Semi-O/T: Billy West Interview

[cpdavison]

There's a Billy West INTERVIEW (http://www.avclub.com/content/node/81471/print/) over at the av club website.

Language advisory: Billy drops the F-bomb. Don't go there if that's problematic for you.

Craig D.

[jonmayo15]

When he says third-best Bugs Bunny in the world, who's the second?

[Brandon Panther]

Billy is lying when he says he's the 3rd best Bugs Bunny. The ranking goes like this:

1. Joe Alaskey
2. Greg Burson
3. Jeff Bergman
....
....
....
5,598. Billy West

And Billy was clearly lying when he said this:
I don't have that much of an ego where it's like "How dare you, you can't do something without me."

[cpdavison]

Billy is lying when he says he's the 3rd best Bugs Bunny. The ranking goes like this:

1. Joe Alaskey
2. Greg Burson
3. Jeff Bergman
....


Huh. I would've put Mel Blanc at #1, but that's just me...


Craig D.

[jonmayo15]

Huh. I would've put Mel Blanc at #1, but that's just me...


Craig D.
Maybe he's talking about living people, my guess. If so Billy West is in his place.

[Brandon Panther]

Well, yeah Mel is definetly #1, but yeah, I did mean living people, as I thought that's what Billy meant (and if he wasn't, well, that just makes me question is ego even more).

I probably shouldn't be so critical to Billy's voice work. His Bugs may not be great, but he's better than me at it. :shame:

[Mark J]

Well, yeah Mel is definetly #1, but yeah, I did mean living people, as I thought that's what Billy meant (and if he wasn't, well, that just makes me question is ego even more).

I probably shouldn't be so critical to Billy's voice work. His Bugs may not be great, but he's better than me at it. :shame:
But nobody is paying you to do it - he is supposed to be a professional voice actor, that is his job, and he can't do it.

[J. B. Warner]

I've heard people say that West's Bugs has gotten better since Space Jam (which was almost 12 years ago, after all), but I haven't heard any samples of it since then so I can't be sure. Still, the guy is an amazingly talented actor, regardless of his ability to recreate Mel Blanc's voices.

[CueBallCat79]

I've heard people say that West's Bugs has gotten better since Space Jam (which was almost 12 years ago, after all), but I haven't heard any samples of it since then so I can't be sure.

He voiced Bugs in "Bah Humduck" and he didn't do a very good job in that either.

[Greg Method]

I honestly don't think Billy was literally ranking himself as the third best Bugs voice but rather was just making a point of how an actor stepping in to succeed someone as an iconic character can't really "own" that role or enjoy any notoriety from it.

He was just using the "third best" description as a bit of an exaggeration. To use a non-acting example, it would be like if someone said "Celine Dion did the best cover of John Lennon's 'War Is Over' ever!"...granted nobody will ever say that, but you know what I mean.