411 Movies Interview: Peter Fernandez
Posted by Tony Farinella on 05.08.2008
411's Tony Farinella sits down with Peter Fernandez for an exclusive interview about his voice work on Speed Racer!
It's not every day that you get a chance to sit down with a living legend from the world of animation. Peter Fernandez has been around for over fifty years in the world of animation and has voiced a number of legendary characters, including both Speed and Racer-X for the American version of the original series. He was even the lyricist behind the show's theme song! Now, Peter Fernandez is a part of Speed Racer: The Next Generation - The Beginning as the voice of Spritle. Recently, I had the pleasure of interviewing Peter Fernandez, and we talked about his legendary career and what fans can expect from this new series. Speed Racer: The Next Generation - The Beginning is now out on DVD.
TONY: Why do you think the character of Speed Racer is still popular after all these years and such an iconic figure?
Peter Fernandez: First of all, he's a hero, and we like our heroes everywhere. He's a very straightforward guy and you just root for him. He's sort of a winning character, I think. But I think the longevity of the series has a lot to do with cars and when we were all kids playing with cars. I mean, I remember playing with cars and wrecking them and crashing them into each other and doing outrageous things that are now done in the series. He's got a family, we all care about the whole family, and they all care about Speed. He respects his parents. All the good things.
TONY: In the past thirty or forty years, animation has really changed a lot. What has it been like for you to watch all of the changes in animation, including this new series, Speed Racer: The Next Generation?
Peter Fernandez: I must confess that I have not really watched that much of it ... just sporadically. It has grown in certain areas. The series on television have become much better animated. In the beginning, Speed Racer, the original, was a sort of breakthrough, because it's the first one in color that I recall, and it was the first one from Japan where the faces were more occidental for the rest of the world, for the USA market and things like that. The new Speed Racer series has very, very good animation of the characters and everything, and then when the races start, it's astounding, because it's almost three-dimensional. I find the racing scenes in the Speed Racer series are really fascinating and beautifully done.
TONY: From watching some of your interviews on this DVD, I couldn't help but notice your passion and longevity. How do you keep that alive after all these years?
Peter Fernandez: Well, the key to my longevity, of course, is living. (laughs) But I started working when I was seven-years-old, and when I was eleven, I got my first Broadway play. I started as a model and then when I was eleven, I got my first Broadway play, I was in seven of them total, but radio was as big then as television is now, and I'd say most of it came out of New York ... certainly most of the dramatic shows and the soap operas. And I was on them all, and I didn't have to audition, because people came and saw the plays, and they'd call me when a kid's part came up that they thought I was right for in radio. So my favorite medium is still radio, and radio is voice. Somehow I've been more comfortable doing things vocally. It's just as hard work, in a way, as anything else, but I've always enjoyed it more, and I've been lucky to have the opportunity to do that.
TONY: What makes a good voice actor? What needs to stand out? Besides, of course, their voice.
Peter Fernandez: That's a good question. First of all, I disagree with the term, and I've heard it all the time, voice actor. An actor is an actor, and his voice is almost secondary, because if he's a good actor, the voice will come out. Perhaps some need training and everything else, but I say an actor, if he uses his voice and he's hired for his voice, he's still an actor.
TONY: How do you think fans of the original Speed Racer will embrace this new series?
Peter Fernandez: That's another good question. And I'm not sure. It will be a bit of a shock saying, "Wait a minute, that's not Speed." But then it's explained in the plot that it's not the original Speed, and this takes place into the next generation. I think once they catch onto that or accept it, then they'll be caught up in this one.
TONY: Would you consider yourself an instinctive voice actor?
Peter Fernandez: I don't know if I'd say instinctive. I sort of fell into it, and I've always tried to do the best I can, no matter what I'm doing. And I was sort of self-teaching myself. Whether it was instinctive, I'm not sure. We all play parts as kids and even grown-ups in our heads with dreams and everything else. And, in a way, that's what this is.
TONY: What has it been like traveling and meeting all of the Speed Racer fans?
Peter Fernandez: It's been an enlightening experience, and it made me realize how diversified the audience is. It's been very gratifying. I mean, I've had women come up to me in their forties and say, "Oh, I was so in love with you as a kid. I wanted to marry you." And I'm like, "Well, you wanted to marry a cartoon character?" (laughs) And they go on about it. And if there husband is there, I say, "Well, I think you've done even better." There was a man who came up to me, I'll never forget, and he was in his forties, and he shook my hand and said, "I just want to thank you. When I was a kid, I didn't know what I wanted to do when I grew up, but thank you, because Speed Racer steered me in the right direction." And I said, "What do you do?" And he said, "I'm a design engineer for the Ford Motor Company."
TONY: When you're going to put your voice to something, how do you prepare, and how did you get in the right frame of mind?
Peter Fernandez: Well, quite frankly, I don't get into any mind frame. Maybe I've been around too long. I know what the character is, like with the new series, I saw what Spritle looked like at that age, and he looked a little bit ... not gruff, but kindly gruff. And that's the kind of voice I did for him. But, most of the time, I don't do any preparation. That came in after I had done a fair amount of acting, the method acting, getting in the mood and everything else and getting deep within the character. I wasn't brought up that way. I think in the end results, either that school of acting or my school, the end result is you're right or you're not right.
TONY: You mentioned earlier that you don't like the term, "voice actor," so I'll refrain from using that in this question ...
Peter Fernandez: Oh, go ahead. (laughs)
TONY: Thank you. (laughs) How would you describe the life of a voice actor?
Peter Fernandez: I've been very lucky because I've never solicited a job in my whole life. Either the phone rings or it doesn't ring. I started writing after I got out of the army because I didn't want the phone to ring just if somebody wanted me for an actor. I mean, I'd starve to death. So writing led to directing and directing and writing combined. I often get hired by the producer to also act in it, so those things sort of fell in my lap. I spent a few years doing a lot of voice-overs for commercials. Now those you audition for, and if you get one in a hundred, you're very lucky. And we all refer to it as a crapshoot, and if you win that hand or whatever you call it, great. You go in and do it in an hour, a commercial that's seen maybe nationwide, and you make a lot of money.
TONY: In terms of voice work, what's been your most challenging job?
Peter Fernandez: The villains. On the original Speed Racer series, there were only four of us in the voice cast, and we not only did the heroes, but we had to play all the villains. And coming up with villain voices to suit the character was a challenge, but we were all used to changing our voices and everything. And it was a good challenge. It was very gratifying doing villains ... much more than the heroes.
TONY: How do you feel about cartoons like South Park that are edgier in terms of their voice work and animation? Do you think they have a place in today's animation world?
Peter Fernandez: I think that hopefully animation is basically for children, and I find those shows, and would you believe The Simpsons, boring as far as animation goes. There's hardly any. Cardboard characters moving very little with a cardboard background. I prefer the more fuller animation such as the new Speed Racer series.
TONY: Outside of Speed Racer, what else are you really proud of in your career?
Peter Fernandez: Well, one is Courage the Cowardly Dog, a series that ran and still runs on Cartoon Network. I was the voice director on that, and I also play a lot of the villains with all kinds of weird voices. Everybody was so nice to work with on that. And then the other one that I get a kick out of is Ultraman, where a crew of guys, each week, each episode, have to subdue a monster in Japan. I wrote the English dialogue for that series, and I always look back at the funny things that some of those monsters did. My favorite was the one that lived off the garbage in Tokyo Bay.
TONY:: What's one aspect of your job that maybe the public doesn't see, but it makes everything run smoothly?
Peter Fernandez: Even though I do very little preparation, if none, I still act the part once I have the voice for it. I really act each line as if I truly mean it, and I do for the instant that I'm doing it. And I think that comes across. You can't do it just vocally ... you have to act.
TONY: If someone is just discovering Speed Racer for the first time, a young kid perhaps, what do you hope they take away from the new series?
Peter Fernandez: Well, I think in every episode, there's a very subtle lesson, and I can't remember what the lessons are. But it's there. It's so subtle that I don't know if it ever comes across. Basically, though, I suppose it's the decency of Speed and the decency of his family and even the decency of Racer X.
TONY: Finally, what are your plans for the future?
Peter Fernandez: Well, right now, I'm taking care of my chickens and everything else here. For ten years, I've been doing the voice-overs for a little chain of Supermarkets around here called Bravo, and I've been doing it for ten years, I can't believe it. I'll tell you what the special is on chicken next week. (laughs) Other than that, maybe the phone will ring. If it doesn't ring for a while, that's alright. I live out here in the country, and I got a lot to take care of and I split all of the wood for the winter and everything else. It keeps me younger than I really am.
TONY: Thank you so much for your time, Peter. It was great talking to you.
Peter Fernandez: Thank you very much. I enjoyed it.
