(Continued)

Now I've heard of body doubling, but what exactly is voice doubling?

That's a great question. Voice doubling occurs when a celebrity is in another country filming another movie or isn't available or isn't available because of the money. They will hire somebody like myself to come in and replace lines or redo some lines in a movie due to bad sound or clean up the lines for television or airplanes. Or if they're going to do a video game or a featurette or it's a cartoon and they've made a TV series out of a cartoon that was a movie. They'll have somebody like myself come in and take over for Michael J. Fox or David Spade or Johnny Depp or Ewan McGregor, and do their voice for them. So, you're taking on their mannerisms, their character traits, and all of their vocal qualities the best you can.

It's kind of deeper than an impression. An impression is doing a caricature of somebody. Like Dana Carvey, who is a great impressionist. He does these great caricatures, like George Bush or Johnny Carson. And he did this really kind of high Johnny Carson.

But if I'm doing Johnny Carson, who was one of my favorites. I just grew up watching him and loved him. His voice is down here. And it's very, all right. So, you do Johnny Carson like that.

You try to do it as naturally as you can. You think in your head, how would that person say these lines? So when I'm doing voice doubling, I hear them in my head. And then, hopefully, it comes out of me that way.

Is there a difference between voicing a character in film or television versus voicing a character in a video game?

There actually is a difference. With animation, like a cartoon for a TV show, you're the loosest. You're really able to ad lib and have fun. Usually, you're in a room with other actors and you get to play off each other. When you're doing a feature film, you're not. However, with the Turtles, we did spend two days in the studio together, the four of us, which was great. But you're usually more confined to the script because they don't really want you going off page much and they have a real vision.

With a video game, you're dealing with so many different aspects from film. Because it's so technical. Usually, you have a producer who is timing things. Someone saying 'we've got a voice sample and it's got to fit in 3.5 seconds.' Or sometimes you're matching up with a Japanese version or another version and you have to make the lines fit in a certain way.

It's also more, and I don't want to say stilted, but it's a little more acted or performed in a video game because most of them are either war things or action/adventure things so it's a little broader than an animated series or a movie.

Have you ever wanted to leave the voice over side of the business and attempt a career in front of the camera as an actor?

I have been very blessed to make a great living at voice over. And it's always what I wanted to do. But I won't lie. In the past, I had thought about doing acting on camera. Especially as a kid. But then I think about it and I really enjoy the anonymity. I can walk into a store and do whatever. And several times you'll walk into a store and hear your own voice on the radio and it's kind of fun because nobody knows it's you. I've always enjoyed that.

I have done some on screen projects. I was in the movie "Comic Book: The Movie." My friend Mark Hamill was the director and asked me to play a little cameo. And I wrote and produced a film of my own called "The Comedy Team of Pete & James," which was a mockumentary about my old stand up times with my ex-partner. So, I had fun doing it and I enjoy it, but I do it more so as a fun thing on the side. I would never leave voice over to do it.

In the past, animated films were voiced by unfamiliar faces and now, it seems animated features are headlined by familiar actors and actresses. What are your thoughts about change in voice over talent?

It's one of those things that is frustrating for voice actors, especially people who make their day-to-day living doing it. Because sometimes you feel like you're the stepchild of the big name actors. And I don't think it's going to change any time soon. But realistically, there's a place for everything and everyone and it's nice as long as we get to keep working.

I think my friend Tom Kenny, who plays SpongeBob Squarepants, said it best. If they want a cow to sound like Rosanne Barr, then Rosanne Barr better sound like Rosanne Barr. But if they want a cow to sound like a cow, they bring someone such as myself in.

And as long as we're doing our job right, nobody thinks about it. As long as the celebrity is doing their job right, then everyone should be thinking about whether that's Bruce Willis who's doing that or Robin Williams.

But "TMNT" has really been a great thing for voice actors because we didn't get replaced by celebrities. And hopefully, it will be a good barometer for Hollywood to look at and realize - you can actually have a successful film without celebrities and their salaries. Because had they cast celebrities as the four Turtles, I would imagine that the movie would have been at least $4 million more.

What do you think makes the Turtles so special?

I think the biggest thing about the Turtles is that there are four different personalities to relate to. We've been around them so long that they've become a part of our culture. I mean, you can say Ninja Turtle and everybody knows exactly what you're talking about. Or Michelangelo, dude! And everybody laughs and knows the pizza thing.

I think the creators really focused on characters that relate to all aspects of our culture. There's a serious Turtle, there's a Turtle that wants to be bigger and better than everybody, there's a Turtle that's into gadgets and making everything scientifically accurate, and there's a Turtle who just wants to have fun. I think each of us can find a little of ourselves in each one of the Turtles. They're very relatable. And they're heroes, which makes it cool.

If you lost your voice, what profession would you take up and why?

Let me digress for just one quick moment because when I do feel as though I have a cold coming on, which I'm very cautious of most of the time, my wife and I have learned a little bit of sign language. And that's how we communicate whenever I feel I might lose my voice. I stop talking the rest of the day and rest it.

But to the question - when I was a kid, it was either going to be an actor or a chef. And I really enjoy cooking. In fact, two years ago, I actually had a pretty serious illness due to mold poisoning in a house that we were in. And where it affected me was in the throat. I was out of commission for a while and it was a little scary. And it made me think, what the heck would I do?

So, I would probably write more and produce. Or I'd be a chef. A short order cook! (Laughs).

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