
Speaker 1: It's very beautiful. It's a wonderful thing.
Speaker 6: Well, Jimmy, you talked about before how it's it's kind
Speaker 6: of weird for you to like do your own voice
Speaker 6: in a character. Yeah, you know, because you're so yeah,
Speaker 6: your range is so massive and like playing a cartoon,
Speaker 6: you almost want to be animated.
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, I remember, I can't even think.
Speaker 1: It might have been a Bunker's episode, but uh I
Speaker 1: was a doorman. Uh in they were they were doing something.
Speaker 1: I don't know what they were doing, but they were
Speaker 1: going in out of a hotel and they said, oh,
Speaker 1: Jim be the doorman, and I go, oh, okay, well
Speaker 1: was he from New York?
Speaker 4: Is?
Speaker 3: No, just use your own voice? And I went, what's that?
Speaker 2: What's that supposed to mean?
Speaker 5: Kind of crap?
Speaker 4: Is that?
Speaker 6: What do you mean?
Speaker 2: Use my own voice?
Speaker 5: But you like this one?
Speaker 2: Oh? No, no, you wouldn't want that one. So I
Speaker 2: don't know.
Speaker 4: So for years I went on tour with my husband,
Speaker 4: we did music together, and that to me. So when
Speaker 4: you're doing theater, there's the third wall. I mean every
Speaker 4: I mean, in our town, I broke the third wall
Speaker 4: all the time. But you know, I was used to
Speaker 4: it by that point. But I'm never like with doing
Speaker 4: performing music. Performing like that, you have to you know,
Speaker 4: eye contact, connecting with the audience and you know, again
Speaker 4: going back to that, I'm I'm shy, you know, thing
Speaker 4: like it was such a huge hurdle to get over
Speaker 4: because you know it's like, oh no, I mean, I'm
Speaker 4: just me, you know, I'm just I mean, I'm the
Speaker 4: one over here who does all these other other people
Speaker 4: and gets to you know, be brave and do all
Speaker 4: these things and said has the right words to say
Speaker 4: because there's a script, you know.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's good.
Speaker 4: To hide behind, You're right, but yeah, it is an
Speaker 4: interesting quality to to realize that, you know, what we
Speaker 4: what makes us imaginative also probably or in a lot
Speaker 4: of our come from a lot of what we had
Speaker 4: to grow up with, you know, being shy or what
Speaker 4: it is, you know.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, well who was it? There was that joke
Speaker 1: about Charlie Brown. He was getting picked on or something
Speaker 1: and and by a group of kids. I can't remember
Speaker 1: how it went, but he started a discussion group and
Speaker 1: got himself out of it.
Speaker 3: You know, it's like he was his exit.
Speaker 1: He started it, you know, to distract the bulletiser or
Speaker 1: something like that. And it was a good little uh,
Speaker 1: good little cover.
Speaker 2: Right. Yeah, it's always good to have that.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 6: So for Pocahontas, they modeled Pocahontas his face after yours correct.
Speaker 4: So they recorded all the recordings? Do they do they
Speaker 4: record for you? Did they record for when you were
Speaker 4: doing Father Powaton?
Speaker 3: Oh you made video video?
Speaker 2: Yeah? Oh no, no, no, I think I think they did.
Speaker 2: Perhaps Russell they did.
Speaker 6: Oh yeah, Honda, they used your face they did.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, so my star wars.
Speaker 3: I really hope I don't look a lot like him.
Speaker 4: Yeah. Anyway, I know that they were. They were, they
Speaker 4: recorded the recording sessions, and then Glenn Keen would talked
Speaker 4: about that he you know, would use it for Disney Animated. Yeah,
Speaker 4: all that you know, married to his wife who he
Speaker 4: fashioned a little mermaid after two.
Speaker 3: So oh I didn't know that.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Wow.
Speaker 1: Well, you know, I remember when Pocahontas came out and
Speaker 1: Russell Means was on Entertainment tonight, and I remember thinking,
Speaker 1: what the heck is he talking about? Because I did
Speaker 1: the singing. I was I was your dad, uh singing?
Speaker 1: Instead he has to be ingram and beautiful, beautiful song.
Speaker 1: And I thought that was like a hymn.
Speaker 2: Uh. It felt like I was in church when when
Speaker 2: I heard that song.
Speaker 1: And and I don't know if he was kind of
Speaker 1: busting Disney's chops. I know he I hadn't met him
Speaker 1: at that time, and uh, and they were asking him, well.
Speaker 2: What was it like?
Speaker 1: Was a great time, I mean, you know, getting to
Speaker 1: tell this classic story and and here you are the chief,
Speaker 1: your father of Pocahontas.
Speaker 3: And he goes, well, my favorite thing was all the singing.
Speaker 2: I think you weasel.
Speaker 4: Oh no, he was saying that, yes.
Speaker 3: Yes, oh yeah, he did all the singing.
Speaker 1: I really enjoyed the singing, you know, Okay, well, okay,
Speaker 1: I gave him the single digit salute and you know
Speaker 1: it's but then I ended up, I don't know, if.
Speaker 2: I don't know what happened.
Speaker 3: I ended up being the speaking and singing in the sequels.
Speaker 4: Sequels.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that was fun. That was a lot of fun. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And I have to tell you that was one
Speaker 1: of my favorite gigs because what happened is they sold
Speaker 1: a grillion of those album albums.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and I had a duet on and it was
Speaker 3: with myself.
Speaker 1: Yeah, because I was Gordon toutosis and Russell means and.
Speaker 6: I pay you as two people.
Speaker 2: Shame.
Speaker 3: I mean, that was my favorite soundtrack ever.
Speaker 2: Thank you.
Speaker 6: Did you guys ever record together? Did you two ever
Speaker 6: record together separately?
Speaker 4: No? I did one recording session with Russell. I think
Speaker 4: he wanted he wanted to get that.
Speaker 2: Sure anybody would.
Speaker 4: But people always ask me, you know, so what was
Speaker 4: it like working with Mel Gibson? And I'm like, I
Speaker 4: did a whole entire romance movie with the man and
Speaker 4: I've never met him, so I don't I was going
Speaker 4: to ask you that, you know, and I have to explain,
Speaker 4: you know, about how we work, you know, alone in
Speaker 4: the studio. And I got to it when you know,
Speaker 4: at Buena Vista, I was coming out of my session
Speaker 4: and Linda Hunt was coming in.
Speaker 2: Oh, you know, grandmother Tree. That's amazing. Yeah.
Speaker 1: And uh and then as far as everybody thinks Mel
Speaker 1: Gibson this great singer, because Jess Harnell saying.
Speaker 3: Yeah, he was the one who sang for mel Gibson.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so yeah, it's funny how that works.
Speaker 2: A lot of us are stunt singers.
Speaker 4: But you did your own singing, correct, non j d
Speaker 4: Cune I think was on board. She was on board
Speaker 4: to do the singing. Voice. She was on she had
Speaker 4: just Chess and Sunset Boulevard just really bursting out right
Speaker 4: at that time. So I think that she's perfect. Yeah, my, my,
Speaker 4: traditional singing. I think might have fought a little bit
Speaker 4: with with yeah, with the Broadway because I because I
Speaker 4: don't I don't have that Broadway belt, so I don't.
Speaker 4: That's not it's much more indigenous and or soft. It's like,
Speaker 4: you know, poetic and soft.
Speaker 2: Yeah, well there you go.
Speaker 6: Did they did you have to sing for them for
Speaker 6: them to make that decision?
Speaker 4: I did sing, but I think, as I mentioned, I
Speaker 4: think that they had hired Gud already, so yeah.
Speaker 6: So they were just like, we don't even need to hear.
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, yeah, she's awesome. That the wind. I mean,
Speaker 4: it's a powerhouse of a song that you know, this.
Speaker 6: Day, iconic period.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Now I'll have that in my head, I know.
Speaker 1: You know, which is that's what their job is, right, yeah,
Speaker 1: sandwiches sand which is yeah, I remember writing the words
Speaker 1: to that, and and did I don't want to repeat myself,
Speaker 1: but but they were I was there when they were
Speaker 1: finishing up the lyrics, and they didn't have savages savages
Speaker 1: and and and they were sandwiches sent which is that's
Speaker 1: a good rhyme what rhymes with sandwiches?
Speaker 2: And they're come out.
Speaker 1: I'll have him on rye, you know, and they were
Speaker 1: just putting in lyrics just as placeholders until they came
Speaker 1: up with the lyrics, and I was thinking, so this
Speaker 1: is how you win Academy Awards.
Speaker 2: Really is that?
Speaker 1: Are you sure sandwiches sandwich is sending phylis noom and.
Speaker 4: What. Yeah, I might have preferred those lyrics. You do
Speaker 4: have to say that it was it was disconcerting to
Speaker 4: me that there was the possibility of a lot of
Speaker 4: children in the world running around singing savages savages. So
Speaker 4: it was very disconcerned.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well they put the I know, I know, but
Speaker 1: I know what you're saying.
Speaker 6: Yeah, what's what's your opinion on like the censorship of
Speaker 6: old things like that? Me personally, no, I think I
Speaker 6: think it should be left as is. But I like,
Speaker 6: I think Disney does Disney plus and they put like
Speaker 6: a little warning, a little disclaimer like this is not.
Speaker 4: Well it got the NPA rating for racism. Yeah, in
Speaker 4: the same year that Gone with the Wind got it.
Speaker 4: Really Yeah, so it was it was a tight rope
Speaker 4: that I've been walking for all these years. And and
Speaker 4: like again, the subject matter is about racism, right, it's
Speaker 4: you know, yeah, it's about you know that you the
Speaker 4: only you think the only people are people who look
Speaker 4: like and think like you. You know, So it really is,
Speaker 4: that's what it's about. But I think overall it introduced
Speaker 4: to the world the concepts of the indigenous indigenous life,
Speaker 4: and and I think it still resonates so much, especially
Speaker 4: when I see mothers or women who you know, who
Speaker 4: grew up with it. You know, generally they're in their
Speaker 4: thirties now because this was thirty one years ago, and
Speaker 4: and you know just how much it meant to them
Speaker 4: in a spiritual way, Like it meant something to them
Speaker 4: about her freedom, her the strength of stopping a war
Speaker 4: from happening, that a child could do this, you know.
Speaker 4: And I think also as far as the historical inaccuracies go,
Speaker 4: it created a whole bunch of teachers who went out
Speaker 4: there and said, this is what the real story is.
Speaker 4: So I believe any form of communication is good. I
Speaker 4: just think it is. It's a little space and time
Speaker 4: that we can't go back and change what we've done,
Speaker 4: and we shouldn't because we need to learn from far
Speaker 4: from our history, not erase it.
Speaker 1: I completely again, and not repeat it completely, because now
Speaker 1: you know what not to do exactly.
Speaker 6: And if you just act like it never happened, then
Speaker 6: we're doomed to repeat it again. That's right, I agree, Yeah,
Speaker 6: well said, well said. I totally believe that as well.
Speaker 1: If you're a fan of everything we do here at
Speaker 1: tuned In with Jim Cummings, you could support the show
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Speaker 1: slash Jim Cummings Podcast.
Speaker 2: Do it now?
Speaker 6: Should we do a little voice swap?
Speaker 2: Now?
Speaker 3: Okay?
Speaker 6: Sure, so you're you're familiar with this, right, you were
Speaker 6: alluding to it in the beginning that you were getting
Speaker 6: ready for what's coming.
Speaker 1: Okay, better look and see what I've got here, boy, hottie,
Speaker 1: she's got an important call.
Speaker 4: You have some to Oh, no, I got these are
Speaker 4: my where I put my little They're in the phone? Yeah?
Speaker 6: How about you get us started then?
Speaker 4: Okay, so there, and but who would you be doing
Speaker 4: because it really would make a difference of if you're
Speaker 4: because you know all.
Speaker 2: The like, well, I'll do the most inappropriate voice I
Speaker 2: think that'd be the way to go.
Speaker 4: And it's hard because I actually was like, okay, let's
Speaker 4: find some funny quotes, and you know, we have to
Speaker 4: actually go and research ourselves. Right. A lot of people
Speaker 4: just think that, you know, you've got this, you know,
Speaker 4: just right there, and I do have my my few
Speaker 4: things and that just like people asking me what's your
Speaker 4: favorite scene in the movie and me saying when she
Speaker 4: stops a war from happening, and you know, and having
Speaker 4: to do that on stage and and right at this
Speaker 4: time in history has been really interesting. So yeah, it's anyway.
Speaker 4: So okay, you know your path child, now follow it.
Speaker 4: That's actually grandmother Willow.
Speaker 1: Oh okay, well that's that I could that sounds like Tigger.
Speaker 3: So I'll do this line and then and then uh, and.
Speaker 2: Then I'll give you one.
Speaker 3: Okay, you know your past child, now bounce it. I
Speaker 3: love it just sounded just like her. Let's see.
Speaker 6: Who would you know who we don't do enough voice
Speaker 6: swamps with is Ray?
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, okay, yeah, that's true Ray from Princess and
Speaker 1: the Frog.
Speaker 2: Okay, now he was a Cajun firefly.
Speaker 1: And uh, I'll let dealer's choice with your response.
Speaker 2: But one of My favorite lines.
Speaker 5: Is you know, the women love a man with a
Speaker 5: big back poach.
Speaker 3: Yes, and yes he is talking about his bum.
Speaker 5: The women love a man with a big back poach.
Speaker 2: Have at you, let's hear it.
Speaker 6: So I say, you have to say, take one of
Speaker 6: your character voices.
Speaker 4: Mhm, because I did. I did kind of a Wicked
Speaker 4: Witch of the West slash Joan Rivers.
Speaker 3: Which is pokemon, which is redundant.
Speaker 6: You can you can do a couple, yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 4: So we can say it again.
Speaker 5: The women love a man with a big back poach.
Speaker 4: The women love a man with a big black porch.
Speaker 7: Black porch, Okay, I said back, but.
Speaker 6: I like black is even better.
Speaker 3: Kind of like that.
Speaker 6: You're gonna start saying that joke.
Speaker 7: Okay, everybody.
Speaker 2: Woman with the big.
Speaker 6: Is that which?
Speaker 2: I don't know who that was, but she she does.
Speaker 3: She do books on tape, I hope not.
Speaker 4: That was a little bit of the Wicked Witch of
Speaker 4: the West.
Speaker 2: Yes, yes, it was.
Speaker 3: Okay. Okay, well, well you give me a line and
Speaker 3: I'll figure out who to.
Speaker 6: Do it out.
Speaker 4: Okay, we are all connected to each other in a circle,
Speaker 4: in a hoop that never ends.
Speaker 2: Okay, who should cat talk? We Yeah, cat.
Speaker 7: Okay, we are all connected to each other in a
Speaker 7: circle and a hoop that never ends. And how the
Speaker 7: heck do these twop take a poop? Speaking of hoops anyway,
Speaker 7: I have no idea. Don't ask, don't look.
Speaker 2: Oh god, it never ends?
Speaker 3: What the poop?
Speaker 2: Never mind? Oh gosh, that's true. So thank you so
Speaker 2: much much for being here.
Speaker 4: So glad to be here.
Speaker 6: Thank you, Thank you everything that you want to do,
Speaker 6: I hope.
Speaker 1: So I was going to say, do you have anything
Speaker 1: you want to announce that you want to do and
Speaker 1: that's coming up, that's on the horizon, all the.
Speaker 6: Projects where people can find you anything like that stuff.
Speaker 4: Well, a film I did called baby Love just one
Speaker 4: best picture at the San Walka Film Festival.
Speaker 6: Wow, congratulations will be coming out Baby Love.
Speaker 4: I have quite a few in the can now. And
Speaker 4: then uh, things with my production company as well, Right
Speaker 4: On Productions, Yes, yes, what Iron Woman Productions.
Speaker 6: You know.
Speaker 4: I was looking for a name and I thought, you know,
Speaker 4: tiny but mighty, I'm looking for all these names for
Speaker 4: my production. I had one in Alaska and then we
Speaker 4: lost our film tax incentives, so I had to reincorporate
Speaker 4: here and trying to figure out a name, and my
Speaker 4: cree name is iron Woman, and that was like, of
Speaker 4: course that was the last one. But you know, after
Speaker 4: for forty five minutes of thinking of different names and
Speaker 4: looking up to see whether it was available, and we're like, well,
Speaker 4: I mean, there's no way iron Woman is going to
Speaker 4: be available, like Marvel would have thought.
Speaker 2: Right, first thing I thought of, Yeah.
Speaker 4: So it's iron Woman productions. Wow, we have we have
Speaker 4: a few productions coming up. We have six parts of series.
Speaker 4: Christmas Killers is the first killers, Death of Death is
Speaker 4: a living Yeah, what's based on well, yeah, hopefully Christmas. Yeah,
Speaker 4: and then I have I have a few. I have
Speaker 4: a few in the in the works, so yeah, right on, we'll.
Speaker 6: Be looking forward to it.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 6: Well, thank you all for watching another episode of Tuned
Speaker 6: In with Jim Cummings. We really appreciate you watching. And
Speaker 6: I have a little bone to pick with some of you.
Speaker 6: I'm looking at the YouTube analytics and a lot of
Speaker 6: you watching art subscribed and that's not good for yourself
Speaker 6: because YouTube is a weird website. You know, you can
Speaker 6: watch something on YouTube and then it's never recommended to
Speaker 6: you again, So make sure that doesn't happen. If you
Speaker 6: like this content and if you liked it so much
Speaker 6: that you want to see more good news, you can
Speaker 6: find tuneday with Jim Cummings on Patreon. We have bonus interviews,
Speaker 6: we have contest giveaways, a whole bunch of extra stuff
Speaker 6: that you don't see anywhere else, So be sure to
Speaker 6: check that out. And with all that said and done,
Speaker 6: Actually almost forgot, but wait, we are doing the podcast
Speaker 6: live this year with fan Xpo.
Speaker 2: True, that's true, right be there.
Speaker 6: Yes, we get on the stage do the same things
Speaker 6: that we're doing right here, but you get to watch
Speaker 6: in the audience, and then we have some questions and
Speaker 6: answers at the end. The next show that we are
Speaker 6: doing is going to be in Calgary at Calgary Fan
Speaker 6: Expo April twenty third to the twenty sixth, followed by
Speaker 6: Philadelphia May twenty ninth to the thirty first, Chicago Fan
Speaker 6: Expo August four teenth to the sixteenth, Toronto. I believe
Speaker 6: that one's called It's called something else, but it's with
Speaker 6: Fan Expo. It's called Wonder Con. Oh could be yeah,
Speaker 6: Wonder I'm doing such a bad such a bad job advertising.
Speaker 6: But in Toronto August twenty seventh to the thirtieth, Dallas
Speaker 6: September eleventh to the thirteenth, and San Francisco November twenty
Speaker 6: seventh to the twenty ninth, with more dates to be announced,
Speaker 6: So be sure to check that out. It's a good time.
Speaker 6: I like doing it live. It's really fun.
Speaker 2: Yeah, a lot of people.
Speaker 6: Yeah. The last timefull we had like two thousand people
Speaker 6: in the room last time. Every time it gets bigger
Speaker 6: and bigger. It's been a great which is great. Yeah,
Speaker 6: it's good. Yeah to get that feedback. And it's great
Speaker 6: to work with Fan Expo. I mean they're great, They're
Speaker 6: so hospitable. It's always a great time, great, easy to spell.
Speaker 6: So be sure to check that out. And with all
Speaker 6: that said, said and done, once again, I'm producer Chris
Speaker 6: the Legend, mister Jim Cummings, Irene Bedart. Thank you so
Speaker 6: much for being here today and we will see you
Speaker 6: all in the next one. That was great.
Speaker 1: Our podcast has partnered with the largest comic con in
Speaker 1: North America, Fan Expo, the Juggernaut. We're touring all over
Speaker 1: North America live, so get your tickets and come be
Speaker 1: a part of the live audience.
Speaker 2: It'll be fun.
Speaker 1: Go to FANEXPOHQ dot com for the tickets. We'll see
Speaker 1: you in a city near you or a little bit away,
Speaker 1: but you can drive. Thanks for tuning in to tuned
Speaker 1: In with Jim Cummings