I'll set those. So, um, uh, I have my water that's like, I got some of Alberge's twists and Grichen's answers I forgot to put it into the sun. Um, so, uh, yeah, you guys have set your record. I guess I'll repeat that, I guess.
Um, but yourself, Ellen and Richard, you're a power couple within the, the, uh, the genre or media. And I think that's fantastic. What made you both decide to stick with it for so long? We didn't decide.
I think, I think it's kind of life that decides. I was starring in a Western and, uh, it was the end of the film and the casting director came to me and said, would you like to do a film? Do some voice work? And I said, sure, can I bring my boyfriend or boyfriend along?
So, Richard and I both got the roles and that was the beginning. And it was just kind of like a house of cards that kept falling and we just kept doing it. We didn't decide to do voice work. Voice work decided for us.
So, it wasn't a matter of, um, you recommended him or him recommending you. Well, actually I brought him in because I invited him. Oh, okay. So, his career is careful.
It is. Um, you do have a, uh, story career, um, looking at your, um, credits, it goes all the way back to, I'm sorry, I've got a few cheap options I want to bring up. Uh, Charlie's Angel, the Charlie's Angels, yes and Silver Spoons. Yes, yes, yes.
Even farther than that. I did, uh, I did a pilot with Doris Roberts when I was a kid. Oh my God. And, um, I don't remember the name of it.
I'm sure the owner will listen later on. Um, but, but anyhow, I started acting when I was 12 and I started doing stage and then I started doing film and my first film was a film called Prisoner in the Middle, which is now called Orhead that I did with Danny Janssen. Yes. And from there, I went on to a western called Jesse's Girls that I did with Rod Cameron and Sondra Curry.
I mean, and then, and then what did I do it? And then I did Duchess and the Dirt Water Fox that I filmed actually here in Denver. Well, and you're a husband from here. Is that mean for a couple of months?
Yes. But that was my first time in Denver when I filmed Duchess and the Dirt Water Fox with George and Goldie. It was one of the ones I brought up to, uh, I grew up on old films in Nick, my like it said, and, uh, Duchess and the Dirt Water Fox. And I was like, Oh my God, I don't remember her and that.
I was the first Jewish bride in the West. And there was the bridal scene. And they were running the, uh, I forget the name of the crew and they were running and they came into our wedding. Oh, uh, yeah.
Yeah. Yeah. And they've sliced a lot of it for television, but it was a lot of fun. That's great.
It was a lot of fun. I know it was the first Jewish wedding in a western, like. How I got the role was really funny. Mel Frank, uh, came to a wedding that I attended and he saw me dancing and he said, I want you in my film.
So we broke the park for me. Wow. That's great. Mel Frank, I thought I even, a long time.
Yeah. He was quite a character. Oh, yes. Oh, yes.
Look at my books. Um, and also Mel Brooks. I, I, I, I, I know Mel Brooks. I said, Mel, I was, I did most of my work on 20th, the 20th century Fox lot.
Charlie's Angels, I mean, so many projects. Uh, my pilot called Mr. and Mrs. Smith that I did with, um, oh God, what's her name?
Big star. She spread her legs and became a silver, um, what's her name? There was a crotch shot and every day. Not that we're trying to.
Yes. Basic, instant. Sharon Stone. Sure.
Anyhow, Sharon and I did a pilot together. And, um, anyhow, I did a lot of stuff on 20th. So anyhow, I was on the lot and I met Mel Brooks and he said, come to watch, uh, me direct and he was directing young Frankenstein. So I sat with Gene Wilder.
Oh, and we spent the day together, Gene and I, and I sat next to him to watch Mel Brooks direct the film. Madeline Kahn was there, Terry Gar, Peter Boyle was on the table. Um, who else? Oh, Marty Feldman.
Marty was so sweet. Anyhow, they were all there. Chloris Leachman. I later came to know as a friend.
And one of the major rules as a director is do not give your actor's line readings. Respect your talent enough that you direct them so that they can create their own. Mel didn't give line readings. Mel acted out the entire part.
He acted out the roles with the voices and everything. He acted. I've heard that. He acted out.
Chloris's part. He acted out. Gene's part. He acted out.
Peter Boyle. He said, Pete, get off the table. And he got on the table and he's rising. He acted out every single role in it.
That's the way Mel directed. And I turned to, I turned to Gene. Gene was so sweet. What a beautiful soul.
A beautiful man. And I turned to Gene and I said, the movie should be about Mel directing. And you said yes. I'm, you know, I, I don't, I don't, I don't want to curse it.
But I'm sure when, when Mel Brooks passes, there will be like a movie about him. Like Edward. Like the way like, like, like eight and a half weeks. I mean, like, I had tons of Mel stories because he became a friend.
But I mean, but to watch him direct, you couldn't believe it. It was like he was hanging from the chandeliers. I mean, everybody's role. It was the funniest thing you've ever seen.
He didn't tell them what to do. He showed them what to do. And, and Gene was such a gentleman when I said that. I said, you know, the way we should be about Mel directing this movie.
And he laughed. He was such a gentleman. He had written the script with Mel young friend and style. And he smiled and he laughed.
But he was patient. He was never annoyed. He didn't say, why is he doing this? I'm an actor.
I'm a trained actor. I know my craft. He didn't say anything. He sat there and was lovely.
Well, I'm sure you would have known things. I think placing styles of the four non-frame sounds. Yes. So you had now walked.
I'm just talking about his character. That's the kind of person he was. Anyhow, that's my on camera career continues. I wrote a sitcom.
Richard and I are going to be starring in it. So just it's we're about to shoot. So just congratulations. It sounds great.
Thank you. Thank you. It's about two boys actors. No, it's not.
But it does, it does borrow a little bit from I don't even want to say. It's kind of a blend of curbier enthusiasm. Gomie Incredibles. Curbier enthusiasm with vigilante.
Curbier Incredibles. Curbier Incredibles. Curbier Incredibles. Curbier Incredibles.
Well, it's got a name. I can't give it to you. Oh, OK. But anyhow.
What's it called? I can't give it to you. So anyhow. Now how's your on screen work really influenced how you helped others?
Because you've had so many inspirations and you've had so many opportunities to use your craft. Has that helped you with your roles when you're doing the voice-only? One of the directing others? I'm a classically trained actress.
When I was 12, I decided I wanted only to do Shakespeare. And I mean, I did two noble kinsmen, which was the 38 Shakespeare play into the Folger Library. And I'm in the Smithsonian Institute because I did the first play since it was deemed Shakespeare's work before it was Fletcher Shakespeare, Fletcher Shakespeare, and Shakespeare. And Folger people decided so did the first piece, Epic Low.
So anyhow, I bring all of my background and all of my training as an actress to my directing and to my voice work. It's rare that you get somebody who knows how to direct. You generally find people who are shy of that. So I know how to self-direct.
But it helps me because I also did improv for 15 years. I was in an improv group. So all of that, and I'm also a singer and played piano for many years, so all of that helps with voice work. You have to be musically oriented.
You have to in order to hear the musicality of the performances. Would make you aware of the cadences of voice based on musicality? And not only that, one of my big deals is that I like to go deep with my characters as I'm directing a very, very big series. You'll hear about it next week.
I can't say. You'll hear about it next week same as the other. Anyhow, you'll go what? But it's huge.
Anyhow, it's an anime thing. But I said to the actor, do not do a cartoony voice. Even though it's a cartoon, we look for truth. And this is a big difference between the way it was done years ago and the way it's done now, because we look for truth and authenticity in our characters and the way that they're presented.
Absolutely. I think that's important for not only the fans that you're selling this to, but also for the actors that are playing the parts. You want them to feel like they're part of the role rather than just being a funny voice. Exactly.
And that is the way I cast also. I like to bring in people who are actors as opposed to people who come just to it from voice act. Because they understand the arc of a character and going deeper. I directed Jade Kakoon many years ago.
You probably don't even know what that is. It's an amazing, amazing game. I went while I was doing it. It's such a deep story.
And it's glorious because I was able to go so deep. And many of the stories are very, very deep like that. And that's what you get from anime. That's why people go to anime.
That's why there's 30,000 people at this convention because people are drawn to the depth and the challenging stories and the philosophical and the science fiction. And it's not superficial. It's not Daffy Duck. It's not Mickey Mouse.
It's deep. So you're very big on solid writing for female characters in any medium. Have you seen evolution from then to today or have you been written stronger than the one? It's starting.
It's starting. I mean, even here in West, this is my panel that's coming up after this, Women in anime, Legend of Korra. You know, that's a great strong female character. Women are objectified.
And this comes from manga because manga is male fetishism. And it stems from male fetishism. And this stems from the Japanese culture where the man is superior and the strong dominant gender in the family and the woman is suppressed and submissive. But now women are taking charge.
They're marrying later. They're having careers because they don't want that kind of role model. That's what's happening in Japanese society. And that's reflecting in what's going on today.
So there is an evolution. You even look at Beauty and the Beast. I mean, it's reflected in our stuff too. What did I grow up with?
Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty. Some day my prince will come and I'll be waking with a kiss. You know, we all want to be sexy. We all want to feel pretty.
But we want to be taken seriously as human beings. And so that's something I feel very passionately about. And I do this Women in anime panel all over the world. I won't be able to get that panel to be able to interview that over the last, I'm sorry, I believe it's on my Facebook.
But speaking of women and we want to talk about, I want to bring up the western, the Suicide Squad. The over sexualization of Harley Quinn. She started as a non plus character who got sexier and sexier and kind of shoved into less less with sexual object. Objectification.
Absolutely. Like, do you think that the East is coming up further than as the West like falls back on that? The East is evolving because as I was saying, women are not wanting to be in a significant role. They're wanting to take charge of their lives.
They want, they're aware of the freedom of the West, the western one. I mean, you look at third world countries where, I mean, it's just tragic, the way women are treated. But I mean, you read how I was just reading this morning about an honor killing of a woman in Pakistan who came home to her family. The family wooed her home.
She married a man that the family didn't approve of and they wooed her home and the brother and the father orchestra to kill her. And, and I mean, we are 50% of this world. 51% of this world. And as such, we deserve to have equal respect on all accounts.
And so the East is evolving to answer your question. But it has to evolve quicker than it is. I mean, but you look at women and the evolution of women. It was only 96 years ago that we got the right to vote.
But of course, we all want to be sexy and pretty, but we want to be taken, men want to be sexy and handsome. But we want to be taken seriously as human beings. But the imbalance is that in anime, men are treated with respect and with honesty and truth. Where is that reference?
But exactly where the women aren't and the women are objectified and it's starting to change. But it's it's a long way to go. And the future of anime is with the people here at the conventions, the writers, the illustrators, because the stories can be great and philosophical and deep. But the illustrators have got to stop objectifying women.
And that would be my question. Like where you have the objectification of women. I mean, I read a comic called Rat Queens that's incredibly feminist. The artists, unfortunately, did some very horrible massive violence and they dropped them rightfully.
So my question is getting back to my previous question is that the over-sexualization of women in Western. And we have it. We have it. We grew up on the Playboy magazine.
But it's even more in Japan because in Japan, it's so common that children grow up seeing the woman objectified in on television. New women are everywhere. And they're objectified. It's not just a woman's form, but it's the large breasts, the large eyes.
Women have their eyes changed so that they can look more westernized. I knew a Korean woman who had her eyes made into the shape of silver dollars that were that round. And I mean, it's disgusting. And we have to honor ourselves and honor who we are.
We come in all shapes, colors, and we're a rainbow coalition of people. And we've got to respect each other and honor our differences. And I see the value of what you do for it. So I think it's important that you do these types of panels that talk about women in anime and how to change that mindset.
And I just have one other thing to say. It's like, when you look at the roles I've played, and I've played a lot of leads, but I'm also a Swiss Army knife in that I go in and I do everything else. And they don't say always what I've done in the thing because they'll put, you know, there's two major roles for women, the girlfriend and the friend, and all the rest are men. And I know this from casting.
And it has to change because this is the reason. And it's the voices also. You listen to the voices. And all the girls are supposed to talk like this.
Hi, my name is Kayla Saka. Or whatever her name is. But all the girls are expected to have low-lead voices. And the men are supposed to have these detestosterone voices.
So we have a way to go, but hopefully it's changing. It just changes one step at a time. Baby steps. Exactly.
I'll try to pick any events onto the testosterone voice. It's just my natural voice. Sorry, I've just got a deep voice. It's a wonderful voice.
But you'll see that you'll even see the Japanese actors. And they have higher voices because of their body shapes. When they come over here to dove, they want them all to say John. They talk about Johnny Bosch talking about like fingers on your throat to like drop your larynx or dyspetesia or larynx to have a higher like register between the other two.
What I also do is I'll direct the actors, just raise your chin. If you raise your voice like this, if you look up, your voice is going to go up. If you look down, your voice is going to go down. The way you position your neck has enough to do.
There's a Joanna Maggio voice of Bender talk about how he does his Tracy Morgan impression. It's just shoving your chin down as far as you can. So there's all kinds of little tricks. Yeah.
You know, talking through your nose. There's something from the diaphragm versus lung versus the diaphragm. No voice is chest voice. Also it's a thing.
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Oh yeah.