Rick And Morty’s Chris Parnell And Sarah Chalke On The Evolution Of Jerry And Beth, Voice Acting Challenges & More [Interview] – /Film

For both of you, what creative itch does doing voice work for animation scratch for you that live-action doesn't?

Parnell: Well, it's incredibly freeing to just have to worry about what's happening with your voice, I find. I don't have to worry about blocking, or this, or that. I usually gesture quite a lot, like I am now, in the booth. It's a challenge, because you're not looking at anybody. You're looking at the lines, and you might have a back and forth with the director of the episode, so it feels more like you're doing a scene and you can connect that way. But I don't know, it's just fun. It takes a lot less time. You can do it a lot of different ways without taking up much time. I just find it, I guess, freeing in a way that on-camera stuff isn't, but obviously I love doing the on-camera, too, when it comes along.

Chalke: Yeah. I love the experience of how different they both are, too. In terms of a creative itch, I completely agree with Chris. It's so creatively freeing, because you have your script, and you're going through it one line at a time, so there's the added challenge, that's kind of unique and interesting, of not getting to interact with someone else. But you can take a look at it and say, "Okay, I want to try this. I want to try that." The director throws you some ideas. You can take one line, and you can try it literally 20 different ways in two minutes. So there's really no constraints. Normally, you're recording in a studio with a big glass wall, and you can see whoever's directing you, whether in the early days when it was Dan [Harmon] and Justin [Roiland], or now it's Scott [Marder], and you can have that back and forth. Now you're in a vocal booth, and so I miss that piece of it. At the same time, there's something that's even more freeing about the fact that you're just because I'm like Chris, I gesticulate a lot. You're just completely in your own little world.

Parnell: It also doesn't matter what you look like. You can play a character, even though Jerry doesn't look that crazily different from me, but that's another freeing aspect of animation.

Jerry and Beth have experienced some wild evolution over the series, especially with the multiverse aspect being brought into the equation. How exciting and refreshing is it to get to play these different versions of the characters? Sarah, you've got Space Beth, and Chris, Jerry has a very interesting version of himself in the season 6 premiere.

Parnell: Yeah, whenever Jerry gets to go to a darker place, or more emotional place, it's always gratifying and fun to be able to go there and try to do justice to the material. Then when they went to the therapy planet and got to see Jerry as a worm as Beth envisioned him, it's just fun. It's great. Sometimes it's a little more challenging, but it's very satisfying to be able to play so many different aspects of the character.

Chalke: For me, with Space Beth, I was so pumped that it wasn't just a one-off for one episode that we saw Space Beth, that it was a situation that got to recur, and it's a very different experience recording Space Beth. Obviously, they're so different, and so in an episode, we'll record all of Home Beth, and then we'll do all of Space Beth right afterwards, so that they're completely separate. I think there's such a different swagger and confidence to Space Beth, and a different texture to her voice. So it's been a fun challenge to try and play two different characters that are also linked and yet one and the same.

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Rick And Morty's Chris Parnell And Sarah Chalke On The Evolution Of Jerry And Beth, Voice Acting Challenges & More [Interview] - /Film