Voice over actor James Arnold Taylor interviewed Wednesday, November 4, 2009, while at home in Los Angeles.

Hey Patrick. How are ya?

What’s up James?

Not much.

Where are you today?

I’m actually in my home studio here in Los Angeles.

I’m in the big great state of Montana.

Very cool. What part? Whereabouts?

Right smack in the middle. Great Falls. It’s kind of surrounded by mountains but more towards the plains area.

That’s nice. It’s nice to have a little bit of both. That’s kind of how it is here, where we have some hills. I guess we call them hills here. But, I’m on the beach and so it’s good to have a little bit of both.

First off, congratulations on not only season two of ‘Star Wars’ airing but the release of this magnificent Blu-Ray and DVD.

Yeah, how cool is that? Just wonderful. Like you say, on the Blu-Ray too, to be able to see it that way. For people just didn’t have Cartoon Network in Hi-Def, you can really just see it all pop. It’s amazing to look at.

The packaging of the Blu-Ray is pretty incredible but when you pop it in, like ‘Did I get a new prescription in my glasses?’ It looks so amazing.

Yeah. It hurts. It’s so clear it hurts. That’s what I always tell people.

I have a three and a half year old son so he doesn’t understand what I’m talking about, but I’ll tell him, 30 years ago, this would’ve been a grainy VHS on a big, giant tube television.

Yeah and he will probably never have that perspective. My daughter’s four and a half and I sometimes think about that. How they will always have these wonderful, pristine pictures. They’ll be able to look at old stuff, but yeah, it’s weird.

Bust out the vintage television and show ‘em what it used to look like.

Yeah (laughs).

Take me back to the beginning. Knowing that you were doing the Obi-Wan voice on various video games, how did you originally decide to go for this character that’s not only British in nature, but so recognized by the ‘Star Wars’ universe?

Yeah, it really is a recognized character. It’s one of those things where, when I came in to do it, it was truly just an audition through my agents. I thought it would be a one time thing. I do a lot of voice doubling for people and couldn’t have imagined what I was about to step into. That was about seven years ago. I was basically matching Ewan McGregor. For the games, and for ‘Sith,’ it was (says in Obi Wan voice) very specifically trying to do what he did and do it in the way that he did it in the fashion and the ups and downs of his voice (goes back to normal speaking). From that point, we did the Micro series of ‘Clone Wars’ and all of the various games in between getting to this series. We’d been working on this series many moons before it got released. We finally can talk about it, which is great too.

It’s crazy because obviously you studied Ewan McGregor and he had to study Alec Guinness. Did you do a little bit of both?

Yeah. It’s funny. I’ve joked about that too. It’s me doing Ewan McGregor doing Alec Guinness, who’s doing Obi-Wan Kenobi. So, it is kind of a combination. Even though it falls through Episodes 2 and 3 and obviously 3 is Ewan McGregor, I do try to blend and take (speaks in Guinness’ voice) a little Alec Guinness. These aren’t the droids you’re looking for,’ and of course (does McGregor’s voice) Ewan McGregor’s thing and combine them both and give it more of an Obi-Wan that is a mixture. (Back to normal voice). He’s a little more reserved than we probably what we saw Ewan do completely in there. It’s to give him more of an air that he’s really trying to reign Anakin in too.

What’s the process like. You have people like comedians mimicking voices all of the time, people that are naturally good at remembering what somebody sounded like or quoting movies. For you, when you go into this role do you sit down and watch all the movies again and try to take mental notes?

Yeah, I did originally. I would keep all of the lines from the films that Ewan did, on my iPod, and while going to the sessions I would listen to those and keep them in my head. (McGregor) and I would remember the inflections. You look troubled and so does your mother. Dreams pass in times Anakin. (normal) You know, and all the way he said things and then of course, going back and watching 4, 5 and 6 and studying what Alec Guinness is doing. It’s quite stunning when you hear Ewan McGregor in the first few sentences that come out of his mouth in ‘Episode 1.’ You go ‘Wow.’ He’s captured Alec Guinness as a young man. That’s what I tried to really do as well as … rather than thinking ‘How would Ewan McGregor say this?’ thinking ‘How would Obi-Wan Kenobi say this?’ Because it’s been fashioned through the years with all these great actors. That was really kind of my starting off point. It is one of those things with doubling ‘cause I do a lot of doubling with celebrities whether it be David Spade or Michael J. Fox or Christopher Walken or Billy Bob Thornton. Whatever I do, I try to study them and figure out how they would say the line and when somebody like Johnny Depp, I do a lot of doubling for his films, and he’s always a different character, you have to really know them as an actor how they would say it and not do like what you were saying, just an impersonation like you would see an iconic comic would do. You have to be able to say anything in that voice.

Like you said it was really secretive when ‘Clone Wars’ was in its early stages of development. How excited were you when you found out you were going to be one of the more iconic characters on this?

I’ve gotta tell you. I really was blown away. It’s one of those things where it’s hard to put into words exactly how much it affects you and hits you because there’s so much trust that they’re now putting into me and my hands to take this character and be the third actor to really kind of portray him. The weird thing is, I’ve actually voiced more and acted more as Obi-Wan Kenobi than any other actor because we’ve been doing this for so long and so many episodes and so much stuff and we’ve gotten into so many areas in Obi-Wan’s life. That’s really a trip. It’s also so great how fans are because they’re so … these characters are precious to them. They don’t want somebody messing them up. I find that most of them are really great. They e-mail me, whether it’s on my web site, or Facebook or YouTube, they’re always saying they like my portrayal of it. Then going to conventions and talking to them as well. I feel that between them saying that they like it and Dave Filoni and George Lucas as well, it’s like ‘I guess I’m doing an ok job,’ but I still have to pinch myself often.

You mentioned the gatherings. The ‘Star Wars’ gatherings. Even if you’re a flash on the screen in one of the movies you become iconic. People want your autograph and you’re a part of the club. Has it changed how you’ve been approached as an actor?

Yeah, it is interesting. I’ve always been a voice actor and really have no aspirations of doing anything other than that but I found that I had done a lot of video games that brought me some recognition, for example the ‘Final Fantasy X,’ series, I was a main character Tidus in that. So many people love that character and I still to this day, it’s almost been 10 years, I still get letters from people. It is very different than this group of people that come to you and are just again, like I said, it means so much to them to be a part of this world, this universe. It’s also great to be Plo Koon, which is Dave Filoni’s favorite character and that’s a lot of weight he’s put into my hands there. Two jedi’s for the price of one, I guess. It’s great fun.

I talked to Dave just before the series premiered and we were talking about how it’s weird that the fans were so amped up that when the movie came out, people were complaining and saying ‘Why is the animation like this?’ ‘Why doesn’t it look more like ‘WALL-E?’ Dave and I were talking about how it’s its own thing. Now, it’s been on and people have gotten to know it, especially in Hi-Def. The soundtrack is amazing. Is it strange to have to get over that initial hiccup of people accepting change?

You know Patrick, I think you’re absolutely right. That is exactly what it’s been about. It’s been a lot of telling people ‘If you’re a die hard ‘Star Wars’ fan, you’ve gotta give this a shot.’ Having the DVD’s out too, I know this sounds like a sales pitch but what a great way of doing that now. Say ‘Go back and watch this. Watch it from the beginning and see where it goes.’ Now that we’re doing season two, it’s completely different than what we did in season one. Dave and the writers and the producers and the animators, they’re doing so much more. This is what ‘Star Wars’ fans want. I’ve been saying that all along. This is the day in and day out lives of these characters and characters that you always wanted to know about and get to know about. What better way to do it then on a weekly television series. That’s the brilliance of George Lucas in seeing that void. Also, looking at the fact that these kids, our kids, are going to grow up on ‘Star Wars’ based on what they’ve seen in ‘Clone Wars.’ It’s wonderful, but there is a bit of a learning curve for people and they really have to give it a shot and try not to be too much of a purist in ‘Star Wars’ and say ‘I will only watch episodes 4, 5 and 6. Everything else is nothing.’ Well, ok. C’mon, this is great stuff. You’ve gotta admit it if you just sit down and watch it. It is really fun.

Now that it’s in its second season and it is starting to air, what are you most surprised about as far as the reception and how it’s kind of evolved?

I guess the coolest thing for me is seeing that people are excited to see what is gonna happen to Obi-Wan this season, of course, on a selfish note. And the other one is just how much they’ve embraced the clones and how much they love these characters and see them as real people. Characters, as you mentioned, fit into the ‘Star Wars’ universe, even if they’re only on the screen for a few seconds. That’s all Dee Bradly Baker who does all of the clones. All the other voice actors too. I’m a fan of the show. I would watch this show whether I was on it or not and it’s really due to what Dave is doing and what the other actors are putting into this and the storytelling. Obviously on sitcoms and shows like ‘Lost,’ and ‘Heroes,’ and ‘Battlestar Galactica,’ you always go ‘Well, it’s the storytelling.’ I’d have to say it’s the exact same thing here. It’s the storytelling that we have that brings us into this new world in such a great way. In such a vivid way.

How did you get involved in voice acting?

Voice over is all I’ve ever done. It’s all I’ve ever wanted to do. I do from time to time do little things on camera here and there and I’ve been working on a stage showing my life as an actor and showing all that but I got involved really, at 16, I got into stand up comedy and that was my starting point and then I got into radio there at 17 and I became a disc jockey in my home town of Santa Barbara at the big rock station there, KTYD and I had the overnight shift and then I moved to the 8 to midnight shift and then I did some afternoons and then I started doing the morning show, producing the morning show and then writing and producing and voicing all of the commercials for the radio station and then for many in the town and then I moved on to a radio syndicator and then I wrote and produced comedy bits for over 3,000 radio stations for the Premiere Radio Networks for years and just honed my skills as a voice actor because you’re left in a room alone at midnight with these comedy bits and you’re like, ‘I need an announcer, I need a guy, I need another guy and then I need a woman’s voice in the background,’ and you go ‘How do I do that if it’s just me?’ and then you start just throwing those voice out there and seeing if they stick. It’s also all I’ve ever wanted to do. I’ve known since I was four that I wanted to do voices. It’s been a great route to it through radio and stand up comedy and getting an agent and getting pushy and getting a demo out there, hey, you can’t beat it.

You’ve got guys like Tom Kenny that can do so many voices and you’ve got guys like Patrick Warburton who intentionally do their own voice but in different capacities. How beneficial has it been for you to be able to mask yourself and do pretty much anything you set your mind to?

Well, thank you. It’s one of those things where I’ve been very fortunate. There are very few people in voice work who can do, or do work I should say, not can, but do work in all aspects of it. I’m fortunate enough on a daily basis to work in promo and trailers for movies and in voice doubling and in animation and commercial and some narration and on video games as well, which is a huge part of it too. It’s great to be able to do that and then do it in my range, my wide range of voices (busts into character on all of the following) On Fox News tonight it’s a full hour of ‘Cops,’ you know that guy, the big voice guy? Or, yabba, dabba, do, Fred Flintstone, or Johnny Test who’s an eleven-year-old kid on Cartoon Network and he’s got a new season coming up and it’s really cool. (back to normal) it’s one of this things from being me and being a geek that I can hide behind a microphone. It’s allowed me a lot of freedom as an actor. More so than a lot of on camera actors get to do because we get to be so many different characters.

I’ve been getting my son into ‘Looney Tunes’ quite a bit and it’s crazy that Mel Blanc is the voice of everything.

Yeah.

Sometimes you pick it up and say ‘That’s the same voice as this other character,’ but he kind of had that niche. He was the man. Now, whether you’re talking about cartoons or music or movies, there’s so much of it out there, so you’re in a position where … Mel Blanc had the market cornered, but you’re one of many out there. How do you strive in such a competitive field?

That’s a great question. The one thing I try to be is, I try to be the nicest guy I can because I realize that I’m the luckiest man in the world to be doing this. I truly believe that. I’m very blessed to be able to say that I make my living doing what I’ve always wanted to do and what I love to do. What I’m passionate about. I try to stay as humble as I can but as thankful as I can and to honestly, every time I walk into a booth, whether it’s my own or one at a studio somewhere, I just have to say a little ‘thank you’ and be grateful for the fact that I’m having fun for a living and I’m creating characters that are hopefully making people laugh or moving them in some way. What more can I ask for? I’m very fortunate that way and I put it out there wherever I can. The other thing I would add to that is, I’m like 5-4, I’m blond, I look kind of like David Spade. When I walk into the room and say ‘Fred Flintstone has arrived,’ they look around and go ‘Where? Where? Get the little kid out of the way. Where’s Fred Flintstone?’ I have to always be aware that people don’t perceive me to be the voices that I am. For many years I was kind of in hiding. I didn’t put my picture out on the internet or anything. Then with all the success of ‘Star Wars’ and before that, the ‘Ninja Turtles,’ it got me kind of out there more. Now, I’m saying to everybody, this is what I look like, this is who I am, get over that, now listen to the voices. Close your eyes. But, it’s a great way to make a living.

I imagine it’s the same deal with Tom Kenny. You look at Tom and he doesn’t look like the guy that comes up with a million voices.

He looks like Buddy Holly. What a knowledge of comic books and animation and ‘Star Wars.’ He’s a huge ‘Star Wars’ fan. He’s been in a number of episodes, ‘Senate Spy,’ which just aired, he did a fantastic job and most people would never know that that was Spongebob in that episode. He was the detective there. It’s a great way to make a living in that also you get to see and meet all these wonderful and talented people. Jim Cummings who is just my hero, he’s Winnie the Pooh and Tigger too, just all these amazing voices. Tom Kane and Tom Kenny and Frank Welker, Jess Harnell, Paulsen, Maurice LaMarche, all these people, it’s like ‘Wow, I get to just hang out and talk with these people now.’ They have just really helped create the new breed of voice actors. That’s the coolest part about it.

Whenever I talk to voice over guys, I always ask this question. Do you ever just get the urge to mess with telemarketers and bust into characters when you get phone calls at inappropriate times?

(laughs) yeah, you know, I don’t have the nerve, I guess. It’s one of those things. I should. People have asked me if I do voices for people or if I call to make reservations at restaurants or anything, but with a name like James Taylor, I always get a good table anyway. It is one of those things where I’m like ‘They’ll know it’s me, they’ll find out.’ And I don’t but I should. I should be a little braver in that, shouldn’t I?

Spinning off of that, you have a young daughter, do you ever mess with the kids?

Yeah. It is one of those things where it’s tough. She’s at this age now, my daughter being four and a half, where she kind of gets it but doesn’t fully get it. She also, I think, doesn’t get the fact that everybody’s dad isn’t Fred Flintstone or Obi-Wan Kenobi. It’s like, ‘Oh yeah, you flip on the TV and there’s dad or there’s his voice,’ I have been, especially the fan days at ‘Star Wars’ things or ComicCon where fans will come up to the table and I’ll say (in Obi-Wan voice) ‘Do you know Obi-Wan Kenobi?’ and they nod, and I’ll say (in kid’s voice) ‘Do you know Johnny Test?’ and they nod and their eyes kind of get bug-eyed (mix of voices) and I go ‘Do you know that Obi-Wan and Johnny Test are the same person?’ and then they’ll just freak out. ‘And Fred Flintstone?’ They don’t know what to do with it.

They just drop on the floor and have a seizure?

Yeah. It’s like they just don’t get that those voices are coming out of somebody. Hopefully we’ve done our job right and they think of those characters on their own. Like ‘That’s Obi-Wan and that’s his voice.’ It is fun to actually do that.

Did you get any trick-or-treaters this year dressed up in the ‘Clone Wars’ Obi-Wan character last week?

I have seen a few and the ‘Clone Wars’ characters are very popular as well. My next door neighbor was Anakin and I was like c’mon, Anakin? No Obi-Wan? But yeah, there are quite a few out there. I was very pleased. I held back the urge to say (in Obi-Wan voice) ‘I enjoy that costume very well.’ (back) They’ll either think I’m weird or they might figure it out and that’s trouble as well. Like ‘There’s Obi-Wan’s house!’

My wife teaches fifth grade and there was a kid dressed up as Anakin. It was actually a freaky costume because the mask is so much like the character out of the cartoon that you can’t even look at the mask after awhile.

That is weird. She sees a lot I’m sure as a teacher. What an amazing … teachers are some of those unsung heroes. There’s so much put into entertainment and not education, to me, that’s always a shame. I love going to schools and speaking. I always tell the kids ‘Be mindful of your teachers’ because they’re the ones that really are raising them up and teaching them so much more than what we do as entertainers. It’s a wonderful job.

There’s really no way to gauge the popularity of ‘Star Wars’ and now that you’re part of this ongoing telling of the story, what’s the best thing for you about being part of a Lucas project which is seemingly infinite as far as material they have to go on?

Wow. It’s just one of those things where it’s exciting to thing, for one, that I’ll be involved in this for a very long time, but also I truly enjoy my cast mates, Catherine Taber and Matt Lanter and Ashley Eckstein and Dee Bradley Baker, Corey Burton, I just love that I get to, every couple of weeks get into a studio with them and work together and Dave Filoni’s storytelling is great too. It’s one of those things where I do hope it goes on for a very long time and I also just know that I have a home. That’s the good thing. As an actor, you always wanna know that you have a home somewhere or something that you can really sink your teeth into. Knowing that ‘Star Wars’ is my home away from home, I can always go there and relax and enjoy it just like everybody else is a cool thing to think of.

What are some of your recollections of being a ‘Star Wars’ fanatic when you were a youngster?

I’ve said this before, but I was … we weren’t playing cops and robbers when I was a kid, we were playing ‘Star Wars’ and I was always Han Solo. At the time, I couldn’t have imagined being Obi-Wan Kenobi back then due to his age. It was one of those things where we were, on a regular basis, acting out the scenes from Episode IV, the first film, playing it out over and over on a loop. That’s how kids create and get an imagination going is by just reliving these things and recreating them. I had friends who were always Luke Skywalker and I was always Han Solo and I do believe we did have a big friend where every once in awhile we were like ‘Ok, you’re Chewy and that’s it.’ That was kind of a bummer role to have because you just stand there and go (makes Chewbacca noise). When ‘Raiders of the Lost Ark’ came out, I was blown away by that. Then it was all Indiana Jones stuff. I grew up as an Indiana Jones fan but that was primarily thanks to George Lucas.

I have to tell you James. I am an official ‘Star Wars’ fan. I have a tattoo of Darth Vader on my arm …

That’s so cool. Get out.

I have a room in my house full of ‘Star Wars’ toys. It’s got all my toys from when I was a kid and I also dress up as a stormtrooper in an official 501^st uniform.

How cool. I became an honorary member of the 501^st, what an honor. You guys do wonderful work. How great. That’s really cool.

You’re talking to a true blood, die hard ‘Star Wars’ fan.

That is excellent. Very good. I love that.

I appreciate the conversation James. I’m loving the ‘Clone Wars.’

Thank you. That is great to hear. It’s great to hear that a die hard ‘Star Wars’ fan is enjoying the stuff too. That’s great to hear on my end. I really appreciate the time as well.

Good luck in the future.

Thanks. Same to you.

Bye.