Interview: Garry Chalk

On May 25th, my good friend, Brett Homenick and I interviewed Garry Chalk for his various works on voice acting and live action film roles. Including his involvement in Godzilla 2014 (playing Janjira plant employee, Stan Wash). Chalk has appeared in hundreds of film and television productions, most notably voicing Optimus Primal in Beast Wars: Transformers, along with roles in The Fly II, 21 Jump Street, MacGyver, Stargate SG-1, Watchmen and many other productions. We weren’t able to cover all of his impressive filmography due to limited time, but we had a very fun conversation and Garry had nothing but great memories to share.

Jacob Dow: Tell us about your childhood. And how did you end up in Vancouver?

Garry Chalk: I was born in South Hampton, England and (talks in British West Country accent) “we used to talk like this”. My dad got a job in Canada for a trade job as rigger pipe fitter. He came to Vancouver 4 months before us. We came in a plane in 1957, it was a 2 day trip to get from London to Iceland to Gander to Toronto to Vancouver. It was quite a haul. I love the sugar crisp here. Never had sugar crisp until I came here. All of our groceries came from a truck that came to our neighborhood. All the women used to shop there from the truck like food trucks today.

I also had my first chocolate bar and banana here.

 

Dow: At one point in your life you realized you wanted to pursue a career in acting?

Chalk: I found out I can sing. I got good reviews and I did that for fun.. played a lot of music, then I discovered can get paid. But I went and worked my way from a phone boy to stock trader. In ’75 I got laid off and I went back to school to be an English teacher. One day I attended a production of mice and men play as a critic. I fell in love with it. It was fabulous and I thought “this is what I want to do”

The theater I started in was canceled yesterday, I found out. People just don’t have the money to go to school. Langera studio 58 is where I started my career.

Then I discovered cartoons in ’83. You can find my first audition on YouTube for Hiawatha. I started doing commercial work in Ottawa before moving back to Vancouver. I came back here and auditioned for some cartoons and didn’t get them. One day I get G.I Joe and He-Man, after that I get show after show.

 

Dow: What were your favorite cartoons/idols growing up?

Chalk: Loved Lon Chaney, Boris Karloff, loved Peter Lorre, he was hilarious to me. Animators must have hated him. You saw him parodied in all sorts of cartoons.

My Favorite cartoons were Quick Draw Mcgraw, Huckleberry Hound, and Snagglepuss.

In the 1990’s I auditioned for Baby Huey which I loved as a kid. I met the original voice of Baby Huey. I could not believe I’m sitting with this guy in the studio and he sounded the same when he did Baby Heuy’s voice and it was iconic for me. I worked with Maurice LaMarche and Billy West. We were doing Popeye which was another show I loved. That’s what inspired me, working with these sorts of people and laughing. I got a lot of joy out of doing those voices. Best way to get out of a fight, make them laugh!

 

Brett Homenick: When you work with, as you say, Maurce LaMarche, would you record your recording audio with them or are you by yourself?

Chalk: My first cartoon, Hiawatha, was just me. It was weird talking to people not there. He-Man everyone was all together. Live movie is an organic process when people are right there. It’s a lot more fun, but COVID, we were in isolation like taking to a music stand. What saved me was imaging the movies in my head and I’m with the people. Meeting them all face to face is great especially if you can improvise. Going to conventions with Peter Cullen, David Kaye, we have an Optimus off since we all voice Optimus Prime.

 

 

Homenick: When it comes to other voice actors, for the lines not in the script, who’s the best working with when it’s not in the script. Like when you’re bouncing off somebody, who’s bringing out the best of you?

Chalk: Scott McNeil was great to work with on that and Phil Hayes. We did a show called Reboot, Hack and Slash. So, Phil and I would read the script and then improve which they used the improvised version and we came up with crazy ones. One of my favorite lines is “The boss has gone BANANAS!.” They use improv more than the script. When you look at the script and wonder how it sounds, you have to trust your instinct once you understand the characters.

 

Dow: How did you end up doing the Sonic the Hedgehog series?

Chalk: I auditioned for it years ago as Scratch first, the chicken. When we were recording with me playing Scratch, after 6 recordings they said “we don’t like it, do something different or your fired” we tried Laurel & Hardy, Abbott & Costello impressions, I said to Phil “You play Scratch and I play Grounder” we did that and he came out with the high pitch and I came with my voice and the bosses loved it and that’s how it happened. We switched voices.

Long John was a delightful human being! (does voice impression of him). We had the same agent and talked about music all the time. When he went on tour he couldn’t do the show anymore so I became Dr Robotnik since I can impersonate his voice and I got to be both Robotnik and Grounder. It was fun.

He passed away 15 years ago and I went to his funeral and he got tributes from Rod Stewart, Paul McCartney. Even Elton John was there!

 

Homenick: When speaking of being Scratch what approach did you take with the character that didn’t take with the bosses ?

Chalk: Grounder was going to [sound] like Peter Lorre and I was doing Bud Abbott and they didn’t like it. It did not resonate with their audience. When we switched, it hit.

 

Homenick: One show I watched was Action Man! Do you have memories of that?

Chalk: I did the British version and the movies from Brazil. I played him and Profesor Gangren. Jim Brynes was going to play him but went on tour so I took over the role. Yeah, That was fun.

 

Dow: Did you get to work in the booth with the late Tony Jay for Reboot?

Chalk: No we never did but when he was not available I would do Megabyte since I do his voice. (Impersonates Tony Jay’s voice) what an iconic voice he had and career.

 

Dow: Which voice role have you been the most fond of?

Chalk: Optimus Prime. Of course, I love him. I loved doing this show… 3-2-1 Penguins, it was a Christian show and I played a hamster who got in a robot so there would be a voice change. It was so much fun going from one voice to another. Then King Hippo from “Captain N: The Game Master”! I was with Micheal Donovan and he played the eggplant wizard. My Little Pony the recent series, the stories are great and had heart to it. Aracne is one of my new favorites. The animation is great and the visuals are art. I think its on Netflix.

 

Homenick: Do you have memories from Captain N?

Chalk: Venus Terzo played the Princess, Mattie Hill, played Nintendo and AJ Juliane was a friend of mine. He played a little guy with wings. Micheal played Eggplant Wizard. Mother Brian was played by Levi Stubbs. That was a fun show to work on. Lots of laughs. Scott Mcneil was in it I think. Frank Welker, who was the original Megatron, also did that show.

 

 

Homenick: When doing video game adaptations like Sonic or Captain N, how familiar would they make you with the games?

Chalk: I would have no clue about them, like Transformers. I never watched the show and had no perception but I’m glad I didn’t. I would not give the voice that I did and would have tried to imitate the original voices. The only one I was familiar with was Donkey Kong when I did that cartoon. Video games are different from cartoons.

 

Homenick: Going to Sonic, you have veteran writers of DIC as the Shelly’s. Do you have memories of the writers?

Chalk: The writers have an incredible sense of whimsy. I really like the reciprocation of my charterers and how Robotnik got screwed. I never met the writers which was sad but I loved their work and it was an easy show.

 

Dow: Tell us about Freddy vs. Jason in 2003.

Chalk: Robert England is a really, really great guy. He loves his fans. And Ken (Kirzinger) is a good friend of mine. Kelly Rowland, of Destiny’s Child was in the movie and an old girlfriend of mine, her daughter had her 13^th birthday, loved Kelly Rowland and wanted to meet her. So I talked to the office and took her to the Freddy vs. Jason set during the scene where the cabins on fire and Kelly’s covered in blood. She sees Ken as Jason and shes scared but he’s a nice guy and he let her broke (prop) glass over his head,

She sees Kelly covered in blood “That’s Kelly, that’s Kelly!” Kelly takes her to her trailer to remove the makeup and chats with her for an hour and signs her stuff. That’s a fun memory I associate with that movie.

Ronny Yu was a hoot. Sometimes he’d need a translator but I love him. It was the second time I worked with him. The first was this fantasy movie with fairies. I can’t remember what it’s called.

 

Dow: In 97?

Chalk: Yes. In 1997.

 

Homenick: Let’s talk about your part in Godzilla 2014, and how you became involved in that.

Chalk: I went in and auditioned. It was one of those odd situations. I got the script that day to memorize it. Gareth Edwards, I found him to be a wonderful human being. He is a big kid. We hit it off and had a great audition. I had done shows with Bryan Cranston before so I talked about that with Gareth.

In the audition I’m making stuff up in the reactor scene, like improvising, pushing buttons.

I originally auditioned for one of the soldiers.

It was a joy to work with Bryan Cranston and watching him get emotional in the scene, We shot in this sewage treatment plant in Annacis Island and it was clean as a whistle! You think its a safe place then you see a sign that reads “if you get a cut go to treatment immediately” (laughs)

I love the special effects in that movie. The monsters looked real.

We shot the reactor scene in less than a week… any week in the sewage plant is great!

 

 

Homenick: Did you see Juliette Binoche?

Chalk: We never see her because she is down in the reactor. (laughs)We never got to see her but she is quite lovely. There were some Japanese actors in this movie… like… Ken…

 

Homenick: Ken Watanabe!

Chalk: Oh yes! There was one Japanese guy I worked on ….Battle in Seattle! He was in the scene with me. It was fun filming with the ceiling and stuff falling around.

 

Homenick: When you watched Bryan Cranston what was his technique to get emotional?

Chalk: It’s acting. You find the situation in your memory and react to it in your mind. You gotta find them and apply in that situation and go with it.

 

Homenick: How was Gareth Edwards and his directing style?

Chalk: Gareth, was a gentleman, he never lost his temper or raised his voice. “Ok were gonna do this. We’ll try that, no this is gonna be good. Rolling!” like a typical Englishman. I love working with English directors. They have a different style. The Brits are like “oh off we go, come on”. I did a movie with Micheal Anderson called [The] Sea Wolf with Charles Bronson, and Christopher Reeve, sailing for a couple weeks and he was just one of those guys who done it all it before. Gareth was one of those guys. I really liked his directing style. Its so hard to pinpoint what makes a good director. He never loses his cool and has a vision and part of what that vision is, he works it with 150 people and he has to direct all of them. The director dictates the mood of the set.

 

Dow: Did you watch or like the Godzilla franchise before working on this film?

Chalk: All of them. And Mothra… I watched all of them! Saturday afternoon matinees, we used to go to King Crest Theater. They’d have triple features, Godzilla, Blob. You watch them today they are cornball but they were something… there was another like Godzilla… it was a reptile… from Denmark…

 

Homenick: “Reptilicus!”

Chalk: Reptilicus, yes! I remember seeing that. It was like, Godzilla.

 

Dow: in 2020, you worked on the live action Sonic the Hedgehog movie. Was that a reference to your work on the animated series ?

Chalk: No, Funny thing about that, I was happy to work on the movie but I was unhappy that i did not play Robotnik (laughs) the director got a kick out of it. “you played Robotnik in the cartoons”

I never talked to Jim Carry. He was in his own world. That was a couple days’ work.

 

Dow: Speaking of The Sea Wolf, how was working with Christopher Reeve and Charles Bronson?

Chalk: Christopher Reeve was amazing and he was the greatest guy. And his wife was very nice. Charles Bronson was very quiet but he was very strong, like a bull. I remember one day he picked up a piece of heavy duty paper and blew it to the side of a door. He was a coal miner when he was a kid. Which is why he was so strong.