 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
A Face Behind The Voice:
Cheryl Chase
by Michelle Klein-Häss
One of the first things you notice about Cheryl Chase is that
she really does bear a striking resemblance to the character Angelica
from the Nicktoons series Rugrats which she gave voice to for 65
episodes and two years. If she did up her shoulder-length blonde hair
in Angelica's trademark pigtails, the resemblance would be pretty
scary. And like Angelica, she is very strong-willed, a quality that has
kept her going in the nine years she has been working in Hollywood as
a voice actress and casting coordinator.
Cheryl's role as the imperious, bratty but nevertheless endearing 3-year-old from hell earned her an Emmy, but it has been her work as a baby vocal effects expert which has gotten her some of her most visible roles and actual movie credits. In the film Addams Family Values, she gave voice to Pubert Addams, the mustachioed,
indestructible baby, and she has also gurgled and cooed in such films as Baby Boom and The Naked Gun 33 1/3: The Final Insult.
But ask her who her greatest influence is, and she will reach
all the way back to the woman who inspired Betty Boop: '20s-era
vocalist Helen Kane. Cheryl is now in the process of putting together
a one-woman show on the original "boop boop a doop" girl, and has
been performing as a vocalist at local cabarets doing parts of the act.
Her big break in animation voice work came in 1989, when she
was involved in a dubbing project for Streamline Pictures on some of
their anime releases. Jerry Beck, who was at that point one of the
executives at Streamline, introduced her to a friend of his, who
had just gotten a contract with Nickelodeon to shoot a pilot: John
Kricfalusi. The pilot was "Big House Blues," which introduced Ren
& Stimpy to animation fans throughout the country in the "Animation
Celebration 1991" anthology. When she did the voice of the Little
Girl, she was making her living doing temporary clerical jobs. By
the time the series proper began shooting, she quickly became voice
talent coordinator/casting director for Spumco.
"It was hard for me to get into the animation voice-over
field out here...everyone hires the people they know, it's really
insular....I did a few little piddly things for Hanna-Barbera and
some Japanese company....Thank goodness for John....I owe so much to
him. (Right after "Big House") I was working temp jobs...I had just
been laid off from a temp assignment and was feeling a little down. I
called up Jerry, and said "let's go over to see John and watch the
pilot...that'll cheer me up." It was right at the time when it just
got finished. So I was watching it, and John leaned over to me
and said, "we're going into production, and I need people to help me.
You want a job?" I accepted, and that's how I started physically
working there. I started as a receptionist. Very soon after that, I
became casting director...rounding up people to work on the show,
talking to agents, supervising audition tapings...the whole thing."
As Spumco's casting director, she found herself seeing eye-to-
eye with John K.'s theories about animation voices: that a naturally
interesting, naturally funny voice can be as effective as the work of
a pro...provided the person with a naturally funny voice has a talent
for acting, and the ability to take direction.
"It's so much better when you can find someone with a
naturally interesting voice...say a stand-up comic that you hear who
has great timing and a naturally funny voice...that's how we got
Harris Peet. It's best when the character is part of who you are...
that it's coming out of part of you."
Cheryl gave voice to most of the adult female characters and
some of the little girls on R&S. Her favorite R&S role, however,
was "Wife," the reoccurring sitcom Mom character who is only shown
from the waist down in the cartoons "The Boy Who Cried Rat," "Rubber
Nipple Salesmen," and "Big Baby Scam." The very latter cartoon, where
she also did all the baby vocal effects, is perhaps her favorite
piece of work on the show.
"John really fought for me to get that role...for whatever
reason, Nickelodeon didn't think I could hack doing an adult woman's
voice. It was good to finally play a role with breasts...at least I
think she had them...kind of hard to tell when you don't see her upper
torso." she said, laughing.
It was her work with Spumco which brought her to the attention
of Klasky-Csupo Animation, which were developing another show for
Nicktoons -- Rugrats. She won the plum role of Angelica, the bane of
Tommy Pickles and the other babies' existence.
"It was fun...I never was bossy as a kid, so Angelica wasn't
taken from my own temperament as a child. But it was great to kind of
bring that aspect of myself out and get paid for it too....I guess
she was inside of me all along. I really didn't have to do much soul-
searching to find her."
Since "Rugrats" wrapped production, she has spent a lot of
time working on the Helen Kane project.
"I really admire her...she was great. I have been working on
putting together a one-woman show based on her life...I've actually
done parts of it for audiences and they all seem to love it. I'm
looking forward to this gig really soon where I will be singing at
this Betty Boop Festival in San Francisco, where they're going to show
all the pre-code Betty Boops. (see Animato! #24 for more about pre-code
animated shorts) I tried out for this recent attempt to do a Betty
Boop movie, (the project is now "in turnaround" and is awaiting new
backing since a shakeup at MGM.) and got really far in the competition
to do Betty's voice. (According to animator Mark Kausler, Bernadette
Peters was the final choice before the project was shelved) It was
when I was preparing to do the audition for Betty Boop that I began
digging into the history of the character and I came across the story
of Helen Kane.
"I mean, I wound up getting into her real-life story...how she
ended up in court fighting the Fleischers to get some kind of credit,
some kind of compensation, because Mae Questel was really imitating
her when she did Betty Boop. So now what I'm doing is going to clubs
with my accompanist, and doing all these songs Helen Kane made famous
in the 1920s. I'm not sure if eventually I'll be portraying Kane in
this show or just doing her music. I am even going to be doing this
act for Uncle Sam...for the USO. I didn't even have to explain the
act...they knew right off because I was in the get-up and everything.
I'm going to be performing at bases all over California, and if they
like me, maybe I'll get a chance to go overseas. That would be the
thrill of my life...taking this overseas."
You see a look of childlike wonder come over Ms. Chase's face,
and all the sudden, you understand just why she's one of the most
sought after people to do childrens' voices in cartoons...she might be
an adult, but Cheryl Chase refuses to grow up.
(This article originally appeared in Animato! Magazine #29, Summer, 1994.)
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Page last updated 1/15/1998
This web site was built by Catseye Creative Services, Ink.