Talking Simpsons - An Interview With Spencer Grammer!

Episode Date: May 15, 2020

A special surprise podcast today, an interview with Spencer Grammer, the actress behind Summer on Rick & Morty! We chat with her about the new season, her favorite moments, and what it's like growing up the daughter of Sideshow Bob! And if you enjoy this, be sure to check out our previous interviews all on Patreon.com/TalkingSimpsons!!!

Oh. Hmm? I just... I didn't expect you to have a mustache. You hate it. No, I like it. I guess, how do I explain this? A metal bucket is, on a certain level, a kind of mustache,

in that it's a specific facial accessory. So it's kind of like, do you guys have the phrase hat on a hat? ahoy everybody and welcome to another talking simpsons network interview uh i am not on this interview but i am still here for the intro bob mackie who is here with me today uh hey it's henry gilbert and blah blah blah to all oh that means so much to me and yes uh henry interviewed a very special person. Please tell everyone out there, Henry, who it was, who was on this interview, in case they did not read the title of this podcast. Yes, you know, out of the blue, we got offered an interview with Spencer Grammer, the voice

of Summer on Rick and Morty, Morty's sister on the show. She was really great. It was awesome to talk to her. This was, you know, promoting the new season that just premiered. It was awesome to talk to her. This was promoting the new season that just premiered. So it was really cool to chat about that. And of course, she is the daughter of Sideshow Bob as well. Oh, come now, Henry. It was really fun not just to ask her about her craft, but also her favorite Rick and Morty moments, but also hearing memories of being a kid growing up with a father who's a major guest star on the sims what if your

dad was frazier but uh but yeah so we just wanted to share this with all you guys on the free and patreon feed at the same time and you know if you enjoy this interview we've done tons of other awesome ones uh and you get to hear them early or some that are only exclusive to the patreon at patreon.com slash talking simpsons in In case you're wondering why I'm not on this, I wanted to be on this, but during these quarantine times, we're trying to prevent like unnecessary travel. I didn't want to come here just for a 15 minute interview, even though it's for, you know, a person that we're glad to talk to. We'd like to do at least two recordings for this. So Henry handled this all by himself and I really appreciate that. Oh, you're welcome. And yeah, it just fell, it fell on an inconvenient day,

like in between two recording days so yes thanks for listening to this little intro now without further ado here is henry's interview with spencer grammar of rick and morty rick and morty was your first you you know, regular role in voice acting. And I was wondering, you know, have you learned a lot over the last, you know, seven years of voicing this character? In terms of voice acting, yeah. Definitely been, I mean, I guess I've sort of learned the same for on-camera acting. You know, when I first started working in that capacity, I definitely had somebody tell me, like a director of photography, tell me that this is my mark and that's your light

and like, you need to hit them. So I was like very young at the time. And I'd say it's similar in the way that you're doing voice acting because you start to learn certain sounds like P's or S's can pop or sound sloppy. So you learn how to pull back. You learn how close you can be to a mic, to not move, all kinds of interesting things that you don't realize get picked up with a microphone when you're in a room. And you get used to trying to figure out new ways to build on top of each choice you make in the booth for your character. I definitely will be working on something. Justin will have an idea. I'll meld that into my performance. And then I'll think of probably something different than that.

And it sort of, it builds and builds on that experience. And, you know, after like seven years, do you feel a real kind of ownership over the character of Summer? Yeah, I mean, I'd say, yeah, there's, as I've gone along and I, you know, watch the show a lot now too, I can definitely see the evolution of Summer in a lot of ways through the episodes and through her character. And yeah, even when I'm doing interviews, I feel like I fall more into a, when I'm talking about Summer, I'm like, oh, I'm acting out Summer. It has gotten much easier for me to know, especially since we've been recording more frequently now. For a while, we did take a lot of breaks and I would have to kind of try to, it took me a little bit of time to kind of work my way back in. But, you know, we've all grown

together. Yeah, I guess the new schedule, like there's 70 episode renewal instead of the usual 10. So you're probably living in summer a lot more these days. Yeah, yeah. And we have more, we've had more, well, you know, the avant-garde second half of season four has definitely like made me think about summer more. I've had more interviews regarding a second season premiere in the fourth season, you know, so we've definitely a lot more time to think and talk about it. Along with also, we just have more episodes, you know,

so now there's more to watch. You know, what do you think of like how the Rick and Morty fans have kind of grown to embrace the character of Summer as she's changed over time? I do think that Summer is a character who is very much a part of the, how would I want to say, like the zeitgeist, sort of what's going on in social circumstances. I mean, you know, pandemic aside from that, I suppose. Although I feel like Summer would be ready for any kind of scenario at this point after living with Grandpa Rick. Oh, yeah. I think also she can embody that rebellious teen acting out, semi-knows-everything-but-also-is-at-the-beginning-of-her-life kind of a way. I just really think it's a fun age to play. It definitely feels like where I kind of stopped growing up, to be honest. In one of the recent episodes, they tease, you know, that a time where Summer goes off to college and is no longer 17. Do you see a day where you're not playing a high schooler anymore?

Maybe in like an alternate reality, but I don't know. I feel like the very similitude of all animation is you never grow up, right? You always stay the same. But there is room for that in Rick and Morty, I suppose. You could have seasons, especially since we have so many where we are different ages, just in general, or at least an episode where we are, you know? You mentioned the alternate timelines. Like, do you have a favorite summer, alternate summer you've played in, over the course of all these episodes? Oh my God, I think about this a lot. I don't know. I mean, I feel like summer's always, I mean, in the first season where summer's in the dream, in the Inception one, where she's like, let's have an intergenerational sandwich.

Sorry. I feel like that was pretty funny. But Summer's kind of the same everywhere. You know, she's just smart ass. I do really love Rick Manson, The Stone, you know, where she just really embraces this like dark side of herself. And what's so funny is even within that context, you know, she's still superficial a little bit. Like she's like, oh, I didn't realize

you're going to have a mustache. No, I mean, it's a choice, you know, like there's something so funny in that to me that despite living in a post-apocalyptic world, like that, yeah, at the end of it all, everyone's just still human beings, you know, with weird choices they make. Oh, yeah, that one is so great. You have so many great lines in that one. Like, when you kill that guy and say, like, not because you told me to. Like, that was so funny. Yeah, it's so dark.

I'm going to kill you now, but not because you told me to. Yeah, it's so good. And I, yeah, I really, I enjoyed that episode. And there's more, I love the Rattlestar Galactica episode of the last section of four where, you know, Snake Jazz is introduced. Because, like, I just am such a huge fan of that in general and all that went into that. And I just love that episode. And there's some great summer lines in that one as well, and I just really, yeah, liked it.

I also was curious, yeah, with Justin Roiland as an actor on the show, that he has such a spirit of improv too to his delivery. Does that extend to how you like to play summer, or are you pretty locked in on the lines? I mean, I stay pretty close to the lines unless it's feeling weird, like unless it's feeling like it's a phrase I wouldn't say or like, you know, I feel a lot of the time like I don't ever call Rick just Rick. I call him Grandpa Rick, like always or Grandpa or oh my God, Grandpa. Like it's funny. And then if like i just said rec it would be weird

you know you you sort of get used to the cadence of your character and then you know but there's of course times where i'm like i don't know and there's little moments at the end where we'll make up stuff for i mean i do a lot of screaming but they do have like a library now of some of those but i still enjoy doing a good scream in the booth, you know? Oh yeah. There's, there's so many intense scenes in the show. I was wondering how, if it feels like some days are longer than others for the big action episodes. Sometimes, but most of the time it's pretty quick, to be honest. You get good at knowing how to get stuff done. What's funny is the longer lines I do tend to be faster for me to record than just like, let's say like a few words that tends to be a little bit more difficult

because it might be the button to the end of a joke or it needs a certain kind of delivery to transition into the next sequence of events. But I'd say, yeah, I mean, we save, always save the screaming or like the blood curdling screams or the murdering and all those things to the end. So you can save your voice kind of, but I've gotten pretty good at doing it now that I, that it's really freeing to be honest, to be able to go somewhere and scream like, like someone's killing a baby in front of you. You know, that doesn't happen too often in life.

So I feel very lucky to like get those screams out, you know? When you were first auditioning for this role, did you expect your first voice acting role would be in a kid's show? Or were you expecting a show as R-rated as Rick and Morty? I mean, to be honest, I had no idea. I just was like, hey, this is cool. Like, I want to get into this thing. Can I do animation? I think I'd recorded an episode of Robot Chicken a while back because Seth Green was a friend of my friends. And he was like, you should just come

on and guest on the show. And I was like, okay, cool. So I did that. And I thought that was fun. And I was like, I want to do that more, more of that. And so at the time I was pregnant and I was like, well, I also can't do on-camera work right now. I might as well find something else to work on. And I happened to get this audition for Rick and Morty. I had a little bit of time to work on it. And then when we, when I went into audition and record it, they loved my audition. Just, I think it was, you know, I just played it as my voice, but a little bit maybe nerdier than I tend to be, which is a very like loose like description of that. And then I, and they just really, I went in and I read for them again

and I really got along with all of them. And then I ended up doing it. And then a year later, we found out the show was going to series. It was really exciting that first season. And I learned so much, honestly. And I was honestly about like how to record really in that time. And now it's a lot easier and I understand the process a lot more,

but I didn't like learning. I learned on the fly. But I'm so proud of being a part of this show. I think it's so intelligent. And every time I've gotten a script, I felt like, you know, just lucky to be working with such geniuses and entertainment and to be privileged to play a character I enjoy so much. If you'll if you'll indulge me one Simpsons related question. I was curious, you know, if did you learn anything about the craft of voice acting from, say, Sideshow Bob's performance growing up? I know he's amazing. I'm a huge Simpsons fan anyway.

I watch it all the time. I always have since I was young because it's been on forever. And I loved that my dad did Sideshow Bob. I didn't, you know, my dad's sort of a, he's a giant in the entertainment world. And what he's done on The Simpsons is some of the best, I think, voice acting I've ever seen. You know, and he's singing the H.S. Pinafore, like, and he's singing opera on a boat. Like, I mean, it really exemplifies some of his great talent because he's an amazing singer and musician and actor. And you really get to experience that with Sideshow Bob. But yeah, I of course love that.

And I have like a Simpsons Letterman jacket that I've had. Oh, wow. I'm jealous. Since I was like nine. But I still have it and it's got like my name on it and like all these like patches of different Simpsons guys. But it's from the 90s, like when the Letterman jackets used to be like super cool. They weren't like iPhones you'd get. You'd get like a jacket from the show you worked on and it was a very coveted thing that they did. So I still have my Simpsons jacket, yeah. Oh, wow. I know Roiland's a big Simpsons fan. He has to be pretty jealous of that. I haven't shown him yet. But yes, of course he is. I mean, you can't not be. I don't

think if you love animation and you work in that field, like I've always watched all kinds, like I grew up watching like Eon of Flux and Daria and, you know, Ren and Stimpy and Beavis and Butthead and like, you know, I was part of that MTV generation and The Simpsons was part of that along with South Park and all those shows. That was kind of like, you know, I was a teenager during those times and it really formed my opinion of how far you can go

in terms of animation, in terms of your comedy, how you can question how satirical you can be, how much you can question the state of our society. And so it's been an incredible influence. And always people would always say to me, you know, they'd be like, it's cool that your dad's Kelsey Kramer, but he plays Sideshow Bob and that's really cool. Well, so one of my favorite things on Rick and Morty is, you know, the relationship and the interplay between Summer and Beth in this recent season, the one where Beth is just chasing

after Summer to prevent her from eloping with endless true loves. Is it fun to play this kind of mother-daughter relationship on a show that is more known for the relationship between the two male leads? Rick and, yeah, Rick and Wordy. Yeah, of course. I actually was watching the ABCs of Beth last night, you know, that episode where she goes to Fruity Land? Yes. going on their adventures. But like, there's these really great, deep sort of scary, illuminating moments about each of the individual characters and the relationships that they have together that it really feels like an ensemble show in so many ways.

And yeah, I love to play the Summer and Beth work. I think what really roots the audience in Rick and Morty is their attention to the familial life, like how important it is that we kind of really relate to every part of this dysfunction in some ways, you know? I mean, I'm sure at some point, I mean, I love the idea that Beth is so much like her father that she was just a really scary child. I thought that was so brilliant because, you know, even for Rick, who's like,

you know, the most narcissistic, like crazy scientist in the universe who believes in no rules and like anarchic travel through dimensions and time zones and time, whatever. Time zones, time, time period, time ages. He was scared of his daughter Beth because she was a scary child. To me, that's pretty funny. And that Beth would therefore like not remember, and then they would come to something and then eventually it's resolved. And it's like a beautiful father-daughter story, but it's also very terrifying what their father story relatability is. You know, being able to see and witness that between Summer and Beth as well is very fun too. In the premiere episode that just came out, you know, great episode.

And then at the end, there's just a line that was clearly done post-animation about, you know, the current situation in there. I was curious, have you guys been making other adjustments in your recording or changing lines? We do. We got sent microphones wherever we are. And then, you know, obviously I idiotically downloaded Catalina. So whatever program they told me to use didn't work. So it took way longer for me to find another audio recording program for my computer. But yeah, we'll continue to have pickups. We kind of always do that for the show. It's probably easier for Justin.

I'm out in the countryside in New York. But I have a great closet fully ready for an impromptu recording or update on a new Rick and Morty episode. So no worries. You'll still always get it. That's good. Okay. I think a lot of fans are feeling comfortable hearing that now. Good.

Yeah. No, don't worry. We're still making changes. We want you guys to have the best season ever. Awesome. Well, thank you so much for your time. Yeah, thank you too. Kill me, please. Okay, but not because you told me to. Summer!