“Oh, what interesting china. It looks like young men playing leap frog.” Talking About The Birdcage with our guest, voiceover actor JP Karliak
Get ready to fly away with laughter on this episode of Movies We Like! This week, we're joined by the incredibly talented JP Karliak, the voice behind beloved animated characters like Morph from X-Men '97 and Boss Baby in, you know, Boss Baby. But today, we're stepping away from the world of animation to discuss one of JP's all-time favorite films: the uproarious comedy classic, The Birdcage, directed by the brilliant Mike Nichols.
JP shares his personal connection to this heartwarming and hilarious story about a gay couple, Armand and Albert, who run a drag club in Miami. When Armand's son announces his engagement to a conservative senator's daughter, comedic chaos ensues as they try to navigate their differences and create a "normal" family facade for the sake of the wedding.
We dive deep into the film's hilarious premise, its message of acceptance, and the unforgettable performances by Robin Williams, Nathan Lane, Gene Hackman, and Dianne Wiest. JP shares what draws him to the film's themes of family, identity, and the importance of staying true to yourself, even when it's messy and unconventional.
Of course, we couldn't have JP on without getting a glimpse into his impressive career in voice acting! He gives us a behind-the-scenes look at the process of bringing animated characters to life, the challenges and rewards of the job, and the unique joys of working in such a creative and collaborative industry.
So grab your feather boas and get ready for a delightful conversation about a timeless comedy classic! The Birdcage is a film that reminds us to embrace our true selves, find humor in the most unexpected places, and celebrate the power of love and acceptance. We had an absolute blast discussing it with JP, and we know you'll love hearing his insights and experiences.
Welcome to Movies We Like • Voice Actor JP Karliak on The Birdcage
About JP
About The Birdcage
“Oh, what interesting china. It looks like young men playing leap frog.” Talking About The Birdcage with our guest, voiceover actor JP Karliak
Get ready to fly away with laughter on this episode of Movies We Like! This week, we're joined by the incredibly talented JP Karliak, the voice behind beloved animated characters like Morph from X-Men '97 and Boss Baby in, you know, Boss Baby. But today, we're stepping away from the world of animation to discuss one of JP's all-time favorite films: the uproarious comedy classic, The Birdcage, directed by the brilliant Mike Nichols.
JP shares his personal connection to this heartwarming and hilarious story about a gay couple, Armand and Albert, who run a drag club in Miami. When Armand's son announces his engagement to a conservative senator's daughter, comedic chaos ensues as they try to navigate their differences and create a "normal" family facade for the sake of the wedding.
We dive deep into the film's hilarious premise, its message of acceptance, and the unforgettable performances by Robin Williams, Nathan Lane, Gene Hackman, and Dianne Wiest. JP shares what draws him to the film's themes of family, identity, and the importance of staying true to yourself, even when it's messy and unconventional.
Of course, we couldn't have JP on without getting a glimpse into his impressive career in voice acting! He gives us a behind-the-scenes look at the process of bringing animated characters to life, the challenges and rewards of the job, and the unique joys of working in such a creative and collaborative industry.
So grab your feather boas and get ready for a delightful conversation about a timeless comedy classic! The Birdcage is a film that reminds us to embrace our true selves, find humor in the most unexpected places, and celebrate the power of love and acceptance. We had an absolute blast discussing it with JP, and we know you'll love hearing his insights and experiences.
Welcome to Movies We Like. Each episode, Andy Nelson and Pete Wright invite a film industry veteran to discuss one of their favorite films. What makes a movie inspirational to a cinematographer or a costume designer? Listen in to hear how these pros watch their favorite films. Part of The Next Reel family of film podcasts.
Andy Nelson:
Welcome to Movies We Like, part of the True Story FM Entertainment Podcast Network. I'm Andy Nelson, and that over there is Pete Wright.
Pete Wright:
It indeed is Pete Wright.
Andy Nelson:
On today's episode, we have invited voice over actor, queer activist, and snappy dresser, JP Karliak, to talk about Mike Nichols, The Birdcage, a movie he likes. Hey, JP.
JP Karliak:
How we doing? Glad to be here.
Andy Nelson:
Through the
Pete Wright:
birdcage, it's morph.
JP Karliak:
Ben and in it.
Andy Nelson:
Oh my god, Ben.
Pete Wright:
I just binged the whole season of X men 97, and I am starstruck, JP. What a great show. You did great.
JP Karliak:
Well, thank you. You're too kind. You're too kind.
Andy Nelson:
It's a lot of work doing voice over. You've been doing it for quite a while now in a variety of, I mean, TV shows, movies, video games. I mean, it's it's been keeping you busy, and you've been doing a lot of really big characters. Morph, obviously, is is one of the most recent ones that you are doing on x men 97. But Boss Baby, you've been doing Boss Baby for a while.
Andy Nelson:
You're on, Spidey and his friends, the the Disney Junior show. I mean, a lot of voices all over the place. Even doing, like, I was it Evangelion? You did one of the English voices for the translation of that. Right?
JP Karliak:
Yeah. For the Netflix dub. Yeah. Neon Genesis Evangelion.
Andy Nelson:
The world of voice over is a fascinating one. I mean, we do podcasting, and so we're always using our voices. It's a, a very specific industry, but a lot of people, I think, think that actors and voice over actors are kind of 1 and the same. When you went out to to California, were you thinking, I wanna do voice over acting, or were you saying I wanna act, and then you kind of fell into voice over acting? How did you end up working in this industry?
JP Karliak:
I grew up loving cartoons. I was obsessed with the Looney Tunes, Tiny Toons, and Batman the animated series, and, you know, all sorts basically, everything Warner Brothers put out, I guess.
Pete Wright:
Oh, how the mighty have fallen.
JP Karliak:
No comment. So I I think when I was coming of age to the point where I, my my small mind started to understand, oh, at one point, I will need a job to pay for things, is when I saw the movie Aladdin. And I said, oh, okay. I really enjoy what's happening here. I would like to do that.
JP Karliak:
Robin Williams is playing the genie. So, clearly, the voice over thing can't be a real job, but he is an on camera famous person. So clearly, I must have to be an on camera famous person, and then they will let me do the voice over stuff. Gotcha. Gotcha.
JP Karliak:
So that's kind of the the the the the mission that I operated from for a number of years. I mean, into college, I think. And, luckily, I had some professors who disabused me of the notion that I needed to be on camera famous to do voice over. But, you know, I I went to school in LA. I, I was pursuing the on camera career, for a while, but I started to dip my toe into voice over.
JP Karliak:
And over time, you know, when you're the struggling actor who has those limited pennies to put towards your career, I started to find myself getting more attraction and enjoying voice over more, and so more and more money was going in that direction and less and less was going towards on camera. And so finally, a manager that I had said, do you even really wanna do this? So I'm like
Andy Nelson:
No. I don't think I do.
JP Karliak:
But, yeah, voice over snowballed over time. You know, I I started, I got my first agent in 2006. In that 1st year, I think I had one job. 2nd year, I think I had 2. And then over time, it just sort of snowballed until it was about 2015, 2016 when I started doing it full time.
Andy Nelson:
Fantastic.
Pete Wright:
The credits are amazing and the long series credits too. I mean, you you talk about things like, you know, the kids' shows, like the the Oz stuff. Of course, you know, you were on recently on another true story show with, Mandy Kaplan, make me a nerd, talking about Castlevania. That's a great show. And, but, obviously, you're a voice, there, but the game is dope too.
JP Karliak:
I I mean, the game it's funny. I was just I was just at a comic book store. I was talking about that that show yesterday because I I have I have many memory t mem many, nerdy t shirts, and one of them is my Castlevania shirt. And he was like, oh my god. Are you on that show too?
JP Karliak:
And I'm like, look, I actually begged my way onto that show because my ringtone is Castlevania. Like, I love the get the original game. I love the original game series. And when a friend of mine, who is also the voice director on on X Men, she was working on Castlevania, and I was like, look, I will burn a busload of nuns if you let me be on this show.
Pete Wright:
Which is ironically on brand for that show.
JP Karliak:
I know. Right? Entirely. They it will happen in the new series. Yeah.
JP Karliak:
So I'm, you know, I'm just some random ancillary voices getting eviscerated screaming as my blood my guts pour out, you know. But I that was that was everything. I was so thrilled to be a part of it.
Andy Nelson:
That's amazing. That's amazing.
Pete Wright:
The the act of figuring out your character range as a voice actor, because you do I mean, so many of the things you do are in a fantasy universe. What goes into what goes into tuning your tuning your tool, so to speak,
JP Karliak:
to
Pete Wright:
figure out what you're what you're capable of. Does that make sense?
JP Karliak:
Yeah. No. Totally. I I tell people, like, you know, when these people are less what was the most useful thing you learned in college? The funny thing is is one of the most useful classes I took actually was not an acting class at all.
JP Karliak:
It was a general education science requirement, but it was in phonology, which was all about the vocal tract, how we make sound. It was actually taught by the guy okay. I don't know how many people on this are off book on the film version of My Fair Lady, but if you are, Rex Harrison, who is a a very cunning linguist, he, he has a phonograph that he's playing, a Victrola with that has a, just a it's a record that's just playing all these vocal sounds. The guy who taught my class was the guy doing those vocal sounds on my violin.
Andy Nelson:
Holy cow. Wow.
Pete Wright:
God. That is the deepest of deep cuts.
Andy Nelson:
I know. Right?
JP Karliak:
Right? It's just they're so readily obscure. But yeah. So it was really just about learning kind of thinking about my vocal tract as a musical instrument and where are the buttons to press, like, the different things to make different sound and, like, dials to turn and all of that. So that's really where I started to pick it up.
JP Karliak:
And, also, as a chronic code switcher, you know, growing up as as a queer kid who's an adopted queer kid, I might add, who's always the people pleaser trying to, you know, sound in a way that is appealing to people, I was always shifting my vocal gymnastics to hopefully fit in. So it it all kind of dovetailed together to, fit the skill set.
Pete Wright:
I know that if I, if I ended up doing any sort of voice work, like, I have one. I've got I've got one, and it's not good. And every character that I would try to do would be a variant of that. Like, how I can listen to your work, and it just sounds like a different different person every time, a different being every time. It it's it's beautiful.
JP Karliak:
Thank you.
Andy Nelson:
There's an element of that also where it's something like, you know, the Boss Baby, and that's there was, you know, a very famous actor, Alec Baldwin, who had portrayed him in the movies, and then you're coming in to to do it on the show. How does that affect what you're thinking about when you're bringing this character to life in this other format?
JP Karliak:
Yeah. I mean, as you've said, I've played a lot of legacy characters, and everyone comes with its own set of requirements, especially, like, when I did Wile E. Coyote. There wasn't it was more of a a feel alike than a sound alike because most people, when they think of Wile E. Coyote, they just think of little signs saying help.
JP Karliak:
You know? They don't think of a voice necessarily. So I had a lot more freedom than, say, a Bugs Bunny or a Daffy Duck. But Boss Baby was very specifically dead on the money. They wanted an exact match.
JP Karliak:
And partially because they weren't necessarily auditioning for a replacement, they were actually auditioning for somebody to just do the scratch because Alec was still deciding whether or not he's gonna do the show.
Andy Nelson:
Interesting.
JP Karliak:
And it wasn't until, I think, like, we were 4 episodes in where they were, like, oh, by the way, it's you. You know? But it was I mean, those first that for a whole first season of, like, 10 episodes was really difficult because we were spending so much time getting the cadence, really, like, drilling into the way Alec delivers the lines. And then I think partially because it started to just become second nature and I was just getting the hang of it. And also because as the series moved on, we started moving away a lit a little bit from his very specific delivery and making it more mine.
JP Karliak:
So it's still Boss Baby. It's just, you know, a slightly different interpretation. It's nice to have that creative freedom after a while, but, you know, you always do want you always want Mickey to sound like Mickey.
Pete Wright:
Interesting to listen to, like, your first episode as as Boss Baby and the last. Like, I I haven't done this, but have
JP Karliak:
you Unrecognizable.
Pete Wright:
Is it really? Like,
JP Karliak:
is it No. I don't know. I have no I that's that's actually very interesting. I I haven't listened to them back to back.
Pete Wright:
Yeah. I wonder, like, that that the act of taking ownership of a of a voice character as, like, what a great case example of how that works.
JP Karliak:
Yeah. And also the circumstances were so different because, you know, we did 2 different series, each was, multiple seasons, and the first series we recorded in person often, you know, a group of us would record at the same time. I was very lucky to be able to record with the kid that played my older brother, and so we got had that repartee, but the whole second series was recorded during the pandemic, So there was no interplay. I didn't even meet most of the cast until well after. So Wow.
Andy Nelson:
Yeah. Does that change your your approach or, like, how you feel, like, when you're recording a session, when you actually have more interplay with other actors?
JP Karliak:
Yeah. I mean, I I have some background in improv. So when you're recording with other actors, there is that yes and snappity snap, you know, like, you know, zip zaps off sort of stuff happening. But I think when I think when you're by yourself, it really I mean, sure. Sometimes the direct the director will read in with you, you know, so you get a little bit of that, but often it it feels a little bit more like like just playing make believe as a kid.
JP Karliak:
You're inventing every single thing in your head, including the person you're talking to. You know? It's Yeah. It it's all up here.
Pete Wright:
Can you, just what are the practicals of doing the job today? Right? You're you mentioned you have a studio at your place. You're in LA. Do are you recording, you know, 90% of everything you do at home?
Pete Wright:
Do you still go into a studio occasionally for for these kinds of things? What what is the job like?
JP Karliak:
Right now, it's probably, like, 70%. It's actually moving back in person a little bit more, which is great by and large. I will say well, we're recording this in the summer, so getting to record in person at an air conditioned studio is fantastic. It's delightful. We love it.
Andy Nelson:
That's right.
Pete Wright:
But I
JP Karliak:
will say, you know, if I have the if I have my brothers I live in Long Beach, so I'm a I'm a good couple minutes away from, Burbank where a lot of this stuff is recorded. If they're asking me to come into the studio to just talk to people over a Zoom, I'd rather just stay here, you know?
Pete Wright:
Yeah. Yeah.
JP Karliak:
Why? But if there's anybody, like, from production or especially if there's anybody from the cast, even if it's just that our our sessions are bumped up next to each other, oh, I'll go in just for that because I'm a little bit of an extrovert. I really love that camaraderie and getting the opportunity to have those chats. So, yeah, that's that's what makes it worth it.
Andy Nelson:
Well, yeah. Because, I mean, in the world of acting in this capacity, it is mostly it's all behind a microphone. You're not on set. And that's, you know, something that's so nice about the film community is, like, you you have this family that you've kind of created. And when you're in a in a booth behind a microphone, you're not necessarily getting that as much.
Andy Nelson:
So I can imagine that that's a very valuable, aspect to to, look at.
JP Karliak:
Absolutely. Yeah.
Andy Nelson:
In TV, do you find that I I know in film, you always hear, you know, people you know, the the big actors and stuff. Like, I I always think of Tom Hanks on some talk show when he's talking about, like and I can't remember what they call it, but just the voice Foley that they do, like exertions or something that they they call them, like, all the, like, all the sound effects that you make as a voice over actor. Do you find in TV you're you're doing a lot of that still? Or because I know there's, like, in the world of production, like, the TV is not not quite as big or robust as as what they're doing in film. But, do you still do quite a bit of that?
JP Karliak:
Yeah. And I mean, it kinda depends on on the project. Like Yeah. Let me think of some examples here.
Andy Nelson:
I imagine spy the Spidey in France. Yeah.
JP Karliak:
No. For Spidey, we don't do a lot.
Andy Nelson:
Oh, okay.
JP Karliak:
Yeah. And most of it having to do with because it's a little kids show, usually, the more exertions makes it feel more violent, in quotes, you know, and they want it to feel as, like like, we're playing catch just with a pumpkin bomb, but, you know, we're just playing catch. You know, it's all it's all very muted. Boss Baby, we did a lot. I mean, rewatching that show sometimes, like, that baby got dropped and shaken and, like, I mean, there are so many crimes that have to get that poor kid violently, violently thrown downstairs.
JP Karliak:
So there was a lot of efforts that we would do for that, certainly for X Men. And then as I mentioned for Castlevania, you know
Pete Wright:
Super violent.
JP Karliak:
Yeah. And especially with shows that have a, a celebrity cast, they might be doing their own efforts for sure. But as far as like, usually, the workhorse voice actor will not only be doing our own efforts, but we'll also be doing the WALA for, like, the crowd scenes. Some you know, they'll they'll give us a few things to do. Celebrities usually have the one thing to do, and then they bring in a loop group to kinda fill in the rest of the, the soundtrack.
JP Karliak:
So for that, yeah, I mean, Superviolet, like, the viscerations and, you know, both both the doing the stabbing and getting the stabs, you know, it's all that.
Andy Nelson:
Right. It's it's a very fun part. And you just hear them, like, sometimes on special features, they'll have them just like, you can hear them just making all those sounds. And it's just, like, what a strange part of the job to just sit there and make all these sounds. We need some sounds like your father downstairs.
Andy Nelson:
Do that. Let give me some sounds for that, you know.
JP Karliak:
Oh, yeah. I mean, the video game stuff is always the most fun is the, like okay. So, now you are getting hacked in half with the chainsaw. We want, a short, medium, and long, and, let's also do it at, the chainsaw is cutting through you quickly. It is going at half speed.
JP Karliak:
Let's also have one where it gets stuck. Oh my god. You know, there's all sorts of stuff.
Andy Nelson:
Do you
Pete Wright:
know that that brings to mind, like, you you know, we talk to actors and sometimes you you you get the there is a visceral response to the line reading from a director. I'm I'm curious in your space what it's like to work with and what the characteristics are of the best directors to help you get the most from this performance when you're missing so much of the other, you know, elements of the performance.
JP Karliak:
So as somebody who's done a bit of directing myself, what I picked up from other voice directors that I love, one that I absolutely love, Keith Farley, who primarily directs video games. Keith has a music background. So sometimes if he wants to get a particular cadence, he's like, I want a little less and more. You know, like, it is so it's just like it's not aligned.
Pete Wright:
You mean trip yeah. But it's
JP Karliak:
it's an emulation of what he's after, you know. And I still there's still some room for creativity within that. Or when I do it, I will basically give the cadence that I want, but I'll use different words. So instead of get out of this house, I'll be like you know, I'm like you know, you're really trying to be like, I need you to leave. And I just, like I want you to say get out of this house exactly the way I said I need you to leave.
Pete Wright:
Yeah. Right. Right. So
JP Karliak:
yeah.
Andy Nelson:
So but it but it
JP Karliak:
does it gives it gives it just enough of the illusion that it's like, we're we're collaborating on this. I'm not telling you exactly how to do your job, but I am telling you what the requirements are of what we
Pete Wright:
need. Right. Right. Well and that I mean, it just goes back to I'm thinking about the 70% that you're doing in your home studio when you're not hanging out with a cast and not able to have the repartee with a with a another actor, in the booth. The the act of figuring out how you can get in the head of a director who has the more complete picture of the final product, that that is a veil for me.
Pete Wright:
I I have a hard time seeing through that, how that the magic comes together there.
JP Karliak:
I mean, I think so much of it is just relying on them. I mean, I've been very fortunate to work with Meredith multiple times on Castlevania, on, on X Men, on, Sanjay and Craig from way back when on Nickelodeon. And I think trusting somebody to that whatever you're giving them is what they need and not and not trying to get into the head of production too much. Like, there's only so much that you have knowledge of. You know?
JP Karliak:
If you've read the if they provided the whole script, yay. If you've read it, awesome. And now that's all you can really go from, and then everything else is just sort of, you know, their decision making. And you hope that when you're doing 3 in a row of each line that one of them marks, and if not, they'll direct you. You know, it's it's really it's really a collaboration of trust because it it is also intangible until suddenly I mean, X Men for sure, especially because, you know, it was, you know, tiny little bits here and there that we were recording and not really seeing many visuals until the very end.
JP Karliak:
It's just a little bit of ADR that I did. It wasn't until the premiere that I was like, oh, okay. I had no idea what this was gonna be. Like Yeah. In terms of in terms of is it gonna be great?
JP Karliak:
Is it gonna be I know it. Like, the scripts were good. I knew the scripts were good and solid, so I was like, alright. Well, it's at least there. Hopefully, you know, it only goes up from there and but I don't I don't think I was in any way prepared for wow.
JP Karliak:
That's
Pete Wright:
Yeah.
JP Karliak:
That's pretty insane.
Pete Wright:
Well and and because of the popularity specifically of the speaking to that show, like, do at at what point do they come back to you and say, hey. We're gonna do 98? Have they said that? What are they doing next?
JP Karliak:
I mean, we're doing we're in the midst of season 2. We're greenlit for season 3. So, you know and I I think what's fortunate about animation because the lead time is so long. I mean, I, you know, I do some, ancillary voices for on Grimsberg, a show on Fox animation domination or whatever they call it now. And, I mean, we were I was recording early episodes of the first season before, you know, when suddenly they greenlit season 2.
JP Karliak:
And partly because it's straw it's a strong show. It's really fun. But, also, partially because if they waited until it debuted and then they got ratings and then they, you know, hemmed and hawed about it a while, it might be 2 years before a second season would debut. So they really have to, like, you know, backload it a little bit.
Andy Nelson:
Right. Yeah. How often do you find you end up having to go back in to do more readings? Or is it a is it a kind of a continued and planned process of, like, you're gonna come in and do some readings, and we're gonna get everybody to do that. We're gonna start putting it together, and then we've got another session scheduled for you to come in and do some new readings of things that we realize, oh, that's not exactly how those readings were meant to go for the way that the scene's gonna play.
Andy Nelson:
Like, do you find a lot of that?
JP Karliak:
I mean, with TV, usually. It it's fairly it's fairly systematic. Like, with Spider Man, I go in for an initial record. At some point later on, I'll probably be going in for another initial record maybe 6 to 8 months later, but they will tack on some ADR from that first session.
Pete Wright:
Uh-huh.
JP Karliak:
Be like, oh, hey. We need to pick up a couple of these. So it's fair it's fairly linear.
Pete Wright:
Yeah.
JP Karliak:
X men, because it was such a big swing, because there was a like, the storytelling was so heavy. I mean, we re we rerecorded the first episode 6 times, you know, like Really? Tweaky, tweaky, tweaky, tweaky.
Andy Nelson:
Yeah. You know,
JP Karliak:
just trying to get it right. And then film, like, right now, I'm I'm doing the Smurfs movie, and that is so much more like, alright. We're kind of at this point in the animatic process. Let's get these lines so we can storyboard and maybe show some to the executives and you know? And and then you'll come back in 3 months later, like, okay, we got some notes.
JP Karliak:
We're gonna do a little bit more. It's a little more I don't wanna say haphazard, but it doesn't feel quite as regimented. It's more just, like, we need you when we need you and, you know, plug in what we can from there.
Andy Nelson:
When you're working on a film like Smurfs, do you find in that instance or and maybe it's just specific to that instance, but are you a character or are you playing, like, where you have in some of your shows where you're like, well, I do this character, but I'm also filling in some of these voices here and and, doing a lot of Walla. Like, where do you land on that one?
JP Karliak:
This one, I am just playing a specific character.
Andy Nelson:
Oh, okay. Perfect. And then we I guess we can't say who it is just yet, Nope.
Pete Wright:
Gotcha. Why why are you smiling like that?
JP Karliak:
Well, I'm pretty excited about it.
Pete Wright:
I know. That's great.
JP Karliak:
I will I will say, like, you know, if you've seen the deadline article, like, I'm 4th build. I don't know how that happened.
Pete Wright:
It's awesome.
JP Karliak:
But it's basically Rihanna, Nick Offerman, Natasha Lyonne, me. And it's like
Pete Wright:
And you?
Andy Nelson:
Fantastic. That's fantastic. Yeah. Weird.
JP Karliak:
Forever, ever, ever. So I get a little giddy about it every time we talk about it.
Andy Nelson:
No. Yeah. As as well, you should. That's amazing. But that's an interesting, element though, because there has been this shift in animation with celebrity voices coming in to do more and more.
Andy Nelson:
And, like, I don't wanna say taking away the work from people who used to be doing all of the voice over work, but there are a lot more celebrities doing, animation than there there used to be. Do you find from your perspective, like, how has how does it feel within the industry? Does it feel like there that shift is is working, or do you feel like it's affecting what you're getting?
JP Karliak:
Well, I I mean, at least as far as films go, I mean, it's it's really is Robin Williams that kicked that off, like, you know, thanks, Genie.
Andy Nelson:
But I do
JP Karliak:
you know, I think I think there's some there's some really great value to it because, first of all, I think there's some fabulous performances. I think Robin Williams, I think it was a film I just did that at Aquafina, and she is born for this, like Jack Black. They do they do incredible, incredible work. Bradley Cooper is Rocket Racoon. I mean, who else?
JP Karliak:
Like, you know, amazing. And, also, just from an employment standpoint, when we have our union negotiations, being able to threaten to take the celebrities off the table, it's a big leverage point. So if it was just all of us, no names, I don't know. Like, we get the job done. We are the work horse people, but whether they would recognize that, who knows?
JP Karliak:
So, practically, yeah. I mean, I think I think there's certainly a necessity to have them. But I will say there has been a real lack of recognition of what work course actors do in terms of voice over, like, the talent that we have, the breadth of voices that we have at our disposal. And it's always funny to me when I walk into a room or I hear about friends who have, you know, walked into rooms and displayed it, and there's that sort of jaw dropped amazement of like, what? Mhmm.
JP Karliak:
You know, Drew Barrymore couldn't do that. It's like, well
Pete Wright:
Drew Barrymore has her things.
Andy Nelson:
She does.
Pete Wright:
She does. Let her have her things.
JP Karliak:
She will always be my fire starter. I I think what's been really cool about this whole Smurfs experience is seeing me, a workhorse voice actor, actually get an opportunity to play a large part in a film, which is unheard of. I mean, Eric Bauza, who does the voice of almost every one of the Looney Tunes right now, has had that, like, in doing the latest, Space Jam. But I struggle to think of other actors who have had the opportunity to walk the red carpet as it were. So
Andy Nelson:
Yeah. I mean, Peter Cullen, I suppose, might be one because his voice was so iconic as Optimus Prime. It's like, who else are you gonna bring in? Although, I was a little surprised. I was like, well, of course, they have to put Hugo Weaving in for Megatron.
Andy Nelson:
I mean, it didn't quite carry the same weight as the Megatron from my youth, but still.
JP Karliak:
I mean, look. I love Hugo Weaving's performance, but it feels like anytime they put him in a movie, it's like they're asking for him to just say afterwards, I hated doing that, and I will never do another.
Andy Nelson:
Yes. Like A 100%. Alright.
JP Karliak:
Thanks for playing. Right.
Pete Wright:
But I
JP Karliak:
will say because of Hugo Weaving being obstinate, you know, Ross, Marquand, who plays professor x in our X Men 97 series, was the red skull in Endgame and Infinity War. So every once in a while, we get these opportunities because somebody, Alec Baldwin, isn't isn't free.
Andy Nelson:
That's awesome.
Pete Wright:
I, I I was I was gonna drop Dee Bradley Baker in there.
Andy Nelson:
He's so good.
Pete Wright:
Oh my god.
JP Karliak:
Oh my god. I mean, I I'm a massive animated Star Wars fan, like Yeah. And, you know, and not because I was in it at the beginning. I was, you know, I was only in the last last season of Bad Batch. So, you know, it yeah.
JP Karliak:
I I was a fan because I was just a honestly a fan. And Yeah. For Dee Bradley Baker to play, I mean, what must be thousands of individual clone troopers who are all clones from the same person, so they all found ish the same. But for him to give each one their own personality, so it never felt like, oh, it's just the same guy doing the voice. It's like, oh, no.
JP Karliak:
They're actually just clones, and they all have their own lives and thoughts. And he he's amazing. Not to mention, he does the scariest grizzly bear sounds. Like, he is a creature voice actor. And we did Looney Tunes together, and he would play Squeaks, so it was the little squirrel, but then he would also do, like, any random, you know, grizzly elk, elephant, whatever.
JP Karliak:
And it's, like, for to watch him literally with his hands manipulate his face to, like, get the get the right thing going to sound like a grizzly bear. Horrifying, but amazing.
Pete Wright:
Yeah. That's incredible.
Andy Nelson:
Yeah. Like the the new Frank Welker or something.
JP Karliak:
Oh, he's a genius. Yeah.
Andy Nelson:
Yeah. Do you have any other favorites? I just I gotta call it one of my favorites from my youth. It was Lorenzo Music who did, Gargoyle and mostly my I it was kinda tummy gummy from the gummy bears that I really kinda loved. But, like, that voice that that he had was just so iconic for me in my youth.
Andy Nelson:
But do you have any other favorites?
JP Karliak:
He is the pinnacle of mirthful laziness. Like, it is yeah. It's he's like a warm that voice was I grew I loved the Garfield series. Garfield Family Christmas, I mean, it breaks my heart every time I walk in and watch it. It's beautiful.
JP Karliak:
Favorite voice actors growing up? I mean, I will say Animaniacs was, like, my show. It spoke to me, like, this this was the show made for you. And, Rob Paulson, Jess Harnell, they're amazing. They're absolutely oh, and and, you know, and also, at the same well, probably within, like, a year of each other, Batman the animated series.
JP Karliak:
I mean, Mark Hamill is just, like, he's he's got Yeah.
Pete Wright:
So yeah. Who knew Mark Hamill? Right? Like, incredible. Crazy.
Pete Wright:
Like Yeah. It's one of those if you know, you know. Right. Yeah.
Andy Nelson:
Well, I mean, it has been fantastic talking with you about your career, but let's shift our conversation and start talking about Mike Nichols, The Birdcage.
JP Karliak:
That's alright.
Andy Nelson:
This is a it's a very fun film and and well made remake of the original film, La Cage Aux Foll. How did you come to this film? Did you see this one first before the original or
JP Karliak:
or Oh, yeah. My mother took me to see this film. I think I was in middle school. No. High school.
JP Karliak:
I was in high school when it went went, and she was like, let's go to see this. Now this is interesting because it's not like my mother was some hippie dippie that was like, I know my child is a homosexual, and so I need to take him to this awakening film.
Andy Nelson:
No. Cheers thought it'd be fun.
JP Karliak:
So I was having all sorts of epiphanies watching it, and she was just like, oh, isn't this delightful? So Yeah. Yeah. That that was my first I still have actually not watched beginning to end of the original French film.
Andy Nelson:
Oh, okay.
JP Karliak:
Well, I've seen bits of it. And the funny thing is is that there are wholesale chunks of it that are just translated and lifted and dropped in. So
Andy Nelson:
Absolutely. You
JP Karliak:
know? And I and there's also a little bit of physical abuse that happens in the original one that I'm just sort of like,
Andy Nelson:
I don't know if I need this.
JP Karliak:
I don't know if I I need you know? But I it's it's such an interesting genesis that it was it was a play and then a movie and then a musical and then this.
Andy Nelson:
Yeah. Right. Right.
Pete Wright:
I was wondering if you were having all sorts of awakening thoughts watching this movie because of the subject matter or because it is a Hank Azaria vehicle of great renowned, and he is also such a transcendent voice actor.
JP Karliak:
He is. He is incredible. And, I mean, I this is such a quotable movie, and I was probably And they're all his. Yeah. No.
JP Karliak:
I mean, I I loved Hank in it. I but I feel like every it was really everybody. I think I mean, Nathan Lane really became my idol after watching this movie. I mean, I don't know if you can see, but, like, that's his headshot right in the show.
Pete Wright:
Oh, yeah. That's alright. Yep.
JP Karliak:
Yeah. I was just I was just such a huge a huge fan of his his work. And, I don't know. It's just it's such a sparkly movie in that it it's cartoony, but it's also very realistic in its in its relationships and the heartwarming stuff that happens there. It's it's wildly camp while also showing a queer experience, especially in the early nineties in a very realistic way.
JP Karliak:
It's almost a contradiction on multiple levels, and yet it works.
Andy Nelson:
It's and it's funny because, watching it again, I was reminded how annoying the kids are to me in this film.
Pete Wright:
They're hateful.
Andy Nelson:
Yeah. They're the worst. They're actually they're that's one thing about the original version, I will say. I liked the kids more in the original version that I like them here. But and and it's funny because it makes it hard for me to watch because I'm like, oh, he's the worst.
Andy Nelson:
I can't believe he is asking his dads to do this thing. Like, it's the thing. It's awful. And I suppose that's part of the farce. We gotta kind of get into that part of the story because it's really all about that last act where we get to see all of them interacting and how it's all going to play.
Andy Nelson:
But then then I was thinking about it a little, and I'm like, you know, they're the kids are young, and kids aren't always, like, the most selfless people. Well, you know, they're often they have kind of these selfish things. And, I mean, I know as a kid, I said some pretty selfish things and and made some selfish requests to my parents that they were probably, god, what a little jerk. I'm sure they they thought that. No.
Andy Nelson:
But they're Endorsed. Loving. They're trying to find a way to to work with you on these things. And that was something that I I find so, touching about the way that, Robin Williams is trying to or Armand, I should say, is trying to find a way to to work with his son and find a way to, connect with him and help him still. And that's something I think I hadn't really thought about as much with this, but I think there is this level of that parental love that, that does reflect here and the things that parents sometimes find they have to bend and break within themselves in order to help their kids.
JP Karliak:
For sure. I it's funny. I was I rewatched it this time, you know, trying to pick up on some things that we would talk about, but also sort of with a conscious effort to be like, let me see if I can find why Val is sympathetic. And thinking about it from an early nineties perspective, because there's even the line in the movie, I don't remember it specifically, but it's it's way in that early conversation between Armand and Val about, like, I need you to do this. Armand is basically like, I'm not gonna be something I'm not.
JP Karliak:
I would never do that, and Val's like, what about my 3rd grade teacher? You said blah blah blah blah blah to come her. And the multiple instances I mean, yes. They grew up in Florida, in Palm Beach. So, you know, who knows exactly how many gay couples, were, you know, parents at the time that Val was going to school, but my guess is probably very few.
JP Karliak:
And if Val was the kid of the only gay couple and everything was about hiding, concealing, making excuses, there's a level of of trauma that comes with it and a level of normalization that Val had to do of, like, my parents are this and they're weird according to everybody else's standards, so I need to work extra hard to be normal. And he is so he's not Butch, but he's just so Ivy League. He's just so, like, classically, like, JD Vancis. Like, you know, he's
Pete Wright:
Saying the quiet part out loud with
Andy Nelson:
J. T. O'Connor.
JP Karliak:
You know, there's it's just and I feel like so much of that is in reaction, not at a not at a you know, you can judge it one way or the other, but I think in a very human and understandable way of I'm not being they aren't being seen as normal at all, my parents, and I don't wanna be seen as not normal. So how do I how do I fix that? How do I adjust? And I think so so it really made it understandable to ask this, and I think that Armand really in that, you know, smoky, you know, smoking in the bar moment is is coming to terms with, like, wow. He may have had a harder childhood than I have originally thought.
Pete Wright:
Yeah. You know, I mean, I they're watching it this time, I I think I I watched it without the benefit before of having young Sheldon exist in the world, and I've never watched a single episode of young Sheldon. But I kind of imagined this time a young Val because I wonder just how much I I you already said it earlier about yourself. Just how much code switching young Val had to do to figure out who he is in the world. And by the time he starts to discover and and cement an identity for himself, and that isn't the identity of his dads, that conflict is legit in 1996.
Pete Wright:
And so I find him, you know, the the entire kid vibe watching it today kind of repulsive, but so relatable in 1996. Like, I just I I get figuring out how to come to terms with my deep love of my parents and my deep understanding that they are not they don't fit in the cultural schema that I've adopted myself out of choice, right, out of agency. And I I think this movie, it does it does this so well maintaining itself as a comedy and not lampooning the dads. Like, they're funny because they're authentic characters. They're not jokes.
JP Karliak:
Right. Right. And I I you know, I one could argue that Albert is kind of a pink facey caricature. And from the perspective of when we were telling the story, yeah. I mean, like, we have Will and Grace's Jack because we have Albert.
JP Karliak:
We you know, we have we have Jesse Tyler Ferguson and Eric Stonestreet. Like, the genesis is all there of of that of that heightened, like, flighty flamboyant caricature. But I do think what makes Nathan's performance so brilliant is it always comes back to it's not it's not that he's playing a hysterical gay person. He's playing a mother throughout the whole film. Like, even when he's not in drag, he's he's a mom.
JP Karliak:
And it really like, to me, it actually brings up elements of, you know, gender politics in terms of, like, what would how would Albert identify now 20 years let's say, you know, 25 years on from the movie when we have language to describe gender in a way that he did.
Pete Wright:
That we didn't have. Yeah. Well and and that's the the piece, though. The you know, you describe him as kind of a a a pink facey caricature, but Nathan Lane carries the scenes of heart and grief and sadness like nobody else. And and prior to this movie, let's say, these characters were not given such swings of gravitas to be able to be to become human and not just, you know, exuberant facades.
JP Karliak:
Yeah. And it's I mean, you know, and a lot of that has to do with the Hays Code and that, you know, where people were not given the the benefit of being shown in positive lights. And so they either had to be characters or they had to be villains. Thank you, Disney. But I do think it's that incremental like, yes.
JP Karliak:
To Wong Foo, thanks for everything, Julie Newmar, is 3 very well known straight actors playing drag queens, but it is the nuance that they brought to those performances that I think while it while the movie didn't do terribly well, it did open up the door enough of a crack that we could get the bird to get. Like, it it all it all is just snowballed developments that led one to the other.
Pete Wright:
Oh, Priscilla. Right? Queen of the desert. Right?
JP Karliak:
Priscilla as well. We also have
Andy Nelson:
to remember, this is the still this is the same year, 1996, that we have The Rock with the, the terrible hairdresser joke. Right?
JP Karliak:
I mean, it's a Michael Bay movie. Like It's
Andy Nelson:
a Michael Bay movie. Right.
JP Karliak:
He needs some gratuitous action with a dash of homophobia, Michael Bay.
Andy Nelson:
There you go.
Pete Wright:
Have you have you seen DICK'S the musical, speaking of Nathan Lane performances?
JP Karliak:
No. We haven't watched it. My husband is a musical theater guy, and I I I always think that we're going to sit down and watch it at some point, but we haven't gotten to it.
Pete Wright:
You should do that.
JP Karliak:
Okay. Alright.
Pete Wright:
You should do that.
JP Karliak:
You should
Pete Wright:
do that. I watch it with my daughter. It is, in a word, unforgettable.
Andy Nelson:
Great.
Pete Wright:
Worth it. Alright.
Andy Nelson:
There's there's a level of this that, we're also looking at, like, politics in the nineties because, of course, we have Jean Hackman and Dianne Wiest as the other side with their daughter, Barbara.
JP Karliak:
Okay.
Andy Nelson:
Bringing up Bob Dole, and they're gonna go stay at Jeb Bush's place down in Florida. Like, all of these things that really kind of connected it to the real world. And, definitely, I mean, he's leading a conservative movement and everything. There's this whole side of looking at all of that that it was interesting because I was also looking, like, you know, there Elaine May wrote the script for this. I think I mean, she's just, you know, especially paired with Mike Nichols, the 2 of them.
Andy Nelson:
But there is this level of working to not necessarily make total buffoons of those characters either. You know, Barbara also is likely if she is, she seems to be okay with the idea that her fiance's, dads are gay. And so she's also kind of in a place where where Val is, where she's, like, having to figure out how to tiptoe around her parents with these sorts of things. And so she's coming up with these crazy lies that now everybody kind of has to go along with and kind of ended up creating this whole situation. So there's this whole level to that.
Andy Nelson:
But but I I I really love the way that we end up watching Jean Hackman and Dianne Wiest perform, especially once they end up at the dinner and, like, trying to figure out what's going on, how are they handling all of this. And just the that transition of being these ultraconservatives and concerned about the their political careers all the way to one of my favorite shots is the moment when Gene Hackman turns around when he's on stage and he's in full drag, and he's just got that look of, like, total loss. Like, what what what has what world have I just entered here? But it just plays so perfectly to watching that, that journey that he takes as a character to the point where they're getting married. We have the wedding at the end and the during the credits, and I feel like that is part of the story, as well as watching these people learn that their kids are human and that they can be together.
Andy Nelson:
I I I think that that was also something that I took more away from the film this time.
JP Karliak:
Oh, for sure. I well, so many things there. What I find interesting about Barbara is that she's she grew up in this privileged conservative little bubble who would was seeing the liberal world outside and was seeing all the glitter and and color and wanted to be a part of it, but she was never actually a part of it. So she goes to college. She gets this experience.
JP Karliak:
Oh my god. My son my my boyfriend has gay parents. How gay of me. You know, she thinks she's, like yeah. She's she's, like, she's gonna play with the the bohemians, you know.
JP Karliak:
But she's but deep down, she is still terrified of disappointing her father and being something other. Like, she's she's so scared to break out of the nest. And I think I think her journey and Val's journey by the end is rather beautiful in that they start to realize, wait a minute. We are dealing with real people here. And I to your point about Jean, I I think he and Diane do a beautiful job, and I I love so much about the big reveal at the end.
JP Karliak:
Instead of of Gene Hackman saying, these people are gay. We have to go. Or, like, something disparaging about them. It's really more the recognition. Like, he says, I realize you both wanna get married, but how many lives do you have to ruin to do it?
JP Karliak:
And it's he's not just acknowledging himself. He's acknowledging all the parents in the room. It's like, you've played lie on on all of us. We've all been we've all been unknowingly brought into this space, and it's not fair to anyone here. And And I think it's such an adult and mature recognition that cuts away a lot of the, you know, conservative lampoonery that's happening, and it's it makes him such a real person.
JP Karliak:
And I also think the the conversation between Gene Hackman and Dianne Wiest when they're by themselves while the whole family is in the bathroom trying to get them bobby pins in the air. And, you know, they're having that argument where it feels like Gene Hackman really buys into a lot of the rhetoric that he's that he's saying. Like, the whole Grover's Corners and, you know, and missus Goldman is just, you know, a salt of the earth woman and, like, that he's, for him, it's actually real. He like, which is admirable in a way. It's like, no.
JP Karliak:
You actually believe this. And for Diane, it's like, no. This is this is all the rhetoric that we're using to get to a certain place. You know? I I she'll like, when she says I don't know who you are anymore, it's like I I'm you're you're talking in ways of recognizing other people's humanity when it's really all about person been about personal gain.
JP Karliak:
Like, the Billy Graham's too liberal or whatever, like, you know, like and it it's it's so interesting to see them have that counterpoint of, like, I thought we were the team you know, you think about, like, Bill and Hillary. Like, you know, I thought we were the team that we're doing this together and and but we're both operating on totally different wavelengths here. Right.
Pete Wright:
Yeah. And the fact that she becomes more diabolical in that moment. Right? Like, that that's a that's a turn. Nobody expects Diane Weezed.
JP Karliak:
Yeah. Also, since you mentioned Bob Dole and the wedding at the end, I still I have threatened for maybe 20 years that I'm going to get a T shirt that says Bob Dole is gorgeous, but I have
Andy Nelson:
got it.
Pete Wright:
Andy, make a note. That's right.
Andy Nelson:
Get in the merch store right away.
Pete Wright:
It's campaign
JP Karliak:
season. Yeah. I mean, it's it's funny how how harmless it feels to say it to, like, have a 2 shot as a now when, you know, there was a time I might be less inclined.
Pete Wright:
Yeah. Right. Right. Right. Does a movie like The Birdcage get made in 2024?
JP Karliak:
Yes and no. I I think I mean, I there's there's so many beautiful queer family stories that are being told, but I do think that there is that they're more realistic. There's less camp, for better or for worse. I love camp, so I actually, you know, in enjoy that part of it. But I also recognize that we don't need to have that little yuckety yuckety aspect to make everybody in the audience feel comfortable anymore.
JP Karliak:
We can just tell an honest story.
Andy Nelson:
Right.
Pete Wright:
Yeah.
JP Karliak:
So that's a good part. Yeah. I I feel if anything, I feel like the camp has shifted over to the queer kids. Like, there's a lot of there's a lot of movies that, you know, whether it's that movie Camp with, Ben Platt or Peter Camp. Peter Camp.
Pete Wright:
Peter Camp. Boring Camp or,
JP Karliak:
you know, or Glee, you know, like, it's it's it's throwing the camp at the queer kids, but the adults are allow are now serious enough that they can they're self possessed that they can be themselves.
Andy Nelson:
Well, that also I mean, it kind of speaks to the nature of farce these days. Like, how hard is it to to to tell a story that's kind of farcical? It just seems like harder and harder to kind of, like, craft that type of comedy. And I think that there was maybe a more of a time and place for the for for it with some of these, or in the in decades past.
Pete Wright:
Right. Well, it's what's interesting to me is I I think there would be, there's a great deal of openness around telling authentic queer stories and a reticence to tell authentic conservative stories. And if a movie like Twisters comes out and the director says on the record, we're absolutely not making this a movie that even mentions climate change even though everything we're doing in this movie, indicates we believe this is climate change, but we don't want it to become a conservative issues film, then a movie like this would not portray Gene Hackman and Dianne Weest as as authentically as I think they they do here. I think that's the thing that's interesting to me. The the queer stories we've we're figuring out quite nicely,
JP Karliak:
and I don't think we've
Pete Wright:
figured out the the the stories of the right yet.
JP Karliak:
Yeah. And especially in a way that is that humanizes. You know? And if we if we're able to find each other's humanity, then we're able to find common ground and thereby actually make movement and solve things.
Pete Wright:
Yeah. Who knew? Who knew?
JP Karliak:
Yeah. Yeah. But I I think I think you're right. I think there is there's a sense that if we're not sending them up ridiculously or demonizing them, which in a way is a flip of the Hays code.
Pete Wright:
Totally.
JP Karliak:
Yeah. Yeah. That we're not doing our jobs. And yeah. You're right.
JP Karliak:
I I think I think to a degree that is unfair. Well, also, it is it's one of those really sticky things of, like, simultaneously, we don't wanna create buffoons out of people and we wanna show who their humanity, while also at the same time recognizing that the conservative values of Gene Hackman's character, while damaging, you know, I don't wanna underplay that there were those positions were damaging to so many lives. The conservative values that we deal with today are damaging on a whole other level.
Pete Wright:
Yes. Yeah. Right.
JP Karliak:
Right. It's it's that weird, you know we wanna find each other's humanity, but we also don't wanna underplay that, like, this is serious crap.
Andy Nelson:
Yeah. Yeah. No kidding. Well, even this film deals with the realities of some of these people who are creating these moral codes and running these positions in the government are the ones who are sleeping with underage, prostitutes. You know?
Andy Nelson:
And, like, that's that's in this film, but, like, that's is kind of one of these realities that they're playing with here.
JP Karliak:
Yeah. For sure.
Andy Nelson:
Do you have any favorite moments in this film? I mean, there's a there are so many lines and so many moments that stuck with me, as I revisited it. And it's just it's kind of hard to pull them out because I just, like, feel like every 10 minutes, you're getting, like, a handful of other just fantastic bits. But do you have anything that, like, is your absolute, like, go to moments?
JP Karliak:
I mean, the the whole opening sequence is like, the whole dressing room fight is just brilliant. It it establishes what you're getting so well and it never really lets up from there. It's it, you know, it just comes out like a like a cannon. I really love because I laugh every single time, like, really hard, is during the dinner scene, there's the scene where Armand rushes into the kitchen because he needs to get something else on the plates, you know, because they're gonna discover the nude Grisha boys in the bowl. And they discovered that that, Agador only made, it's only one dish.
JP Karliak:
It's just the soup. And so they start screaming at each other and, like and he grabs the pot and Robin Williams slips on the floor, which was not supposed to happen. Oh. And, like, you know, and he gets up and he's like and he and Hank Azaria is trying to stifle his laughter, so he just starts crying. And Robin Williams is ad libbing,
Andy Nelson:
shut up. Goddamn you. Shut up. Goddamn you.
JP Karliak:
It is the funniest thing because you like, it like, I just watch it and, like and Dan Futterman is just like, like, you know, just doing this ridiculous thing to try to stop himself from not cracking up, but just, like, everybody just goes full Looney Tunes, and it is it's so organic, but so funny.
Pete Wright:
Yeah.
JP Karliak:
I and I think that yeah. I I live for that.
Andy Nelson:
What about you, Pete?
Pete Wright:
Oh, good. Well, you know, I it's those kinds of scenes that I remember the, like, the the laughter in those scenes, but I think anytime, you know, when you have Armand chasing after, Albert to just remind them that that sequence that team they have where he's just, like, remember why we're together. Like, we how much we love each other. It their relationship is is so real that, you know, the legacy for me of this movie is those sequences that that, you know, 1996 taught me as a young person, a young man, how awesome and what a role model homosexual relationship can be as a heterosexual man. And it was it's it's just beautiful.
Pete Wright:
And in such a funny movie, that is such a gem of a relationship.
JP Karliak:
Yeah. It's funny. The the scene that stuck out for me usually, the scene, the tender scene that sticks out for me is, you know, the one at the bus stop with the palimony agreement and all of that. Like, it's a and it's a beautiful scene.
Pete Wright:
Yeah.
JP Karliak:
At this time, it really was when they're sitting in the kitchen and Albert comes back from, you know, bag lady, groceries, you know, and, Armand is sitting on an exercise bike at the at the breakfast table, like, drinking coffee, like, looking haggard. It's the family dynamic that's just so casual and lived in, and it actually reminded me of, like, of my grandparents, like, my grandfather sitting in his, like, you know, stained tank top, looking horrible, drinking coffee, and my grandmother bustling about the kitchen being ridiculous. Like, it it's it like you're saying, it's it's such an example. It's so human. It wasn't it wasn't the the waterworks scene that really got me.
JP Karliak:
It was just the the life that got it.
Pete Wright:
Yeah. That's a Mike Nichols gift too, though. Right? Like, that's such a stock and trade.
Andy Nelson:
Yeah. And so many honest moments throughout the film and so many funny moments. I always laugh, so much when Gene Hackman, when he goes off on the tangent about the trees and, you know, the purple mountains
JP Karliak:
Left road. Like
Andy Nelson:
cutting. Just like and everybody's just sitting there, especially the reactions afterward when Armand is just like, I was just so taken by what you were saying. Was that my wife who just called? Like, I couldn't even think. Like, it's so that is just so funny.
Andy Nelson:
But I have to say what just like right out of the gate, I mean, you talked about that initial conversation, but even before that, like, as soon as we enter the club and we get the bustling and everything, just kind of setting things up for this world that we're in, There was one moment, and I I may not have paid attention to it before, but it's Armand. He's walking through and he just opens the door to the kitchen for a moment. And he notices that the guy had dropped the plate and is picking stuff up off the floor and putting it back on the plate. And he just kinda like shakes his head. It just goes off.
Andy Nelson:
I'm like, oh my God, that was just like such a fractional moment of world building, but it just gives so much life to the story. And I just like, from that moment on, I was smiling and laughing the whole thing.
JP Karliak:
I mean, what can you do?
Pete Wright:
Yeah. There's a
Andy Nelson:
there there
Pete Wright:
is some
JP Karliak:
I don't know.
Pete Wright:
Hopefully, the doctor's there. You're you're afraid of my heat. You're you're what does
Andy Nelson:
he say? You're afraid of 2 person
JP Karliak:
heats. Yeah.
Pete Wright:
Yeah. To be on stage with your little estrogen rockets. Cats.
JP Karliak:
Estrogen rockets. Yeah. Uh-huh.
Pete Wright:
You're right. I'm afraid of your heat.
Andy Nelson:
Yeah. So it was in
JP Karliak:
a little so, yeah, there's there's a ton of just incredible, quotable lines.
Andy Nelson:
Yeah. Yeah. Delightful. Absolutely. It is, been such a delight talking with you about this film, JP.
Andy Nelson:
Thank you so much for joining us to talk about this, your career, all of this. We really appreciate it. Thank you.
JP Karliak:
This was just such a great conversation.
Andy Nelson:
You've already plugged Smurfs, the the new animated film that everyone should be watching for when that comes out. What else do you have going on? We said at the beginning, you're a queer activist. What's, like, Queer Vox? Talk to us about some of the stuff that you're up to.
JP Karliak:
Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, I'm the founder of this nonprofit academy and community for LGBTQIA plus voice actors. It is called Queer Vox, queerbox.org.
JP Karliak:
Yeah. We're an as I said, an online community. We have an online talent directory for queer voice actors. We do networking, workshops, classes, and we also do consulting and workshops for industry to help them to better understand the importance of authentic and diverse casting and how to implement it. So, yeah, that's one thing we do.
JP Karliak:
And then the other thing we do, very timely, is Nerds Vote. Nerds Vote. Nerds Vote is an organization I started with my VO buddy, Courtney Taylor, and it's basically getting out the vote to gamers, con goers, cosplayers, comic book readers, and pop culture fans of all kinds, AKA nerds. And you can find us at nerdsvote.com.
Andy Nelson:
Awesome. Awesome. And I I I didn't mean to cut it short as far as other projects, with these projects that you're doing, but, I mean, other film projects? You got Smurfs. What else?
JP Karliak:
Smurfs is Smurfs is the biggie on the horizon that I can talk about right now Yeah. And only limited. As for, you know, season 2 of X Men 97, it is coming when I have no idea. Oh, and, I'm currently in I think it's almost almost finished airing, but I've been, a new season of the reboot of Fairly Odd Parents, Fairly Odd Parents at New Wish. I play a villain in that, which is always fun.
JP Karliak:
Dale Demidom. So,
Pete Wright:
yeah. Mhmm.
Andy Nelson:
You Find me
JP Karliak:
on Nickelodeon.
Andy Nelson:
That's fantastic. Awesome. Well, again, thank you so much. We'll have links for everything in the show notes. Everybody, you can check that out.
Andy Nelson:
JP, once again, we certainly appreciate you joining us here today. For everyone else out there, we hope you like the show and movies we like. Movies we like is a part of the True Story FM Entertainment Podcast Network and the Next Reel family of film podcasts. The music is chomp clap by Out of Flux. Find the show at true story dot f m and follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, threads, and letterboxed at the next reel.
Andy Nelson:
Learn about becoming a member at the next reel.com/membership. And if your podcast app allows ratings and reviews, we always appreciate it if you drop one in there for us. See you next time.