Steve Blum, world renowned voice actor who has recently starred as Zeb in all seasons of ‘Star Wars Rebels’ has sat down with us for an interview after the series finale of the show to reflect on the show and his other projects, both past and upcoming.
INTERVIEWER: To begin the interview, how did you first get into voice acting?
Steve Blum: By accident! I had the deepest voice in a mailroom where I was working in the late 80s and the head of the room was casting a “Japanamation” thing. He needed a guy who could do creatures and could match the timing of the movement on screen in an anime called The Guyver. My music training gave me a pretty solid sense of rhythm, which translated well to the timing of the animation. They offered me free food to come audition. I was a starving musician at the time, so all I heard was “free food.” I booked it, then had to learn how to act on the job over the next couple of decades. Definitely the slow, painful way to do it, but it ultimately worked out. Just did it for fun for many many years until I actually got pretty good at it! I can now recommend a better *path. (*see below)
INTERVIEWER: In the past we’ve interviewed Vanessa Marshall who was a part of the Spectacular Spider Man cast and asked her if she would love to see a revival of that series, you voiced multiple roles on that series so I want to also ask you the question, would you like to see a Spectacular Spider Man revival and if it did, would you reprise your various roles and return to the project?
Steve Blum: Absolutely. One of my favorite gigs of all time. Stellar cast, great scripts, super fun sessions. I miss it. Would especially love to voice Gobby again!
INTERVIEWER: Additionally you have also voiced various iterations of the Wolverine character, what are some of your favourite times voicing that character and can we expect a potential return of the ‘Steve Blum Wolverine’ in the near future?
Steve Blum: I particularly loved working on Wolverine and the X-men, the Hulk vs Wolverine Movie and Super Hero Squad. Some of the fav memories include trading sweaty, dangerous, real time punches with the amazing Fred Tatasciore (Hulk), learning way more than I ever wanted to know about Nolan North’s (Deadpool) private parts, and obscene shadow puppetry with Charlie Adler (Doctor Doom). Ask each one of them about the specifics.
INTERVIEWER: Moving on to my personal favourite character you’ve voiced, Zeb in ‘Star Wars Rebels’, what can you firstly tell us about how you were cast as the voice of that character?
Steve Blum: Several auditions via email. Final callback at Disney. Then found out I’d booked it whilst in England for a Transformers convention. I recorded the Zeb short while still in England in a guy’s home studio in the suburbs. Didn’t realize it was actually Rebels until I walked into the booth and saw “Storm Troopers” referenced in the script. (cue fan boy squee) It was so highly confidential, it was the first time it was officially revealed to me what I was actually working on!
INTERVIEWER: Over the four seasons of Star Wars Rebels, what have been your thoughts on Zeb’s growth throughout that time and do you think we could see him potentially pop up in the Star Wars Universe again in the near future?
Steve Blum: His arc was truly unexpected. He seemed like he was there simply as the muscle – and of course as eye candy. Had no idea he’d become a true family member, find forgiveness for pain he’d been carrying for years, and get in touch with his own connection to the force (the Ashla). He was a complete, wonderful character to voice and I miss him terribly. I hope they find something else for him in the future. I’ll be ready and waiting by the phone.Karabast!
INTERVIEWER: What were your thoughts on the finished Star Wars Rebels Series Finale and how it dealt with the finale of that iteration of the characters?
Steve Blum: Masterful, heartbreaking and amazing. We had no idea how it would all flesh out until about a week before you guys saw it. Sad that it’s over, but at least Dave Filoni and the incredible team at Lucas were able to tell the story on their own terms. When Clone Wars ended prematurely the first time, as fans, the most important thing for us was to give this everything we had, complete this chapter, and if it only required four seasons to achieve that, we accepted that. It was beautiful and made me want to see more, but ended perfectly for now.
INTERVIEWER: Finally to end the interview, what can you share regarding any future upcoming projects that you have in the works?
Steve Blum: Most of my stuff I can’t talk about yet, (I’ll post when I’m allowed to) but I’m now teaching LIVE, affordable online *Voiceover Classes at blumvoxstudios.com. Please check it out. Lots of stuff in there for all levels. And please check out Niko and the Sword of Light on Amazon, Dorothy and the Wizard of Oz on Boomerang, Toonami every Saturday night on Adult Swim, Tangled on Disney Channel, Lion Guard and Doc McStuffins on Disney Jr. and Hip Hop superstar Logic’s albums – The Incredible True Story, Everybody and Young Sinatra 4.
Thanks for having me and thank you to the fans for your wonderful support for so many years!
