Billy West survived because of the voices in his head.
West, whose real name is William Richard Werstine is a voice actor – not just any voice actor, mind you, but probably the most famous voice actors you’ve never heard of.
His resume is impressive: Beany and Cecil, Ren and Stimpy, and Futurama’s Professor Farnsworth, Phillip J. Fry, Dr. Zoidbert, and Zapp Brannigan. West has lent his voice to Doug, Woody Woodpecker, Elmer Fudd, Popeye and Shaggy Rogers from Scooby Doo. He also voiced Bugs Bunny in the 1996 film Space Jam.
And in his spare time, he’s an M&M – the red one.
West spoke at Oklahoma's SoonerCon, a long-running pop culture convention. West was the convention’s headliner, telling crowds about his life, his addiction struggles and his career.
West had a lot to say.
My childhood was traumatic, but it led me to where I am today,” he said. “I just have horrific memories of my childhood.”
Born in Detroit, West, 71, struggled with ADHD and autism. “They didn’t have a name for it then,” he said.
West said he used cartoon voices helped him escape the pain. The voices entertained his mother and allowed West time to deal with his problems.
He grew up in Boston and for a while attended college at Berklee College of Music. He played guitar in several bands and sold guitars during the day.
After a short-lived gig as a stand-up comedian – he told the website Ranker he didn’t have to discipline to form a full-fledged act – West turned to radio, particularly WCBN in Boston, where he voiced comic routines on The Big Mattress Show until he moved to New York City.
A regular on The Howard Stern Show, West scored hits with his impersonations of Larry Fine of the Three Stooges and Marge Schott, then-owner of the Cincinnati Reds. His ability to mimic voices became a major feature on Stern’s show and from 1989 through 1995, West provided character voices for dozens of famous celebrities from Jim Backus (billionaire Thurston Howell III of Gilligan’s Island and Mr. Magoo) to Robin Williams.
Those performances would lead him to television.
By 1991, West’s voice were regular on Nickelodeon. And while his voices are, at times, based on people in his past – or reference an already famous character – he said each voice has a certain music and rhythm that make it unique.
“You can always tell from the musicality of the character who it is and what they sound like and then it just falls into place,” he said.
West also prefers to work with a group of actors instead of voicing characters alone. “There’s a certain energy you get from a group,” he said. “You’re all there and you start fooling around and there is this energy that develops, and you start to feel it and you work off of it.”
Being isolated while performing, he said, wasn’t for him.
“I didn’t want to be a one-man band,” he said. “I absolutely adore all the voice people I know.”
West also takes his cartoons – and those who create and animate them – seriously. He spoke of turning down the chance to audition for the cartoon Rick and Morty because he felt it was too amateurish.
“I’d have to dumb it down to do those characters,” he said. “And I can’t do it. I can’t be less that what I am.”
He’s also not a fan of the use of celebrity voices in cartoons. West has told one national media outlet that he has issues with way auditions for voice actors are conducted. He was particularly critical of the process that allowed some celebrities to listen in on the auditions of other voice actors in order to help them develop a character.
Still, even with his struggles and even though he took the long road to his career, Billy West simply wants to entertain. He will embrace the character, follow the script and perform the best he possibly can. But, if given the chance, he’s all about adlibbing.
“You start out giving them what they ask for,” he said. “And then if they feel like they can amp it up, they tweak it. But if they ask me on a certain take, just to let it fly, I will go ‘absolutely, excellent.’”
West is also diplomatic about who is favorite cartoon character – among those he provided the voices for – would be.
“Oh, I can’t tell you,” he said. “I love them all equally. They are all equal and satisfying to do, even when there’s a villain to do, because they are deliciously stupid, mostly. I like ‘em all the same. ”
Though he has entertained millions, West told the crowd he never aspired to be an actor. Instead, he was all about the voice behind the character.
“I was doing all these voices, so I moved to New York and thought ‘I needed to learn how to be an actor, but I didn’t want to be an on-camera actor.’”
Celebrities are not Billy West’s heroes. Instead, he prefers others – the artists.
“The artists are my heroes,” he said.
The artists and those wild, funny and entertaining voices that live in Billy West’s head.
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