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The
Voice In The Iron Mask:
An Interview With Marc Worden, page 2
(page 1)
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| Many
sides to Tony Stark -- all of them Marc's. |
Part
two of our interview with Marc Worden, the man who has voiced
Iron Man for two Ultimate Avengers movies and now, Invincible
Iron Man. But that's not all he's done in the world of comics
adaptation...
Derek
McCaw: You’ve done villains, too. You played
Parasite in a Justice League episode, and Killer Moth in
Teen Titans. You’ve been in both universes, but this
is your first shot at a straight-up superhero. What’s
been the biggest challenge for you about that?
Marc
Worden: I guess it’s to come across with
sincerity and honor and a strength that a superman has to
possess.
Derek
McCaw: How much influence do you…
Marc
Worden: I don’t want to use the word “superman”
– superHERO. Excuse me. (laughs) I know you’re
recording.
Derek
McCaw: I was going to let it go.
Marc
Worden: Don’t let it go, man! You know this
inside and out, you’ve got to help me.
Derek
McCaw: You can say that, it’s a generic term.
Marc
Worden: No, it’s not, man.
Derek
McCaw: Well, Nietzche used it first – the
superman.
Marc
Worden: That’s DC Comics, man. I don’t
know anything about that.
A superHERO has
to have great strengths and morals, and that’s what
I try to bring to it.
(both
laugh)
Derek
McCaw: If you were doing a live-action film, you’d
have some kind of give and take on the role. You might change
some lines of dialogue to better fit what you’re thinking.
Do you have that kind of influence here?
| |
| Iron
Man in hot water -- okay, actually lava... |
Marc
Worden: No. Because you go in and you lay down
the voice-over before the animation is even done. What,
as a voice-over actor, you contribute is performance. You
try and breathe life into the words.
Again, (we have
a) great script by Greg Johnson. He wrote Ultimate Avengers
1 and 2, and he wrote this script as well. You know, for
me, it’s just trying to bring it off the page without
having any reference point.
Also not having
any other actors to play off of. This was the first time
in my animation career that I did get the chance to work
with other actors during the recording sessions, which really
helped me a lot. Usually you’re by yourself.
For me, most
especially the scenes between myself and Howard Stark, my
dad, played by John McCook. That was great fun, because
there’s tension there. That’s part of the story.
Tony is trying to get to the root of his own demons, and
confronting his father in their relationship. That’s
a really powerful scene that came out great.
Derek
McCaw: If I’m reading your resumé
correctly, you spent your youth, or mis-spent your youth,
as a Mouseketeer? Is that right?
Marc
Worden: That’s true. I guess that depends
on your point of view, whether it was mis-spent. I started
working that show when I was twelve, and it was pulled when
I was eighteen.
Derek
McCaw: Are you in the group that Justin Timberlake
and Britney Spears came out of?
| |
| Because
we're all about running those embarassing high school
photos -- just ask Keith Champagne. |
Marc
Worden: Absolutely, man, yeah. The casting director
for Disney, for the series, his name is Matt Casella. Over
the course of several years he toured North America looking
for talented kids. It just shows how great he was at his
job finding people. You’re talking about Christina
Aguilera, Britney Spears…you’re talking about
Keri Russell, Ryan Gosling…J.C. Chasez, Justin Timberlake.
And there’s plenty of more people that are going to
come into the public consciousness that had their schooling
in that.
We worked
together every day putting on a live show for kids. It was
a variety show, like Saturday Night Live for kids,
but it was every single day. We sang, we acted, we danced
and tried to make a funny show for kids to watch when they
got home from school.
Derek
McCaw: So you’re a great song and dance man
waiting to be discovered?
Marc
Worden: That was a part of my life. (laughs)
It’s not anymore. It’s not, no.
Derek
McCaw: We’re not going to see you doing the
Grease revival.
Marc
Worden: Nope.
Derek
McCaw: In your youth, you’ve worked for Disney,
now you’re working for Marvel. These are two companies
that are cornerstones for our cultural myths. Everybody
knows Mickey Mouse, everybody knows Spider-Man. What’s
the difference between working for those two companies?
Marc
Worden: Marvel is willing to take risks.
Derek
McCaw: In what way?
Marc
Worden: The films that we’ve made together
are for kids, but they’re really for everybody, you
know what I mean? Whereas Disney programs specifically for
kids. They are very careful as to their program choices.
Am I being P.C.
enough here?
Derek
McCaw: You can speak freely here.
Marc Worden:
I can speak freely here? Well, I can pontificate about what
taking risks is all about as a company, but that was a part
of our experience working for Disney as teen-agers. We felt
confined.
Comedy
is all about taking risks and making fun of people, and
that’s not something they would do. For us as teenagers,
in our rebellious years, that was a very difficult thing
for us to wrap our heads around.
Page
3: Marvel taking risks, and which other Avengers you won't
hear Marc voicing...
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